Cancelling AOL

I emailed AOl and received the following:
To cancel an AOL account:
email: CancelWSAUK@aol.com
subject: TERMINATE MY ACCOUNT

Wow! I just came across this and I have to say I can't believe how INCREDIBLY myopic you are Vincent Ferrari. That guy was obviously worried that your account was still in use even though you knew it wasn't. The amount of times I've had idiots ask me to change DNS settings etc. when they have been 100% sure they are right and I know they are wrong - all I can do is ask them questions to investigate if they are right or not; at least the questions may highlight the misunderstanding either at my end or theirs. What gets me is an American has the audacity to accuse this guy of being out of line when most consumer transactions in the States are accommpanied by an empty and facile 'Have a nice day'. He was obviously just trying to establish why you were so curt in tone and emphatic in wanting to cancel your account when it showed 70 hours of activity for the most recent billing period.

The link is broken. The audio clip is actually located at:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/audio/play/841/

Cool story, bro.

When you get redirected to ebaumsworld, do a simple search for "Cancel AOL" - the file pops up first in the search results.

Hey... I can't access the audio blog :(
Anything we can do to access it??

Hello my good man,

putfile now just redirects to ebaumsworld. Any chance this file is still around?

I had a nearly identical experience with Compuserve, in my case I had a duplicate account because I was a forum moderator, and when I told him to cancel the paid account, he gave me the runaround, said he was canceling it, and then THEY KEPT CHARGING ME. When I saw it on my bill, I hit the roof and called them...the guy had been fired already for pulling the same crap with other people. Apparently they had a retention bonus.

I had NEVER had it go to that point before in my life. I have made it clear after their song and dance, and they've gone ahead and canceled. That guy was just a jerk.

I just read about your call in "The New Influencers". Poor you!

A customer of mine tried to cancel their account, but AOL insisted that his was not possible because the contract ran until November 18th (2008). This week they turned it off anyway and left the user without internet access...

http://tinyurl.com/aolweg

I had a similar nightmare with AOL. i wish i read this b4 i called them, cuz they dint cancel my a/c altho they sd they did, n i recd another chg on my cr. card even after cancelling. i called them n they refused 2 hv recd the prev call frm me 2 cancel. i asked 2 talk 2 supervisor n managed with gr8 difficulty 2 get a cancellation confirmation frm him. im obviously disputin the chg with my cr card co.

@Joey

"I agree that you think Jon was being a DICK buthe was just doing his Job he had rent to pay and food to eat and he NEVER tried to screw anyone OVER."

Boohoo. If Jon is being a DICK then no one's going to give a dam about his job. It's that simple. When someone calls in to cancel their subscription, they're not going to be thinking to themselves: "Gee, ya know, Jon needs to pay rent and eat food just like everybody else so I guess I'll just let him jerk me around for 30 minutes on the phone." You f'ing customer service reps, get over yourselves. If someone wants to cancel and your not letting them do it, then they have every right to get irritated and p***ed off at you.

PS JON DID GET FIRED BY AOL… SO it looks like YOU LIED and WISHED YOU GOT SCREWED BY YOUR MANPARTNER... AGAIN!!!

kenpopcorn is the kind of dork who would be a good posterchild for abortion.

I mean this dude is so freakin uptight I bet he uses kotex 24-7-365.

He's some dork who hangs out all the time on my3cents.com where the average concumer posts complaints about horrible service. ken popcorn acts like he owns the place and is the master-poster who critiques everyone postings. That's because he has no real life of his own so he lives on my3cents.com. A real geek.

Yup, he's the kind of guy ya just want to educate on how to properly beat the shit out of someone.

You know what is hilarious I worked at AOL in the retention department and I did that exact thing, and the fellow who took Vincents call was my former roomate and Good Friend Jonathan, and not only was he doing his JOB as if we would lose our jobs if we just "LET SOMEONE" cancel without trying to probe as to why and see if there was a way for us to resolve their problem or show them value of the service enough to where they would want to keep it. I agree that you think Jon was being a DICK buthe was just doing his Job he had rent to pay and food to eat and he NEVER tried to screw anyone OVER. I myself delt with many irrate or upset people and I NEVER prevented anyone from canceling their account, I did however help alot of people sat with the service whos original intent was to cancel and that to me is not a horrible thing. EVERY COMPANY IN THE WORLD DOES IT!!!! and all you people who think you are so fuckin fantastic and can't believe that someone would act like that I am willing to bet that your JOB has created a situation that you were not that ok with or felt a lil bad about yet you did it anyways for fear or losing your job so those who live in glass houses should not trow stones that goes for you Vince. P.S. my favorite part about the Story is how not only DID JON NOT GET FIRED BY AOL BUT HE WAS ACTUALLY PROMOTED... SO it looks like AOL LIED and SCREWED YOU AGAIN!!!

Trying to cancel AOL? Good Luck!!! The best bet for AOL is to put the bill on a credit card so they debit the account every month for the bill. This way when you want to cancel AOL, call the credit card in as lost, AOL has no active account to access. They are really bad about canceling, even if they tell you they did cancel you and give you a confirmation number...nope, you still get billed. And the thing is, how much money are they making by jerking people around by not really canceling the account? 25$ a month here, 25$ a month there, it adds up for them! Once again the quality of customer service had deteriorated to beyond existence, and the greedy corporate company has taken over.

Hate to say it, but netzero did the same thing to me when I tried canceling. They continued to partial charge me for their email service, after arguing with her on the phone for 15 minutes to COMPLETELY cancel my account. She double talked me , and continued to charge me afterwards. I hate these people. How could anyone want to take on a job like this?

It's also possible to cancel AOL accounts by fax, or even via snail mail!

AOL's newest trick is to shut down the cancellation number for part of the weekend, so you have to call back "during normal business hours...."

Hiya! I don't agree with the person above that said that he was just doing his job. That guy you talked to sounded like someone who needed to just get off of his high horse. Wether he is trained to find out why you canceled or not , he has no right to argue and harrass you like he did! He sounded like someone who is just bored with his life and didnt like being told what to do and new that no matter what you NEEDED him to cancel that account for you so he gave you a hard time. I mean it is one thing to do your job and try to convince someone to keep their account but if someone is telling you that you are pissing them off ..I think its about time to cut the shit out and do what your told. Its better to give that customer a good experience rather than a bad cancelling experience...that way the customer will come back someday ... The key is return business! Not to bash your customers and treat them like shit! I think what I would have done is told Johnny boy he can shove it and I don't need him to cancel ,I'll get someone else ...then simply hang up on his sorry ass! Then I would have called back and asked for the Supervisor..which by the way they cannot refuse to get the supervisor...and I would of complained about John and then had the supervisor cancel my account himself ! I seem to have the great luck of running into bad customer service on a regular basis ....so I have learned how to react....You just have to nip it in the butt so to speak ....in other words don't even give them the chance to argue, be rude , or have control over you like that. Sometimes some of these people need rude awakenings... They need to know they can't go around treating people like that!

Hey Vinny,

Did you know that you are entered into Wikipedia? Pretty fucking sweet!

Ive never use my aol account ever in my life. Ive signed up but its just too confusing.

Wow...sorry for the long link...

Here is a shorter one:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-637972...

A few years ago, I worked for Earthlink as an escalations rep for their "saves" (customer retention) department. A friend of mine snapped on a call that was being listened to LIVE by Earthlink CEOs. Here is a link to the call:

http://video.google.com/url?docid=-637972069829...

Another friend put video with it so he could host it on g-videos. The video has nothing to do with the audio, so bear with it please.

I just cancelled Dish and I can already see they are going to be a problem. I paid my final bill online, and I sent back all the equipment a week ago. In the week since I sent their equipment back they have called me at least 10 times, every time saying I have this many days and if the equipment doesn't arrive by then I will be charged the full amount which is something like over $700. This company acts more like the Gestapo than than anything else. See, I know I mailed the equipment back, I know UPS delivered the equipment back to Nazi headquarters, but do I trust SS DISH to say they actually received it in their less than reasonable time frame? Hell no, and this is the thanks I get for being a good customer for more than four years? The last time they called a few hours ago (I let the answereing machine screen their call, oops, I recorded all their harrassment calls, on my answering machine, so what... One thing I can say for sure as God made little apples, I will NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, do business with DISH (or AOL for that matter). These companies are outright ripping off customers, use strong arm tactics if you ever cancel, try and succeed in continued billing of customers that want to cancel, See, DISH has a scam going with their equipment return, I'm sure 25 % don't get it in on time, another 25 % DISH probably lies about when they received the equipment, so right there you have enough cash flow by brutalizing anyone that wants to cancel or such. I would never have guessed I was dealing with a company that was going to try screw me at the conclusion of our business, now I know. Instead of possibly retaining a customer at some later time, they have lost one permenentely with threats and harrassment. Companies like this should not be allowed to do business. Is the Gestapo something you might want in your life? If so, sign up for DISH! First month is free and then, everythings OK until you decide to cancel. Then things get a little 'messy'. So good luck my friends, and I can guarantee I will not pay for any DISH equipment. I sent it UPS and I know they have got it by now, I bet they try to say they didn't get it, and then they talk about collection agencies! These people are crooks, no other way to say it. Can you imagine how many people have been victimized by them. Well, they are not going to abuse me. I sincerely hope they go out of business as well. So there you go DISH, you have heard it from an American, and you have lost a customer for life. I wouldn't sign up for your service if it was 100% FREE for life! I wouldn't sign up for it if you paid me $200/month. In fact, I wouldn't sign up for it if DISH agreed to pay me $1000/month. Goodbye forever DISH, you are 86'd, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. I speak from my heart. Out.

I signed up for AOL back in feb of 2007, contract ended today, phoned up and cancelled within a few minutes, waiting for my MAC code to arrive. Still, i'm going to manually delete the debit from the bank.

- Anthony

Hi Vinny it has been a few years. I just went through a crazy time with Broadway Photos(wish I had found your pictures earlier). Maybe it is time to go after them! I fell for the "bare camera" and "upgrades" I was lucky I did get an USA version of the Sony but they didn't send the upgraded battery and charger. Said I needed it to run the camera. It took many calls and lies but it came. Very slimey folks......

It'e not over until the Big "A" says it's over.
When you finally get you "cancellation", whether it's on your credit card or auto-deduct from your checking, AOL loves to continue collecting even though you have been given a cancellation confirmation number. IT"S WORTHLESS! The big "A"
continued to deduct nearly two hundred dollars in the months after I cancelled. Yes it was my bad for not checking the small print on the back of the last page of my back statement, but my wife was dying of cancer and I was sort of occupied at the time.

When I discovered it and called AOL, I was tolled
it was "no problem" and they would issue a refund.
I received a letter several weeks later saying they were sorry I was leaving and they would immediately cancell my account as of the date of the letter.

Has anyone evr thought of a class action suit. There has to be thousands of people AOL has screwed like this.

Lesson learned. Never assume an account isn't still hitting you bank or credit card even though
youo ha ve a legitimate confirmation number.

Not an aol horror story, but still I cancelled AT&T three months ago. I had a credit for $43... I just realized I never received it. When I called them, the credit was down to $36. When I asked why they said I had a monthly $2 charge... when I asked what for, they told me "for not having local services"!!!

Of course I had the fee waived, but not before speaking to a supervisor. Sheesh! $2 for not using their service! What a brilliant plan!!!

I too have an AOL horror story.

My family had AOL, but after a while we got tired of the crappy service. In order to convince my parents, I made a logbook of times I tried to log on and timed how long it actually took to get on (the record was 26 minutes).

My mom calls to cancel the account, but she got suckered in to the "few months for free" deal while we got DSL through the phone company.

Sure enough, three months later, we get billed again, with no notice.

Mom calls again, very pissed, and the CSR was being a dick to her, and even went so far as to refuse to transfer her to a supervisor. Mom gets on our second phone line and demands to speak to a supervisor.

Long story short, they cancel the account, we delete the software, and notify the credit card company that any charges from AOL would be fraudulent, so we wouldn't have to pay them.

Two words: NEVER AGAIN.

Well, I can see that I am not the only one disatisfide with AOLs buissness practices
and complete dosreguard for respect for their customers.

I dont know about you , But I am tired of being
done this way by an ISP who claims to have exceptional customer service. I think that it is high time that we put AOL in their place once and for all. and send a clear message to all ISPs that we are the customers and we will nottolerate being treated like this e3ver agian.

Look, we can sit here and complain about this all day untill the cows come home. But unless we make a stand , this problem will never get solved.

I perpose we combne our efforts and form a petition listing our complaints and request the proper athorities to open an official investigation itno AOLs buissness practices.

Remember, we are the ones who tecnicaly pay their pay checks through the4 services which we purchase.

Wow, that's amazing...

That guy should be fired.

Surprise!!! Surprise!!! Aol was canceled without a problem. I was ready for a fight.

Just saw this. I had a similar nightmare with AOL. I tried to cancel ... I thought I had cancelled, but no ... they kept sending me bills. So, I just didn't pay them. So, AOL sent the account to collections, and I told that company that (1) I had long since cancelled the account and (2) there was no way I was going to pay for services I had cancelled. And .... that was the last I heard of it. So, I've probably got a ding on my credit report somewhere because AOL is (as a company) a large scum sucking bottom feeder.

Ha. I remember when my dad moved in with his girlfriend, they got DSL and I called to have her AOL cancelled. She had been throwing money away, as her computer hadn't even been connected in years. When I called, I got the whole

"Why are you calling to cancel?"

"I sold my computer, so I don't have a computer anymore, and I don't see fit to freely give money to AOL if I'm not using the service."

"Well I see x hours of usage last month."

"That's impossible because I just told you I DON'T have a computer."

"Between March and June you used x hours" "Again, that's not true because I DON'T have a computer".

"Alright sir, I'm prepared to offer you three additional months free of AOL"

"And what am I supposed to do with that? I told you I don't have a computer."

Eventually she got close to cancelling the service. Then came the promotions.

"If you're unsatisfied with AOL sir, we also offer netscape for $x.xx..."

"Why are you telling me this? I don't care about that. I TOLD YOU I DON'T HAVE A COMPUTER. CANCEL MY ACCOUNT *NOW*.

My account was cancel as of December 15, 2007

Thank you mrs. Leo Morales

PLEASE CANCEL MY ACCOUNT. I'M LETTING YOU KNOW WAY AHEAD OF THE TWO MOMTH FREE DEAL SO MY ACCOUNT WILL NOT BE BILLED. THANKING YOU IN ADVANCE FOR NO PROBLEMS. I WILL CALL 12/31/07 TO SEE IF YOU GOT THIS E-MAIL.

all you should have to say is "no thank you, please cancel my account". if you keep saying that over and over and over again, you should be good to go. it's still a good idea to check your next billing statement. if they continue to bill you, call them back and yell at them.

Charles B. has it right - it may be an inconvenience in other areas, but having your credit card replaced is a good way to get someone off yor back. I live on an extremely limited income (disability SSI only), so I sometimes have to juggle funds to make it through the month, e.g., defer a payment occasionalyy on those months when my check comes later than usual.

When I signed up for DSL, I was unaware that they made arrangements to automatically bill my Visa debit card for the charges, thus dipping into my checking account. When I asked to be switched to regular billing, I was told that the only way to do that was to cancel the service, which would incur a $500.00 penalty for breach of contract. Instead, I told my bank that my card was lost and asked for a replacement. The new card had a new number; the old number was cancelled and invalid. When the ISP called to tell me that their attempt to charge my account had been declined, I told them that the card had been cancelled, and they would have no choice but to accept another form of billing. They did.

Good luck with Verizon. If they censor their email the way they censor text messages, you're not any better off.

I called AOL August 20 to cancel my DSL service.I was getting such poor service I decided to switch to Verison. I was told it took 30 days to cancel DSL--period. Their DSL provider is COVAD. They require a piece of paper from AOL before they will take their signal off my line. Until that happens Verison can't put theirs on. At the end of 30 days I called AOL and after going through the usual menus I was told that it could be done in a couple of days more as the paperwork had to go through the system. I called again in two days and they said their man had not filled out the paperwork right but they would do it over. It is now Oct 1 and I am hoping that they have taken off their signal. I have asked Verison to check. In the meantime I am using AOL dialup and I entend to cancel this as soon as I am on Verison. I was satisfied with AOL until thier service got so bad that I couldn't stay online for more than three minutes. I have spent HOURS on the phone and nothing seemed to help. Now I really hate AOL

Well I understand now why everyone hates AOL. I bought my computer in March of this year and it came with a 6 month free trial of AOL. I wasn't scheduled to get my high-speed for 2 weeks so I figured it would be ok to use AOL until I got my high-speed. After my high-speed was finally installed, I called AOL to cancel and got a confirmation numer the same day. Keep in mind that it's late March when this happens. Today, September 29th, I got a bill from AOL for 115.20. I called AOL and they told me I never called to cancel and that the card number I gave was invalid so I was being charged 12.50 for everytime my payment wouldn't go through. I explained to them I did cancel, gave them a confirmation number and told them that 3 months ago I changed banks and that's why the other card was invalid. The AOL rep. said that the confirmation number I gave her was invalid. She said that she would take 1/2 of the charges off but I would still be responsible for the other 1/2. I told her I was not paying for something I didn't use and canceled. She finally agreed to put a zero balance but then tried to sell me a $9.99 a month deal. What a joke. By the way. They did give me a new confirmation number. Guess what. It's the same as my old one except the date in it is today instead of 20070328.

Well here is my story.
We recently moved house (6 months ago now). Consequently, old computer had to be disconnected and set-up in new gaff etc., and as time went by I found I was using the AOL 'dial-up' service less and less as it was getting really slow. A couple of monthe down the line, managed to throw a few pennies at 'the guys' @ our local PC World. WOW! What a difference got a soper-fast machine. BT Broadband package as well-it's great!!
Then disaster struck-trying to cancel AOL cranky 'dial-up' account-phoned their india call-centre as you do-on hold for 20-30 mins at a time-then you don't get through to the right person. Getting really p****d off now-asked to speak to manager. What a waste of time-back on hold so gave up. Tried the 'cancel@aol.uk' link on web-site. Got no reply to that so wrote to their office address in Ireland.
(e-mail me if you need it).
After 2 or 3 letters finally got one saying they had cancelled the account. Yet to see if they've still taken money from my bank account this month though. But I think what really did it is that in the meantime I wrote an e-mail to ISPA Complaints which I think swung it for me as I got a letter of apology from AOL. I've now written back asking for the months subscription they've taken when I wasn't using their internet. I'll keep you posted.
Good luck to anyone else wishing to cancel with AOL. jb

how do i cancel my aol account?

I had no problem canceling my AOL account! I was thinking of canceling the credit card that AOL was billing to, so I did.
Then I called AOL and told them to cancel my account. The CSR started asking some irrelevant question, so I said "Listen, you need to know that I have just canceled my credit card, the one that you have been billing. So you're not going to get any more money from me. You might just as well cancel the account now, don't you think so?" And after a pause, the guy says "Uh... yeah..."
I'm telling you, it was a piece of cake.

As others have already said, the AOL CSR was just following protocol and doing what he was required to do. Terrible customer service? You bet it is.......on AOL's part, not the CSR's though. AOL basically DEMANDS its reps to be like this, so they have no other choice if they want a paycheck.

Something tells me this Vincent Ferrari isn't exactly an angel either though. He sounded like an arrogant prick from the get go on that call. I hope he's happy that he got some CSR (who was low man on the totum pole, and probably working to pay bills or feed a family) fired. Instead, he should've gone after the AOL employees who MAKE THE RULES!

Vincent Ferrari is an A$$hole.

record your call and simply state "this is hereby legal notification of the cancellation of my account. Any further charges will constitute fruad and you will be prosecuted for such fraud under all applicable state and federal laws. You have been hereby legally notified and therefore have no recourse. I will remain completely silent on the line except to affirm my intention with a "yes" or a "no" or to verify my identity as required.

I had AOL, dropped it or so I thought. They still charged me. I called, was assured all was well. They still charged me. I called my bank, they did a refund and I thought that was it. I had peoplepc and when I cancelled them, they accepted that and I never had a problem with them. Over a year later, I get a letter saying AOL is suing me for back unpaid charges. The gall! I wrote the collection company the entire story and I think that may be it. But who knows. In a year....

