insignificant thoughts - Latest Comments in What a week…

Re: What a week…

Deanne Bednar — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:43:04 -0000

I have canceled my AOL account, but because AOL still considers it "active", therefor people who send emails to that old AOL address receive no notification that the account is closed.

I am told that my canceled AOL account will no longer be active when "the box is filled" (the supervisor I talked to had no idea how many emails that meant) or "when the account is recycled" (the supervisor did not know what that really meant or when it would happen.

I let them know I was contacting the Better Business Bureau if we could not get this cleared up. I have tried several times before.

So you see the issue is that people can send to this old address, GET NO NOTIFICATION or bounced message that indicates the account is closed, and will assume that I am not answering my email. Bad for personal and professional contacts!

Has anyone had experience with this part of the issue? I was told by AOL that it was common practice for email accounts to NOT give a bounced message, and to remain "active" although canceled. is that true???

What do you think?

Re: What a week…

a guy — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:32:30 -0000

Maybe because the people you called were attrition.org not Aol. People check it out, under global post go to the bottom and click on the link about people who send emails to the wrong guys about cacelling their accounts!

Re: What a week…

Lois Boettcher — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:16:44 -0000

I thought we were the only ones fed up with AOL. Canceled our account in Sept 2007 and today found out that they put us in collection. Now we have them calling at all hours (from India) to collect $30.00. I'm glad I never gave them my credit card numbers.

Re: What a week…

Susan — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:00:27 -0000

The statement "At AOL, we have zero-tolerance for customer care incidents like this..." is BS! Ten years ago, I went through a similar hassle trying to cancel my AOL account (which was automatically charged monthly, to my MasterCard). After going around and around with the rep, I angrily ended the conversation by saying that AOL better not put another charge on my credit card and if they do, I would not pay it. So that ended the verbal standoff. AOL is, and has always been a crap company. And I'm glad they are going down the tubes - it's about time!

Re: What a week…

Russ — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 12:06:15 -0000

HAHAHAH! telemarketers, car salesman, realators and anyone who's job is on a phone are scum, this has happened to me with Verizon and Adelphia both, its their job to do shit like this. And half the stuff they say is false like "may i talk to this person" and so on when they dont have to, its just another chance to keep what you dont want. Scum fucks.

Re: What a week…

no name — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:22:07 -0000

reading back thru these responses i had nearly forgotten what a NIGHTMARE i experienced trying to get rid of AT&T - which someone else here also experienced. when i got phone service in oregon i told quest that i would like at&t as my long distance. within an hour, i called back and said, i've changed my mind, please make quest my long distance. so we went thru an "official" cancellation which included a three person conference call with all concerned.

long story short, at&t NEVER cancelled, kept billing me for non existent service, i'd call and cancel, same three person conference call, and on and on. this happened every single month for six months. i was beside myself - i experienced THE most nasty, rude and incredibly condescending and LYING customer service workers and supervisors at AT&T that paled in comparison to when i tried to cancel AOL several years ago.

finally, in desperation, i filed a formal complaint with the Oregon attorney general's office and surprisingly, rec'd a telephone call from them assuring me they were aware of the shady AT&T practices, that they had been fined by the state of Oregon, and that since i had had so much trouble they were going to personally make sure my account was "cancelled" permanently AND they were going to have AT&T send me a letter of apology!

AND THEY DID!!!

so my advice is: if you experience similar trouble, first contact the Better Busines Bureau and make sure the company knows it. and then file a formal complaint with your state's attorneys general office. those are the ONLY things that make these companies sit up and take notice. it is almost the ONLY way to get them off your back.

anything that has to be sent to the legal dept of a company, such as AOL or AT&T, means you are on solid ground and your case will most definitely be attended to.

NOW - i'm worried because soon i will have to get rid of my netscape account and all customer service calls to them in the past were routed to INDIA.

i,too, found it amusing netscape interviewed you, vinnie - they are most likely just as cupable in their cancellations.

