Jun 13 2006
Cancelling AOL
How hard is it to cancel AOL?
I decided to find out.
Here’s the setup.
I had an AOL account years ago. I kept it around because many of the suits in my office use AOL. When the boss needs AOL fixed, you’d better have an account to get it running. That’s fine with me. It made troubleshooting much easier. Even though my father and mother both had accounts under mine, their computer didn’t even have the software installed. No one in my family was using it, and at most I was using it once a month.
Recently, I decided that I could spend $14.95 a month in many better ways, and decided to cancel the AOL account. Knowing the horror stories, I decided to do the deed at work where I could record the whole thing. I knew it was going to be good, but I had no idea it would be the abusive disaster it was.
The highlight for me? Him asking for my father when the account is mine, the name on the account is mine, and the card paying the bill is in my name.
Warning: I know the audio on my end is a bit weak. I don’t have the greatest phone recording setup. Anyone else have an interesting “cancellation” story from AOL or some other company?
UPDATE: File is no longer on this server and can now be found at the link above. Sorry for broken links, but my server can’t handle being hit by Digg, Fark, Metafilter, and Anandtech at the same time!
Thanks to Putfile for bailing my ass out.
Technorati Tags: aol, cancellation
June 13th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Wow, that’s even better than the story posted to Consumerist recently by a person who tried to cancel their father’s account because he’d passed away … IIRC they were asked “Is there any other reason you’re cancelling the service?”.
Let us know if you still get an AOL bill next month …
June 13th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
I am sooo glad I never had an AOL account. They must have bonus for each person they talk-out of canceling.
June 13th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Slobokan’s Site O’ Schtuff » Blog Archive » Vinny Cancels His AOL Account
[...] Here’s a recording I did of a conversation between myself and AOL while trying to cancel an account I no longer needed. It was old, and I hadn’t used it in a REALLY long time, I just never got around to cancelling it. Enjoy!read more | digg story Posted by Slobokan @ 13:44 in Unclassified | | Print [...]
June 13th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
insignificant thoughts » Blog Archive » MP3 Recording: Trying to cancel AOL
[...] read more | digg story Filed in: Photography | No Comments » [...]
June 13th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
What an idiot, either you’re really unlucky, or AOL needs to rethink their training strategies.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Just keep the one simple thing in mind. He’s doing his job. Yes that includes pissing you off. You have to call them and go through their shit to cancel. If they notice that there’s no way for them to convert you back then their goal is to get you off the phone without doing the cancellation. That includes pissing you off till you hangup. You THINK you are hanging up on them, but from their perspective you just made your account last just a little bit longer in their system AND maybe just pissed you off enough to NOT call them back to cancel. He was doing his job, and he did it very well. Blame AOL as a company, not some guy taking calls doing what he’s told to keep a paycheck. His job is to answer the phone and try to prevent you from ending that account. They take classes in this, they have meetings, they have “cue-cards”, they have people monitoring them and making sure they do what they are told to prevent you from cancelling. He was just doing his job. Blame AOL, not the little guy.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Be prepared for some annoying follow up phone calls from them. When I tried to cancel it took about 30 to 45 minutes, even though I just kept saying “cancel it.” Then they called about twice a month for three months trying to get me to come back. Every time I told them I would never come back and not to call me anymore. They finally got thet hint the last time.
I cancelled with a different isp, because I was no longer going to be using dial-up. They were extremely friendly about it and refunded me the unused portion of my bill that month without me asking. Guess which one I would go back to first if I had to.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
I think im purposefully going to sign up for alot of aol accounts, and then cancel them all. i enjoy doing this like this, especially when thousands of people get to see what happens.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
I think im purposefully going to sign up for alot of aol accounts, and then cancel them all. i enjoy doing things like this, especially when thousands of people get to see what happens. Perhapes i will eventually move on to the lofty goal of pissing off atleast one horrendous corporation a week.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:26 pm
too bad if you send this to AOL, they will probably sue you becuase it’s illegal to tape phone conversations without telling the other party…or have that beeping in the background.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
Wow!!! How horrible is that? Dude, watch your cc statements to make sure they don’t keep billing you! I will have to say though, that the CS rep was doing his job. It’s not him we should be pissed at but his superiors who have the policies about making cancellation as difficult as possible. Trust me, he’s paid to talk about anything besides cancelling your account. I loved the way he made up stuff about the usage. Nice touch. I’m sure he talks a lot of people out of cancellation that way.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
–
Steve - http://tail-f.net/
June 13th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
I wish I would have recorded mine. I too had an old AOL account (11 years). Beside the “i am helping you by not helping you” line i also got the “in dangering your family & credit score” line (i am single). it took 30 min in the last 7min all i did way ask to speak to his supervisor, who was allways on a call. you should make a pre canceling page to get everone to record their calls.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
It’s tactics like this that got AOL sued, and why they have lost so much money. I got the same spiel when I cancelled and luckily they didn’t give me too much grief.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Wow. I almost feel bad for that guy. You know that this kind of corruption starts at the top… he’s just following protocol. If I were working at AOL customer service I would be getting out right about now.
However, I do empathize. It’s frustrating when you see CSRs trying to take advantage of you, assuming they can get away with telling you blatant lies. For example, last year I set up a neighbor’s WiFi for them. I didn’t know how to sign back onto their Bellsouth DSL account after I had severed the physical connection. I called a CSR and told her what I was trying to do. Perplexed, she told me she would have to “go back into her lab and do some research.” She came back and told me that Bellsouth did not support Linksys routers. I sighed deeply… and asked to be forwarded to Level 2 tech support. Not surprisingly, the man who I spoke to actually treated me like a human being and we solved the problem.
It’s hard to find competent CSRs who won’t try and slip one past you. You just have to ask to speak to the right people, or in the case of AOL, stand firm.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
I got the same routine from a Discover credit-card representative. After two non-pertinent questions, I simply said, “I’m sorry. I called to cancel this account, not to answer questions.” That did it.
June 13th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
This is exactly why the 2nd Amendment needs to stay in the Constitution.
Nuff said.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
I saw this link on boingboing; went through the same thing with AOL. Are their reps taken out back and beaten if they have a cancellation? I point blank asked the rep ‘are you going to cancel my account?’ The answer: NO. !!!
June 13th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
I have a feeling that for each subscriber this dude stops from cancelling he gets to keep one of his children.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Man what a stooge!
That AOL guy probably scored top in ranking at the AOL staff retreats, you know the ones that coach teddybear spanking and autoerotic ventriloquism.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
My friend also had the same experience like you. He got a fight with the CSR while cancelling his service on the phone for about 30 minutes.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
In situations like that I just ask for a manager. If some drone gives me a hard time or starts asking stupid questions, all I say is “Could I please speak to your manager”.
What a moron. Good thing I’ve never been on AOL.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
I listened to the recording and frankly I can see why the AOL person might have been a little testy. Clearly you went in with a chip on your shoulder, spoiling for an argument. The tone of your voice annoyed me, too, and I can see why the service rep responded as he did. I probably would have done the same, if not more (which is probably why I’m not in that business).
