How difficult is it to cancel an AOL account?

[JamesU]

Don't for get to click on the video.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13447232/

How hard can it be to cancel an AOL account?
One man's frustrating call, caught on tape, resounds in the blogosphere

By Jane Wells
Reporter
CNBC
Updated: 11:42 a.m. ET June 21, 2006

More than 800,000 people canceled their AOL accounts last quarter. So it must be easy to cancel right? Not always.

Two weeks ago, Vincent Ferrari tried to cancel his 5-year-old account—he'd heard from others in the blogosphere that AOL customer service could be awful. So he recorded the conversation with a representative named John. Here is the transcript of the conversation:

AOL: Hi, this is John at AOL. How may I help you today?

Ferrari: I want to cancel my account.

AOL: OK. I mean, is there a problem with the software itself?

Ferrari: No. I don't use it. I don't need it. I don't want it.

John disputes Ferrari's claim that he never uses the account.

AOL: Last year, last month it was 545 hours of usage.

Ferrari: I don't know how to make it any clearer. So I'm just going to say it one last time. Cancel the account.

AOL: Well, explain to me what is wrong.

Ferrari: I'm not explaining anything to you. Cancel the account.

It goes on like this for 5 minutes.

Ferrari: Cancel my account. Cancel the account. Cancel the account.(continued...)

 

[Danger]

They played a few minutes of that on Canada AM this morning. Hilarious!

 

[Math Is Hard]

AOL is in deep doo-doo. They had to know this day would come.

 

[Cyrus]

I want to hear the clip. Your HW, find the audio file and link it.

Nice thread Yomama, I hate AOL and everything it stands for (which is nothing).

 

[Evo]

The rep may have carried it too far, but those reps have it beat into them evey day to do ANYTHING to prevent a customer from disconnecting.

I don't know of a large telecom or ISP that doesn't have a separate "disconnect" department that a customer is transferred to if they insist on disconnecting. The reps in these departments are specially trained to talk the customer out of disconnecting.

AOL is full of it by denying it's not their policy to try to dissuade customers from disconnecting.

 

[scott1]

http://media.putfile.com/AOL-Cancellation"
http://media.putfile.com/AOL-Cancellation"
The sad part is that they guy got fired for doing what he was told to do.
From the appolgy letter.

At AOL we have zero-tolrence for customer care incdents like this

Yeah right this isn't only time...I saw this comment on a another website:

AOL: "Thank you for calling AOL. My name is Susan. How can I help you?"
Me: "Yes, I'd like to cancel my account."
AOL: "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Why are we canceling the account today?"

--Insert 15-minutes of the same account salvage BS you heard in the Ferrari audio--

AOL: "Oops. My computer just froze up, and I need to start over."
Me: "You're kidding, right?"
AOL:" Yes. Hello. Thank you for calling AOL. My name is Susan. How can I help you?"
Me: "Oh my God. Are you serious?! I'm canceling my account."
AOL: "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."
Me: "Holy Jesus, are you for real?"
AOL: "Why are we canceling the account today?"
...

 

[JamesU]

One of the comments:

a friend of mine's mother just died, he called to close her account. After they requested a certified death certificate and verification from a third party, he told them to feel free to ruin the credit of a dead woman.

 

[zoobyshoe]

My notebook, which was a gift, came with an AOL disc that seemed to be the fastest way for me to get online with it, and, being in a rush to do that, I plugged the phone line in and inserted the disk.

A couple months later something went funky and the AOL tech help couldn't solve the problem, so, of course, I called the cancellation number. Despite the facts I could no longer get online with their service, and their tech help couldn't fix it, the girl squirmed, vascillated, debated, and tried to persuade me to have tech help have another go at it, until I lost my temper, started raising my voice and throwing some profanity in. That worked, but I'm extremely resentful of them for setting open anger as the only point at which they seem to back off.

 

[mattmns]

My Mother canceled her AOL account about a month ago, she said the lady on the phone was being very difficult, and she had to yell at her to get her to cancel.

 

[Moonbear]

I don't know of a large telecom or ISP that doesn't have a separate "disconnect" department that a customer is transferred to if they insist on disconnecting. The reps in these departments are specially trained to talk the customer out of disconnecting.

AOL is full of it by denying it's not their policy to try to dissuade customers from disconnecting.

There's a big difference between making an attempt to dissuade a customer from disconnecting (the old "ask three times" rule type thing, or trying to match a competitor's price if they're switching providers) and making them repeat themselves for 45 minutes when they are saying nothing but "cancel the account." I've never had such difficulty disconnecting anything. If I ran into that, I'd probably tell them to stuff themselves and call my credit card company to block any further charges from them and let the credit card company's fraud department fight them, because when it reaches the level it reached with that call, that's fraud in my opinion.

 

[Omega_6]

There's a big difference between making an attempt to dissuade a customer from disconnecting (the old "ask three times" rule type thing, or trying to match a competitor's price if they're switching providers) and making them repeat themselves for 45 minutes when they are saying nothing but "cancel the account." I've never had such difficulty disconnecting anything. If I ran into that, I'd probably tell them to stuff themselves and call my credit card company to block any further charges from them and let the credit card company's fraud department fight them, because when it reaches the level it reached with that call, that's fraud in my opinion.

That is exactly what I would have done. There is no way (if I'm not under a contract) that anybody is forcing me to pay for a product that I don't want. The fact that the guy remained that cool surprised me. I would have flipped out completely. As for making him listen to that statement at the end, I would have told him to shove it somewhere. Not cancelling when asked (especially that many times :rofl:) is definitely fraud.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

A few years back my daughter (age 11 at the time I think) somehow signed up with AOL and they started billing us for it. I went through the same nonsense as this guy: "Cancel the account! Cancel the account! Cancel the account! ...". I was finally successful, but the next month we were billed again. I went through the nonsense a second time but this time got a confirmation number. That did the trick.

 

[Anttech]

Doesnt surprise me, that:
A) NBC would air this, considering TW owns AOL.
B) AOL act like this.

AOL are a virus and need to be terminated anyway...

 

[ZapperZ]

Doesnt surprise me, that:
A) NBC would air this, considering TW owns AOL.

Er.. it also aired on CNN, and TW owns CNN. It is, right now, on CNN webpage.

Zz.

 

[Anttech]

Where was it first aired? Perhaps CCN also realize that AOL needs to be terminated ;)

 

[ZapperZ]

Perhaps CCN also realize that AOL needs to be terminated ;)

They can always call AOL customer service for that.

Zz.

 

[JamesU]

They can always call AOL customer service for that.

Zz.

They did. It took them 45 minutes to cancel an account...

 

[DeadWolfe]

"Blogosphere" has got to be the dumbest word I've heard of.

 

[Zantra]

I canceled my account back in 97 or 98 as I had high speed and didn't need it anyore. Same stuff as above. They've been doing this for a very long time. My bank said they couldn't block a transaction unless I knew the exact date so I ended up having to change my bank account as it was drawn on that. I hope someone starts a class action lawsuit, personally.

 

[0TheSwerve0]

Same stuff happened here, too. My dad tried to cancel the account and thought he had succeeded. I guess the rep. thought otherwise because we kept receiving bills. I'm still not sure how he got them to cancel the account.