I was just reading an article in the wsj about how AOL is losing all their customers to high speed internet service. Then I thought back to my own experiences cancelling aol... I thought WOW those reps must have a tons of pressure to keep clients, especially since aol can't attract new ones. I guess they are. I don't think aol has much hope now... They deserve it for being such pricks.

man, I'm so glad I use AOL discs for ninja death stars. I don't let the vile things in the same room as my computer.


P.S. congrats on getting that AOL dog collar removed, I hear it itches. :P

Amen to you for doing this! I tried to cancel our AOL account a couple of years ago and was battered over the phone by the "customer service" rep for about an hour. I finally got so tired of arguing with him I just gave up and still have the stupid account! I'm going to try again now that this has happened and see if it is any easier.

Great work and THANK YOU!!!
:P

When i tried to cancel with AOL 4 (approximately) years ago, it took me 15 minutes on the phone saying, "No, I don't want another month free, just cancel it!" I had called the month before to try and cancel and I fell into the trap and took a month free instead. It is just awful!

Cancel the Account PARODY video on youtube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbjUnz64ywc

I signed up for a free trial of AOL 1.0 about 10 years ago, and I cancelled almost immediately. I was billed for the next four months after repeatedly calling to cancel. Their policy has slightly changed though. They used to tell you it was cancelled and keep billing you, now they just tell you flat out they won't cancel it.

Thank you so much for helping restore power to consumers. As companies merge and grow larger, they have gained the ability to marginalize individuals in order to target the masses with false advertising and deceptive marketing. Thanks to people like you and broadband internet, we can all work to bring them back to Earth. This episode hurt AOL more than they can imagine.

Yeah, I like so many others have had a bad eperience trying to cancel AOL accounts. I hardly used my account and I was moving out the country. My new employer was offering internet to me free of charge obviously didn't need AOL. After bening on the phone forever I finally got a rep. This lady continued to try to get me to stay with the service after many insistances from me that all I wanted was to canel. Finally, she said, that she would have to put me on hold to cancel the account. I was on hold for almost 25 minutes when finally my call was dropped. Then I had to call back the next day, go through the whole process again and verify that this rep actually canceled my account as I had repeatedly asked. AOL could offer free lifetime service to me and I wouldn't go back to them. Sadly, I think your story is the average not the exception.

amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences -- and inviting others.

So here's my AOL story.

Just recently, I discovered that AOL had been billing me after I believe I had cancelled, for services I never used ...

... for over a dozen years!

Back then, they had online cancellation. It was a series of pages to fill out, and before you were done there was a final screen with just two buttons:

[ok] [cancel]

So in selected cancel, apparently it cancelled the request.

(Misleading, huh.)

Maybe they had too many people using it, who knows -- they then instituted the telephone cancellation policy, including telling them why you wanted to cancel, and being lured back.

During my telephone calls -- of epic proportions -- some one commisserated with me -- and tried selling me privacy protection: the hustle is relentless.

I did not record the conversations I had with them but am a journalist and have kept copious notes -- including names and i.d.'s -- one of whom told me that the company records every call, and those records are all kept, somewhere.

Ok. At one point, I was told that to cancel I had to hold the line and listen to a recorded announcement ... which advised me that by cancelling i would be waiving my rights to any claims regarding my account ... ... didn 't record that one, but maybe others have heard it too.

I was also told that there was never an option of cancelling online -- that telephone has always been the only way. I did not want to engage in an argument that could turn acrimonious, but that was really irritating.

Yes, they have made some gestures, but relatively nothing considering how much money I'm out.

So I'm writing the president and general counsel, persisting in trying to settle up amicably, rather than the alternative of getting my lawyer's firm involved in litigation.

I've since heard a saying: it's easier to get out of the Mafia than AOL.

And that's my story

Your ordeal was the subject of an article in the business section of the Houston Chronicle on 7/2/06, under the byline of the NY Times.

I listened to the call - laughed my fanny off. Then I started to read the comments here. What an eye opener. I can't believe that people are saying "...he was just doing his job..." Apparently, having never been in Customer Service, some folks don't understand the definition of "customer" and of "service".

In the newpaper article, AOL verified that the call is legit and said "John" no longer works for the company ... guess he wasn't doing his job after all...

As to the legality of recording.. that too, is crap. You only have to inform the other party that you are recording if YOU are the business and plan to use the call. In an open customer service situation where you are the consumer - you have no limitations on recording. Now if you blatantly end up defaming and making something untrue out of it, then you are subject to legal recourse by the person/company that you recorded, but only if THEY initiate the action....so, all you folks out there that said you are going to cancel your AOL account and record the transaction...go for it.

Everyone who now needs to cancel an AOL account should just start the call with, "By the way, I am recording this call and broadcasting it over the internet to a live audience."

Can't hurt.

AOL not only won't let you go, it literally steals your email address list from Outlook Express when you sign up! During the sign-on, there was a time & place in which to click "yes" to the query: "Do you want to
C O P Y [emphasis added by me] your addresses to AOL?" [If you don't you can't use them as your Email program.] I found my outlook Express Address book EMPTY! When I contacted them they [falsely] denied this. Then I read a column [in the Washington Post, I believe] verifying this as a fact & explaining how they alter the format and giving a three or four step process to try and get your now AOL address list back! I never could. I gave up. When I quit AOL, they tried to keep me--offered incentives, etc., but I persisted. Now, if I could only get the AOL items off of my computer without buring the hard drive...
Mike Coburn

This call was tame compared to my cancellation attempt. I was a really early AOL subscriber--my account dated back to something like 1996, when there weren't that many home Internet options for non-techies.

When I finally made the move to DSL about 2 years ago, I was too lazy at first to deal with switching all my e-mail subscriptions and accounts so I signed up for a bundled deal with MCI that included AOL. I had constant problems with it, the so-called firewall included with the new software only seemed to block the AOL interface most of the time, the "spyware protection" was a joke, and I was basically paying extra for nothing except the convenience of keeping the e-mail.

When I finally got around to trying to dump the account I tried to do it over the phone thinking it'd be faster--I hadn't yet heard about any of these problems with AOL. Yeah, we all know where this is going, right? I called from work thinking it'd be a quick call and wound up spending what had to be 40 minutes on the phone, either on hold or talking to the CSR. They guy literally REFUSED to cancel the account. A co-worker was sitting nearby and by the end of the call was fascinated hearing me repeat "just cancel it. just cancel it. I don't want the service. just cancel it," over and over. He tried telling me that without AOL's valuable virus protection software (ha!) I would come home some night and find my computer hacked and and empty shell. He tried to tell me that my service would be slower if I didn't use the AOL interface. He told me how difficult it would be to switch my e-mail accounts. In short, he tried every excuse in the book, short of "God will kill a fuzzy kitten if you cancel your service." But I'm sure that would have come eventually.

All my efforts to request cancellation, to convince them that I knew what I was doing, that I had had a friend set up a whole new firewall and viru7s protection system, that I'd given the decision a lot of thought, etc. was worth crap all. In the end I lost the will to fight with him, took his crappy offer of a "free" month in which to "reconsider" my decision and hung up on him. I wrote them a letter a week later and cancelled the service. Of course, I got billed for the free month anyway. Surprise, surprise. Yep, took forever to address that.

I got a customer service survey a few weeks later asking for feedback on my experience. I filled it out and told them in graphic detail what I thought of the experience. At the time I was astonished that I never got any kind of apology or even acknowledgement of the complaint. Sadly, based on what I see here, I think the guy probably got employee of the month based on my review.

Oh, and my mom and a co-worker had similar cancellation experiences a few months later. The CSR swore at my co-worker and managed to reduce her to tears. In my mom's case she had to convince them to cancel the account despite the fact that she was moving to a rural area WITHOUT AOL ACCESS.

How is this company still in business? I just don't understand.

Ian, if he is a fat twit, your a pig who likes stereotypes. You should try working at Mcdonald's or Walmart if you don't like call centers....you would fit right in. It sounds like you are the one who has a miserable life if you could wish that upon someone else like that. :roll:

I think he was pretty calm given the circumstances. I would have been cursing up a storm right when the retard said I sed 545 hours in a month.

Let's all cry a river for the guy who lost his job because he threatened a customer and refused to cancel the account........oh wait, isnt that a good reason to fire someone?

ITS ABOUT TIME SOMEONE SHOWED GUTS I WAS A AOL CUSTOMER FOR 6 YEARS OFF & ON THE ON PART WAS THE FREEBIE PART WHICH I WOULD CHECK TO SEE IF THERE WAS ANY GOOD CHANGES (NONE OF COURSE) I HAD MY ACCOUNT UNER A CETAIN NAME WHEN I WANTED TO USE THE SAME NAME I ALWAYS WOULD GET HEAT THAT I CAN'T USE IT EVEN THO I WASN'T A MEMBER YET AS I WAS JUST SIGNING UP AGAIN I WAS TOLD I HAVE TO PICK ANOTHER NAME B/S TO THAT I CAN GO ON & ON WITH ALL THE CRAP THEY FED ME I LEARNED EVEN THO ITS EASY TO USE ITS NOT WORTH THE 24$ ITS A GARBAGE SERVER

I read some replies here that sounds like apologia for the phone center rep. These vary from "oh come on, give the guy a break" to "you don't understand how call centers function".

Screw that.

I don't need to know how a call center functions. When I want something done, I want it done. Nothing that Vincent (the caller) did was rude; it was the call center agent who took up the naughty tone.

No, I don't need to feel "sorry" for the guy who got fired. Fuck him -- with an attitude like that, he deserves to do something else for a living. Customer service usually means customer service. No apologia (probably shills from AOL) is going to change the fact that this the service agent was being an asshole, scripted by AOL or by whomever else.

Unbelievable...who's plugging this nonsense on this page? I expect what I ask to be done. Period. Fuck the script.

It also happen to me when I've tried to cancel my signature of the "O ESTADO DE S. PAULO", a famous and traditional newspaper in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They've left me for about 40 minutes wainting in line, until I could talk to someboby again, after several others callings, just because I've firstly mentioned the words "I want to cancel." I think it happens all over the world.

I went through the same thing about 7 years ago. Only had to make dozens of calls, waited on hold for hours. Mailed certifed letters demanding cancellation, and writing to the Attorny General and the BBB. I finally had close the credit card that I had given AOL. Then they wanted to take me to collections!!! I finally had to threaten to file suit. Nightmere.

Thanks for reminding me why I never ever want to try AOL. What a friggin' nightmare. I think I'm going to start recording all calls to customer service depts. I was treated like crap the last few times I've called Blockbuster Online to have a problem fixed and wish I had those calls recorded. Hey, that's what we need: a website devoted to recorded customer service calls! What a hoot it would be. :-)

Hi Vincent, I will never be able to thank you enough for the changes you have brought with AOL. Since the beginning of June I started to try and cancel my account with AOL, when I would call, my call would get disconnected when they transferred me to the cancelation dept. When I signed onto Live Help I got disconnected from the internet shortly after I would type CANCEL my account. Sadly for me, I signed up for a year contract not realizing how bad their internet service is with dial up. I spent 7 months logging onto AOL and then being dropped. My business is online, my clients depend on my real time internet contact with them. After 3 weeks of attempting to get a call thru to the cancelation dept. I finally reached a person on June 19th and begged them not to loose me. 30 minutes into telling them I want to cancel because the service stinks, they would give me a month free, asking about DSL whch I kept telling him we don't have here... the converstation went around in circles for 30 minutes. Then he kept insisting I have to deal with the technical dept to resolve my technical issues. I explained to him it took me 3 weeks just to reach the cancelation dept and I don't want to deal with anyone else. He put me on hold then told me it would cost me $50 to cancel my contract early. I said that is crazy because you don't give me any service. I had already switched to earthlink... and I hardly ever get dropped, so I know it is AOL and not my dial up connection at all. We went back and forth for 30 minutes and I finally said I will just get an attorny, if you are screwing me, you have to be screwing other people too.

2 days after this whole conversation I seen you on CNN. I thought wow its not just me... this is a nightmare for many people. AOL is truly the Hotel California... you can check in, but you can never check out. My heart went out for you. I found a blog that I thought was yours, and briefly posted my story... and thanked you for bringing this out into the public eye.

Today (July 3rd), out of the clear blue sky... I got a notice from AOL that they have decided to 'honor my request to cancel my membership' without penality as of my conversation date of June 19th). They didn't say why they decided to it.... but I am sure you are the antagonist that lead to it. Maybe they are reviewing all their unhappy customers and finally letting them go to save face.

So from the bottom of my heart and wallet... thank you so much Vincent for all you have done to bring much needed action and attention to this whole AOL problem. You are my hero!!

Namaste,
Lisa M. Gawlas Cht, CMT

Well I am still in the mix. When I moved to a different area then when I signed up with AOL, the area I moved in did not have broadband yet. So I had to use a cable company not a phone company. AOL charged me for broadband for one year even though I sent the equipment back and spoke hundreds of times on the phone to AOL employees to try to stop the billing. I even have a letter sent from a bellcouth representative stating that the service was not available. So every month when I was deducted for the wrong amount they said they would correct it and of course did not. I have spoke to about thirty employees. Same situation except I wish I could of recorded this AOL employee who screamed on the phone to me WHY HAVE YOU LET THIS GET THIS FAR?? Hello why have I??? I have tried to cancel this for one year. So far they refuse to refund my money.

ive used aol since 1989/1990 (i still have the aol for dos ver1.0 floppy somewhere) it was text based back then - around 1994 i did small work on the side as a techie for consumers in their homes -so using aol helped me a great deal when my clients had dial-up issues and i would recommend aol esp if they had children (parental controls were tops for families) - as other isps emerged i subscribed to earthlink (which was ideal for techies and more advanced users) i kept aol out of convenience for clients but little else - when earthlink made connecting easier on their cd's - i decided it was time to cancel aol -- ha ha - there was one year i paid for only 2 months since they kept offerring free months of service *to keep me since i was a long standing customer* - it took 30 min easily for the calls and they would just keep giving me a free month - i figured i had nothing to lose and kept checking my check-cashing card statements, but charges were made to it by aol. finally i moved in with my boyfriend who had cable and aol was no longer needed for my clients computer problems -- i sure wish i had recorded this last call and even more i should have just voiced spammed *cancelcancelcancelcancel* til i annoyed the rep enough to just do so LOL - but i soo know what you went thru, and yes, they have a script, but there is common sense as well -- the NYTimes article explains they get a commission for every time they save a customer. - i say we all open an accnt with aol - and after the 6 mos trial spam their lines with cancellations and offer to stay IF they give u another 6mos free :P...
power to the people.

I have gome to the new site (putfile.co) and it asks to load in a plug-in. When I do, I get message "no suitable plug-ins found." Does anyone know what is needed?

Thanks

I noticed a lot of people saying AOL could sue you for recording the phone call. Have they forgotten that when you call a Customer Service line that before a live person gets on the phone that there is a recording saying that this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes. By them saying that they are recording the call gives you every right to record as well. This guy did nothing wrong by recording.

Today the NY Times caught up with your AOL story. I had a very similar experience. Now that my youngest has moved on to college and the house is on a wireless broadband set up (being a Comcast captive does, of course, have its own culture of oppression) I called to cancel the AOL account. The very polite CSR who was clearly reading from a script (and for whom I strongly suspect English was not even a second language) simply refused to let me just get the thing turned off. I wound up with approximately one additional month of service at no charge and which no one used. This is not what I clearly asked to have happen but once the CSR made it clear that they would immediately stop charging fees to my credit card I decided to quit while I was ahead.

It's psycho cases like Debbie that give AOL the good name that it has and it's morons like Heather who keep them in business. (Abuse me, please abuse me as long as you're 'doing your job...')

I had to fax letters threatening legal action to escape AOL after the retention rep abused me verbally for trying to cancel.

I used aol and didn't have a credit card at the time and signed up with electronic check debit, big mistake!
after going through a 45 minute cancellation process ,I noticed on a bank statement 3 months later I was still being charged. I would've caught it sooner had I already of saw where on the statement it was being debited.
I had to put a stop payment on them which cost me 7 dollars. and after about 3 more months I finally got a credit. when I called to ask them about my cancellation the rep said ,the csr I spoke with didn't take me seriously. so my cancellation was ignored. a friend used a credit card and he ended up cancelling his credit card to stop aol. and the cc for not issueing a stop payment.

This is not the first time this happened, I know of people who paid for AOL much longer than they wanted to because they could not cancel it. I would never subscibe to it for that reason.

Wow. You're quite eloquent.

My stepmom, like an idiot, wanted to install AOL on our computer a few years ago. We didn't need it, I already had an ISP I was paying for (this was before cable and dsl became big, so dial-up was the standard for home internet connections). So, she used one of the plethora of AOL free trial discs she had. My dad had to input credit card information in order to use it. It wasn't just an install and when time is up, time is up, and you can enter credit card information later. It sort of makes sense... but when occured a month later was just dazzling, in a bad way. AOL charged my dads credit card to around the amount of $150+, and it was like pulling teeth to get the charges reversed from AOL. I was only 17 then, and didn't really know much about the situation other than my dad screaming at my stepmom for putting it on the computer in the first place, when he said we don't need it - because I told him we didn't need it, and screaming on the phone about getting the charges reversed. But now years later I have heard a few similar stories of using the free discs and the customer getting charged an arm and a leg immediately after the free service was over.

I think it is slightfully shameful how you got that representative fired. You may be slightly flabbergasted by this statement, but that is due to your ignorance of call centers.

I significantly doubt that you were actually speaking with someone who works directly for AOL, it is quite more likely that the gentleman you were speaking with works for an outsourcer. Thats right, outsourcers employ Americans too. Like me, I have been working for an outsourcer who provides technical support, through my company I have been outsourced to handle technical issues for companies like Gateway, Dell, and even Microsoft. The building I work in has another department that outsources sales and cancellations for a company called United Online. That company runs AOL's competitors Netzero, Juno, and another dial up Internet Service Provider. Basically, United Online pays my company to take these calls to sell their service or to try to get a customer to not cancel their account because it is too expensive for United Online to pay its employees 15-20 dollars an hour which is expected. So they go to impoverished areas of the country i.e. the South, the midwest, India, where they can pay employees considerably like less 7.50 an hour and less.

Essentially you called someone who is paid to try and prevent you from cancelling your account. You did not give this guy any courtesy for what he does for a living which can be quite demeaning, but you being from the Bronx wouldn't enstill any sort of courtesy in your wretched heart. I am glad I do not work on the phones anymore because of New Yorkers like yourself. I have talked to literally thousands of New Yorkers, and I must say I haven't been impressed by a single one of them counting yourself. I hope your fifteen minutes of fame are about up right now and one day you can enjoy a demeaning job filled with mindless middle managers being lorded over by a faceless demi-god figure like AOL.

You're an ugly fat twit,
Ian

I recently spent 45 increasingly heated minutes to cancel an account which I never opened in the first place. I had connected to AOL to check out an offer of a thirty day trial, but opted out and sent an e-mail to confirm that I was not signing up. Never heard from AOL, but later noticed a charge on a credit card account. I called.
After an endless loop of sales pitches, and long delays because I did not have an actual account to cancel - no user name, no password - my request to cancel retroactively was denied. I ended up being billed for two months. They accused me of being "immoral" because I had inquired about the trial without a sincere intention to sign up.
Given that they don't have an actual product, why do they exist?

But for all the people who said "he's just doing his job"...his job does NOT in any way, shape, or form, require him to threaten you. He has NO RIGHT to say, "If you want this done, you'll do what I say."

You're the customer, he's just the flunkie.

I just read about your experience in our daily newspaper, The Oregonian. I was incredulous so natually I had to listen to the audio file.

AOL should be appalled and embarrassed. Rather than getting their PR people to put a positive spin on things, perhaps they should hold themselves to a higher standard and actually respond to their customers wishes! Thank God I never had an account with them.

You're baffled because you don't pay attention. In NY State, and in 37 other states, only one party has to consent. Also, AOL tells you from minute 1 that the call will be recorded, so there's no expectation of privacy.