The words “please” and “thank you” go a long way to making life a little easier for everyone.
Remember, the poor slob at the other end of the line is just someone trying to make a living and put food on the table. They’re not de facto part of some vast AOL conspiracy trying to make your life miserable. They have procedures that they have to follow in order to keep their jobs, just as you probably do.
I also note that you did not tell the AOL rep that you were recording the call for “broadcast” and give them an opportunity to opt out. In some jurisdictions, that’s a crime.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:24 pm
nicely done, but that guy was annoying the shit out of me as well. Bridget’s right, this could be used in one of those anti- AOL commecials. Thanks for posting it.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
How could something be at once so funny and so painful?
June 13th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
You mean you didn’t have to wait on hold for 45 minutes first??? After doing that twice, and getting the whole spiel about how it was in the middle of a billing period, and so I would been defaulting on the bill, so I should just stay on for another couple of weeks and then cancel, I finally had my credit card company deal with it. Only time will tell if it actually got cancelled, as it took a couple of cycles to quit showing up on my credit card statement. Kudos for remaining relatively calm under the AOL pressure
June 13th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
I remember a t-file going around ten years ago that instructed as to how to use a tesla-coil to jump a bolt of lightning through ma-bell’s surge suppressors and electrocute the brain of the person on the other side through the telephone.
Justice is sweet. Glad boingboing picked up this story.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Wow that was totally wild I feel sorry for you having to put up with that crap man…
June 13th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
I just canceled my AOL on 5/26/06 as I just got DSL. After being harrassed for about 30 minutes they finaly agreed to cancel my service. (They tried to get me to stay by cutting my rate from 24.99 a month to 14.99 and then finally to just 4.99 a month!) A week later I got a letter in the mail. It looked innocuous, just a piece of junk mail from AOL, but I decided to open it. Inside was a letter congratuilating me for renewing my service! That if I didn’t reply to the letter that they would begin to automatically bill me $24.99 a month. It also stated that “If my intent was to cancel AOL service” to fill out the form on the back of the letter and fax to AOL. I immediately called my credit card company and asked them to cancel any payment to them. (To use the payment dispute service you need to give the credit card company the name of the person you talked to, the date, time and the confirmation number provided by AOL. I luckily had kept these.) I then called AOL who quickly stated that this was an error and that they could see that the associate who handled my call had selected the wrong option. B.S. I believe this was on purpose. Anyway, I reported them to the Better Business Bureau. I suggest you do the same as I believe these are intentionally shady business practices that they employ.
Thanks
June 13th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Have you had your epiphany yet? Has your Dad had an epiphany?
Good lord, you were a lot more calm than I would be.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:41 pm
I recently finally managed to cancel my AOL account - I’m at work so I haven’t listened to your experience yet, but I will listen when I get home.
I had a similar situation - a 14.95 account that I had for convenience, and to help other people out.
I actually tried cancelling it about a year ago, and finally got the person I was talking to (she was clearly in another country, probably India) to admit that she herself could not cancel my account on the phone - I had to actually mail a letter with all kinds of specific identifying information on it. All she did was keep trying to sell me on keeping the service. At the time I never got around to sending the letter….
This time I was more determined, and from the very beginning kept interrupting the guy’s pitch with, “I just want to cancel, I don’t want to listen to a pitch, I want to cancel now, If you can’t do it for me on the phone, tell me exactly what I need to put into a letter or fax, and I’ll send it right away. If you can’t do that put me thru to a supervisor.”
I had to repeat this above statement exactly 9 times - but he did finally stop trying to pitch me and cancelled my account, giving me a confirmation number. Just before he did this he had offered me three months free if I would keep the service - really amazing:roll:. He kept insisting that I would be plagued with malware and other evil influences if I didn’t pay to use the AOL browser. LMAO:lol:.
I’ll be watching my credit card statement very carefully to make sure I don’t get charged again.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Kudos to you for (mostly) holding your tounge and not going off on this guy. I wonder if you asked for his super if you would have eventually gotten to talk to one, or if you would have been “accidentally” disconnected in transfer.
I have 50 republic credits that say you get a bill next month AND they have no record of you calling to cancel. You proabaly also have the “irate & difficult customer flag” set on your account now.
Good luck, let us know how it turns out.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I recently finally managed to cancel my AOL account - I’m at work so I haven’t listened to your experience yet, but I will listen when I get home.
I had a similar situation - a 14.95 account that I had for convenience, and to help other people out.
I actually tried cancelling it about a year ago, and finally got the person I was talking to (she was clearly in another country, probably India) to admit that she herself could not cancel my account on the phone - I had to actually mail a letter with all kinds of specific identifying information on it. All she did was keep trying to sell me on keeping the service. At the time I never got around to sending the letter….
This time I was more determined, and from the very beginning kept interrupting the guy’s pitch with, “I just want to cancel, I don’t want to listen to a pitch, I want to cancel now, If you can’t do it for me on the phone, tell me exactly what I need to put into a letter or fax, and I’ll send it right away. If you can’t do that put me thru to a supervisor.”
I had to repeat this above statement exactly 9 times - but he did finally stop trying to pitch me and cancelled my account, giving me a confirmation number. I guess they can actually do it on the phone now. Just before he did this he had offered me three months free if I would keep the service - really amazing:roll:. He kept insisting that I would be plagued with malware and other evil influences if I didn’t pay to use the AOL browser. LMAO:lol:.
I’ll be watching my credit card statement very carefully to make sure I don’t get charged again.
June 13th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
I used to work for a credit card customer serive department. This was at least 10 years ago. I can’t tell you how many calls we got from customers that were having their accounts charged by AOL even after they’d cancelled their service with AOL. So, remember to check the credit card statement that is on file with AOL, and get ready for another battle. AOL will get the last laugh.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
It’s beautiful, thank you for recording it and hope many, many more people will record these conversations and P.S. get the person’s name and time of calling to make it semi-official.
5 years ago I cancelled an AOL account for a client of mine standing right there and we had a blast. The idiot, like the one you caught on tape was going through the usual annoying how can I hekp you. So we played along and said too much porn spam. At the time, AOL was huge on porn spam. The idiot finally says that they had special filters for that after I had reinstated there were children using that account. I ask him to tell me again that AOL knowing we had children using that account and seeing it never bothered to protect them?
He promptly shut up and cancelled. This recording should be sent to AOL by the way.
Thank you…
June 13th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Man…that was just ridiculous. The Better Business Bureau has some information on AOL you might find interesting/useful: http://www.dc.bbb.org/report.html?national=Y&compid=2087
June 13th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Un-fucking-believable. I played this for several people around my office, and everyone says the same as Bridget — it pisses you off just listening to it. I cancelled an AOL account about four years ago, and got essentially the same runaround, but since my account hadn’t been used for over a year, they didn’t give me as much crap as you got.