Re: What a week…

X-AOL Employee — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 09:23:58 -0000

:!:
I must say that your story is a very common one and I say that from the corporate side of things. I was employed by AOL for several years, actually they just laid us all off due to bad business and shipping our jobs overseas, so believe me when I say that I am on your side. The only defensive stand I would like to make on this is just simply, it really isnt the reps fault. Day in and day out for 5 long years we had multiple training sessions on how to refuse to cancel an account, they called it "showing the member value" There is actually a defined script that these representatives MUST use in order to keep their jobs and maintain satisfactory service levels. And again, I am in no way defending the company, only the poor pions (like myself) who wanted to stay gainfully employed. They record the calls at their descretion and use those recorded calls as either ways to praise you or punish you. The people responsible for cancelling your accounts are also required to meet very high percentages of "saves" in order to even get a paycheck, so they are basically paid on commission more than hourly rate. I didnt work in the "saves" department until my last year of employement and thats when I really learned the shady business practices and began looking for employement elsewhere,little did I know they were planning on canning over 1200 people. Over half of the employees there are on SOME form of anti-depressant, anti-anxiety medication because as aggravated as you were with trying to cancel your account, imagine how those folks feel having to do that very same scenario on 100 calls a day. I feel bad for your situation, however I feel even worse for "jon" who was fired for simply doing what he is paid, told, forced to do. What folks also dont know is that on every single call, there is an application used to close the account, the representative CANNOT cancel the account until ALL of the necessary radio buttons are selected, which forces them to HAVE to ask you those questions. And if a rep "fudges" a few radio buttons and gets caught in a recording, guess what....they are fired. Now, I agree, after hearing the recording that he did turn quite rude and the question about your father was totally unacceptable, so I wont defend that, however the procedure taken is something they do not have a choice about. Here is a sample of the script required:
Thank you for calling AOL,my name is ____ how can I help better your online experience today

Oh, Im sorry to hear that but I will be more than happy to resolve that for you today.

Now, in order to assist you, I will first need to ask you a few questions in order to protect your accounts privacy and security

Thank you very much Mr Ferrari, now if I understood you correctly, you said you were calling to cancel your account today. Is that correct? Ok, great, well I can help you with that, now may I ask why you are wanting to cancel?

Ok, so you now have high speed and feel that you no longer need our service, well Im glad I got your call.....throw some value (like firewall, virus protection..etc)

and so on and so forth....there is a scripted response for every single issue, yes, even if the owner of the account is deceased.

I agree with you on every aspect,I cancelled my account immediately after I was no longer employed there (cause I never used it and only kept it because it was free) And just the stupid automated system alone is a nightmare.

Oh and one last thing...they tell you at the creation of your account that you can cancel by simply going to KeyWord Cancel...but trust me when I say, the accounts never get cancelled that way. And...if you think you can cancel your cc on file with them, think again, most cc companies have a long standing relationship with them and if you have had your acct for several years, they will simply send AOL an electronic update of your NEW cc...so make sure to check those statements.

I hope you never encounter another situation like that and Im sorry that that happened to you, but it really isnt the employees that want to stand in your way of cancelling, its the insane productivity and service levels that they are trying to reach in order to get paid.

Oh, yea, before I forget, the funny thing about that interview with Netscape is that they are owned by none other than,yep, you guessed it, AOL. lol...priceless...have a great day!

Signed,
not a disgruntled employee (hehe)

Re: What a week…

Erik — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 08:15:07 -0000

As a citizen of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) I'm quite surprised that large companies seem to have less and less control over their employees. I would like to say that these things never happen in Holland, but they do.
Latest news we got over here is that (American) companies use inmates (prisoners) as a workforce. Do you think Jon really got the sack?? Could it be that he's still in jail and just calling or responding on behalf of another company?

Re: What a week…

Jayne Giardelli — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 03:57:30 -0000

In the 80's I had an account with AOL. Believe it or not, it was harder to cancel an account back then. I would call month after month, but my credit card kept being billed (that is the way AOL billed back then). Thank you for telling the story, it is still the same even after all these years. Kudos to you Vincent!

:idea: An AOL rep interview would disclose the way you were treated is standard AOL treatment. The fired rep should take them to court.