Only an idiot would be baffled by something perfectly legal not being prosecuted as a crime.

I found this off of Ebaumsworld.com. First off recording a call without the consent of the other party is illegal. So I'm kind of baffled as to why nobody's taken you in on that yet. Secondly, yes, as annoying as it is for someone to play "21 Questions" with you, the man was just doing his job. Your attitude from the beginning wasn't exactly the best. You weren't polite from the beginning of the conversation to the end. You should have just put on a smile, and said "please & thank you", it probably would have saved you half of that phone call. You have rules and regulations to follow at your job, I'm sure. What makes this man any different from that? It doesn't, because he does as well. So I suggest the next time you find yourself in a quandary like this, you suck it up and deal with it, or just don't bother calling in the first place.

Fascinating about the AOL cancellation. Reminds me of quitting Verizon, except I couldn't get anyone from the phone company to answer the phone.

Thanks for the heads up! That is a great warning flag.
I've thought about signing up on occasion, but after listening to this, I'd sooner gnaw my own head off, right down to the neck before I did business with these thieves.

This isn't a blog entry - it's a public service message!

Here's a simpler and cheaper solution: Make a phone call to AOL, note the day, time, and CSR on a paper. Then when he/she delays cancelling immediately, simply threaten to hang up and "charge back" all AOL charges on your credit card. This will cost AOL a lot of money in charge back costs, annoy the credit card companies upon which AOL relies for payment, and the credit card companies will complain to AOL management, and this irritating problem should be dramatically reduced.

I had an AOL account and tried to cancel 4 times. Each time I called they said they would be happy to cancel the account but continued to bill me. I finally had to call American Express to get them to block my card from AOL. AOL is absolutely the worst customer service of any company I have dealt with. I am happy that their practices are becoming well known.

HERE"S A SOLUTION. When attempting to cancel an AOL account, do not do so by phone. Write a legal sounding letter of cancellation, threatening legal action against them if they do not cancel your account within 24 hours. Send it to them via Registered Mail, Return Receipt. Then if they do not cancel your account, SUE THEM. It may only be a small claims action for a minimal amount of damages, but if enough people do it, it'll stop AOL in their tracks. When you file a suit in small claims court, they have to defend the suit or lose by default. If they choose losing by default, then you can really screw them up by freezing their assets with a lien based on the default judgment.

Yesterday, I called AOL to cancel service, before reading about Vinny's experience. AOL must have noticed. It only took them 11 minutes and 19 seconds to get me through the computer voice questions, the sales person (who kept asking questions), and the recorded "confirmation" tape.

Will the last person to use AOL please tell them? Not only would I not buy anything from AOL again, I would think twice about buying anything from Time Warner.

Spare other poor souls from similar suffering! Whenever you see those free AOL CDs, pick up a handful and toss them in the trash! Make the world a better place!

AOL is devious and deceitful! After requesting our bank to stop allowing withdrawals from our checking account by AOL, they created ficticious check numbers to remove two more monthly payment after cancellation. Once we put an end to this practice, they somehow obtained our credit card nimber and began charging payments to that account, until we cancelled the card. Are they that hard up for $$$? CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!!

AOL, like the virus-infected magnet Internet Assplorer, can go die a thousand deaths.

I went through pretty much on the phone what Vince here did not too long ago.

Yes, the AOL stooge was "just doing his job", but when a customer takes the time to call the company they shell out monthly to, ESPECIALLY when it sounds like said customer just wants to get from A to B and CANCEL service, why should AOL turn on the cocksucker attitude? I'll tell you why- because they know damn well that one more person got that much smarter & is leaving their servers. For chrissakes, cut your losses and move on to the next customer calling in that might be more easily swayed, you AOL sore fucking losers.

It's exactly like when a panhandler is ultra-polite when asking for that change & then turn a 360 in attitude when you tell them no.

AOL can go buy a jumbo pack of condoms & go fuck themselves. I pray to the good lord that they take a violent plunge and fold miserably.

Karma's a bitch, AOL.
Remember that.

I never had an AOL account, but I spent months trying to report a Sprint phone that didn’t work properly. Oh the time I spent trying to talk to a customer service representative who had a brain and who didn’t accuse me of lying.
I now live in Bangkok and get my Internet service provided by a company called True. I can attest that their customer service is worse than Sprint (much worse in fact. The stories I have about that company are much more comical then a rep simply trying to retain a customer), but I generally give them a pass because of the language and cultural barrier, and because Thailand is a developing country and the True staff members, including managers, are paid peanuts and therefore really don’t care much about their job. No such passes are given for Sprint, however. I anxiously await the day when they declare Chapter 11.

I guess I was lucky. I moved from Germany to Indonesia, and wanted to pay through my credit card. They asked for a fax of the card and even though I sent it to them several times, they kept asking and then cancelled due to nonpayment.

I even phoned them and they admitted they got my fax, but at the end they told me I had to come myself again to Germany and give the fax to them...

You should make a Bittorrent of this audio file.
I used to sell computer systems and set up customers new ISP accounts. AOL was notorious for being difficult to remove and literally being unable to get a customer service rep to cancel accounts. Our normal method was to put them on speakers phone let them blather for a bit and say "Just cancel it!" multiple times. Meanwhile we would be installing/setting up a alternative service.

try nearlyfreespeech.net for the server problems... it would have cost you $12 for 12 gig. They rock. AOL sucks.

This is why no one should use AOL. We had the same problem with NetZero though after opening a shared (traveling) account. They didn't give us the pitch when we tried to cancel, but they did give us the run around however, and charged us even after canceling.

Bad business practices really. When will these companies learn? I feel sorry for the CSR's who have to do this stuff just to make a paycheck, but you don't have to act like jerks either.

I worked for AOL from 1999 to 2003. The problem is that they got too damned big for their britches, and they are now so completely out of touch from Steve Case's vision that it's just a shame. They are rudderless. They are going away, more quickly than people realize.

The call centers have been the joke of AOL for a long time now. I could tell you horror stories from the Ad department, through the Production department, to the Tech division, but it's all a moot point. They're dying and don't even realize it.

Sorry you had such a crappy time of it. :-(

I closed My AOL Account 1997, but I knew it was AOL hell to close the account. So I went to my bank and sign a letter, I would refuse all future bills from AOL.
Closed my bank account and open another it stop them cold. In addition, I had the bank officer call AOL to get an idea of want I was going through. After that, he was cool with it.

But thanks for exposing them

Putfile.com has the conversation now if anyone wants to hear it.

And for the last time, no it is not illegal to record conversations. Using them in court without the persons concent is another issue. All he was doing was the same thing they were doing. Since the conversation was already being taped, what does it matter if he taped it or not? There was no privacy implied whatsoever.

And if you feel sorry for poor John (who may or may not have been fired for all we know), you should just tattoo the word "moron" on your forehead. John is not even his real name. How would any other employer know that its the same guy who was recorded here? So even if he did get the pink slip, i assure you there are more jobs out there for him. Millions of people get fired every year for god sakes......

If you lie down in the dirt, you get dirty, and if you get a paycheck for doing something you know is wrong, don't cry foul when someone finally makes an example of you.

Thank you Vincent. You've done a great public service in embarrassing AOL for an annoying and dishonest business practice.

I had an account that was being billed directly from my bank account.. suppossedly a 19.95 a month account became a pay by the minute account that was as much as 450 bucks a month.. i didnt notice it right away.. when i called and went off they told me i'd get a letter from their office. Still havent.. how long has it been? 1997!!!!!!!

FUCK AOL.

oh yeah, to cancel your account make sure the CSR has your acount and has verified it, then simply hang up, they MUST cancel your account if they cannot give you the full disclosure at the end that tells you your account is still open.

1st Google now owns 5% of AOL, so for all the people excited about getting off AOL and using Google, guess what your still going to be in AOL's spider web.
2nd You can keep AOL mail and IM screen names even if you cancel your AOL account.
3rd Yes AOL trains employees to use a process to retain members, employees are monitored in may different ways, and fired for not following the "call flow"
4th Yes they say this guy is no longer with the company, if it was for this particular call, it would have only have been for not making a "saves attempt". However I suspect he was simply laid off when they closed the Jax, Fl call center.
5th I can't wait to see AOL crash and burn it won't be because of this call, it will be due to thier slow reaction to market forces, they only just recently realized the importance of broadband, and are now offering AOL High speed with various partners, however check the speed, it is usually a slower speed than one would get by simply going to the cable or dsl provider.

Had an identical experience about three years back when i cancelled AOL.

The message sounds like what happened to me when I tried to cancel my AOL account. I had gotten a DSL account and no longer had any use for AOL with their incessant ads and lousy service. It took me a good half hour to finally cancel. I will never do business with AOL again.

The message sounds like whathappened to me when I tried to cancel my AOL account. I had gotten a DSL account and no longer had any use for AOL with their incessant ads and lousy service. It took me a good half hour to finally cancel. I will never do business with AOL again.

Yes, I have a friend who also tried to cancel, he runs a site for men's grooming www.thestylishman.com and didn't need it and also had to go through alot to get anything to happen. With all the money they make you'd think they'd have better customer service.

My step-daughter was having the same problem cancelling her account. She finally called her credit card company and they called AOL and somehow got cancelled. They said they had had the problem a lot of times and knew how to take care of it. They did.

Kay,

Go to www.nomoreaolcds.com. ;)

I too experienced the AOL hounds! I had to hang-up on an irrate AOL rep when she insisted that I could not cancel a trial accout. I called back, and after a long conversation with another rep, cancelled the account. Needless to say I will NEVER try or recommend AOL again!
p.s. Any ideas on what to do with thier advertisement CD's? I receive about 10-15 a year and currently use them as border on my classroom bulletin boards.

The same thing happended to me when I canceled my AOL account.

Back in 1997 I worked as a contract programmer at American Express in Phoenix and was required to have an AOL account because I wrote software that allowed AOL users to view information about their American Express credit cards.

Since I was a contractor AMEX required that I get my own AOL account. I billed them every month for the account and AMEX promptly paid me. That practice was probably to keep contractors from running up huge AOL bills and getting AMEX to pay for it.

When I quit American Express and went to work else where it took at least 6 months of letter writting to get AOL to stop billing me for the account.

AOL sucks and I have never used it other then when I had to for my job at AMEX which was writting software so I had no need to use the account after I left AMEX, nor did I use the account. But it still took at least 6 months for AOL to stop billing me.

I suspect AOL intentionally continued to bill me. And I have met other people who have the same experience trying to cancel an AOL account.

I am on AOL and they appear to have blocked this clip. Yes, I still have dial-up, so YouTube won't cut it for me. Meanwhile, I can't access this clip from the original site, or from here. How's that for S-U-C-K-S? They don't call it AOhelL for nothing.

I tried to cancel my deceased father's AOL account back in 2004. After the first attempt, I was told it would be cancelled, but next month the charge was on the CC. I called again; was told last month's failure to cancel was a mistake, and this time the account would be cancelled. Again next month, there was the charge on the CC. When a company won't even cancel a dead person's account, you know they are in trouble - I only wish I had shorted AOL stock then and there.

Finally, after writing to a supervisor, the account was cancelled.

Despite my requests to refund the extra months of service, they never did.

Sounds like the are not any better in 2006.

way to go vinny. The part at the bottom, "if you don't like any of these policies, tough. Start your own blog on your own host and then you can run it the way you want". Attaboy. In other words, they can all go ****themselves. All right.

please don't delete my comments about non english speaking CSR's. the first time i posted that i got an error message, so backed up and re posted.

I am stunned that you got an English-speaking CSR. I have nothing against Hindus; I object having to repeat problems because they don't understand English very well, to listening to PART of the problem and jumping to a scripted (non-responsive) response, and arrogantly telling me "Be silent, madam! I am telling you your problem!"

The crux of the matter is, however, that this type of behavior is not limited to AOL. I've had similar experiences with NetZero and Sprint Cellular. Even if you survive the call, you WILL continue to be charged. When you cancel the credit card attached to the card in desperation, in three to six months you'll have collection agencies calling you at work.

My husband passed away. Two months later I tried to cancel his account. His being dead was not good enough. Didn't I want to keep it so people could still write to him. Didn't I want to read the comments. I told them I didn't look at his account when he was alive, why would I want to when he was gone. Then, to make it worse, he keeps getting renewal offers. (I had thought I had cancelled my own AOL months earlier because of software problems -- I ended up paying an additional three months before I finally was able to sever the tie.) I think people stay with AOL just because it's so hard to get rid of them.

Here's why they do what they do.

AOL's "Customer Retention Specialists" are paid based on performance, or how many people they can save, compared to how many they lose. They feel this method allows the CRS to work to his/her fullest potential, but they do not, however, realize that most people will respond like this when you hit them where it hurts the most...in the wallet.

PS - This is posted anonymously. I will not reveal who I am, but let's just say I can confirm this as an "inside source".

My experience [prior to AOL's cease and desist agreement with the Federal Trade Commission] was precisely the same as Vinny's. The AOL rep argued with me for half an hour, then finalloy agreed to cancel in this fashion: She agreed that my request came on the monthly statement closing day, but said that I had missed the closing by one hour. Hence, she would keep the account open for another "gratis" month and make sure I was not charged for it. The account, she said, would be terminated at the end of that month. In fact neither of those promises obtained. I was billed for the month following my cancellation request, and the account was not cancelled but in fact kept active after that month. AOL still owes my $22.95, but their refusals to refund have been stressfully nasty, so I finally gave up. If this is the way that Steve Case and his executives "earn" their huge fortunes, they ought to be jailed. In event any of them are reading this blog, my name is Norman Holly and I live in Silver Spring, Maryland.

when i first got my laptop before leaving for college a few years ago, it came with a free aol trial. so when my three months were up i got on the phone to cancel it thinking it would take me just a few minutes. HA HA. this lady was persistant, even after telling her i would be moving to a place where i would have FREE internet she continued to try to sell me deals. and isnt aol tricky by making you give your credit card number for a "free" trial. yes, these reps are just doing their job, but you cant make ppl need your service anymore. i thought it was especially entertaining when the rep made up those little facts about the account being used. also, ive worked in customer service places as long as ive had jobs. (not in call centers, but more retail oriented.) we were always taught, give the customer what they want so that they stay a customer.

:cry: I worked for AOL for 3 years and the worst part of my job was the saves dept. We had to maintain a 60% saves rate. This meant 60 out of 100 calls had to keep their accounts for 30 days after talking to us. If we didn’t keep this rate we were written up and had our jobs threatened. On a daily basis we had minimum of 1 ambulance a day taking some poor person, who was stressing so bad about their save rate, to the hospital with chest pains.
Before the merge AOL was an OK service, but after the merge they really started pushing their employees to maintain the 60% saves rate. I am so glad that I don’t work there anymore.

:evil:I left aol in 1989 shortly after it bought applelink and had trouble, even then. I have avoided it like the plague since. Another communications co. had a similar customer service program. I do believe they have 20,000 sales reps. and 1 person that deals with customer complaints. I think corp. execs. have crossed once again into unethical behavior.:(

I also tried to cancel AOL. Because it took me two months to check out my CC charges they were continuing to bill me. Called them back and they told me if I hadn't received an "official cancellation letter" from them my service wasn't cancelled! I cancelled it again, which they accepted. Shortly thereafter I started receiving threatening calls from their collection department wanting to sue me. I told them to go ahead - the total amount was $29.95 and they would "settle" with me for half that amount! They called about once a week threatening me and trying to make deals for me to pay up which I never would. I found an article in my newspaper about the NYS class action suit against AOL and filled out the paperwork. Just read in today's paper NYS was awarded over a million dollars in that suit in August. I haven't received anything and could care less but I successfully filed a complaint with NYS Attorney General's office. I wouldn't use AOL if it was the last IE provider left! I make a point of discouraging everyone I know from using them and will continue to do so. Everyone I know that's ever tried to cancel them has been harassed and/or billed long after they thought they cancelled. They're nothing but crooks. I can't believe the US government doesn't investigate this company's fraudulent practices.

I also knew about the issues faced when trying to cancell AOL accounts. I sense that the policy has been established at the corporate level. the tactic is evident, just look at AOL wepages and see that it would be very difficult to just contact AOL... Maybe an action from the US gvt. would help'

I had a similar experience. Tried to cancel because I got a DSL. Their rep said he would give me another six months free service and verified this by an e mail which I saved. After the first month I was billed, so I called to complain. AOL denied that I was given the free service and would not acknowledge the e mail, so I tried to cancel. That took about one half hour of my insisting but finally they said they would cancel, however they would not remove the one month fee. I called American Express to complain. They said they could not adjust because AOL refused. Amer Exp finally gave me a courtesy credit based on the e mail from AOL.

I had the "honor" (a term I will use loosely) of dealing with a similar situation with AOL about three years ago. When my parents passed away, as executor of their estates I had the pleasure of calling credit card companies and other services, including AOL, to close out their accounts. The AOL rep at first tried to talk me into reconsiderating not cancelling the account. Knowing in advance AOL's reputation for persistance in keeping accounts at all costs, and being emotionally and physically overwhelmed with dealing with my parents' passing and dealing with the aftermath, I cut to the chase and informed the rep that the account needed to be cancelled because the account-holders had passed away. The rep actually asked me, "Are you sure you want the account cancelled?" Incredulous, I reiterated that the account holders were dead. I think I also added something to the effect of "They won't be needing the account anymore"! I was then asked if I would to keep the account and have it transferred to my name. I told them that my husband and I already have an AOL account, so we wouldn't need a second one. The rep kept insisting that the account could be easliy transferred to my name, and I could have an account just in my name. I told the rep (again) that we already had an account, no I do not want a second account, please just cancel the account, which the rep finally agreed to do. I also asked for written confirmation that the account was cancelled for my estate records. (Wait, this gets better!) Instead of a written confirmation that I had requested,
I received letters from AOL, addressed to my parents' estate, requesting that my (deceased) parents reconsider and reopen their account with AOL. After about the third letter I finally wrote on the letter itself, in bold red letters, "Account holders are deceased!!! Please cancel account!!!" I didn't receive any letters after that.

How about this--I tried to listen to your Url link on AOL website, and they said it cannot be found.

First, I want to say I had a similar experience cancelling my AOL account when I moved to roadrunner, and it seems corporate America has no clue to the long term damage these tactics do to their company. Like many posters have pointed out, when I get treated this way you can be assured I will not be back.

Second, it amazes me that supposed 'Yale educated' posters would write in and support these tactics and imply that spending twenty minutes to cancel something you no longer want is not too much to ask. When will these people realize that the experience you have when cancelling a service is the last impression you have, and when it is painful and frustrating for the consumer it solidifies the chances that they will never come back?

if a customer service rep asks me why I'm leaving, I tell them my wife now works for a competitor and get their service for free. That usually stops them dead in their tracks. This also works for persistent phone co reps when I switch long distance service.

Exactly why I have never, and will never use AOL. Their customer service obviously sucks, their far-too-heavy software package sucks, and I would rather be set on fire and rolled over knives than rely on them for Internet service.

All this is great. I canceled my membership back in January '06 but was confused when I contined to be charged around $25 on my debit card each month. I figured out that it was my daughter's account, however she had followed my instructions to cancel as she went to yahoo. Turns out to have been an active account I did not know about under my daughters name that we had NOT used since 2002! She called three times, I called twice, tried the 'on-line chat' section to cancel and finally faxed in a letter to cancel on 5/7/06. Four weeks later I get a postcard that I did not provide enough information to cancel and I had to call, fax or send another letter. %*#*$&^#*$^*#^$!!!!!
I was finally able to get through on 7/1/2006 and after 20+ minutes (and less information than was in my fax) I was able to cancel. They did recognize that I was trying to cancel but never offered to give any of my money back. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

Your efforts amount to a real public service. In fact, I think Eliot Spitzer should put you on his payroll, because you have gotten as much publicity as he did while prosecuting AOL, and possibly as much affect, and you didn't cost the taxpayers of New York a penny!

But perhaps you wouldn't enjoy working for the government - you may be a bit too reasonable.

Thank you.

This is aol process and all the people follow it. Mine took 45 minutes and I had to ask for a supervisor/manager about 30 times.

i had the exact same experience with AOL. I was practically screaming at the woman to cancel my account.