Incidentally, some of my coworkers know people at AOL, and they have sent a link along to them. This has to get back to someone who matters at AOL, and “John” or whatever-the-hell his name is needs to get fired now. Unfortunately, he’ll probably get a promotion.
Of course, you’re already on the first page of Digg.com, so I don’t think publicity will be a problem anymore.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
It took me over a half an hour of battling to get my AOL account cancelled a few years ago. The guy was a complete asshole. He asked me, “What were you using this account for?” And I said, “That really isn’t any of your business.” To which he replied, “It is if you want your account cancelled.” I was amazed. He wouldn’t let me speak to a manager when I demanded to speak to one. I hope AOL crashes and burns and all of their call center drones are sent to Guantanamo. Do companies like AOL not understand that all they are doing is creating hostility and losing customers for life by these practices? I told everyone I know about my AOL horror story and none of them will ever become an AOL customer because of it.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
That is so obviously a fake..
June 13th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
I cancelled an AOL account years ago and they had the same sort of routine, asking why I didn’t want it anymore. They only asked maybe once or twice - the dude you recorded was definitely way more aggressive. I have also had AOL CHARGE me for using their free 1-month trial. This being said I think this call was a problem with Customer Service guy more than AOL. Sorry you had to go through with that…
June 13th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
this is the kind of passive aggressive bs that i hate about phone service people. assholes like this guy should have their job outsourced to india.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:22 pm
Never having had an AO-Hell account, I thank my lucky stars for my foresight.
I suppose if they absolutely refused to cancel you could just cancel your credit card and have it reissued so they couldn’t bill you anymore - but that’s more of a pain in the ass than calling AOL customer service if you have a bunch of automatic charges on the card.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
i thought the caller was more abusive to the customer service than the other way around. profanity did not have to be used to insult the other person in the other end. it is the customer representative’s implied job to keep customers from an already failing company. we know AOL is going down. although quite a horrible tactic to customers though. caller could have just done it effectively without the hostile words and calmly duffused the situation. i have gone through the same situation similar through this. i just calmly repeated and kindly said i did not want to keep the service. although frustrated there was no need for such hostility.
that customer service personnel deals with many other people’s anger day by day and takes the end of it all day. even though the company tells them to do it. its not the customer represntatives fault. yet the caller blame the person and direct such anger to an undeserving person.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
Terrible. It may be one of the many slackers, flunkies, IT-wanna-be’s and otherise a plethore of losers who work for a company called Software Spectrum (AOL uses this company to handle their tech support calls) a company that is equal to if not worse than AOL. I hope you deal a damaging blow to both of these reprehensible exucese for companies..
June 13th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
I bet that guy was just aching to get his “Employee of the month” diploma
June 13th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
The only problem with sending the audio to the hi-up people in AOL is that the employees are trained to try to convince the people who whish to cancle their account to keep it.
Although the employees sound like idiots the entire time, they’re trained to do that =P
Isn’t that funny?
Being trained to sound like a jerk off!
It’s hilarious!
Also, the highlight for me is threatening to not cancel the account if he didn’t listen to the promo at the end!!
June 13th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
this is amazing, i’m so glad someone recorded this. i work at aol so i know what a shit company it is. that type of attitude does not stop at the member retention department. its pretty much the lay of the land at this company. why am i still working here? i dont know….
June 13th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Oh man, that is great! My parents still use AOL, so one day I will get them to switch to gmail and I’ll be making that call. Hahah. Good idea to record it.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Seriously, you are taking this up the line right? You deserve a corporate response.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
This is just about the exact same experience that I had years ago - down to the repetition and obnoxious attitude. They must still have the same script and training in place.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
I recently cancelled my old AOL account and it went through pretty quickly. I still had to say “no thanks” a few times, but all in all, it was very effortless. I spoke to an friendly woman from India. I think that to a certain extent, it depends on who you connect with on the phone. My guess is that the “John” this individual spoke to was employed at AOL’s Jacksonville FL (USA) facility (one of the largest in the continental USA with over 2k employees). Everyone there was recently fired, and the call center shut down, and most of the call volume sent to India. So I suppose that’s a kinda cool thing. The dude who “Vincent” spoke with is very likely unemployed or employed moping jizz up from a porn shop
hehe
June 13th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
This is just about the exact same experience that I had years ago - down to the repetition and obnoxious attitude. They must have the same script and training in place.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Sounds like the guy was just doing his job.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
I’m trying to convince my partner to dump AOL but he won’t budge for whatever reason. I personally hate them and stopped using as well. My sister tried to cancel the account when she moved and ended up with 6 months free because the idiot wouldn’t take no for an answer. Morons all of ‘em.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:49 pm
iBloggedThis » The nightmare of cancelling AOL
[...] Sometimes we pay for a service which we no longer use simply because we haven’t had the time, or energy to cancel it. Here is a recording of a phone call made by an AOL user trying to cancel his AOL account, which he was no longer using. [...]
June 13th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
I had a fairly similar experience, only my guy wasn’t as big a jerk as yours. He was just as insistent, but not as obnoxious. Of course, the reason we both had to call is that AOL won’t let you cancel online, since they can’t hector you that way. Thanks for posting this.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:54 pm
June 13th, 2006 at 5:55 pm
Wow! Was his next step gonna be to come to your house and put a gun to your head? I had heard the same stories and anticipated this when I cancelled awhile ago. I received the same treatment. My question was, “What part of NO don’t you understand!” I asked for the manager, who denied her employee stated what he did. She was worse than he was and when I started threating to call my state attorney general she relented. Down with AOL!
June 13th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
Note to self: buy an air-horn for when I need to cancel my aol account.
“Are you going to let me speak? We can stall you all day..”
BHWAAAAAAAAAA!
June 13th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
AWESOME!
“Helping me would be cancelling the account” - too funny.
What’s sad is I’ve had this same conversation with at least 3 other companies.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
omg this happend to me around 2 weeks ago, i have comcast now and i still had an aol account and when i called to cancel they kept making me so many damn offers it wasn’t funny, offers as low as 3 dollers. Eventually they gave in and cancelled the account.
June 13th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
omg this happend to me around 2 weeks ago, i have comcast now and i still had an aol account and when i called to cancel they kept making me so many damn offers it wasn’t funny, offers as low as 3 dollers. Eventually they gave in and cancelled the account.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
That is really sad. I second the motion to forward to an AOL rep. First contact the local news, they love stuff like this.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
Yikes, that’s pretty embarrassing for AOL. I mean, I know the phone rep job really sucks, but he didn’t have to get all testy with you. “You’re going to listen to me if you want this turned off?” “We can stall you all day?” “If you want me to cancel this account you’re going to let me speak?”
Nice business practices AOL, and don’t try to blame the phone jockey.
p.s. cancel my account.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Makes me want to get an account just to cancel it.
June 13th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
Jesus Christ. I wonder whether threatening legal action unless they closed your account would have encouraged them…
June 13th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Awww, when I cancelled my acct, the guy went through a similar shpiel, but I could tell he didn’t like doing it, and he gave in to the inevitable much quicker. Instead, he put me on hold a lot and tried to sell me their firewall service for DSL. The phone call took about 15-20 minutes and ensured that I’d never do business with AOL again.
