Nightmare of Cancelling AOL Accounts.

[Lucid]

It's not really funny in anyway, but it gives you a pretty good idea on how hard it is to cancel your AOL account.
Clickeh!

I mean shit, does the guy not understand what "Cancel the account." means? x.x

 

[MiccyNarc]

They must try to get people to not cancel, at least 3 times. This guy just went overboard. And they get bonuses if they make people keep their subscription.

 

[Raziaar]

I had to do something similiar to this. The guy talks on and on and tries to get you to keep the account.

They should make it a LAW that companies have to allow customers to cancel online.

AOL does it because people realize quickly how SHIT their services are.

 

[Javert]

o boy i remember trying to cancel. First my dad speaks bad English and is more bendable than an Italian noodle. We got another 3 "free months", and then they charged right after. The next time we called, we had to precisely coincide the date we started, so we had to CALL BACK on a specific date, THEN cancel. When we did, they offered another 3 months, but by then we said "f*** no".

 

[Parrot of doom]

The guy didn't do himself any favours by engaging in conversation with the AOL chap.

However, treatment like that would ensure a swift letter of complaint if it were given to me.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

The guy from AOL got canned, heard about it on the news.

 

[ktimekiller]

I cancled aol, after a few years, it was still being paid for, because they didn't want us to cancel, they decided to just let the payments roll when we called them, and told them we are canceling.

 

[Raziaar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#Account_cancellation

Account cancellation

In response to approximately 300 consumer complaints, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office began an inquiry of AOL’s customer service policies. The investigation revealed that the company had an elaborate system for rewarding employees who purported to retain or "save" subscribers who had called to cancel their Internet service. In many instances, such retention was done against subscribers’ wishes, or without their consent.

Under the system, consumer service personnel received bonuses worth tens of thousands of dollars if they could successfully dissuade or "save" half of the people who called to cancel service. For several years, AOL had instituted minimum retention or "save" percentages, which consumer representatives were expected to meet. These bonuses, and the minimum "save" rates accompanying them, had the effect of employees not honoring cancellations, or otherwise making cancellation unduly difficult for consumers.

Many consumers complained that AOL personnel ignored their demands to cancel service and stop billing.

On August 24, 2005, America Online agreed to pay $1.25 million to the state of New York and reformed its customer service procedures. Under the agreement, AOL will no longer require its customer service representatives to meet a minimum quota for customer retention in order to receive a bonus. However, many AOL users outside New York still claim to have problems cancelling their accounts.

Some ex-AOL employees confirmed this procedure of cancellation:

"...as a former employee who worked in cancellations, the easiest way is to just hang up. After you call in, verify your account (by providing screen name, answer the ASQ - account security question - the billing validator - last four digits of your payment method - or by providing the screen name, your name, and your complete address. Then simply say "I want to cancel my account" and hang up. By the guidelines AOL has set up, the representative MUST cancel the account..." [citation needed]

On June 21, 2006, a man named Vincent Ferrari called AOL and asked to cancel his account. The AOL representative responded by not allowing the man to have his account canceled unless he told him what he disliked about AOL's service. The AOL representitive cited the number of hours the man had used AOL in the past year and argued that there was no way he could dislike the service if he had used the service for such a long time. When the 30 year old Ferrari insisted that the account be canceled regardless, the AOL representative demanded to speak with Ferrari's father. The conversation was aired on CNBC. When CNBC reporters tried to have an account on AOL cancelled, they were hung up on immediately and it ultimately took more than 45 minutes to cancel the account. [5]

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

I went from Bluelight(K-mart owns it now) dial up back in Julyish 1999, to Road Runner in October 1999. Never dealt with AOL ever.

 

[bliink]

Just turn up in person at the call centre.

EDIT: Customer retention is always in the same country as you.. they dont outsource it.

 

[Shippi]

.

 

[Beerdude26]

Lawl they're idiots

 

[Danimal]

Aolol!

 

[Smoke]

Aolol!

You lose.

 

[myth]

what cat???

 

[Solaris]

Anyone who gets AOL deserves it tbh.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Hooray for internet service providers! Soon, people like this may be able to dictate what Americans can and can't look at!

 

[JellyWorld]

o boy i remember trying to cancel. First my dad speaks bad English and is more bendable than an Italian noodle. We got another 3 "free months", and then they charged right after. The next time we called, we had to precisely coincide the date we started, so we had to CALL BACK on a specific date, THEN cancel. When we did, they offered another 3 months, but by then we said "f*** no".

On slashdot there was this guy who claimed he got 2 years of "free 3 months" calling up to cancel.

 

[Smoke]

haha, 2 free years because of shitty service, win.

 

[Raziaar]

Does AOL own any telephone lines like the telephone companies?

See how it is... companies like verizon, and SBC own all the telephone lines in their areas, and they can literally make it so that people have no other choice but to subscribe to their services... or if they subscribe to a smaller, better business, it may be more expensive, because on top of what that business offers you... great bandwith... you also must provide a significant payment which can rival your independent bandwith provider, to the telephone company.

I just hope AOL never becomes verizon or SBC. Those companies are terrible, but AOL is FAR worse.

 

[Shamrock]

Hmm.. Didn't I already hear this? Oh wait, that was because it is in the Video thread and has been for days!

 

[Mutley]

Had the same problem when AOL was cutting me off every hour playing games, it was their crappy Voyager modem.

I was saying "When I download or play games, I get disconnected, normally doing high bandwith stuff" Reply: "Your downloading games P2P? Are these legal?"

:|

They went on doing all these stupid FAQ answers like, "Does your system have enough memory?" Reply "Yes it does" Reply "Please check, goto Control Panel....." Reply "2gb RAM" Reply "Oh, not sure what the problem is". :|

I love phone arguments, I did well, I wish I recorded mine, it was literally just like this guy.