About four months ago, I started receiving automated AOL collection calls for a woman with a different name. These would come at 2 in the afternoon and 4 in the morning -- over and over again.

As I need my AOL account for business, once a week, I would spend up to an hour waiting to get through to customer service, point out they were calling the wrong person and ask them to verify my account was in good standing (which it was). Each time, the customer service rep said they would block the number.

The calls continued.

It took me four months to work my way up the food chain to finally reach someone who agreed to look at my account. She acknowledged my account was in good standing. When I asked that she check the account of the person they were trying to reach, to take my number out of that record, she refused.

The auto-calls continued.

Last week, I reached a customer service rep in Antigua who promised to block the number. He was nice and I believe he tried to do so, but the calls continued.

I then reached a woman at a different service center. She agreed to take my number out of the non-payer's record.

An hour after that, the auto-calls started again. I finally spent two hours waiting to reach the collections department directly.
After three different reps refused to help me, I was bumped up to a supervisor who finally took my number out of the other person's record.

That was two days ago. I haven't received an auto-call yet, but I'm not counting on it being resolved...

I experienced a MAJOR problem with AOL! I used the trial software and called to cancel when the trial period was over. The told me I would get internet for $14.95 a month, and 1 month free. After all of the pressure…I stayed. They RIPPED ME OFF! (Ignorantly, I hadn’t been paying close attention to my bank statements). Five months later, I realize they have been charging me the $14.95, and an extra $29.95 a month! I looked @ my previous bank statements, and realized they had been charging me this since I set up the service! I for called to figure out why, they told me I had a “5 hour limit plan.” NO ONE TOLD ME ABOUT ANY TIME LIMITS! I WAS USING A DIAL UP CONNECTION! IT TOOK WHAT SEEMED 2 BE 5 HOURS TO LOG ON TO THE INTERNET! They got over $250.00 outa me for basic dial up service. They refused to credit my account, but had the audacity to try to get me to upgrade my service! After a 30 minute conversation, he canceled my account. UNFORTUNATELY, I STILL RECEIVED 2 BILLS AFTER I disconnected my service! They charged my account for another $60, which they claim were for previous internet use overages…they still have me in their winback database…i give everyone representative that calls my horror story…i have to get irrate 4 them 2 get the point…AOL SUCKS!

It is similar to my experince of canceling the AOL account. Only difference is that they insisted that I continue to have 3 months of free of service and then cancel it if I did not like it at the end of the three months. They did not allow me to cancel it right away. After three months, I had the credit card charge again, because I forgot to call them again. It seems that the customer service reps get a bonus everytime they successfully turn down a cacel request.

I tried to cancel my AOL account because they raised my monthly bill to $25.0 a month. Then after my call they lowered my monthly bill to $9.00 a month, so I kept it and I am glad I did

Thank you for bringing this excellent by unfortunate experience to light. This company is not far from many others with regard to their service and policies. I never used AOL even when they gave me a free trial. I simply had enough of their crap with their Executives making millions on stock options at the heingt of the internet boom.

Who do you think is missing from all this?. They are the corrupt people we elect to legislate and govern. SOme call them Congresmen and some Senators. They in turn approve even more corrupt people in various arms of the Govermnment like the FCC. Remember, these are the people who take donations from companies for their election campigns and then frame legislation to favor the every companies that harbor them. Don't be surprised when you see your bills being hiked every year.

I remember cancelling, but it was clear to me that the rep had to read the script. At the end of it I just said, "I still want to cancel the account."

It took all of five minutes. Maybe I got lucky, but most likely it went quickly because I didn't choose to make a big deal out of it. I had the rep on speakerphone continued opening mail and paying bills.

Really not a big deal folks.

I send AOL a letter when I cancelled my account. It did take me some time to find the address -- I couldn't find it via AOL proper and had to search for it online -- but the written cancellation was handled swiftly.

The main reason I chose to cancel in writing was because I was already familiar with the nightmare that most others had gone thru. This was 3 years ago. Seems not much has changed.

Kudos to Vincent! Had a similar experience several years ago, it took many months to finally break free. We were intentionally super polite with the rep because we didn't want to experience computer problems afterwards like some people we know. This is the way to expose this stuff. Right on!

I tried to cancel my Dad-in-law's AOHell service before residential broadband existed and a 33.6 modem was beand new tech. Local ISP's had jsut opened up and I got him an unlimited acct. for $20/mo. AOL charged by the hour. A couple months go by and he gets a gib charge on his credit card. We call and he's still connected. I had uninstalled all the software months ago and they still said he was using it. Lies. After a long time on the phone for about the 4th time trying to cancel, I asked for all their information and stated we were going to contact boht out state's AG and out lawyer to sue. Finally, they lemented and actually cancelled the account and deducted the false charges. Folks, this was in about 1996. A decade later nothing has changed. Will it ever with this "company?"

I was expecting to relive some of the horror I went through, but that was MILD in comparison. It took me over an hour to cancel. I had to call 5 times because the first 4 times they disconnected me while "transferring" my call. So I'd call back and explain what happened and of course they were "very sorry" and then I'd have to go through all the same questions and then it would happen again! I have never felt so infuriated by anything. Except maybe netzero--they've got the same scam.

When I cancelled my AOL account, they also kept me on the phone about 15 or 20 minutes. I just kept saying no, please cancel the service. I'm guessing they've figured out if they can't convince someone to stay after 20 minutes, it's not going to happen.
Also, Prestige Camera is running a scam online. You order a camera from them, then they require you to call to "verify your order" before they can ship. However, the call to "verify the order" is really a hard sell on accessories for the camera. Finally the guy said he would just ship my camera. Low and behold, he called me again the next day, left a msg on my answering maching, acting as if he never spoke to me and still needed me to "verify my order!" I emailed the co. to cancel the order and they responded I must "call to verify the order!" I finally stopped calling and after two weeks they finally shipped my camera.
I ran into another one when I chose one of those pharmacies that pops up on the Google page. The pharmacy advertised "no prescription needed." Once I ordered, they demanded my prescription before shipping. When I attempting to cancel my order, they charged my credit card a $20 cancellation fee!
Beware of internet co.'s selling stuff, especially the ones that pop up on Google.

In the above alot was spelled wrong. Some words like find, should be fine, and time should be two years. Anyways i'll fix it. Later since this box isn't really big enough for editing.

Nice job, Vincent! I hope someone in the near future comes to your employement gives you a hard time about doing your job and than gets you fired! You were rude and inappropriate! I am absolutely infuriated by this call. Learn some manners and stop talking over people and interrupting other human beings! Yes, just because this occured over the phone it does not give you the right to use abusive language with anyone. And for someone who claims he is over 30 years old and sees no need to speak to his “dad” you sure do have alot of maturing to do. Grow up and you owe this AOL representative a HUGE apology.

No he doesn't. I just called to cancel an AOL account. I should first say I don't even have an AOL account. Anyways just talking to someone takes over 20 minutes. - he was pretty direct. "I'd like to cancel my AOL account." This should not take more then 1-2 minutes.

Selling should not be part of canceling. Sure if AOL would like a reason for the cancelation thats find. reason why you are canceling your account. If they planned on using that to help fix the product thats fine.

Just like world of warcraft when you cancel it asks for a reason and thats fine. Although unlike aol you can cancel online in your account page and select a reason from the drop down menu.

AOL needs to add some online cancelation method. This is an internet program. Why do we have to call.

Marie he did listen, learn to listen yourself and you'd realize that he simply stated he heard this speach before. I'm all for listening not times. It's like when you go to best buy and they try to sell the magazines. I shop at Best Buy alot i'm a good customer, and still everytime I keep having to hear "With today purchase you recieve 8 issues of any of these magazines." Well you know what I've heard that over 150 times. Just in the past two times, thats how often I go to Best Buy. Yes interupting is rude. Then again if it's the only way to get someone to stop repeating themselves. Well then maybe they should stop talking.

Wow, this exact thing happened to me a few years ago. I had AOLs high speed access through our local cable carrier. I was paying $43 a month and started to become more and more pissed at AOLs software, what a pain in the ass. So earthlink sends me a deal for $10 cheaper using the same line. I get hooked up with earthlink and notice immediately that my internet is hauling ass! I check AOLs bandwidth and then earthlinks and sure enough earthlink was twice as fast. Of course I assume it was all the CRAP that AOL puts in there software that was slowing me down. Anyway, I call AOL to cancel and I was nice as can be, just told the guy please cancel. He asks why, I tell him that I don't like their software, am tired of all the strange little quirks that make it difficult on the internet and that earthlink is twice as fast. Of course he tells me no no no, it's not us and thats not possible about the difference in speed. So I actually ran a test with him on the line and told him the results. At this point, he is harrassing me. Telling me my computer is going to crash if I don't stay and how sorry I will be. I admit I get frustrated after about 5 to 10 minutes and start the whole "just cancel" thing. HE ACTUALLY HANGS UP ON ME!! I was astonished and a little amused. Anyway, I call right back and it was easy to cancel. They must note if you have called before and then let the cancel go through on the second try. That's my story. Now, if AOL somehow miraculously came up with a product that looked attractive enough to switch to, I NEVER WOULD IN A MILLION years. How can a company be so stupid? Anyone overseeing that area of the company needs to be fired.

Make sure you're reading it from this link, not the duggmirror one...

http://insignificantthoughts.com/2006/06/13/cancelling-aol

David Pogue posted a link to your web site mentioning this scandal, but your MP3 appears down. Perhaps you could publish an update letting the world know what happened to it?

Sure fire way to cancel AOL account.
1- Look at your credit card account and make sure you know which one they charge for your monthly bill.
2- Call your credit card compamy and tell them you lost your card. Your credit card company will no longer allow charges against the old account and send you a new card and transfer your old charges to the new card. AOL cannot charge your account for their services any more.
Call them and tell them you want your account cancelled, your conversation is being recorded and that your credit card account will no longer accept their charges. If they bust your chops just hang up on them.
3- AOL will write you and tell you that your credit card is no longer valid and will ask you for a new credit card number. Write them back and tell them to cancel your account.

Okay so I canceled the aol account back in March. First I had tried to cancel around Oct. and was told it would be best to keep the account till March since it's paid for in advance and it wouldn't be worthwhile to cancel then because it would cost the same and I wouldn't be able to use the service (or at least this is what I thought he was trying to say). I was like I just want it canceled and he said he could have it canceled in March without me having to call back, so I was like FINE.

Needless to say I didn't trust that it would really be canceled, so I called again in March and was told it wasn't canceled, but they would cancel it. My mother then received her credit card bill with the yearly aol charge on it (early to boot-on her bill for Feb when the account wasn't even due until March). I told her NOT to pay it, so she called the CC and told them to stop payment. Now I called again and canceled. Now the rep told me if I wanted to keep the same email account I had to sign it within 3 days of canceling and sign up for the free aim account which would directly forward my old aol email for free. (Ha apparently this is the catch that UNCANCELS it)

So I no longer have aol servcice on my computer and can't use many of the aol features. I have aim which is supposed to be free.

But them mom gets two letters from aol saying they are sending her bill to collections. WTF!!!!! What bill?! My service was canceled. It use to be that I could not log on through aol only aim, but now I can because the mail says aol and aim mail. Yet when I do sign on to aim there is a join aol icon. So lame. Mom calls aol and tells them we canceled months ago. The rep says sorry I can't do anything its already been sent to collections!!! Great so now what? Fu@k up her credit because aol is a bunch of crooks.

I don't know what to do. I have been web surfing and found out what I should have done. Such as not logging back onto aol since apparently that reverses your cancellation, send your cancellation in witting which they have to sign for it. God I hope I can find all of the information from when I canceled, but probably not. They purposely let you think that your account is closed and then like a dumb ass you get rid of the confirmation numbers, reps and time and dates.

Debbie, eat my ass, you aol worker.

this guy did nothing wrong. all he did was record the call.

why dont you go back to aol, you useless sack of crap.

I am a former TWC'er and can tell you first hand, that is buisness as usual. I kinda feel bad for that CSR. He was nothing more than PR fodder and was doing exactly what they instructed him to do. They wouldn't even let us tier 3 agents touch cancelation calls cause we didn't go for the high pressure retention crap. I say I'm a former Time Warner employee. After 5 years of solid service they canned me for drawing and publishing a comic (the website above). They weren't happy that part of my comic touched on my job.

First, I feel your pain with the call. There was no reason for the fiasco the AOL rep turned it into.

Second, to all the folks who are stating "he's just doing his job", "he has no choice, it's what he's being paid to do", etc, let me just say I have been in customer service for YEARS and if any of my reps spoke to a customer like this rep did, he would be fired in a heartbeat. There is no reason for his tone of voice or bulldogged atempt to out talk the customer (note not talk the customer out of ...) regarding cancelling the account. the customer gave a reason, the rep made an attempt to convert the customer, it failed, he should have left it there and continued with thte cancellation. As far as not having a choice, we all have a choice when it comes to deciding to do what is right or what is unethical.

Third, am I the only one who noticed (haven't read through the deluge of comments entirely, so I'm not sure) that the rep changed the amount of usage he was "seeing" not once but twice? It started as "71 hours since the 24th of last month". It then turned to "the account was signed into on June 2nd with 71 hours of use". Finally it turned into "545 hours last year ... last month". OK, last month would be May, 31 days or 744 hours. For the account to have logged 545 hours of use during May, it would have needed to be logged in for almost 23 of 31 days. Continuously. Or maybe it was logged on for about 17.5 hours per day each day for the entire month. Either way seems unlikely.

This aspect of the call makes me firmly believe the rep was full of crap. Perhaps his numbers were down and he needed to bring them up, perhaps he was having a bad day in general, perhaps he jsut didn't like the customer's accent. Bottom line is this: none of that matters. A customer service rep should leave all their baggage off the phone call. Contrary to what one of the other posters had claimed, it is rep's job to try and defuse the call if it escalates. This is how you retain customers. you listen to their complaints, you acknowledge their problems, you try to find a solution and you suggest options. If the only option a customer wants is cancellation, you give it to them. Without a major hassle.

On the flip side, for those of you out there who like to say "I don't want any upsell", "don't give me the spiel", etc, please know that many times, the closing spiel is required. If you get to the closing spiel (typically a 'special offer for valued customers'), just sit back and listen for 20-40 seconds and know your call is almost done. If you really don't want to deal with the company any further, consider it nothing more than the death squeal of the company.

And lastly (I know I have rambled here, sorry about that), for folks on both side of the phone, the best thing you can do is keep your cool. If you are a customer, please do remember that the people on the other end of the phone are just hard working folks and the vast majority of them are decent individuals who really are not making much more than a living wage. And if you are a customer who has had repeated problems with a company, the line I have found that works best with reps is to say, in a calm and pleasant tone, "Please put a manager on the phone. You are not getting paid nearly enough for the amount of s^!t I'm about to start handing out."

I had AOL for several years and was moving to an area that it would not work, so I tried to Cancel the account and was told I could have 6 months FREE, I tried and tried to explain that it would not work where I was moving, finally I gave up and moved, I was only there for 3 months and moved back, I tried to cancel the account again, and was told the same thing, 6 months FREE. I have a son that did not know it was cancelled and he did use it a little. But I was told it was FREE anyway. Well, about 3 months later, I got a notice that AOL had turned me over to a collection agency for the back money! I was SO mad and I still am after 4 years. I paid it so it would not hurt my credit, but I would NEVER recommend AOL to anyone!
They are impossible to deal with!!!!! To them NO doesn't mean NO!!!

AOL cancellation policies defy any reasonably company's "customer service" (or as I chose to call it, "customer dis-service"). I will have to cancel my account just to put their customer dis-service reps through my own level of hell. I only hope (for AOL's survival) that they don't need back any of the many long time members who have cancelled. Solution: Simply report, as stolen, the credit card that your account is billed to - that is much easier. Your credit card company will issue you a new card with a different account number. And never, never, never allow ANY company access to your checking account !!

NetZero:

I cancelled my account 2 weeks ago. At that time, your rep never mentioned that my account still exists 'as a free account' and I assumed that people emailing me would get the emails returned to them.

Today I find out that my basic assumption is wrong and that the account still exists.

As you know, AOL was recently in the national news for making it hard for people to cancel their accounts. I suggest you change your policy asap if you do not want a similiar white hot spotlight shone upon NetZero.

Joseph Nerenberg

Oh, Do I have a GOOD one. I've had AOL for years. High speed was costing me about $54.00 per month. Time Warner cable installed my high speed modem, and I paid AOL. I called an AOL rep to inquire about lower pricing plans. this was in September, 2005. AOL suggested that I use Time Warner cable's Road Runner with AOL. I declined. AOL then cancelled my account, and stated I could not keep my current package, because they no longer offered that anymore. Pretty much, it was flushed and couldn't be restored. I was IRATE, to say the least. On September 12, 2005 I enrolled with Time Warner cable for a SPECIAL. This special was Road Runner with unlimited AOL. This special package was for the low price of about $30.00 per month for six months. AOL would no longer bill me, I would pay Time Warner Cable for everything. This promotion was to last for six months. After the six months, the fee would be $44.95. Well, I was saving about $10.00 and could pay my bill locally. This was great!! NOT!!! Just about six months to the day that the special package price was to expire, my account with AOL was restricted. I was "unbundled" and they sent me an E-mail stating that now I was going to have to pay AOL $25.90 per month, then pay Time Warner cable the fee for providing my high speed. My AOL was shut off, and my bill was paid. I said, OH NO YOU DON'T, my bill is paid to Time Warner Cable, and my bill is current. You see, after my promotion period of six months was over, this "special" package was no longer offered. They were pretty much "booting" me. I went to my local Time Warner cable office--go figure, couldn't get any help. Referred me to customer service, you know one of the 1-800 numbers. I said, oh no. I'm not speaking to someone, somewhere in the United States about my account. I'm handling it here, locally where I pay my bill, after all YOU ARE ONE COMPANY, AREN'T YOU. After much frustration, a Time Warner cable employee from Western Ohio area worked several days to straighten out this mess. I kept my AOL "bundled" and continued to pay Time Warner cable $44.95 per month. Now, here I am, exactly THREE months into having this straightened out and AOL sent me another E-mail stating if I didn't update my billing method by June 23, 2006 my account would be restricted, CUT OFF. MY BILL IS PAID, again, I called, said I pay Time Warner Cable. I was pissed. I called Time Warner Cable, Western Ohio, and the rep was very nice. We were on the phone with AOL for at least 45 minutes while Time Warner Cable tried to once again, explain to AOL that I am not to pay them. AOL is trying to say this mail was SPAM. No it is NOT. I have kept my correspondence from them and it is all dated. They said it was SPAM when I stated I was contacting the Federal Trade Commission. This is purely fraud out of AOL. Now this e-mail was not SPAM, it clearly told me to go to KEYWORD Billing, click on MY ACCOUNT, and CHANGE MY PAYMENT METHOD. Get it, the key word is CHANGE. If I had CHANGED my billing method as I was being instructed by AOL to do, my package of $44.95 would have been flushed as well. That my friend, is not SPAM, it is how you check your billing statement on AOL. This is clearly FRADULANT activity out of AOL. It is an attempt to strip me of my package. Consumer rape. As I sit here this evening, I just know my account is going to be restricted very soon. My bill is current with Time Warner Cable. When this happens, note I said When, I'm going to raise ten different kinds of hell for sure. Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks for letting me sound off. This is a true story, and I can provide the documentation. AOL, they must have an acronym for those initials, America's Office Of Lynching.

Sincerly,
Kimberly Kelly-White

Nice job, Vincent! I hope someone in the near future comes to your employement gives you a hard time about doing your job and than gets you fired! You were rude and inappropriate! I am absolutely infuriated by this call. Learn some manners and stop talking over people and interrupting other human beings! Yes, just because this occured over the phone it does not give you the right to use abusive language with anyone. And for someone who claims he is over 30 years old and sees no need to speak to his "dad" you sure do have alot of maturing to do. Grow up and you owe this AOL representative a HUGE apology.