June 13th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
Teh Super Boring Ding Dong » Blog Archive » MP3 Recording: Trying to cancel AOL
[...] read more | digg story Posted by jesusfranco Filed in Uncategorized [...]
June 13th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
Great story, even better audio. I hope you don’t mind but I posted the audio clip on my site to help distribute the load. Everyone should hear this!
June 13th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
I went through the same **** with these losers. Even after all that, they restarted my account and started billing my CC again. I had to get my bank to block it. Then then asked me to provide them another CC number (!) They then sic’d a vulture collection agency on me for “non-payment.” It’s been over a year and they’re still leaving recorded messages on my answering machine. They’ve also ignored a written response I sent to AOL with copies of their own cancellation letter I got from them. The Feds need to shut this American icon down and end the lunacy.
June 13th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
I actually had to cancel a credit card to stop AOL from billing it after phone calls, faxes and certified letters didn’t work.
June 13th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
You’ve been linked from boingboing.net, and I believe you’ve exceeded your bandwidth limit. Could you host it somewhere else, or maybe post a transcript?
June 13th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Don’t be silly. You can’t cancel an AOL account… They once charged us for six months after we had already cancelled. A friend of mine once worked for ‘em for awhile, and he said that even the people who worked there couldn’t cancel their accounts.
An AOL account is like herpes. Once you’ve got it, you’ve got it for life.
And as this incident makes clear, they have now apparently added stupidity training to help insure that cancelling is *absolutely* impossible.
June 13th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
i’d love to hear that audio…to bad the link’s broke
June 13th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Dude, that guy was annoying!
Btw, it seems that the link is dead. It might have something to do with being digged and boingboinged at the same time :D.
I was able to get the whole thing via coral cache here.
June 13th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
hmm, the file doesn’t seem to be working anymore?
June 13th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Meh. Most call centres have required scripts that must be read to the customer or they’ll take a hit for it when they have their performance reviews. The guy sounded like he was just trying to do his job. But at the same time the guy’s no different than anyone else. He’s not just going to sit there and take shit from someone. I’d say he was pretty frustrated being unable to do his job.
If Vinny here had just gone with it and remained polite it would’ve been over faster than the 5 minutes it took him otherwise. In fact I bet you the detailed description posted above could’ve been given point-form with relative ease, and I’m also pretty sure this AOL dude would’ve been satisfied with that reasonable explanation. His job is to keep AOL in the money. Keep that in mind.
June 13th, 2006 at 8:39 pm
I’m not able to download and listen to the clip, for some reason. Is there a transcription available?
June 13th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
Gettin a code 500 server error.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
the audio link doesn’t work.
June 13th, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Actually, I think he was at least somewhat right. If the account showed recent usage by your father, he was right to question why were cancelling it. The fact that you said that he didn’t use it was kinda heresay to him..
June 13th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
The mp3 is gone……….
June 13th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Hopefully the link gets back up soon. I had a similar experience. Perhaps not abusive, but it took me a good 20 minutes before I could cancel (for my boss even).
June 13th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
AOL has been notorious for many things. This definately ranks way up there, but for those of you that may have missed one of the other fun ones…
Some versions of AOL have installed an AOL VPN adapter along with the other AOL-specific networking components. (not sure if the latest version does, but it’s not that long ago that I learned this) The VPN adapter has the potential effect of handing AOL 100% access to everything on your hard drive, and the AOL software that includes it will not work without the VPN adapter there - uninstalling = total lack of the ability to go online.
Even funnier, I called and asked their tech support and engineers why iit was there, given the access to my computer that such a thing would grant, and they all claimed to have no idea why it was included…
June 13th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
When I cancelled my AOL account, I had the guy telling me that he was willing to put money down that I’d be back within a month, and that he could make such a bet because he made more money than me. By the way, I can’t access that link. Internal server error 500.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
I quit AOL several months ago and had no problem at all. I don’t know why this guy had so much trouble. They even let me keep my e-mail address for free and I can check my account from the aol.com website (just in case somebody finds me)
June 13th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
I had something very similar happen to me a few weeks ago, but they kept going on and on about how great their network security software is, and how vulnerable my computer would be without AOL’s software.
I run a small data center out of my loft; I’m perfectly capable of handling my own network security. I finally started lying through y teeth just to get through with it.
“What are you doing for network security on your home connection?”
“I have a high-end Cisco firewall on my connection; it retails for about $30,000.”
(blah blah blah) “You do understand your computers are vulnerable when they’re connected to the internet all the time?”
“I don’t even have any Windows boxes on my network.”
(blah blah blah) “AOL has the best security software in the industry…”
“Look, I make my living as a network security consultant. Corporations pay me several hundred dollars per hour to help them keep their networks safe. I think I can handle my home network.”
And it took me about fifteen minutes to get through the call.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
the link is down
June 13th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Funny!
When we cancelled our AOL service, we had the exact same problem. The account was in my mother’s name, so she did it, and she had to tell them at least ten times (no exaggeration) that she wasn’t interested in any “super awesome deals” that AOL currently had.
They asked her as well if she had high speed internet, and she said she was getting it through another company. The AOL representative went on a tirade about how much better AOL was and how she shouldn’t cancel. The entire call took about 15 or 20 minutes before they finally got the point.
And oh yeah, they canceled the service about a week before they were supposed to.
June 13th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
You know what.. I didn’t even listen to it. I know from past experience what a nightmare it was, an I don’t want to relive it!
I still have clients held hostage by AOL. Mainly though it is their email addresses; they are frightened to lose them after all these years.
June 13th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
This is an article I wrote for Grumble Magazine about my dreadful AOL experience.
June 13th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
Isn’t that abuse? As if they have nothing better to do than to hassle departing customers. I feel that while technology has allowed us to connect with the world, it has also gotten that much bothersome.
AOL can be partially blamed for some of their ridiculous junk mail (trail CDs) and ads that come with certain software installations.
*sigh*
June 14th, 2006 at 12:14 am
I had a horrible experience with the frea AOL 2.0 trial disks and just haven’t bothered since.
Living in Jacksonville, FL (The home of the recently closed down AOL call center) I have heard the AOL support complaints from the other end of the phone.
I was just talking to friend who used to work there and he quickly rambled off a bunch of the standard answers they are required to give to people trying to quit.
The #1 rule: Don’t let them cancel.
June 14th, 2006 at 12:34 am
I used to work for a company that handled “retention” for Netzero, which is a great name for haggling people who wish to cancel their service with the company. AOL uses a different company for this service, but they use the exact same tactics.
The idea is to try to converse with the customer to try to find out why they want to cancel and attempt to remedy the problem. Unfortunately, their are very few customers that have an actual issue with the service that can be swayed to keep it. The call center’s policy is to “always get 3 NO’s” before giving in to the request. Individual employee tactics vary, but range from ignorance to straight-up deceit.