Re: What a week…

EmilyAnn — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:38:36 -0000

My family used AOL for quite some time years and years ago. My parents had to deal with them, and it was horrible what they put them through. We cancelled the account, yet were still billed every month for months until they finally would cancel! I am currently using AIM, but even that attempts to download more AOL crap.

Re: What a week…

donna — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 18:29:27 -0000

Hi Vinny,
It took me 4 separate calls to finally get my AOL account canceled with a confirmation #. Then every month since January 06, a new charge for $21.51 was added onto my charge card. Every month, I called to get the charges (and late fees) cleared off. Finally, I had to cancel my credit card to get rid of AOL. With a written cancellation of my credit card in hand, would you believe that AOL actually has been able to continue billing my canceled card? Now I have to dispute AOL charges added onto my canceled credit card. Last week, AOL turned the $21.51 charge over to their collection agency, Allied Interstate in Columbus, Ohio. I've been harassed with several Allied Interstate phone calls despite relaying AOLâ€šÃ„Ã´s own cancellation confirmation # and the names of their people resolution employees. The collection callers constantly threaten my credit rating. Now Iâ€šÃ„Ã´ve received written notification that Allied Interstate (New York City License #0933734) is a debt collector with a judgment from AOL. Since I now have to spend even more of my time responding to this harassment, Iâ€šÃ„Ã´m wondering whether any of you bloggers out there are being threatened with credit rating actions in a similar way. Are any of you prepared to join me in a Class Action Law Suit against AOL? Vinny, any suggestions ?

Re: What a week…

Barry — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 12:36:37 -0000

I've had an aol account for many years, and when I canceled my account last year, I went through the EXACT same thing! I was on the phone for like 15 minutes telling the CSR that I wanted to cancel my account... I'm so glad I no longer have AOL! so many bad experiences with the company... AOL is a thing of the past...

Re: What a week…

Missy — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 09:15:26 -0000

Vinnie wrote:

Iâ€šÃ„Ã´m not totally comfortable with the fact that I cost this guy his job.

dude, no way. You did not cost this guy his job. He did it all by himself.

I've spent my entire working life in service, and guarantee that if I had behaved in the fashion of the AOL rep, I would have been fired on the spot. There is no excuse for the treatment you suffered at his hands.

Re: What a week…

Sherry in Calif — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 07:32:55 -0000

My husband and I went through months of aggrevation when we tried to cancel our AOL account. We were told it was canceled but AOL continued to debit our bank account for monthly charges. Every month we contacted them and demanded our money back. Not only that, but each time we talked to someone at AOL, we were actually talking to someone in India. Never did we talk to someone who was actually an American on American soil. Isn't AOL supposed to be AMERICA on Line? They should change their name to India on Line.

Re: What a week…

Indigo — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 05:50:25 -0000

First I'd like to say you have nothing to feel bad about. You didn't get him fired.

He got himself fired. He might've been being snarky and abusive to customers before this. He might not. But if he'd been doing it habitually, he would've been found out. For sure he would've. The internet is increasingly full of people who understand "the geek shall inherit the earth," and if you hadn't been the one to record and post a call -- somebody else would've. With the same result, I believe.

I have worked in customer service. I win awards for it. And it disgusts me when I hear stories like this.

So I'm really proud of you, because you did keep calm. You did remain polite. And then you simply put up the results for the world to see, and the chips fell without you having to do anything else except indicate what you'd gone through. If all customers were as calm as you, and as polite as you when they had a grievance [even though your situation didn't begin as a grievance], customer service would have to sit up and listen.

Well done. I'm gonna be linking.

Re: What a week…

John Cody — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 05:25:23 -0000

I too recorded the phone conversation of closing my AOL account from last july (2005) but just never "let it out" on the chance of legality. But, it seems things went fine for you, so here is my recording for some additional fun...

http://media.putfile.com/Trying-to-Can-AOL-705

So it seems this tactic has been used for at least the past year and doesn't look very good for the isolated incident theory :)

Re: What a week…

augpies — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 19:25:07 -0000

I have to agree with the above comment: I had to call AOL several times to get them to stop charging me for service I had cancelled two months earlier. Good that you called them on it - someone has to!