GREAT WORK!!!
I didn't have time to read all 897 comments but just wanted to add that when i tried cancelling they actually had the balls to tell me I needed to send them a letter in writing to cancel. In the age of computers and they are a computer generator and they want snail mail...

YOU GO GUY!!!!!

I can do you all one better and folks who sign up to aol thru their checking account better beware. Several years ago, I bought my first computer. aol was part of the package so I thought I'd try them, and it would be another 6 months before cable was ready in our neighborhood. I set up the software and called customer service as instructed and they opened my account. I was told I had 145 hrs free before they started charging my account 14.95 per month, this was on a Tuesday. Wednesday my classes ran long and I didn't get home til after 8 p.m. and didn't feel like getting on the computer. Thursday I didn't have class so I fired up the computer to check out the internet. But all I saw on my screen is my account had been disabled and to call customer service. When I called them they advised me that my check had bounced. I couldn't understand how a check that was not going to be submitted until I had used my 145 hours had bounced because the only time I used the account was to set it up, possibly a total of 45 minutes! Needless to say, they couldn't explain it either. After speaking with several reps and 2 supervisors, I told them to cancel the account and I would never use aol again. I have kept that promise.

Just heard your tape about cancelling aol. I know how it feels. I went through the same thing with a t-mobile cell phone account. I didn't remain as calm and polite as you. It ended up with me yelling insults at him and telling him to cancel the f-ing account already. Do they realise that people tell others about how they were treated and they lose future business that way?

I read on Lifehacker that this works pretty well for cellular. I've never tried it myself so I can't tell you one way or the other, but it's worth a look for the price.

how do I record a conversation on my Cell phone.
the machines that work for line line don't work on cell phones

Trying to cancel my AOL account was truly one of the worst experiences I have ever had. Because of it, I have spread the news far and wide (to anyone that will listen) that AOL is such bad news!

Why would an organization train their staff to act that that? All they do is build a horrific reputation and no one in their right mind would ever return to the service...no matter what.

The customer service guy was just doing his job.It was obvious that you had an attitude to begin with.WHY??Did he threaten you to keep that account for that long,and not cancel it?...NO!Blame that bu*ls*it "we gotta keep em'all,take NO for an answer"practice on the higher-ups.

Hey, I saw this on CNN here in South Africa, wow, you kept your cool in the conversation. It's quite funny, lol. how many times did you cancel the account?

Definitely check your future credit card statements and make sure they aren't still billing you - I cancelled my seldom-used AOL account years ago, and then noticed I was still being billed for it. I called them up and gave them the confirmation number the rep had given me when I first 'cancelled' - what a shock, they had no record of that cancellation, or the confirmation number. How convenient - for them!

:?:

So, does anyone know if a Class Action lawsuit against AOL is in the works?

Wow! My experience cancelling my AOL account wasn't quite THAT bad, but I did have to finally call back (so I could talk to a different person) and tell them that I had to sell my computer to pay a bill, so there was no reason for me to have the account. They still tried to get me to keep it. Do the employees get fired if they let someone cancel their account or what??

If anyone's organizing a class-action lawsuit against AOL, COUNT ME IN! Potential charges are

- fraud/mail fraud (it went over a wire - right?)
- harassment
- Being lying sacks of horse cr**

Seriously, there's got to be some crusading lawyers out there looking to do a good deed.

It takes someone who's been through this experience to understand the reactions bere (everyone else probably doesn't understand)

8O
Wow! I just saw on TV the story about your ordeal cancelling AOL. All I can say is what HYPOCRITES they are!! I had the same thing happen about a year or so ago. I had kept a limited hour account for when I was away from home and needed access, but I had stopped using it. I spent about 30 minutes with the rep, getting more and more angry as time went on when my request for cancellation was questioned over and over. Finally, I did get it cancelled, but it is bull to hear them say that they do not instruct those reps to keep customers at whatever cost. I'm sure many people just give up and hang up and woops, you are still a customer. Thanks for recording yours and thus having a record to make a point to them.

You are the most retarded person in the world. Firstly, you signed up for AOL. Secondly, you're too stupid to stop paying the bill. By cutting their income source, they would no longer provide you a service, thus concluding your problem.

You are a Grade-A dipshit.

Wow, your recording is so similar to the experience I had the first time I called to canceled my AOL account. You were more patient than I was. I felt like I was talking to the Wicked Witch of the West and yelled at her to cancel my account. I finally got so angry I hung up.

I knew it wasn't canceled so I called again and got someone else. Before the person said anything, I told him in a very firm voice that I did not want any questions and to just cancel my account. He said ok, and it was canceled within a couple of minutes.

I guess it depends on who you get and how firm your voice is.

AOL scares me. I wouldn't get sucked into them anymore if my life depended on it.

AOL is a thief. They steal revenues from subscribers. I had a similar experience. If it is a subscription service and you cancel then why are their strategies designed to prevent you from accomplishing what you want? They are theives; plain and simple.

Oh my! just went back to read some of the thread. (I came on this through an podcast from KFI radio on the story) Geez! No time to read it all but a few comments. It seems like the Pro-Vinnys are way ahead..for a good reason.
For some of you who criticized: Jim, you know, it really does not matter why they guy chose to cancel, he has the right to cancel at any time and does NOT have to justify it...or have the rep question his request. Whatever his father may or may not have done is moot, it was HIS account...and the word is "hearsay" not "heresay"...and does not apply in this situation anyway.
For you staunch supporters of laws pertaining to taped conversations: If you are going to comment along this line then at least educate yourselves on the particulars of the laws and not just some tiny excerpt. It is not a blanket law. The laws pertaining to taped conversations and the number of parties who require notification vary from state to state, some states do not require that both parties be advised. Depending on the state and the situation taping MAY be perfectly legal without notification. This includes situations where training may be in place, for reasons other than evidence in a court proceeding, and often in the course of business...such as a CS experience with AOL. The Privacy act is meant to keep people's private utterances over the phone from being used against them. Generally the conversations between an employee in the course of business and a customer is not considered private with regard to the employee's side of the conversation. Essentially, the employee had no expectation of privacy.He was at work, everything he does while at work should be a matter of record. Regardless, Aol had admitted fault and therefore accepted validation of the act. I doubt if there are any worries about you getting sued in this particular instance.

I may have you beat. It took me almost 5 MONTHS to cancel my AOHELL account about 3 years ago. One day a package came from AOL "shopping" with a digital camera inside. I called, told them I had not ordered it and sent it back. My account was credited. A few weeks later another camera arrived. I called again, told them to NEVER charge ANY "shopping" items to my account and sent it back. My account was credited. The next month another camera (all three were different prices too) was charged to my account, but I did not receive the third camera. I called again, insisted they remove the charge and asked for my entire account to be cancelled. I did get some flak and sales pitch trying to keep me from cancelling, but in the end the rep agreed to cancel my account. The next month, however, I was charged for the service. I called, explained I had cancelled , went through all the motions again and was assured my account was cancelled. You guessed it , I was charged again for a second month after cancelling twice. Lather, rinse repeat all actions a third time. This went on for 5 months. In the last two months I augmented my phone calles with countless letters faxed, mailed and emailed to customer service directly and through PlanetFeedback NUMEROUS times. In the end, I finally had to resort to cancelling the credit card that the account was being billed to in order to solve the problem!

Kudos for posting this for us all to hear. I never had AOL, but my mom did, and I talked her into changing to a local provider that I was using because AOL's software tactics made me nervous and the windows interface was confusing. She didn't like the idea but did switch; I recall that she did agree to one extra month, and I told her to be firm with them or she would be stuck forever. She did eventually get off AOL and they did not charge her additionally, fortunately.

I wanted to add my two cents that I had a similar experience to Vince's with DirectTV. I was actually bailing out of a one-year contract, and they did the same thing with condecending voice (Why would you want to quit? she asked. Lousy HD programming, I said shortly.) I gave short answers, indicated that I would listen to her stupid paragraph with barely concealed contempt, and basically had to use her own tactics by talking to her like she was the stupid one. When she indicated that I was still going to be charged $10 per month for the months I was going out on the contract, I said, "You're going to charge me $60 for nothing? Okay, knock yourself out." I fully expected to see that on my card statement, but I have never received a charge for that. So beware of DirectTV too, folks, and good luck.

you were not nasty, you did good, I had to scream when they would not drop me, seriously, SCREAM, they heard me two flights up and two flights down at my building.

AOL and Discover card ruined a week for me once.

M

After several times of AOL not cancelling when I asked, I finally cancelled the credit card it was billed to. This was after I discovered I was charged $5/month for over a year on an extra little "free trial" service (AOL phone-something) that I cancelled BEFORE the trial time was up, but they charged me anyway, although I never should have been. I didn't realize it until one day checking the fine print on my CC statement.

Needless to say, I'll never go back.

great

Yeah! I like it!

I had the same problem. I tried to close an account I had for less than a week. It took me 25 minutes and 4 requests to speak with his supervisor. I must have spoken with the same guy. He was a real jerk.

I signed up for AOL during a trial before they could charge my credit card. I had trouble with what sounded like a middle eastern customer rep. Hey tried his best with the sale angle but to no avail. After I went on with him for 10 minutes he gave me his opinion, "You shouldn't be signing up for AOL then decide to cancel!" I was surprised at his comment. But now that I heard Vinny's recording it all makes sense now. These AOL customer reps are the left overs of the TeleMarketers Industry Era. AOL brought them back into an ISP service that sucks big donkey d_ck!!! AOL S_CKS!!!

I had the SAME experience with AOL 3 years ago. The reps name was Russel.(I'll never forget it!) He kept trying to sell me on some broadband crap when I already had switched to my local cable company for net access.
After a good 5 mins on the phone with Russel, I finally hung up on him! Called back and got another rep who politely apologized for Russel and promptly cancelled my account in less than 2 mins. It's a shame that I only remember Russel's name and not the kind man who finally complied with my request.

:twisted: This is nothing; I spent at least 40 minutes on the phone with AOL when I tried to cancel. They had this pitch that AOL was going to give me the next two months of service for free, I knew it was a bait. When I asked if the service would cancel after the two months I was told no...I would have to call in and re-cancel. Needless to say I told the guy no way...AOL is going downhill fast and they know it. I guess the exes there are a little pissed that their stock is not going to be worth the paper it is printed on in a few years unless make some major changes.

I saw this on the news this morning and literally jumped up and down screaming "it's about time!". I've experienced the SAME problem trying to cancel my service. I was on the phone for about 30 minutes saying "just cancel it, just cancel it". Kudos to you for what you did!

We weren't using our AOL service since last November. We weren't using the account, not logging in since we switched the entire house over to MSN (A much better service by the way). Ok, I thought it was done and over with. So lo and behold.. in April of this year (2006) we get a yellow notice in the mail to "update your billing information." Ok.. I was kind of confused as to why we would have gotten it and thought nothing about it. Now, since the account was in my fiance's name, but the account credit card was from his father and paying for it, he ended up getting a 75$ overage charge from AOL. Wait a minute, didn't they just tell us that they have to have updating billing information? So naturally Dad was pissed, and I mean really bleeping hot. Why where they billing us... So he called them, and they gave him the line of "Oh but we have no canelation requests." Ok, so he puts in a new one. No big deal. 2 bleeping weeks later, we got a letter saying "we appricate your call to continue our service.." You have to be bleeping joking. So it took both dad, and my fiance and myself threatening a class action lawsuit against them to cancel our account. The incompetency at AOL customer service is outragious.

AMEN ! Someone finally got their AOL account to stop. I have been trying for two months. :roll:

I work for MBNA credit card company and the most billing dispute calls we get from our customers are about AOL. We even had to set up a special AOL billing dispute task force in the spring of '05 to handle all of the calls we receive. Basicalliy AOL would tell customers that the account was cancelled but would continue to bill them for months and even years. When the customer would call AOL they'd be told something to the effect of "we have no record of you ever having cancelled this account".
It got to the point that when a customer called me to dispute a charge on thier credit card statement I would say "lemme guess, AOL?". We would even refund the customers money ourselves in some instances. This was not our olicy but we chalked it up to special circumstances.
As far as the AOL rep who "helped" Vincent is concerned, if it is anything like the cancellation department at a credit card company, then it is very high preassure. The representatives probably have to save 75% of the accounts. Which means that thier job is to make sure that the customer ends up with the exact opposite of what they requested three quarters of the time. They probably answer up to 100 calls a day. If they fail to save 75% of the accounts in a given month. First warning. Second month, probation. Third month, fired.
Somebody should make a Boiler Room type movie about a ficticious telecom or financial corporations insane practices.

I heard about this on CNN, I just had to come check it out myself. Congrats on recording it. A long time ago when I tried to cancel my account I got a women who barely (thats being polite) spoke English. She kept repeating to me how I was breaking the law because I didn't follow the terms of service. Umm, I used it say, 5 times, didn't like it. I used a free trial, and I canceled before my trial period was up. I didn't send spam or misuse the account in any way. All I did was schoolwork - all I ever did on the computer. How was I breaking the law? She even told me that AOL was going to come get me. Ha! I'm not in jail.

Oh great leader who was unveiled the stank corruption of AOL! All hail to thee! :D
We bow down before you! Lead us! Lead us!

I too had a bad experience trying to get rid of AOL. I finally canceled the credit card so that they couldn't bill me anymore. This lead to repeated phone calls from India, errrr I mean America Online Reps trying to get a new credit card number. Each time I told them I had canceled the account, and had no intention of paying for something I did not want. I told them to put me on the do not call list. Of course they still kept calling anyway. When I finally got so fed up I threatened to sue them for harassment and demanded to speak to a supervisor the IOL, oops AOL rep hung up on me and turned the account over to a collection agency. I have had to dispute the whole thing on my credit reports, un-freaking-believable!

BTW, for those wondering if you're legally allowed to record phone calls with call centers (like Vincent did), the answer is almost always YES. That little ubiqitous disclaimer used in ALL customer service calls - "This call may be recorded for quality purposes." - works both ways. They can record you, and YOU can record THEM. A few years back, there was a court case involving - you guessed it - AOL. Someone recorded the AOL service rep, distributed the recording, and naturally, AOL sued, trying to stop the distribution. The court concluded that the little "quality purposes" disclaimer is a two-way street.
Also, if you want to be an ass, you can request that your call is NOT recorded. This usually won't do anything other than confuse the flunkey working at the call center. But it is the law. If the call center records you against your will, they have broken the law.
Now, as far as the government's "do not call registry", that is a joke. There are more ways around that registry than one could imagine. For example, AOL, along with any subsidiary of AOL (which is at least 100 different companies), can now contact Vincent for up to one year, even if his name and number is on the "do not call" list, because Vincent has initiated a "business relationship" with AOL (and its subsidiaries). This is only one exemption of about fifty.
Yes, I am a lawyer. Yes, I work for a telecom comany. Yes, I am an idiot.

Dear Vincent,

Kudos on exposing what hundreds of thousands have endured in just trying to break free of AOL! Brilliant move on your part in exposing them.....WAY WAY overdue. But don't think for one moment that their cancellation is the ONLY unscruptulous part of the company.

There is so much more you, and others should know about AOL. I was in contract w/them a few years ago...what a joke. I completely met all obligations detailed in their contract but THEY didn't. (A major non performance issue on their part -- feel free to contact me privately for details.) When they offered to renew my contract, my attorney asked them what made them think I would renew if they didn't perform under the first contract period??! Then came the amazing part: they actually acknowledged their non performance!!! then stated I should feel free to file suit against them in Vienna, VA, BUT they knew I was a small company and that they could break me on continuances, legal fees, etc) so to go right ahead. Of course they were right, I couldn't fight the beast, I took a major financial hit...a meager amount to them, massive to me.

I'll be trying to dig out of the debt for many more years, maybe for the rest of my life. It's only recently I can even speak about it without getting sick to my stomach.

Before that nightmare, I worked in their Tech Support...I could write a book about that experience as well.

Anyway, thank you for exposing the tip of a VERY large iceberg. If the public only knew...

Bless you, Vincent.

B.

Just wanted to post a quick comment after catching Vincent this morning on the news... I've never really dealt with AOL, but I have worked customer service. Yeah yeah...we don't have souls, we all drink blood, worship the god of bland and evil, and we all have a choice of spectacular jobs and just choose to work in hell...all that jazz.

One thing I do know, is that no matter how long you are on hold, or how frustrated you are with whatever service you are or are not receiving...the worst thing that you can do when you finally get someone on the phone, is get pissy with them. Customer service reps are drones/worker bees, they sit in little tiny cubicles all day every day, wearing business-casual, getting yelled at by their bosses for not following scripts word for word and having call handle times of -30 seconds, and at the same time getting yelled at by customers for working for crappy companies. A lot of people in this under-educated society have little other choice than to work at some sort of customer sevice--which is especially tough if they are trying to gain higher education, or support a family.

It's easy to lambast the first person you get to, I understand that. What most people don't understand is that even though the lowly-knuckle-dragging-nose-picking CS reps have a script to follow and have shit that they need to do on whatever sort of call, they will do whatever they can for someone who is being nice to them. The opposite is also true of course. If you are a bastard, if you don't catch the rep on a good day, watch out. "Oh what was that? What kind of an idiot am I? I see..here you go..an extra 30$ a month program. Didn't want that? What was that I'm a bitch...road side assistance here you go! Transfer you to 30 departments that can't help you...there you go...talk to you later, have a nice day." You as the customer are ultimately at the Customer Service Reps mercy. Your CS rep has your phone number, your account number, your social security number, your address, your birthdate, and more often than not, your credit card number. (Think a moment on the serious gravity of someone-- especially someone you are yelling at and creating an enemy of-- having all of that information at their little human fingertips.--you sure are taking a gamble on their integrity) Don't piss off your barber, your chef, or your customer service rep.

CS people are just people. You don't have a good day every day do you? Can you be expected to smile into a phone and titter and jabber at every old lady who wants to tell you about her 30th cat, angina, and sagging breasts? Grin like an idiot at every creep blaming you for all the evils of society or hitting on you with every sleezy slimey line in the book?

There needs to be more understanding on both sides. If you want to yell at someone, ask for a supervisor (at least they are paid for it), but understand if the CS rep has to ask you why you want to talk to a supervisor before passing you along.

Can't we all be friends?
Can't we all just get along? *Sob*

Check this site out.. I put it in table what AOL claims and the fact about their broadband connection.
http://www.cybamall.com/aohellsucks/

Wow... I just heard parts of the tape on the news and decided to look this up... makes me not look forward to cancelling my aol account in the coming weeks...

How exactly did you record this? I'd like to know, because I'm being ethnically profiled by DishTV (a satellite TV company). They call from overseas, apparently thus escaping the do-not-call registry (I don't know for sure - not a lawyer).

I have been trying to cancel aol since November of 05. They continued to charge my credit card because the account was "activated by someone" in my house by using aol software two days later. Apparently if you use aim with the same screen name it can reactivate your account. After several minutes (10) on the phone I get a nice gentleman from India who informs me that in order for him to pay me back for the charges since Dec. 05, he needs my bank account info, or another card. They do not mail checks. Funny...I used to pay with checks. It also is required to send copies of my credit card statements to them in order for them to verify they billed me...even though he quoted me of how much they billed and how much they owe me and his readiness to electronically send the money! Now I would be an imbicile to send or give any bank info...all I need is AOL accessing my accounts. I am going to try a $5.00 Walmart card and see what happens. AOL is a scam, next step is getting rid of my aim mail account.

hey George W. Bush,

hehe...and I was just thinking to myself...I hope this gets out on ALL the internets....

It's funny that this guy is getting so much press from one (what I sadly would consider a short) phone call. My experience with AOL was much longer and much uglier. There is no point in retelling the details as others have said it so much better; anyway if I start thinking about it again I'll want to put my fist through my monitor (my poor fingers!)

AOL Sucks and is just a very shady company. I've had similar terrible experiences with Comcast and Dell.

When I heard your tape, the conversation sounded JUST LIKE the conversation I had when canceling my Discover card account! Same lines, asked to speak to my husband, wouldn't let me off the phone, wouldn't take no for an answer. These guys must all get the same training. I wrote to Discover and complained. Guess what--no response! Maybe that guy got a new job at aol...