These call centers require a certain retention percentage. Many, like AOL and Netzero, give bonuses for every “save.” These bonuses increase as your save rate does. Like I said, not many customers are easily swayed to keep the service, so you can imagine the methods of the most successful in that business. I’ve seen those who will attempt to keep the customer on the phone as long as possible, denying their request, until they hang up and it does not count against them. Ignorance and misleading are also common tactics used.
As the people can freely give out a couple of months free service, I’ve even seen them credit an account with a few free months instead of cancelling. The charge stops for a few months, you go on with your life thinking your will is done…
It all ultimately lies with the person on the other end of that phone line.
June 14th, 2006 at 1:30 am
I would have told the guy to pass me to his supervisor so I could tell them I would be suing. When the cardholder/account holder wishes to terminate a no-lock in contract, they have to do it or they are guilty of usuary.
June 14th, 2006 at 1:39 am
And of course, the popularity of this post will be brought to AOL’s attention, they will realise the error of their ways and immediately fix their abusive customer service policies. Or maybe not. I hope they don’t and we get more hilarity from them in the future.
June 14th, 2006 at 2:25 am
Well, I can’t dispute on this one coz it happened to my friend exactly the same way. I was listening to the phone while he was talking to the customer service of AOL and she was trying to convince my friend not to cancel the account. And even if my friend will cancel the account, and his sons will access (which is just the secondary account), the primary account will automatically reactivated. HOW THE HELL CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE??? If you are the primary account, and once you cancel it, the secondary account should have no authority to reactivate it. THAT’S HOW STUPID AND IDIOTIC THE SERVICE OF AOL.. And AOL is trying to advertise their “HIGH SPEED CONNECTION”, DON’T BE DECEIVED BY THIS ADVERTISEMENT, it is not true that they have a high speed connection. Their what they call “high speed connection” is only good if you have an existing broadband (DSL or cable modem) internet.But they still have the balls to charge you more than $10 bucks for their service. What the heck is their service if you already have an existing internet connection???
check out this webpage where they advertise their AOL HIGH SPEED for as low as $25.90 a month. Check for the details especially on the part which says “Now get AOL High Speed - it’s not just faster dial-up, - it’s true broadband - powered by a DSL or Cable connection.
There, from the statement “…powered by a DSL or Cable connection”, you MUST have an existing high speed internet for the “AOL HIGH SPEED INTERNET” to work. Isn’t this ridiculous??? Judge it for yourself.
June 14th, 2006 at 2:28 am
I am sorry, i double posted the comment coz i got an internal server error when i first posted it and then when i tried it the last time, it says something that i double posted it.
June 14th, 2006 at 2:38 am
The Audio file seems not to be available at the moment, if this is a problem with your bandwidth usage, would yo ulike it mirrored when i can download it?
June 14th, 2006 at 3:40 am
mp3 linky doesn’t seem to work
June 14th, 2006 at 3:52 am
I get a 500 error. A shame, as my life is basically a process of drifting between peoples’ tales of abusive IT types and thinking, there but for the grace of etc…
June 14th, 2006 at 4:06 am
Being hearing impaired myself, I’d like to know if there’s any chance of having a transcript of this (a quick one is fine).
June 14th, 2006 at 4:06 am
Any chance of typing up a transcript? The link to the mp3 seems to be down at the moment.
June 14th, 2006 at 5:18 am
Can’t hear it, server error it says!
June 14th, 2006 at 5:53 am
Damn, I can’t seem to access the file, I get:
“Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@insignificantthoughts.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/1.3.36 Server at http://www.insignificantthoughts.com Port 80″
Is there an alternate link?
June 14th, 2006 at 6:02 am
Anyone have a link to a mirror?
June 14th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Went through a similar hell with them a year ago. My partner tried to cancel his account because w/ broadband he simply didn’t need it.
I WISH I’d had a recording. We had just bought a house together and in the new place I had him all set up with our cable ISP. They stalled him and badgered (sp?) him, even though he asked at LEAST five times to close the account. Eventually I got on the phone and told them to just close the damn account and knock it off. Of course they asked who I was - told them I was his partner - and the comeback was “well, your ‘partner’ or whatever he is needs to be the one we talk to”… the guy actually laughed at me as he said it.
June 14th, 2006 at 7:13 am
Hmmmmm. As of 7AM, June 14, 2006, this file no longer exists? I hope nothing bad has happened. Midnight raid by the AOL strike team? I was looking forward to hearing it.
June 14th, 2006 at 7:58 am
Link to mp3 doesn’t work. Gives 500 error.
June 14th, 2006 at 8:24 am
Oh,
Can you mirror it somewhere or seed it and post a link here?
unable to listen to it
cheers.
June 14th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Sorry I couldn’t hear the cancelation notice due to some internal server error. But I can imagine what it was like since I went through a similar thing some years ago when I canceled AOL. They were insulting, rude, stupid and arrogant. When they asked me if anyone else used the account I told them that my son does sometimes. Well they wanted me to ask him if it was alright. (My son was only 10 or 11 at the time and he doesn’t pay the bills.) That’s when I launched into a series of invectives that that asshole may still be stinging from. Eventually I was able to cancel but was still being billed two months or so later. That required another phone call and another round of stupidity and rudeness. I
June 14th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Sorry I couldn’t hear the cancelation notice due to some internal server error. But I can imagine what it was like since I went through a similar thing some years ago when I canceled AOL. They were insulting, rude, stupid and arrogant. When they asked me if anyone else used the account I told them that my son does sometimes. Well they wanted me to ask him if it was alright. (My son was only 10 or 11 at the time and he doesn’t pay the bills.) That’s when I launched into a series of invectives that that asshole may still be stinging from. Eventually I was able to cancel but was still being billed two months or so later. That required another phone call and another round of stupidity and rudeness.
June 14th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Very similar experience for me. My call lasted much, much longer than yours - probably more like fifteen minutes.
The woman speaking with me would never agree to cancel my account until I warned her that if their bill appeared on my Mastercard Account, I would notify my bank to deny the charge.
I finally got a screen showing that my account would be cancelled but could not find a way to print it out. Finally picked up my digital camera and made a “portrait” of the screen.
After my experience, I would never, ever renew with AOL even if they had they were the best
ISP in the business.
Keep up the good work,
Jim
June 14th, 2006 at 8:51 am
why is this audio link not working.
I hope its an innocent reason
June 14th, 2006 at 9:39 am
“This call may be recorded for internet-amusement purposes…”
And is it just me or is the MP3 not downloading properly?
June 14th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Is the link broken?
June 14th, 2006 at 10:14 am
You got dumped by AOL - Your link to the recording is “Internal Server Error”. Big brother isn’t happy with you know. AOL has the power to reach out and grab someone! Be Careful - you are making big news!
June 14th, 2006 at 10:23 am
looks like the link is broken to the MP3 file… it’s giving a 500 internal server error. I really wanted to hear this, having been CS for the last year and a half.