Re: What a week…

Flen — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 17:50:05 -0000

This is not an isolated occurrence. I've had to cancel AOL on several occasions over the years. They've always tried to talk you out of it. The guy you recorded was doing exactly what they train them to do.

Re: What a week…

Danny — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:58:37 -0000

That is so awesome!!!

I know you've heard this a million times, but I had the same thing happen to me. I signed up for some free trial, and it took about 10 to 15 minutes of trying to cancel. And only because I was adamant.

I think you've changed things forever. Next time I'll just say "Remember Vinny from the Bronx and Jon from AOL? Well I'm taping this conversation too...!"

(P.S. Love the Bronx publicity. I'm one of your neighbors!)

Re: What a week…

Jeff — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:50:42 -0000

I just saw this story on CNN.com. Glad someone finally recorded the conversation. I've heard this was a problem too, and found out first hand when I had my mom cancel her slow and unreliable AOL dialup service last year. I was visiting her at the time of the call, and she was on the phone for about 30 minutes! She's too nice of a person, so she just listened to all the BS they were trying to feed her.

It's amazing that AOL has so many customers considering they have such a poor product and even worse customer service. Guess that's why they have to advertise so much. I've built many nice computers for friends that were blazing fast, until they went and installed all the AOL software, after I told them not too.

Re: What a week…

John — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 15:31:17 -0000

Saw the story on CNN this morning. It was like deja vu. Just last year, we were auditing our bank account statements and kept coming across this $23 charge every month from an unspecified source. #$!@, who's got our account number? I called my bank and found out it was AOL. How the #$@* are they charging me when I don't have an account? Apparently my wife had unknowingly clicked a checkmark box for AOL music on some site and gotten "free AOL for 3 months" and we never knew about it. It took me 20 to 30 minutes on the phone with one of those clowns to get the account cancelled. They wouldn't refund the money (even though I never used the service). This guy used a lot of the same verbage John did. AOL fired John for PR purposes only. They TRAIN and ENCOURAGE their retention people to use those tactics. Just wish I had thought to record the call. Great to see them finally get what they deserve.

Re: What a week…

John Browning — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:25:21 -0000

Hey forgot to mention something.

This guy was fired for doing what AOL wanted him to do. They don't have the balls to admit this is SOP at AOL. I sure in the hell don't feel sorry for him but it really shows what kind of company AOL is. Look at all these comments. Talk to your friends. This call was no different in any way from what the rest of us have experienced.

Re: What a week…

John Browning — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:21:29 -0000

I had a similar experience.
My parents bought their first computer about a year ago. Of course, it came with a free year of AOL. I told them not to sign up but some people can't pass up FREE! LOL
So after a year had passed they were not happy with AOL. All they wanted was email and to Google stuff. They found AOL hard to navigate and too much clutter on the screen. (By the way, they were in their late 50's when they bought the computer.) I told them I would save them the headache of canceling and call AOL myself.
I have worked in several jobs over the phone so I know that most everyone has a script now days. I let him finish the script and answered all his questions politely. I have been there before so I knew it was not going to be easy but it still took over 20 minutes to cancel. You can bet that by about the 15 minute mark I was screaming and cussing at the guy. Enough is enough!
By the way, this brings up a good point. Remember most everyone that has a phone job has to read a script- just shut up and let people do their job they'll get you off the phone as fast as they can. If you need to raise hell, by all means do so, but you'll cause more aggrivation for yourself if you try to speed up the process.

A buddy of mine had to cancel his credit card a few years ago because AOL just would not let him cancel. If AOL was as great as they claim, there would not be such the high pressure to cancel.
AOL SUCKS. Get an ISP that does not require any other softeware than Windows.

Re: What a week…

Jon Smith — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:04:18 -0000

I had to call AOl several times and spend FOREVER cancelling my account. AOL talked down to me. Never use AOL.

Re: What a week…

Marsha Correira — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 12:53:04 -0000

I meant to say that you'll get "the satisfaction you're seeking." I'm so sorry it read so poorly in my original post.