Hi Lucas,

You may have a point on the recording aspect, and maybe customer service reps should expect "rude" customers (I don't feel people have to be rude, but I understand rudeness when they are attacked, harrassed, treated with some of the extreme condescendant attitudes one can receive from some reps).

In the past I've went out of my way to be polite to customer service reps, because most have little power to make any decisions. If I feel myself getting angry, I tell the customer service rep that I'm getting angry and that maybe it's better to put their immediate supervisor on (it has worked about 70% of the time). I will confess that once I received a phone solicitation (random) from some guy with what sounded like a Long Island accent; he was selling stock (this was 1997-98). I told the guy I had no money to invest (I didn't), he went on, I tried to politely disengage from his pitches (I don't think he believed that I didn't have any money to invest), he continued, after a minute or two of his continued pitches and my insistance that I had to me the guy says, "What, are you yankin' my chain, here?" Needless to say, I lost it here, I gave a rousing "F&#% You!!!" and hung up the phone; I felt pretty good about it, actually. Maybe, just maybe, more companies need even more "rude" customers - - - nah, maybe not.

Oh well, such is life.

Jay

:) Funny Stuff. Some people seem to be having a problem with the link. Here is a mirror for your pleasure :)
http://notmyrealdomain.com/mp3/Cancelling_AOL.mp3

I heard the Vicent AOL Cancel.. and I about fell off my treadmil.. it sounded just like the conversation my husband had when he called about a month ago to cancel... It wasn't the same guy.. because the guy he spoke to was from India.

Vincent, I'm glad you recorded you cancelification of AOL. The strategery used by AOL is not good. Jon is possibly an al Qaeda operative. We will torture him until your account is cancelized. AOL does not stand for America. It's only for putting food on your family.
~GW Bush

I could totally feel the frustration building while listening to it..I hear ya Bridget !

I hope this incident makes AOL & other Companies realize that they can't do this to people..way to go Vinny ! :)

Jim

THANK YOU FOR EXPOSING THIS FRAUD!!!
We also had major problems with canceling our AOL accounts. The reps are trained with scripts to discourage or frustrate customers from leaving. Canceling our AOL accounts in 2002 and 2005 were protracted affairs, We dealt with argumentative AOL reps who kept repeating the inane question of why do you want to cancel your account at least 20 times. The rep, a woman, got so rude that I slammed the receiver in her ear after 30 minutes. We had already switched service providers we wanted to save money and free up our land line.. Well those weren't good enugh reasons. The rep said I didn't answer the question to their satisfaction. It took us three more calls and I think additional 90-day notice to cancel. It took 2 more calls to supervisors to get it canceled. But they still didn't cancel or back credit our charges. I can't believe AOL has any customers when their employees are trained to treat us with strong-arm tactics.
This wasn't employee unprofessionalism. This is AOL policy. The rep was doing what she was trained to do. BTW, you will still be charged for it unless you watch your credit card statement like a hawk. I will never have another AOL account as long as I live!

Hey Vinny!

Yep. I've noticed the trend for a number of years now, and not just AOL. The way many companies treat their customers when it comes time to cancel a service would give the CIA new ideas on conducting clandestine operations. I challenge everybody to select five randoms companies they deal/have dealt with on the 'net, or elsewhere, and see just how difficult it can be to cancel a service, resolve an overcharge, return a defective/unwanted commodity, or, often, to talk with a person concerning just about anything except buying or purchasing a product/service.

I just spent nearly 9 months, nearly 20 hours (including over an hour on the phone), about $10 in postage, and have a stack of papers (including threats to harm my credit)just under an inch high (in a folder) trying to get a major US communications company to right a wrong (I had ordered a service that they never provided, and then charged me for). They not only refused to rectify the situation, they got a legal firm involved. The message they gave me was this: You are guilty until you prove your innocence, you are insignificant, you don't dare defy us-we are powerful; you are helpless. Amazingly, they persisted in their hounding until I got the FCC involved (they did their own checking out, and the company resolved to do what they could have done all along-leave me alone, and stop telling them I owed them something for nothing).

I believe what happens a great deal is that many companies train their employees to nickle and dime customers. How many people have time to argue/write/worry about a $1.17 overcharge? How many people can afford to file a small claims case for $31.00? These companies know this, and use it to make tens/hundreds of thousands a year. Look at it like this. If a company has 12 million customers and they overcharge those 12 million customers seventy cents a month, all year long, (even if half of those people complained and had their money returned), we can see how much money they can make. Just like a company withholding a cancelation for, hmm, lets say 1 day, for 40,000 people, and it brings in an extra $10,000 a month. I could go on about how I believe this works with many companies. Maybe I'm simply paranoid because of my troubles (but it was not an isolated incident), but it does seem many businesses are run this way.

One thing I did to fight back was that I made sure that none of my letters contained profanities, nor did I personally attack individuals (just the companies policies) per se. BUT, I did include in several letter a statement that, basically, told the reader that "anybody that works for a company that they know uses unethical or illegal/fraudulent business tactics is, simply, unethical or guilty of illegal/fraudulent practices. I believe it becomes too easy, when we work for a business, to get caught up in "borderline" practices. Things one knows might be "legal," but are truely unethical, OR things one knows are illegal, but minute and "don't really count." We've all heard of the practice of taking home "office supplies" from work places, right?

Anyway, I'm probably rambling a bit, so I'd better sign off.

Thanks for following through, and posting your personal incident. No doubt, such postings will curb more of the unethical practices we all experience with many businesses.

Three cheers for your efforts.

Sincerely,

Jay

:arrow::arrow::arrow::arrow::arrow:...You've Got Mail...

AOL has snagged itself into the corporate line--"Do as I say, act as I do."

You don't have to look any further than the headlines on the welcome page. Inane corporate babble that matches the web of media and news organizations all over the country.

One of its tenants (and one that all corporate organizations follow) is that the bottom line is to get as much $ as it possibly can, following edges of the law that are not clearly defined.

In other words--Don't give money back if you don't have to and if the client doesn't say anything, charge for extras and list that the account will be charged within the little print that people usually don't read, and place hidden charges wherever you can.

Ah, yes. 4 years ago, 2 weeks after my husband of 31 years dropped dead at my feet, I tried to cancel our aol account. 3 months later, I was still trying to cancel it. Unfortunately aol was billing my visa account so I had to keep paying for it. They required a death certificate which I faxed and which they received, but to no avail. Finally, yet more phone calls to visa and aol later, I got a three-way call going, threatened that I was near having a heart attack, crying, I pleaded with aol to cancel the account. It worked. Never before in all my 73 years have I ever encountered anything like it - truly the stuff of nightmares.

I have worked for companies who support the likes of AOL, Compuserve and other proprietary network providers. They could care less if you want your account cancelled and usually rely on you to cancel your card or go through the dispute process with your bank. They have made millions and millions of dollars off of people who unsuspectingly sign up for their service and do not cancel or forget about it. That has been going on since the advent of the Internet. One certainly doesn't expect AOL or any subscriber based service to actually do the right thing and either suspend the account and billing or just cancel unused accounts.

BTW, it is not illegal to record phone calls in most states. It is called one party consent.

I cancelled my AOL account back in 1999 or 2000, and I got a lot of questions as to why I was cancelling, what they could do to keep me as a customer, etc. And the Rep didn't just ask me those questions once; it went on and on and on. When I just kept saying, "I just want to cancel," the Rep offered me two free months to stay. The cancellation process took about 20-25 minutes, and for months after the cancellation AOL letters and CDs, inviting me back, clogged my (snail) mailbox. I am so glad I left, no matter how long it took, and I've never looked back!

CNN has just reported that AOL has identified your experience as an aberration. An aberration!? Who are they trying to kid!? It is business as usual for AOL. And they fired the guy! Talk about a scapegoat. Have you ever tried to get technical service? Jeez!

Watch me try to cancel the music download service I have never used and is being automatically billed.

I cancelled AOL a couple of years ago. After actually telling them to cancel, the "supervisor" called me and gave me back-talk until I had to YELL and then hung up. That worked.

And they they wonder about why their market share is shrinking.

John did not get fired. AOL mailed the letter, but they lied. John was actually promoted, for AOL actually requires their phone workers to never cancel accounts. In the event that the customer wants to cancel, they have to pretend to cancel it but never actually cancel it. They do not even possess the ability to cancel accounts.

John was promoted for his "great" work. AOL does not care about its customers, sadly.

:?
My wife had an AOL account that we canceled about 18 months ago after getting a cable modem. My experience was nothing like that. The call took about five minutes and I got no crap from them. I wonder if this is a more recent phenomenon?!

I had the same thing happen to me at AOL. Some sand-niigger wouldn't let me cancel my account. I felt like pulling it out and slapping him upside the head with nine inches of limp dick. Boo-ya!
GW is God! Four more years!

You have to wonder if he was enjoying himself. I had a very similar experience with Microsoft this year that would make anyone's head spin. Where are these reps coming from?

It took me THREE YEARS and many frustrating phone calls to get AOL to cancel my account. They kept insisting that I resign for the minimum of $4.95 a month and another years contract telling me that if I didn't keep AOL I would lose all my virus protection and my computer would dump. When in fact it was because of AOL that I needed the virus protection and had to have my computer cleaned out yearly. Boy, do they owe me a lot of money. Good for you for exposing them.

Yeah, he was just doing his job. Just like the Hitler Youth.

I think everyone goes thru this with AOL. The really simple solution: Consumer Rights legislation that requires ISP's to allow users to cancel their membership using the method used to sign up. i.e. If we can sign up online without talking to anyone, we should be able to cancel that way too.

And then they need to have permission to contact us after cancellation - require an opt in to get a "why you cancelled".

They can ask us a survey about why we want to quit IF they ask us a survey about why we're signing up. And they have to be the same length.

They'd certainly have to rethink both ends of the equation that way.

BTW: I think the CSR was simply performing to reach his goals of retention. I'm sure he gets bonsus for renewals - and they hire "go getters" some of them just turn out to be slick, jerks with no ethics.

sadly steve case left aol that's part of why things like this occur. there is pressure on aol by controling shareholders who would rather try to push aols stock value up instead of selling the stock and taking a loss aol will be a footnote in the history of the internet and vincent ferrari will probably be mentions somewhere as a footnote if you look up the decline of aol 10 years from now

Come check out the site that keeps Americans informed of important issues. http://anthonylemons.blogspot.com
Screw AOL

Comment 323: Your point?

I just cancelled my account about 3 weeks ago. It took 27 minutes and I had to talk to 4 different people to have the cancellation completed. I wish I would have taped it. I hope Steve Case is proud, what was once a good company is just a pile of shit now. It's a shame that the only way they can keep accounts open is to just not let people close them.

i used to work in this call queue--it was called "member retention" at AOL. they have changed a few things for legal reasons over the years, as you can imagine from your experience. but most of the words and direction of the call was all from corporate mandate. his tone and persistence WERE NOT. they encouraged highly competitive sales types to take these positions, the most coveted of the call center, and spent weaks in training to overcome any callers "objections." this is supposed to include resolving member problems, mostly based on poor software, and long ago unfamiliarity with computers. today's customer is more savy and has many other online choices. you did the right thing, for anyone who wants to cancel, politely (for brevity) "make like a broken record." the rep has a call flow to follow to process your transaction, but they have been trained in how to proceed without assistance, but they do get evaluated and punished if they do not follow the script. i saw ethical folks trying to do the right thing, and a few sleaze wads, who generally washed out quickly, but there were always more to take there place. your average rep was somewhere between the two trying to earn a bonus on what was little over minimum wage. the bright side for you vinny: "john" spoke native english, unlike the indian reps. thanks for the laugh!

I just wanted everybody to know that, in my opinion, the real people that are causing the AOL reps to be so pushy is a company called AON. See aon.com

aon.com

When I called AOL to cancel my service, it was painful obvious to me by the structure of the call that the reps (yes I called twice) were being monitored by AON and trying to achieve what is known as a 99.9% or what AON monitoring people consider a perfect call.

AON has pushed their structure tainted product on AOL and other Fortune 500 companies as a way to oursource the call monitoring function. However is does not work because the reps are forced to consider AON as the target audience NOT the customer.

BTW I listened the call, based on structure the call would have been scored a 99.9% by AON or darn close.

Daer Vincent, I decided to write because I have some knowledge of AOL's way of doing business here. My son use to work at one of their call centers here in Spokane WA. He was instructed to do everything possible to make sure people did not cancel their accounts. He could even give them up to 3 months FREE AOL. He often gave 1 months free service to keep an acct. This was on a daily basis. He shared with a couple of people who could not afford the service that if they worked it right they could get up to 1 yr. free with AOL. That is how much AOL hates to cancel an acct. They use to be the largest provider as you know. They really hated losing that. I have a feeling John had been instructed to NOT allow an acct to be cancelled. He took the heat for AOL POLICY. He should not have been terminated. My son quit after a few months because he just could not stand promoting AOL any longer. I wish he were here to tell you this himself. He is deceased though. He would have had such a good laugh out of this. What is it the kids do, lol, rof. Thanks for the flashback via CNN. Best wishes for a bright future and don't forget to hug your mom as soon as you can. God Bless, Judy Van Houtan

Three years ago my aunt and uncle tried to cancel AOL. They actually did cancel, not the "two free months" BS. About a year later, their bank account was billed for one year of service. After going to the bank to fight AOL, the bank told them they'd block AOL from billing their account, though they did not go after the money AOL snatched up. A few months ago, AOL billed their accout again for the time between the first fraud bill until that time. They got a new bank account and told the bank (credit union, actually) that if they had any problems with AOL in the future they'd just go to a regular bank and never deal with them again. 8O

you brought back nightmares. It took me 25 minutes of holding a phone in my hand before I got a robot, then I realized I too must talk like one to get my account canceled. You need only repeatedly over a period of 20 minutes (that is how long the robot is required to be on the line with you) "cancel my account." "Cancel my account." Cancel my account."
The AOL robot after hearing this repeatly for 20 minutes will final get the message.
PS..that robot you spoke to was never fired, promoted but not fired.

I'm glad I wasn't alone with problems with cancelling AOL - I thought I just happened to get a jerk on the other end. I spent 20 minutes trying to cancel - I actually felt like I was being terrorized or kidnapped as I felt powerless to do anything. It escalated to where I hung up and after I settled down called again waiting another 20 minutes just to get thru. It took me an hour of frustration to cancel. I stated the name of the person who was abusing my right to cancel and made my complaint. Apparently they don't listen to people who are cancelling as this was a couple years ago and it sounds like it is still happening. I don't twenty people my story. How many will not try AOL after it was on CNN? I only wish I had a recording device as well.

I am so thankful that you have brought attention to this very serious problem with AOL and their cancellations procedures.

The first time I tried to cancel AOL I had a female customer service representative who kept me on the phone for 25+ minutes trying to persuade me to change my mind. She tried everything in the book; the last 10 minutes or so of the conversation all I kept saying was cancel my account. I had to hang up on her because she just didn't seem to comprehend the fact I wanted to terminate my account.

So 2 weeks later I tried to sign onto AOL to make sure the woman cancelled my account. I was unable to log on so I figured everything was ok. I checked my bank statement at the end of the month and sure enough I had more AOL charges. I immediately called AOL knowing I was in for another fight.

After bickering with their representative for 30+ minutes he accidentally let slip what AOL had done. Apparently when I tried to sign on, eventhough I never "signed on", the folks at AOL just magically assumed that I wanted to reactivate my service account with them. Can you believe this??????? STAY AWAY FROM AOL!

I'm glad CNN chose to report the story even though it's an affiliated company.
If AOL really did fire the employee, then they were firing him for doing what they told him to do. It took me several hours to cancel AOL two years ago - including the time it took to research the site and actually find out how to do a cancellation. It's VERY obvious that AOL does everything they can to make it difficult to cancel.
Even when I did cancel, they continued to charge me for another 3 months. I was finally able to get them to reimburse me for 2 of the three months. I was too exhausted from arguing to go after the final month. I'm sure this is part of their strategy as better alternatives to AOL continue to erode their customer base.

Im sick of reading this crap already

They did me the same way!!! Kept charging my credit card until I had to cancel the card then started sending bills to my home even tho' I hadn't been on AOL in 6 months. They never would return any of the money they took but the last bill I told them I was turning them in to the Attorney General and they did drop that. Compuserve which is owned by AOL is exactly the same way. They suckered me for 10 months before I realized they were still charging me, didn't get that money back either. And yes, I was talking to somebody in India when I tried to cancel AOL. Why is that? They can't understand us (they pretend) and we can't understand them. I'm so glad somebody is finally letting others know to remove everything related to AOL from your computer. When I quit them I had 640 spam emails, now how do you think they got my email address? HUH?

I also had a nightmare experience with AOL. Somehow I had two accounts, cancelled one and was still getting billed for the second. When I called to cancel the second and ask for a refund (naive me!). I go this CSR who was also pushy and full of questions. I told him I wanted to cancel and wanted a refund. He put me on hold and came back and began a spiel about how I needed to listen to a message and then my account would be cancelled. I interrupted to ask about the refund and he hung up on me, transferring me to the message. So after the recorded message I pressed the number to talk to someone if I had questions. I thought I'd get a supervisor type but instead I got the world's worst used car salesman and had another 10 painful minutes before he told me I'd never get a refund. I'm 42 years old and it was hands-down the worst customer service experience I've ever had.

AOL is lying when they say that this recording is an "aberration." But will they truly change?

We've never had an AOL account, but somehow our credit card was being charged each month. When I called AOL to cancel the billings, I was told that they could trace my card to the AOL account it was being charged to, but because I was not the account holder, I couldn't cancel the account, nor could I stop the charges from being applied to my card.

I CANCELLED my credit card and was re-issued another number, AOL traced the new credit card number and then back billed me for the two months it took to trace back to my new credit card number.

My credit card company was finally able to get this to stop and issue me a credit for the 7 months I was charged!

Vincent's story stirred old memories of my trying to cancel an AOL account. It's a boiler room operation , folks. The apology he got is BS. I had the same attitude attack when I canceled "Earthstink". Of course I had support problems with Verizon in Mississippi...I couldn't understand what they were saying. They may all be related!

Has anyone taken legal action about this type of customer service? I had this same thing happen, except my experience was actually worse. The women kept saying outrageous things, then pushing the "mute" button on the phone. I could hear her co-worksers laughing in the background everytime she released the button to ask another question. I asked to speak to a supervisor and had to wait for 20 minutes. I had the feeling that I was actually transferred to one of her friends.

I called AOL about a year ago to cancel my account. OH MY GOD! It took me forever...my blood pressure was rising.....the guy was driving me nuts! He absolutely would not talk about closing the account. Finally, I went into a fit! I screamed some profanity at him and hung up. I felt that MY account and MY money were at his mercy! Why should I have to go thru total HELL and Beg to put an end to something that I didn't want? Closing an AOL account is total hell!

I thought I was the lone "VICTIM" of AOL. I bought a computer from their advertisement, only to recieve a unit that was missing components described in ad, and stuck with a contract for 12 months that had NO LOCAL ACCESS number for me. All connections would be long distance charges. AOL was not at all willing to do ANYTHING but threaten me with damaged credit, and collection agencies if I didn t pay up! To cancel meant to return computer at a ridiculous charge, and pay all kinds of penalties. The cost to return unit was higher than origional cost. Everyone I spoke with at AOL passed the buck on and on till it was insanity! If they were to give the internet industry an enema, It would certainly be inserted in AOL. I have paid hundreds of dollars for nothing while fighting a loosing battle with the Greedy Giant. Is there any hopes of a class action suit?
Dennis-6/25/06

:roll:Have you ever tried to cancel a subscription from a mailorder gourmet coffee service-My advice never join one just because they give you a free coffee pot doesn't mean they won't give you an easy time cancelling a subscription.

Coffee Anyone?:lol:

I just wanted to let you know, like you didn't already know, that you are not alone.

I cancelled my account, or tried to, about two months ago. After BS-ing with the guy forever, I gave up and took the free month they offered, thinking I would come back and cancel when I had more time to deal with these tools. That was my second mistake, the first being when I subscribed to AOL.