June 14th, 2006 at 10:35 am
Wow, that sure brings back memories. I went through a very similar conversation about two years ago. I got so frustrated that I just said screw it and canceled my CC - it was that brutal.
June 14th, 2006 at 10:37 am
FYI your audio link is down.
June 14th, 2006 at 11:23 am
The audio is down.
They pulled that same shit with my grandmother. She called to cancel her account and hung up having subscribed for another full year. Scrimeballs.
June 14th, 2006 at 11:26 am
I’m not able to open it for some reason…anyone else having trouble? It takes me to a page that says “internal service error”….
June 14th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
the file won’t play for me:
“The file you are attempting to play has an extension that does not match the file format.”
June 14th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
The file isn’t available here. Has it been posted anywhere else?
June 14th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
The link is broken.
June 14th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
An effective way to cancel such auto-renewed services is to buy a Visa or Mastercard gift card, spend all but a few cents of it, and then change the billing info for the service to that card number (which can usually be done on line). Amazing how quickly these things are over when the card can’t be billed. No human contact is necessary.
June 14th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Yo….your mp3 link comes up with a 500 error….did you get slashdotted???
-evader
June 14th, 2006 at 2:32 pm
The reason this was such a horrible experience was that the AOL Overlords have declared that you should not be allowed to just cancel your service, and penalize the CSRs who let you do so.
What on earth do you think AOL does to the slacker CSRs that just let you cancel? Send them to prison in Guantanamo? Electrocute them through their headsets?
June 14th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Yeah, wow. I have had similar experience(s) with them. They are always like this (not quite this bad tho) and, I presume, they are all trained to do some version of this. I hope you choose to do something *good* with this…. Wreak havoc!!
June 14th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Your link is dead, and it’s KILLING ME. I’m eager to hear how all this went down….
June 14th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Sadly, I am not surprised. I’d gotten a trial AOL account like five years back, and the cancellation call was a ridiculously uphill battle. Nice of you to grab the convo on your side though; those cancellation calls can be a comedy goldmine!
June 14th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Been there, Done that - All my friends were on AOL when I got on the net so I decided to join as well. It took me 30 minutes to sign up over the phone. I downloaded and installed all their (AOL) browser and crap and it took over my computer. They told me which web sites I could view and which pictures or music I had to view/listen to. So I finally decided to cancel my subscription - HA! It took me 3 MONTHS worth of emails and phone calls to finally get rid of them - they kept billing my credit card even though I had cancelled. Not only that, I had to strip my hard drive and start all over again as AOL puts crap in every conceivable corner & niche of your computer that cannot be eliminated without a complete striping. Unfortunately, Windows Comes with AOL bundling. Never click on the AOL icon that comes with windows other than to delete it as you will start an unstoppable chain reaction and you will have to strip and reload windows again.
June 14th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
I had an account that we used here at the company about 10 years ago. It took them
3 months to get it cancelled and I had to
verbally abuse them and threaten bodily harm
before they finally got the picture.
June 14th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
LOL, the sad part is not that the employee is dumb but that the company actualy encourages the employee to behave this way to preserve the revenue stream and actualy discourage the enployee to comply with the customers request. I’m almost certain that this employee will get can bacause he manage to make a fool of the company.
June 14th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
just for the heck of it, the mp3 seems gone (and no need to publish this
June 14th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
“Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.”
Booo. If you need/want it mirrored, I can set up a copy for you.
June 14th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
If it weren’t so unbelievably bad customer service, it would be hilarious.
June 14th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Years ago, I had an AOL account set up for my mom. It was fine, she was a Net newbie, and it was $22/month, which I paid for. Then my company became a partner of AOL, so we were all required to get an AOL account, albeit for free. So here was an excellent opportunity to cancel the AOL account I was paying for, so I called them up, went through the whole rigamarole, and it was cancelled. Right?
Wrong. I continued to get billed on my credit card, despite maybe 20 phone calls to AOL. I even called my bank to deny payment to AOL.
Finally, I just cancelled the card. Problem (finally) solved. AOL is worse than even the cell phone companies, if that’s possible.
June 14th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Goood stuff. Reminds me of my sister’s experience with canceling my mother’s AOL account after the old broad died, they didn’t let her off that easy!
June 14th, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Back when I had AOL as the only means of dial up it was fine. Then I got DSL and wanted to kill my aol. Well after who knows how many searches on their site to the steps to cancel the account. And the hours on hold with the cancellation number I just canceled the credit card the account was linked to. That got them quick and they call me and ask what happen. I told them they suck their program makes my computer run like crap and please do not bug me ever again. They never did anything else to me of charge me any more.
God that was a pain.
Gamekiller
PS my girlfriend some how was about to do it in no time over the phone and she has one short temper. Go fig.
June 14th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
I feel your pain, it brings back memories of my own pain when I tried to cancel the account. In my case I had it for 2-3 yrs w/o using it and always wanted to get rid of it but had forgotten the account number so I “deferred” the coming pain. When I finally got around to it they did the dance about closing the account but still kept charging my cr. crd. Interestingly the cr.crd issuer said they were helpless and I was forced to eat 4 months worth of extra charges. I can’t believe that these pirates still manage to survive in business. By contrast Earthlink and even AT&T DSL closed my account in 5 minutes.
June 14th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
The link seems to be broken now
June 14th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
About two years ago I decided to cancel an AOL account that I had not used in ages. It was just the 4.95 account (or whatever the minimum, basic email cost was, I just remember that it was under $5 a month at the time)
It took nearly an hour to get that piddly account cancelled. I was asked very personal questions and endured some very abusive high pressure tactics. Was often threatened with the call being disconnected if I did not quietly listen to the lecture or if I did not answer the long list of incredibly intrusive questions. If I gave simple yes or no answers, I was questioned further. It was a most miserable and humiliating experience. The worst part for me was the fact that no one believed me when I recounted the experience to friends later.
I was glad when the State of NY sued AOL for these ugly practices. At least it brought the subject up in the news. I didn’t realize they were still doing practicing this reprehensible behavior. Maybe more States need to sue them.
I despise their TV ads…”AOL, The Better Internet”. Hmmph! Pure lies. How do they get away with it? Whatever happened to the Truth in Advertising laws? I hope to see the day when they cease to exist at all. Soon!
Jay Car
June 15th, 2006 at 12:39 am
Ken
June 15th, 2006 at 1:01 am
dude, the link seems to be dead, i get an internal server error every time i click on it.
June 15th, 2006 at 1:39 am
Server is throwing an exception on the audio link.
June 15th, 2006 at 3:13 am
Time to outsource customer service to India !
June 15th, 2006 at 3:39 am
the link doesnt work
June 15th, 2006 at 4:09 am
The mp3 link gives an “Internal Server Error”. Any luck of corrcting this?
June 15th, 2006 at 7:03 am
I work for a center that handles disconnects for a large dialup service that is not AOL. It’s worse. A typical story goes like this: A customer calls up to ask about some charge or a service, the rep asks them if they ‘want information on the internet’, and the customer is sent a installation kit, usually no matter their reply. If the customer doesn’t open up the letter and call up to cancel it, the 30 day trial eventually expires and the customer is charged for internet. This happened one day, and the customer called me to have it disconnected.
