SEC Network host Peter Burns, screengrab via SEC Network.
CharterCollege FootballDisneyESPNBy Awful Announcing Staff on

Climbing Mount Everest. Splitting the atom. Canceling your cable subscription. These are among the biggest challenges that humanity has ever had to face. In the wake of Disney and ESPN’s high stakes carriage dispute with Charter and Spectrum, many people are deciding to switch their provider or cut the cord so they don’t miss the beginning of the football season. Peter Burns of the SEC Network is one of those individuals. And as his horror story proves, it’s not quite straight-forward.

Burns started crowdsourcing on Twitter last week for what might be the best option to make the switch.

Burns said on Wednesday that he tried canceling his Spectrum cable packages three times but got nowhere. Furthermore, the difficulty of the process led him to consider canceling his internet with the company too. Note to Charter: If you’re pivoting away from the video industry anyways, you probably want to make this process easier so you don’t lose your internet customers too.

Then the fun really began as Burns took to Twitter to document attempt #4 at canceling his cable package including an ungodly 8 hours on hold in three previous failed attempts.

Finally, after 72 minutes on the phone sampling the best elevator music money can buy, Burns was ecstatic to be in contact with another human being at the company.

Part of the reason for the delay? It seems as if there is a LOT of people trying to cancel their Spectrum cable service. Also, Michigan State got sideswiped in the conversation. Poor Sparty.

And then, Burns was able to declare victory, just a tad over what was apparently the average wait time.

If you’ve ever wondered what the real-life version of Andy Dufresne crawling through the sewer is, this might be the closest thing to it. Congratulations Peter on your newfound freedom. And good luck to others who hope to do the impossible and move on to a different service themselves.