I am in the navy, so my ship went out to sea, and came back just before my time would be up to cancel. I got home pretty late, but made my call at just after 11pm, well before the 12-o-clock deadline, but I was wrong. Apparently the number I called to cancel was based in another time zone, and therefor I was "late" and was charged an additional month's worth of service.

I pled, not no avail, to have this refunded, and apparently no one has any span of control over these things. I guess AOL, in their infinite knowledge only gives these phone retards the power to grant a free month of service. After about an hour of me arguing about how I was not 20 minutes late, I gave up and went to bed. A week later, I receive a letter from AOL stating that "[I] would not receive any more charges after the 19th", so I felt the issue had been resolved. That was until the 23rd when my account WAS charged.

So, I proceeded to call their "customer service reps" to defend my case. Their answer was the typical legalistic, "the letter was sent before the draft went through"-type answer. I argued that I knew when the letter was postmarked, and when the transaction had occurred, but no mountain of evidence could help my case. I was ensured that I would not receive any MORE charges and that my account was cancelled, and I hung up in disgust.

I hope that AOL is proud of themselves for having milked another month's worth of payment from me over being 20 minutes late to cancel. I hope the 20 or 30 dollars for them was worth all of the negative publicity I would ensure they got. I have done nothing since then but bash AOL to anyone who will listen. The service is garbage. The people are garbage. Their practices are abhorable. They will be broke before they know it if they continue with this course of business. They think their little checklists of high-pressure, annoying tactics are bull, and they should be required to cancel accounts with NO QUESTIONS ASKED. I shouldn't have to prove my damn case as to why the service sucks and I want high speed or whatever. I hope AOL takes a substantial hit in the pocketbook from all of the negative publicity, and I will see to it that I do everything in my power to help that along.

As far as your comments with CNN about "did you feel bad the guy lost his job", yes it was his fault, BUT, he was following AOL's policies and tactics. If they disagree, they are just lying even more. If it was not their policy to harass, then so many people would not have the SAME STORY. I applaud you on your efforts and hope you can help bring all of this down.

More than 12 years ago I ran into a real problem when I tried to canceled my AOL account. According to AOL I could not cancel my account unless I was within three days of my startup date. I started AOL on the 25th of the month several years earlier and could not cancel until the 22nd of the month. If I missed that cancel window, I would have to pay for another month. It took me two tries and about $44.00 to finally get it right. I got screwed by AOL and I will never,ever use their service again.

One thing I've noticed in this comment thread is that a number of "apologists" for AOL and CSR's harp on the fact that the call was taped. They then snarkily insinuate that it was a "crime". In order for it to be a crime there must be some expectation of privacy. Since AOL tapes its calls as well as has them listened to for "quality assurance" there is no expectation on the part of either party - particularly the CSR of privacy.

In short, you were only doing what they were doing- the difference being of course that your copy would be made public while their copy would simply be used to pump up the drones.

I have zero empathy for CSR people who work for companies like AOL. By accepting that paycheck and saying what they tell you, you are implicitly agreeing with their tactics. As I recall, slavery was outlawed some time ago in this country. So, if you have a conscience and some moral compass you do the right thing - find another job. If enough left then they'd have to reevaluate their tactics.

BTW: I went through a similar experience with AOL many years ago. They "cancelled" my account only to bill me again and again for almost a year! I finally had to contact my bank (I used ACH) and have them threaten AOL with bank fraud. It finally stopped after that.

Thank you!!! I had a similiar experience when I left compuserve.

Legally, do you have to inform AOL that you are recording the conversation?

I was discussing this with a friend of mine, and he said he will be cancelling his AOL account soon. I urged him to tape the conversation, but I wasn't sure about the legal ramifications of doing so.

Any information on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

I know someone who is in the same line of work as poor john. it's hard dealing with numerous complaints on a daily basis when people think it's the customer service reps fault for the companies shortcomings. all companies have a script for reps to follow and it is monitored and graded on a daily basis. john was not the only rep trying to be loyal to the company by giving customers a difficult time for cancelling. it was probably well known by company and accepted. it's unfortunate john was the scapegoat by compay and you and lost his means of supporting himself and possibly a family. blame the company not the reps and don't feel proud that someone who was trying to make a buck was canned and made known nationally. i hope john finds a different line of work where he does not feel he has to respond in such a manner. as for you,you had your 15 minutes of fame. hope you are proud of yourself because you now have made someones life difficult but on a much greater scale than he made yours.

I saw the TV spot you got. Nice work.

I have been harashed over a bill, I have paid over 4 weeks ago. My check from the bank, said it cleared on May 12th. It is now June 24th, and the calls finally ended after an half hour agruement, after threatening legal action. The Aol collection department called me more than three times a day. Aol has no clue on how to run a business. Their practices are bs, I never use them again.

Not a third party, the second party actually.

Yeah. It's called customer retention, while John was not doing a good job, he was doing his job.

I don't expect John to think that Vinny isn't going to be rude. I expect Vinny not to be rude because it is an expection that I set for someone who seems to be taking a moral highground in exposing the evils of customer service representatives who are rude. Especially hearing NBC list the number of minutes, FIFTEEN, Jesus...

Rude? Rude?? Anyone that works in customer service has to check any expectation of courtesy (from the callers) at the door when they clock in to work.

Vinny is too right when he mentions the disclaimer that the call may be recorded for quality purposes. Listen to the call, Lucas...that's the quality of AOL. John certainly knew he was liable to be monitored and recorded by a third party at any time. It just so happens that the third party in this case is the entire world. Funny how things work out.

To address those that think John got paid extra for retaining the account, they are completely correct. I worked for another ISP and they had a whole department devoted to this called "saves," as in, save the account.

How does the fact that you agree to be recording make it okay for you to record them? It really doesn't dude. Not all calls by AOL are recorded. No call recorded by AOL is going to be available to this John guy, and most are going to be deleted to make room in their datebases. It's just rude, and broadcasting it to the world, while wholly entertaining and perhaps a little kick in the ass of AOL, a company whose products are perversely moronic, is just short of bitching on TV. Maybe I just have a problem with one customer's unsatisfactory experience being broadcast on NBC a slight bit disturbing. Whatever creams your twinkie I guess.

It's not, especially when they're recording you anyway.

Okay, so it's not illegal.

Address how rude it is?

Oh, and one more thing.

Read a link before you submit it.

Currently, the FCC does not have any rules that prohibit consumers from recording wireline telephone conversations. The FCC does have some rules regarding the manner in which telephone companies may record wireline telephone conversations.

I'm not a phone company. Just thought you should know.

Hey Lucas...

Ever call AOL?

I have.

Know what the first thing they tell you is?

"This call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance purposes."

In doing so, they've informed me that the call is recorded, and their rep knows the call is being recorded. By whom is irrelevant as there's no longer an expectation of privacy and there is an implied permission by staying on the line.

Trust me. NBC's lawyers GRILLED the producer of the Today Show segment before this went on the air and I had to be asked additional questions to determine the legality of what I did.

If I had done something illegal, I'd be in jail by now dude.

In-state calling is totally negated by a interstate call. Calls that cross state lines fall under federal juristictions.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/recordcalls.html

The fcc requires that all parties be aware, albeit, the fcc makes no statement that failure to comply with that could be in any was prosecutable, but still, let us return to the statement that recording someone without their permission is in fact considered by the fcc very rude and then let us move on.

I was going on the basis that this would not be admissable in any court of law initally and that if AOL were very determined in a civil case they would have one because of the interstate nature of the call and federal guidelines for wiretapping... Regarless, it's moot, no one is being sued or arrested.

It's still doesn't change the fact that it's rude.

Recording someone is not illegal. Go read the link.

You can read, can you not?

Recording someone without asking their permission is illegal. Even if it's not a felony it's still rude.

It's not illegal AT ALL. It's not sort of a felony. It's perfectly legal, both in New York State and in 31 of the other 50 states. Please don't call things a crime when you don't know the law.

Felony... Jeez... It's not even a misdemeanor.

And, just for the record, it's not illegal in your state (West Virginia) either. They're what's called "one-party-states."

Now go read and educate yourself.

Sort of a felony. Where the hell did you get that from?

I heard the conversation that you recorded. Did you ask John if he minded you recording the conversation? That's sort of a felony if you don't ask first.

Yeah, it was definately a prick you talked to and while he was trying to do his job he didn't do it correctly. He shouldn't have been fired for a single mistake so there's probably a history of that sort of behavior with this person. The part of the conversation I heard on TV was pretty straight forward, he didn't use a lot of the techniques people in the business usually use, but none of that really matters.

If you didn't ask to record him that's rude, illegal, and generally immoral.

After my experience with the hell of cancelling my AOL account a couple of years ago I can offer this step-by-step "preparation" guide. If you take a few steps BEFORE you cancel you'll find it a little easier to deal with the crap that will be thrown your way.
1. If you do not already have one, get a free Yahoo or Gmail account.

2. (you can skip step 1 if you already have your new ISP) Approximately one month before you are ready to cancel, email EVERYONE you know with your new email address. Let them know that after about 30 days they will no longer reach you at your AOL email address.

3. Call your bank and let them know that you are having trouble cancelling your AOL account. Many banks are already familiar with customers troubles with AOL and are willing to put a "block" on AOL charges at no additional cost to you. While you have your bank on the phone check the date and charge of the last AOL transaction. Make a note of it.

4. Make the dreaded call to AOL's cancellation department. It would pay to be courteous and friendly. Read below for some tips to help you keep your cool. Get the rep's name if they will even give it to you. Write down the time of the call.

Realize these things in ADVANCE:
*It is in the REP'S best interest to change your mind, receivig cash rewards or suffering if they fail to keep you on.
**You will be on the telephone for about 30-45 minutes.
***You will be offered "free" service in an effort to keep you on
****Yelling will only feed into the already rediculous situation you will find yourself in. Remain calm and allow the rep to make their speech because they have to do that. Answer their questions but be firm that you wish to CANCEL THE ACCOUNT.
******Realize that if you take them up on their offer of free service you are only delaying the inevitable. They already know you don't want the service but if they can juuuuust keep you on for two more months they will once again get to smack your credit card or bank acct with a charge.

5. If you've made it through the call without hanging up on the rep or chewing your own arm off in an effort to end the hell you are enduring then great but guess what.....you were most likely NOT successful in cancelling your account. There have been many, many ppl who went through all of the steps above and still had their card charged even IF they NEVER signed on again. But remember, you put a block on all AOL charges or you've cancelled the credit card they were charging so although they refuse to let you go, they won't get anymore of your money.

6. NEVER, EVER SIGN ON AGAIN AFTER THE CALL. Do not even use webmail through aol.com. Doing so after you've 'cancelled' your account can be considered a retraction of your cancellation and your service will be continued. Once you are through with AOL then be totally through. Do not be tempted to check your messages. Be done with them. Remove the software from your computer if you haven't already. Use a registry cleaner to remove the old entries that the software made in your registry.

7. Check your bank statement carefully for the next few months. You should not see charges from AOL because you called your bank in step 2. You would really be amazed at how many banks already know the AOL scheme and how many accounts they have to protect.

8. Finally, IGNORE bills sent you by AOL. If you call AOL about a bill you will receive more frustration and run around. AOL will not turn you over to collections because they know they haven't a leg to stand on. Remember, you cancelled the account and you did not use the service again (if you followed the steps carefully) so therefore you technically do not owe them.

**There are some instances in which people are given a discounted monthly rate for their account being on a contractual basis. For instance, you might get the service for 9.95/mo if you agree to stay on for 12 months. That can be a little sticky and I don't know if they could actually hold you to it if you didn't physically sign anything. I'm not sure what the law is there but if you are not in a contract then what you are doing is perfectly ethical and legal to my knowledge. Of course, what is 'ethical' is subjective but remember, you paid for what you used. The block you've put on your account, or the credit card you cancelled will be billed for service you've requested to be discontinued.

They really do not understand what 'cancel', 'end', or 'discontinue' mean. You cannot change the way they do things but you can make the experience easier for yourself since you already know you are dealing with dirtbag tactics.

Good Luck!!!!!

Tried to cancel the account I set up for my sister a few years ago as she no longer uses it. Despite the fact that I had set it up, I wasn't allowed to cancel it- my sister had to. She's a complete technophobe and can barely manage email so I was worried to put her on the phone with the AOL person. To her credit she stuck by her guns and listened through the rambling salespitch (including ominous warnings about malware, etc) and kept asking to cancel. Between the both of us I estimate we asked to cancel 6 or 7 times before the account was actually cancelled. Took probably 15 minutes total.

Was definitely pissing me off- if they had put up any barriers like what I read above then I would have told my credit card company to stop payment to AOL and filed a report with the better business bureau.

I'm sorry the guy lost his job but I guess he reaped what he sowed. But man I just can't stop listening to your conversation dude! I don't know why. But yes AOL is garbage anyway mmhmmz.......

Here's my story: When Time Warner turned off my high-speed (due to non-payment), I got the free for 60 days AOL account. I had paid off Time Warner and was having my high-speed reconnected when I called AOL to cancel my account (this was 3 days before the 60 days was over). AOL told me that since they were partners with Time Warner, I could keep my AOL account and it would cost me nothing, since it was included with my Time Warner service. Since I knew how difficult it is to actually cancel an account, I told them to go ahead, PROVIDED I DID NOT HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING. Much to my surprise, when I got around to looking at my bank statements, AOL had charged me for 3 months after I was told that there would be no charge ever. I called AOL and the representative assured me that the situation would be rectified by the money being put back in my account. It was not put back in my account. I had the bank charge the $54.85 back and change my card number. Soon after, AOL started sending me collection letters and calling, demanding their money. Foolishly, they called me from an 866 number that I was able to redial and instantly speak to someone. I spent many an hour calling the collections department (in India). I eventually started calling the number to order new service to try to resolve this situation. Every call was met with a claim that AOL would investigate this matter. Finally, on one of the occasions when I called to order service, I was told that if I just gave them my credit card number, the situation could be resolved with no charge to my account. I very clearly told the rep that I did not authorize any charge to my card, and any charge on my card would be viewed by me as fraudulent. They did, in fact, charge my card $17.95. I promptly had the bank charge it back and that's the story so far.

Bought my parents a Dell computer which included 6 months free AOL. After 5 months AOL put one months charge on my parents credit card. I decided to change them over to a CHEAPER ISP. Having gone through the trying to cancel AOL myself I let my 85 year old very capable mother call and cancel. She was on the the phone for at least 20 minutes saying "NO I just want to cancel". Then she got to the one month charge and they would not credit her. Told her it was for future use. She explained there would not be any future use as the purpose of the call was to cancel after 5 months of use. But alas, they offered her a month free but still would not credit the charge! The end of the conversation was a RECORDING saying the account would be cancelled. Then they have the balls to call a week later and offer her a month for a buck!!! They are trained to not accept 'please cancel' and that is blatantly obvious!!!!

Stick it to these both the U.S. and in Europe and they are pond scum. I believe I ended up telling one operator that I would rather kill my own children than have another AOL account in frustration.

Their product is worseless and completely outdated. Their habit of preying on the ill-informed - read elderly - with their ridiculous commercials concentrating on virus protection (apparently no other provider offers anything that might help, let alone McAfree or Norton) is disgusting.

I truely can't think of enough bad things to say about AOL. I wonder if a class-action suit would be possible for all the charges they continue to make on credit cards after cancellation?

My God! Some of the entrys are so funny! lol I feel sorry for AOL, now that the world knows what to do when call for cancelation! And some of you would sign up just to go to the cancelation part,LOOOOL. Serves them right.

Hey, I heard about YOUR BIG ADVENTURE in the NEWS! WOW! Did you ever thought this thing will get so much attention?

When I tried to cancel my account few months ago, their agent began to annoy me by asking me questions like what do I do on line! So I told him that I am recording that call, and as soon as I said that, he hung up on me!

I had to call and wait again for ten miutes to get another agent and had to answer all the questions all over again, and after requesting and begging and pleading with him for 45 minutes, he finally agreed to cancel my account. I thought I was the only one who got a bad agent but after reading all these posts it seems like it is their company policy to annoy the hell out of the caller so he would just go away with out cancelling the account. Nice move AOL.

This guy was NOT doing his job correctly. I worked for a cell phone company for 3 years doing the same job this guy is doing. If I were caught treating people like this, I would have been fired on the spot. It could very well be that AOL tells their operators to act like this, but I doubt it. I'm no AOL fan myself. I was banned from AOL when they first became popular for making an off-color remark in a chatroom that was monitored by one of their Nazi Speech-Police.

There is no excuse for the way this operator acted. When he asked for Mr. Farrari's father, that was WAAAAAAAY over the line and unreasonable. The attitude was not appropriate either.

That being said, here are some facts that may or may not help you when you have to deal with call center employees in the future:

1. It is a very frustrating job. You answer calls all day long - practically non-stop - from people who automatically assume that you're not going to help them. You have either a script that you have to read to the caller or strict guidelines that govern the structure of the call. This is how you get evaluated at the end of the month. Your voice gets tired, your throat gets sore, and you feel like a leech has been sucking the life right out of you when you leave.

2. No matter what mood YOU, the caller, is in, try to be nice. The operator is supposed to do the same. Keep in mind that there are things that the operator cannot do. Be reasonable. If you use 4000 minutes on a 300 minute cell phone plan, don't expect any bill "corrections". If you think that the operator is being unreasonable, calmly ask for his / her supervisor. You probably won't get one, but it may make the operator more cooperative. Supervisors are there to evaluate the operators, not to take their calls.

3. Make sure you get the operator's name and if they have one, their ID code. Operators are supposed to place remarks on every account that they access. These remarks are to include why you called and how the operator assisted you. They should also include the operator's ID, which can used to track down any untruthful or abusive operator. Remember that sometimes, a truely bad operator will not leave remarks in the hope that the call was not monitored, in which case, he can get away with it. Also remember that you will NOT get the same operator you got the last time you called. Even if you called 5 minutes ago, the last operator you got may be in another city or even in another company that was contracted to take calls for them.

4.Upon cancelling service, the operator is instructed to give the caller "opportunities" to change his / her mind. Yes, it is very frustrating on both ends of this. Firstly, the caller does not want to hear any of this. The caller just wants to be done with it and get on with his / her life. The operator really doesn't care if you leave the service he is working for. He wants to get you off of his line as quickly as possible, so that he can move on to the next issue.

5. This one is key. More likely than not, there is a timer on each call that the operator takes. In my case, it was 6 minutes. The operator's calls must average under 6 minutes each month or he suffers deductions on his evaluation, which affects his raise next year. This is NOT something to take advantage of. A call lasting more than 10 minutes is definately something you want to avoid. After 10 minutes, the operator knows that the call will not be evaluated and can pretty much get away with anything. The reason for this is because the people who evaluate the calls are on their own time restrictions. Evaluating shorter calls keeps them from getting backed up.

6.Do not get suspicious or upset with the operator when he asks you for the last 4 numbers of your social security number or your birthdate. He is looking right at that information when he asks you for it. He is trying to verify that you are the owner of the account. Identity theft is very common now. I cannot tell you how many people I had to deny access to because they either could not or would not verify that information. It is done to protect your account from fraud. Period.

7.Finally, DO NOT HANG UP UNTIL YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE CALL SUMMARY AND THE CLOSING. At the end of every call, the operator is supposed to tell you everything he has done to the account per your request. Then he will close the call by saying something like "Thank you for calling XYZ Company. We appreciate your business." If you hang up any time before this closing, the operator is instructed to not do anything to the account. There are certain legal reasons for this as well as business reasons.

I know that all this seems to be rediculous, and I wouldn't argue with you if you told me it was. Unfortunately, this is the world we now live in. I only hope that this helps people understand how a call center operates and what the operators have to work around. Just remember that these operators are people too. They have to deal with you just as much as you have to deal with them. Most of them will be reasonable if you are.

Thoughts:

(1) Organize AOL CD Destruction Parties all around the country.

(2) Try to find or figure out WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO from those fraudulent charges, from accounts not being used, from accounts retained because people couldn't bear to interact with the "consultants," etc. Extravagant executive compensation, perhaps? What are the compensation packages of the pressurized retention consultants vs. the executives, I wonder?