It was for a call button in an elevator.
(which requires a active phone line)
I’d estimate we go through at least 1,000 disconnects a day at my place of work. But we won’t argue with you. Our only requirement is to ’show empaphy to the customer’.
June 15th, 2006 at 7:42 am
It is rather amazing that all traces of the audio recording is gone (today is June 15th, only two days after this ‘popped’ on…
is someone blocking this ???
June 15th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Of course you realize that “Customer Service” no longer means “serving the customer”…what it means nowadays is “handling the customer”…at least as far as AOL is concerned. Incidentally, I’m unable to download your mp3 file. Probably a mime issue or something.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Hmm. What gives? The file seems to have been moved or taken down.
Too much traffic from Boing Boing?
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
June 15th, 2006 at 8:23 am
I went through the same thing, but with this butchy sounding woman. She asked me if I’d answer a few survey questions and when I told her “no”, she said I had to or she couldn’t cancel the account. She didn’t even wait for me to answer and started asking me all kinds of personal questions. When it because clear that I was not going to put up with her sh**, she finally agreed to cancel it (rather than put her superior on the phone), but she did so while being verbally abusive. As she was giving me my confirmation number, she cut the conversation off, so I did not get the whole thing. I called back to complain about her and found out that she had never processed my cancellation request. I suggest you call back and confirm it. AOL retention reps are a bunch of a**holes. I honestly don’t know how they sleep at night.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:19 am
Usually there is a disclaimer up front “please be aware that this phone call may be recorder for training purposes”. That effectivly lets you record it as well.
You should have just asked for his name, let him know how unhelpful he was being, politely, and then asked to cancel the account. You have to say ‘i want out’ like 18 times for them to cancel your account while still keeping their job. If you say it once, then ask to speak with their manager if they don’t do it for you, you get them off the hook AND get what you want faster.
June 15th, 2006 at 9:24 am
Ben’s Moleskine » Blog Archive » Cancelling Aol
[...] it’s quite hard to cancel your AOL account. # Find more in the archives. Entries(RSS) [...]
June 15th, 2006 at 11:17 am
That guy HAD to be a Scientologist. Oh wait…that’s Earthlink…
June 15th, 2006 at 11:25 am
Shannon and Mike ☆ Net » Barron of Blog » AOL Sucks
[...] How is America Online still in business when they treat their customers like this when they try to cancel their accounts? The actual telephone call (you can download it from the link) is funny at first until you realize that it’s real. Even if AOL’s internet offerings are going down the tube, at least their customer service department is still making great progress toward creating bigger, better ass-hats. [...]
June 15th, 2006 at 11:55 am
I had a friend who called up to cancel his account. The reason? He was dying of cancer. He wanted to make sure his wife didn’t have to deal with the problem after his death. The guy on the phone didn’t believe him, said he was lying, and all that. Long story short, after my friend passed away, his wife told the AOL rep to check out the obit page on their local newspaper’s website, and they still didn’t believe that it was the same person. She cancelled the credit card, and AOL sent the account to collections. It took a certified letter from an attorney threatening legal action and the publicity that goes with it, along with a notarized copy of the death certificate to get the account closed. She was unable to recover the 14 months of fees that she was billed after her husband died. I’m positive that when the AOL execs die, they won’t see him where they’re going.
June 15th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Similar story — many years ago. It took at LEAST 60 minutes of begging, pleading, repeating, yelling, asking for a supervisor (on my end); yelling, screaming, threatening and finally hanging up on me (on AOL’s end) to cancel my service. The guy was a complete and total A$$ — condescending, abusive, smug — you name it… I now wonder if AOL may just “encourage” this type of strong-arming by their CSRs to stall cancellation requests — this guy was GOOD and used EVERY conceivable turnaround in the book to try to get me to NOT cancel.
I’m getting worked up about it all over again! Ack!
June 15th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Good discussion. I would disagree on one point tho. People seem to say the CSR is “just doing his job”. I think that is a bogus cop-out. I think it is ok to blame AOL and the CSR! I mean, i blame the guy leading jews in to the shower at aushwitz as well as hitler for the holocaust. I dont think its ok to dismiss culpabilty because you were just “following orders”. At some point a sense of right and wrong have to enter into the equation, that were things like integrity, honesty, etc become more than just words. I think to say you did something you knew was wrong just because you were told to is a huge blow to self-respect. I’m sure people would say, hes just trying to feed he family,etc etc. I would argue being the kind of person you want to be is hard sometimes, and impossible with the attitude of “i was just doing my job”.
June 15th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Man, I’m using AOL, thank god the account isn’t in my name. I barely use it anymore though, but man, that’s more than a little fucked up.
June 15th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
I had the same experience about 7 years ago. Looks like they haven’t changed their tactics at all. Not only did I have to stay on the line with some tool for 30 minutes, but I also had to endure a venomous verbal attack from the aforementioned tool. After a few rounds of “No, just cancel it, please” he began yelling at me and trying to scare me off the phone. Like “WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST FUCKING SAY SO IN THE FIRST PLACE??! GODAMMIT! If you had just SAID THAT in the beginning, we wouldn’t have had to go through all that SHIT! JESUS!” And muttered like that for the rest of the call. I was a little shaken up afterwards, but glad I held my ground. No one had ever talked to me like that before, it was awful. They obviously train their employees to intimidate people off the phone and prevent them from cancelling. I hate those bastards.
June 15th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
I had a friend in Florida that wound up canceling a credit card to finally stop the AOL billing. The free perod after the supposed cutoff was still being billed to him…………..unreal. No wonder they are losing customers!!!
June 15th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
I just had a smiliar experience with Dish Network - and it’s still not completely worked out. They are annoying the crap out of me.
Our service went out the Friday night before Memorial Day. Called them, finally determined that it was the dish and needed service. Service on THEIR dish was going to cost me $100 unless I signed up for a warranty thing for something like $5 a month and then the service call was only going to be $30. I asked why I should pay for their equipment to be fixed, they replied I was paying for the labor. I asked why I should pay for the labor for their equipment? No answer. So I said never mind and hung up.
I called on Saturday, was told the same thing. I said again I would not pay for a repair. They offered it to me for $50 or $30 if I did the warranty. I asked again why I should have to. (They kept saying it was for the labor not the equipment) She said she wasn’t authorized to send someone out for free. I asked who was, and she was dumbfounded and didn’t answer.
I finally decided I was going to just cancel since we’re moving in August anyway. (Thankfully when I signed up last September and signed a 1 1/2 year contract they screwed it up and it was never submitted - so I was free to cancel at any time)
I called Tuesday (after Memorial Day) to cancel. I got bounced around and around and explained my story a million times. Finally had a lady processing it and I explained I was not going to pay their service and furthermore I was moving to take a teaching job and wouldn’t be able to afford it anyway. She offered me the service call again for $50. I said NO. She offered me the warranty again, and I repeated that I WAS NOT GOING TO PAY ANYTHING TO FIX THE SERVICE. Then she said that she could do it free if I would agree to a one year contract. I repeated that I was taking a pay cut and couldn’t afford it. Finally, she got it, and processed it.
