posted on June 21, 2006 03:32:55 AM new
LOL at AOL
Looks like they would just cancel and be done with it. Sad really.
**************
I married my wife for her looks...but not the
ones she's been giving me lately!
posted on June 21, 2006 07:40:53 AM newHow hard can it be to cancel an AOL account? One man's frustrating call, caught on tape, resounds in the blogosphere
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 gonna 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.
CNBC later interviewed Ferrari by phone about his experience. “I've never ever experienced anything like that,” he said.
He recounts how the AOL representative as a last resort even asked if his dad was home.
“I think I could've put up with everything, but at the point when he asked to speak to my father, I came very close to losing it at that point,” said 30-year-old Ferrari.
Ferrari then posted the call online, and the response was tremendous. AOL sent him an apology.
Chris Denove of market research firm J.D. Power & Associates says companies talk about customer satisfaction but actually see their call centers as a costly investment.
“They're trying to squeeze every penny out of that cost center without regard for what may be happening, the damage that may be done,” said Denove.
AOL later tried to make amends. They sent a statement to CNBC claiming that the incident was inexcusable and that the customer representative, John, violated guidelines and was no longer with the company. “We're going to learn from this. We can do better, and will," the statement said.
To put this claim to the test, CNBC reporter Matt Lefkowitz called again. Here is a rough transcript:
CNBC: I want to cancel my AOL account.
He was promptly disconnected.
He tried again.
CNBC: I need to cancel my AOL account. I never really use it. ... Well, if I can cancel it anytime, why can't I cancel it now? Can I just cancel my account?
It took him 45 minutes to finally get his account canceled.
Vincent Ferrari’s blog is now inundated with others who say they've suffered the same fate, making him the patron saint of customer dissatisfaction.
posted on June 21, 2006 08:14:57 AM new
Many years ago we tried one of those "try a month for free" offers from AOL. Thought we might use it while traveling. Never could get it to work so I called before the month was up and canceled. They said "surem, no problem" so I thought that was that. Next month we start getting bills for the service. I call and they say "no problem" and next month we get another bill. Round and round until I finally had a melt down on the phone and must have gotten someone attention.
Never again! -----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on June 21, 2006 08:24:46 AM new
Good GOD! I used to teach customer service, and that rep would have been fired. However, the company probably puts enormous pressure on them (do they get a bonus?) if they save an account. Horrible.
I'm sending this to a friend who spent 4 hours with me the other day so she could be "taught eBay fast." I was showing her a problem I had with an AOL customer's e-mail not allowing my messages, and she was surprised, said she'd never had a problem. Hmmm.
posted on June 21, 2006 08:27:31 AM new
That is total BS that they will try to learn from this experience. They did the same exact thing to me when I canceled 3 years ago. The only twist was that 3 weeks later they took money from my bank account so I had to go into the bank and file a grievance to get the funds back. I did get the funds back but how can they pull the money when I canceled 3 weeks earlier.
mama
posted on June 21, 2006 10:07:15 AM new
I think anyone who has ever tried to cancel an aohell account has had the same experience. I cancelled mine 5 years ago and it took over 30 minutes of stupid questions from the rep to get him to finally close the account. And of course there was another month of billing to my credit card to fight before all was said and done.
It should be simple. I want to close my account. It has not been nice knowing you. bu-bi!
HAs there been a problem?
Well, yes but since you have not responded to the umpteen million error reports I have filed and you really don't give a rat's behind that I am sharing the horror stories with all my friends, I don't see how my wasting another minute tellin you how to run your business is going to make a difference in your level of service. So cancel my @#$%^$%#$ account NOW!
posted on June 21, 2006 06:49:55 PM new
I have AOL also and when my credit card needed updating they contacted me saying to update my credit card info.
Now, couldn't you just take your credit card info off your account area and then they would have no place to take there money from.
I haven't checked this out but it makes sense to me. Has anyone checked this out to see if you could take your billing method off.