Then came the part of returning the equipment. She said she’d send me postage paid boxes to return JUST the receivers and remotes in. I asked her like 3 times what had to be returned. I was supposed to have the boxes in a week. Last Friday, boxes had still not shown up so I had to call again (and be bounced around and around again) to ask for the boxes.
Finally got them yesterday. The instructions said I was to mail back receivers, remotes, a LNBF, and a switch. The instructions never said where a switch was or how to remove it, the LNBF was on the dish on the roof!! I called them and asked if they expect me to climb on my roof to remove it?!?!?! Furthermore, I never had my own dish - the stupid installation guy (who was worthless) hooked me up to someone else’s dish. The guy who barely spoke English said I didn’t need to return it. I asked if he was going to note it in my account so that I wouldn’t pay for it, he said yes. I asked what the switch was and where to find it, and he just mumbled “don’t worry about that either” - so I asked again that he was going to note it. He said yes. I don’t believe him though. I bet I get charged for both the LNBF and switch.
I will never get Dish Network again!!!!!
June 15th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
A while back, I started getting requests to cancel AOL accounts.. at attrition.org, a site that is just about the farthest thing from AOL. For kicks, I started replying to them and making it impossible for them to cancel. Wild how my antics end up being just like the real AOL support staff.
http://attrition.org/postal/aol.html
Vinny, please send me a copy of the mp3 if you would!
June 15th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Peter’s Reviews
How Hard Is It To Cancel AOL?…
There’s a story going around about a guy who had a bad experience cancelling AOL.¬ He recorded his call to AOL and you can hear the AOL rep trying to keep the guy from cancelling his account.¬ Now we all understand that AOL makes money by keeping su…
June 15th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
The .mp3 link doesn’t seem to work anymore — just redirects me to the main blog page. Please fix, I want to get in on the fun too
June 15th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
The Dinoblog » AOL Rep Harasses Customer Trying To Cancel Account
[...] This is amazing. Vincent Ferrari (awesome name!) was trying to cancel his AOL account after years of service. What should’ve been a simple process turned into harassment by the AOL rep he was speaking with. Read the story and listen to the phone call. [...]
June 15th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
The Dinoblog » AOHell
[...] This is amazing. Vincent Ferrari (awesome name!) was trying to cancel his AOL account after years of service. What should’ve been a simple process turned into harassment by the AOL rep he was speaking with. Read the story and listen to the phone call. [...]
June 15th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
So easy to cancel, no wonder it’s #1!
June 15th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
i had a problem a few years ago canceling my AOL account… well what started it was this AOL long distance calling plan… remember when you had to pay for long distance within the US? any way when i called i was in a pretty good mood but by the time i was off the phone i was so upset that i called back and canceled my whol AOL account (which i had for close to 10 year). basically our conversation boiled down to this… me saying. I want to cancel my AOL long distance… and the guy saying what can i do to get you to keep it? what if we did this or that or this or that… and i would just say no i want to cancel. he was getting pissed and was yelling at me… finally i went into a tirade and he finally canceled it… the best part is how they have that script and say “is there anything else i can help you with?” I was on the phone for over 30 minutes just yelling with that guy about canceling a damn AOL long distance calling acount!
glad to hear that this guy got fired. i wish i could have had the same satisfaction.
June 15th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
I tried several times. Then they would just say they were cancelling, and then not cancel and continue billing.
The way to do this is NOT through AOL directly. I called American Express, told them I was disputing the charge and wouldn’t pay it, and they got AOL to shut it down. You turn off the money, and it’s no longer a problem.
June 15th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
Trust me you will get a bill next month.
I did, it take me 3 months and move my bank account to a diffrent bank, they call my bank, told them that they where a collection agency and got my new account #
So they charge me again, their reason was that I called and reactivate the account every month, and that I was stupid for doing that…
June 15th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Unofficial transcript follows.
—
(ring)
JOHN: Hi, this is John at AOL. How may I help you today?
VINCENT: I wanted to cancel my account.
J: Sorry to hear that. Go ahead and pull your account up here real quick. Can I have your name please?
V: Vincent Ferrari.
J: ‘Kay, Vincent. And for privacy and security, can I have the last four digits of your payment method, please?
V: (omitted)
J: All right, thank you very much. Okay. Had this account for a long time!
V: Yep.
J: Used this quite a bit. What was causing you to want to turn this off today?
V: I just don’t use it any more.
J: Do you have a high speed connection, like the DSL or cable?
V: Yep.
J: ‘Kay. How long have you had that?
V: Years.
J: …The high speed?
V: Years.
J: Okay. Well, actually, I’m showing a lot of usage on this account.
V: Yeah, a long, a long time ago, not recently.
J: Well — well, the “Pops Ferrari” account was on 71 hours since the 24th of last month.
V: No he wasn’t. He doesn’t even have the AOL software installed on his computer. You’re looking at AIM usage, probably.
J: No, it’s… AIM usage doesn’t come on to this…
V: He doesn’t have the AOL software installed on his computer, so…
J: No this is — this is your father, then?
V: Yep.
J: Okay. Well, I’m looking at this account…
V: Ah, either way, whatever you’re seeing…
J: Well, what’s causing you to want to turn this off today? I mean, obviously, I mean…
V: I don’t use it and he doesn’t use it, so we’re cancelling. He’s –
J: ‘Kay.
V: I’m telling you he doesn’t use the account. The software is not even on his computer. So.
J: Well, okay, I mean is there a problem with the software itself?
V: No, I just, I don’t use it. I don’t need it. I don’t want it. I just don’t need it any more.
J: Hm. So, when you use this, I mean, use the computer, I’m saying, is that for business, or…
V: Dude, what difference does it make –
J: …For school?
V: I don’t want the AOL account any more. Can we please cancel it?
J: Well, on June second, this account was signed on. It was, it’s been on for 72 hours. On June second.
V: Ca– I don’t know how to make it any clearer.
J: Last year was 540– last month was 545 hours of usage.
V: I don’t know how to make this any clearer, so I’m just going to say it one last time: Cancel. The. Account. Please.
J: Well, explain to me what’s, why…
V: I’m not explaining anything to you. Cancel. The. Account.
J: ‘Kay. Wha- what’s the matter, man. It’s not, I mean, we’re just, I’m just trying to help here, a’right…
V: You’re not helping me, you’re– Helping me would be–
J: Yeah, I am trying to help.
V: Helping me– Listen. I called to cancel the account. Helping me would be cancelling the account. Please help me and–
J (simultaneously): No, it wouldn’t actually.
V: –cancel the account. Cancel my account.
J: Turning off your account would be…
V: Cancel the account.
J: …the worst thing that…
V: CANCE