You did an awesome job, I wish I had done something like that when I got this kind of treatment from them. Their agents are thick skinned, rude and very stubborn.They are trained to igonre the requests of cancelations. They would do any thing to get their huge commissions.They ld even lie to you and tell you after asking you a hundred questons, that your account has been cancelled, when its not. And next month you ld get a new bill again and you ld have to go through this painful interrogation all over again, and chances are the agent that you get this time would be worst than the one you had gotten last time!
They are UNBELIEVABLE and ruthless, they dont ever want you to cancel!
DONT EVER GET AOL!

aol is doing the same to me i canceled months ago and they continue to bill me i had to cancel my debit card to stop charges. they just sent me a letter telling they were going to turn me into a collection agency. I have made numerous calls to cancel because i changed providers.

My fiance even had a very difficult time cancelling his dead father's AOL account. They wanted a death certificate before they would do anything. You see, even death isn't a good excuse for cancelling your account where AOL is concerned.

I saw the report on CNN. I thought you were incredibly PATIENT with them. They really seemed like they wanted to mess with you for the fun of it. You did great. Too bad the audio can't still be here, but it is understandable. I also think though that the jerks responsible for hiring the jerks should have been fired also. It goes all the way up the corporate ladder, but companies always want to have a sacrificial lamb for their corporate irresponsibilities.

AOL needs to change their policy. Why do ppl pay $25 bucks a month to view ads?

I heard rumours that AOL will be elimating their dial up service, too I don't know how true this is.

Here in the Fort Walton Beach/Pensacola area I started on AOL because it was the only ISP with access numbers that were local. Now that we have cable, who needs aol.

AOL is trying to redeem themselves by saying crap like "you need a better internet"

Sorry, but I don't need them spying on my surfing habbits. I value my freedoms, my privacy and as long as we still have a constitution (anyone know what that is...ahh anyone.. I DOOO!) we still have these rights.

-Binfordman

I have an AOL account for several years - and I am about to cancel as I haven't used it in years. I find it interesting that we always find a people with difference of opinion advocating their own beliefs. For one - thing if you don't have an account with AOL and you weren't trying to cancel - you really can't render a valid opinion- its not your money that is being ripped off. When someone says they want to cancel an account they are paying - its not up to the individual on the other end to say no. People doing a job in which so intention is to piss you off is not a job putting food on the table. This world has enough stress - they are just adding to the frustration. AOL is a business going under...If they have a job with AOL they either need to find a new job or think about how they would like to be treated if money was being taking out of their wallets. Furthermore, Yes if you are going to record someone legally you need to inform them that they are being recorded as well. You also can request a copy of their recorded message. You won't get it- but you can request it. I strongly urge that customer call AOL- and informed them that they are being recorded. I also suggest that they mail the cancellation first then call. This way you have two avenues in which to file a law suit. The letter can be delayed by them, thus the reason for the follow up call. If we call and inform them they are also being recorded, I would venture to believe the behavior will change, however, it doesn't mean that the person on the other end will not be annoyed by it. In summation, It appears People who do not have their own money taken - always seem to have an open-minded opinion towards the AOL rep. If things were reverse - you would not be so patient nor find the yourself being rude. Putting food on-the-table works both ways.

I used to work there doing this very job. It was awful. Seriously one of the worst jobs I have ever had. I think further investigation is definately in order...I have seen people who had NO useage on their account and had been charged 21.95 for in excess of one year before calling to cancel...and they were refunded no money. Not good.

HERE YOU GO - WHY PUT YOUR TIME AND NERVES INTO CANCELLING JUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS WITHOUT TALKING TO ANY REP:

The following article may also be found in our Online Help area.

We value your membership with the AOL® community. However, we are really sorry that you're considering canceling your AOL® account. It's our mission to build a service that lives up to the high standards of the online community. We hope you've enjoyed being an AOL member and that we can help you again in the future. For security reasons, AOL accounts cannot be cancelled either online or through e-mail. You can get your AOL account cancelled either through phone, US mail or fax.

To Cancel Your AOL® Membership Over the Phone
To cancel your AOL account over the phone, all you need to do is call up AOL® Member Services at 1-888-265-8008. You can speak to our representatives to get your account cancelled. This service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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To Cancel Your AOL Membership Though U.S. Mail
You can request the cancellation of your AOL account through the U.S. mail. Just send your request to:

AOL
PO BOX 17100
Jacksonville, FL 32245-7100

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To Cancel Your AOL Membership Though Fax
If you prefer sending in your request through fax, please send it to us at 1-703-433-7283.

Notes:

If you choose to write or fax us, please include a brief note stating the nature of your request, the primary billing contact's full name, phone number, address and handwritten signature.
In addition to that, for account security purpose please provide any one of the following:

The master screen name of the AOL account
The last four digits of the current method of payment (for your security, please include only the last four digits)
The answer to the account security question of the master screen name.
Cancellation will take effect within 72 hours of receipt of your request and AOL will send you a written confirmation. Please note that AOL LLC reserves the right to charge and collect fees, surcharges or costs incurred before your cancellation takes effect. Thank you for using AOL.
Related Articles:
Access to Your Backup Files Upon Cancellation of AOL® Service
Cancel My AOL® Account Because of Online Privacy Concerns
Cancel the AIM® Service

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About this article:
Last updated: Fri Apr 14 12:41:08 EDT 2006
© 2006 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Great move. It's about time someone exposed the truth. I hope they don't retailiate with a massive consumer "Damage Control" campaign by sending out millions of CDs. Vincent is the web hero of the week.

OOPS, I see the media chopped off your illegally recorded converstation ... they did ask for the information as usual. Wow.

Hi,
I watched the YouTube video, listened to the tape and have got to say Vincent Ferrari YOU got the ONLY American, or peferct English speaking employee at AOL, and now he got fired! I have never in all the years of using AOL spoken with anyone other than people with mid eastern accents. You are the man! You not only got the only English speaking CSR but you got them to pull your account up without asking the first three letters of your master screen name, the last four digits of your credit card. That and the fact that the guy told you what your total usage was for the month blew me away! Go Vincent!

AOL does have the worst customer service, many disconnects, people who not only do not understand English, but do not speak it. Most of AOL's customer service reps are in India from what I have heard. There have been numerous times that I sat on hold for up to fifteen minutes to change my service, or yes, cancel it, but when you get DSL/Broadband for ten bucks per month, it is sort of hard to give it up.

I am still in shock ... and how do we know it was really AOL on the other end of the phone and not a friend pretending to be an AOL rep? Not that I am defending the action, just that since 1997 I have never spoken to an English speaking person without a very strong accent.

I can empathize with your plight. I recently canceled my account with DISH SATELLITE NETWORK. It took at least 15 minutes of me repeating "Please cancel my account" over and over. He keep telling me what a good deal I had with them ( I told him I was going with a cable-phone-isp all in one service.) He just keep giving me reasons not to cancel, and kept dropping the price to stay with them. So I suggest anyone who wants to save a few bucks on DISH service, call and they will cut their price to keep you.

Or just do as I do..just swear up a storm.They record their calls for "training purposes". Like they'd use my call to train some tool. Use the same stategy for jury duty..just say "I hate everybody, especially people like (fill in the blank).

Yeah, AOL are a bunch of a$$holes...they refused to close an account I had and caused a bank account I used to have with U.S. Bank to go almost 400 bucks in the hole...just as much the banks fault as aols cause I told both of em that they weren't authorised anymore...they'll never get a d*mn dime of it....I don't care what collection agency they send it to....and they day comes that they start garnishing wages for crap like this will be the day I get in the car to go burn down their main office. It's bullsh*t, AOL does that to everybody that tries to cancel; people shouldn't have to put up with sh*t like that....business practices like that are what gives the internet a bad name. Period.

god bless you, Vincent. That was pricelessly funny. Way to stand up for the little guy, my friend.

Now I'm off to cancel AOL. And a few other things, just for fun.

I published the following column on kplctv.com last year. Our experience with cancelling the station's aol account was remarkably similar. "John" was pushed under the wheels of the bus as a token sacrifice, but his handling of cancellation requests (if you can ever actually get through to a "service" representative at aol) is Company Standard, if our experience and that of our viewers is any indication.

http://www.kplctv.com/Global/link.asp?L=160221&nav=menu66_8

-Jim Serra
VP/GM, KPLC-TV Lake Charles/Lafayette, La.
jserra@kplctv.com

I tried to cancel from Match.com back in March. I was two months into a three month deal. They sent me an email saying I would still be a member til April 10--I really didn't expect to get a prorated refund for the last month, so no big deal. When I get my credit card bill in April they had renewed me! I called and got a Heather McCallum. I demanded my money back, she told me they'd give me $20 of the $50 back, thus pocketing $30 for their mistake! I told her to refund it in full. The last thing she asked me? Do you want to cancel! Unbelievable. I told her I cancelled in March. Well two months later, still no refund. I go on Match.com. I was still a member and they were planning on recharging me in July! They have ignored all my emails. Incredible.

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 :)

You are all so stupid – why do you have to go though this ??
On the AOL software, when you go to keyword: cancel – they will tell you there that you can also send a fax or a letter with all the account details to them asking for the account to be cancelled – this take about 72 hrs to process. The information of how to do it is right there – they tell you how to do it .. so why going into fights …..
without talking to anybody – but few things you should do :

Put down all the information but all of it as to the account:
*Full name of the person named on the account as the billing contact.
*If you have the account number … great, if not the master screen mane.
*Full address and phone number as they appear on the account.
* And the last 4 digits of the payment method ie: c.card, bank account etc..
VERY IMPORTANT _ DON’T SKIPP ANY OF THAT INFO !! they tell you that there – even give you the address and fax number.

Keep the "fax received" confirmation just in case.

I did it that way – piece of cake – got a confirmation in the mail and e-mail.

to former AOL employee post on 6/24/06 4:39A
I don't think it matters if there was usage or not when someone decides no longer wants the account... or any service for that matter... furthermore, you are the one failing to understand... when John the rep said there was 500+ minutes of usage, the answer was "probably AIM usage" so... the customer acknowledges usage however continues to request cancelation.

I had AOL 1.0 when AOL first came out back in the days there wasn't one day gone by without a new AOL disk in my mail box. I'm extremely glad I found out about an independent ISP based in Miami (back in 1993) that provided 99.9% uptime and allowed me to browse outside the AOL content world.

AOL is internet with training wheels for the computer challenged user. AOL went from service provider to content provider. AND... read the link below:

PCWorld / The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,2,00.asp#aol

If watching CNN, FOX NEWS or reading this Blog does not convince you to drop AOL, you probably deserve to have it.

TechLevel2

plain and simple, I hate AOL

to "Mr.R" who post was on June 22 at 7:27pm,

You are right with your math but one thing just isn't working for you. Now maybe you didn't listen to the call or maybe you just don't hear well. But if you had listened to the call or paid attention you would have heard "John" say, "last month was 545 hours". So if my math is correct that would be about 18.16 hours in day in a 30 day month. So yeah I don't see that as a little usuage. To me that seems like a high speed user had their AOL on for most of the day and everyday.

did you know aol will let you keep you email address and screen name for use on aim so there is no point to pay for aol if you have a high speed conection their software sucks and the typical aol user has no business on the inter i would love to see aol go belly up and then maybe these morons who use it would have to learn to adapt and use the internet the right way
aol sucks
oh yeah just an fyi i have worked for them
and honestly the responce to any issue is just to get the customer off the phone as quick as possible they could care less how well the software work as long as the customer can see the adds splattered everywhere
oh if you want to cancel i just called them to get the # it's 1-888-265-8008

Having now read several hundred of the posts here I would like to emphasize two very interesting points that emerge from the discussion. First, perhaps the reason that John "no longer works for AOL" is simply that he _never worked for AOL._ In my protracted argument with the CSR from Verizon Wireless, I got her to admit that she in fact did not work for Verizon Wireless. "We're supposed to say we work for Verizon Wireless, but, like, when we get our checks they're from this other company; that's who we actually work for." She claimed, in fact, to be unable to contact anyone who worked at Verizon Wireless. In short worked for a company whose sole mandate it was, as a subcontractor, to *not* provide service to customers of Verizon Wireless! It's straight out of Terry Gilliam's film, _Brazil,_ where Jonathan Pryce's plumbing is exploding and the woman's voice on the phone says, "I'm sorry, Central Services no longer services calls centrally. This has not been a recording."

Second, I also really approve of the idea that consumers should take their complaints to the FTC, not the BBB or consumer groups. After all, what we're seeing here, effectively, as far as I can see, are massive conspiracies to commit fraud. Nothing more, nothing less. So people, a) cancel, b) document, and c) file an account of what happens with the FTC. Enron and MCI went down; AOL is overdue.

Congratulations!!! I successfully cancelled my AOL account about 2 years ago only after I had my fiance on another phone to witness the request to have the AOL service cancelled. When I informed the AOL representative about having a witness to my request, he became VERY angry. Fortunately the service was cancelled. I will NEVER use AOL again.

BTW, more recently I had a similar experience with AT & T. I was on the phone for 30 minutes attempting to communicate with someone from India before they FINALLY cancelled my long distance service. AT & T had threatened to turn me over to a collection agency for an account balance that accumulated AFTER I had requested my service be cancelled the first time. BEWARE CONSUMERS!

just to let you know aol not only is hard to cancel, but they do a few other things
1. they hide files into your computer, it is one of the hardest things to remove from your computer
2.they put out spam, and are virus laden, i have found on many peoples computer that if they have problems i can usually trace it back to aol.
3.the first thing i do when i work on a computer is to remove anything relating to aol, also if someone buys a computer be sure before going online to remove all aol software.
4.and make sure never to accept e mail from anyone on aol
hope this helps someone out there

Wow! When I heard on CNN-Showbiz Tonight that there was someone out there that actually beat AOL from hell, I was waiting with a pen n' paper ready to find out how you did it.
I cancelled AOL a two months ago via, AOL website, fax and phone, all three methods available to cancel.
It worked, so I thought! I was billed yesterday for $30.90. It comes directly out of my account.
I called my bank and they said I can do a Dispute. I will have to or change banks completely I guess.
I already paid the last expenses last month, but NO, I was still billed this month anyway.
I get no access to the cancelled AOL account at all. I am confirmed Cancelled yet still being billed a strange amount for dial up.
I deleted every single AOL file or folder I could find also.
I used TrueSwitch and did not get a single thing forwarded from AOL to MSN, nothing.
I did find a phone number for The Department for Consumer Affairs. I guess I really need to call it and file a formal complaint as well as the bank.
I saw on another news broadcast about a week ago that a guy has all the vital 800 numbers to live persons in administration departments for AOL and other companies but missed writing that information down.
Well, I'm sure glad you got away from AOL, I have not been able to.
I don't use a damn AOL thing, but still have to pay them.
I hate AOL's gutts.

I remember being on hold for 60 mins before I got someone on the phone to cancel. Thanks for bringing this to light.

From now on, I'm going to tell ALL service reps that I'm recording the conversation for 'quality assurance'

Thank you very much for posting this. We need more collective action to denounce this sort of thing. I had a similar experience trying to get a refund from Verizon Wireless for a service that I had cancelled. It took me more than six months to get my $120 back and repeated phone calls were to no effect. Finally I was helped by someone at a local Verizon office who "escalated" the complaint and I had a check within 24 hours. The experience made me never want to deal with Verizon Wireless again.

It is a crock that AOL seems to be walking away pretending that this was the employee's fault. If we all use the web more to get even for this kind of disrespectful treatment from big companies, perhaps we can actually induce them to change their customer-relations policies. In the meantime, the more public shaming they get, the better.

He probably got fired for saying "You WILL listen to me!" which wasn't even the annoying part. The annoying part was that he didn't simply process your cancellation in less than a minute and say "Have a nice day."

Am I wrong or does he make a Freudian slip toward the end, where he tries to read "We know you" and instead says "We annoy you"?

To all those of you who are going on and on about poor poor Johnny and his wife and kids and dog or whatever......I work for a company who has a customer service department. I can tell you first hand that while most customer service reps. are well versed in that art of trying to prevent people from getting a refund/cancellation/return, I would say that the overwhelming majority also are people who do not live in a hole.....they too have bank accounts, AOL accounts, credit cards, etc.....and they would not want to be treated that way if they had to call to cancel them. No one at this point really knows what his deal is or why he acted that way. But that doesn’t change the fact that it is ILLEGAL (i.e. what he did was break the law) in this country to deny, suppress, or withhold cancellation of a contract if the contract clearly states the user is free to terminate at anytime.

While yes, it is their job to try to get you to keep the account, it is not their job to threaten and annoy you to the point that you feel the need to scream, yell etc. The world is full of A-holes. That is reality (and they come on both ends of the phone line). No it’s not right to curse at someone, but it’s also not right to demand that someone who is funding your paycheck they must listen to you disrespect them.

While I do feel slightly sorry for John, it’s only because he was fired because this phone conversation was taped and blasted all over the media....but for that he would still be happily employed, trust me (maybe even promoted). He is a victim of the system that created him. However, he should have taken a lesson from all of his co-workers, some who work there for years and years, and have come up with some good tactics as to how to keep people from canceling that don't include lying.

The moral to the story.....why the hell is anyone using AOL? It is well known that AOL generates more advertisements per minute through its service then any other media service in the WORLD. Period. Why don't we all just graduate to the REAL internet? If you need an outside ISP before getting AOL broadband, why not use the outside ISP’s software to surf (if your a novice). By that I mean the Comcasts, the Verizons, etc…..they all come with their own software. If your not a novice, and you are not using IE, Firefox, Safari, etc. to surf the web, you need to have your head examined. AOL exists because it appeals to a group of people who don’t have computer experience enough to know they are being taken advantage of and can have a better experience on the web just using standard browsers, not Advertisement-Factories like AOL. You wanna shut down AOL? Get educated on how to use the internet without it, and teach those who aren’t computer savvy how to live without it too.....do that and AOL will crumble in a matter of months.

rick

First of all - When asked by anyone...my only response to that question is "ANYTHING BUT AOL" hahaha

I googled "best ISP" and found this for you:
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/isp/index.html

Notice at the bottom half of the page, after they go through the best ISP's, they make a note of stating that AOL is, in a word, awful.

I use Earthlink, and am very happy with the service. Good luck and when you call to cancel AOL, be sure to tape it!!!!

It seems that everyone has had the same experience with AOL. It's the only ISP in the world, probably, that needs a separate browser open for Internet access. If you accidentally hit close because you think you're using a normal web service - it's redialing all over again. And I always wondered why the broadband was exactly the same. Close the browser and poof there goes your connection without you knowing. Trying to call it to cancel the account...? Keep on dreaming. Even though I never got into an argument with the SVR, and just sat there listening to all her promotions - it was very, very, very annoying. In the end, after saying no to all of them again and again... took up about forty-minutes, I think the account got cancelled. It's the typical sales strategy, but AOL seems to be too aggressive with it. Sometimes you do have to pity those poor souls working for AOL - imagine the training they must have undergone in order to sound like that...

AOL... die....

THANK YOU! I had the same exact experience with AOL. I actually thought I was being phone scammed by a friend, I couldn't believe what was happening. The guy would not accept my cancellation. He went on and on and would not listen to me...It was soooo annoying! I actually couldn't talk to the guy anymore and gave the phone to my mom so she can yell at him. I have never experienced anything like that. I am COMPLETELY disgusted with AOL and those representatives should be ashamed of themselves.

We had an AOL account when we got our first computer. We had 12 months free from a deal and when those 12 months were up my mom called to cancel but they gave us anouther month free. Not sure what the point of that was cause we canceled after the extra month free anyways.

AOL now puts annoying ads into our E-mail. It took me four hours to fix the problem. The AOL Live Tech Support people wasted a lot of my time by telling me to do things that actually made matters worse. Sometimes, even when AOL is acting polite and helpful, they are being rude and troublesome.

Back to the Topic at hand, Thanks to you all who have shared your experiences trying to cancel your AOL service. This must be a case of "misery loving company." I have loved reading your posts!

Now, a plea for help --> Can anyone recommend an ISP I would be happier with than broadband AOL?

THANK YOU !!!

It boiled me to listen to that, too. However ... in spite of what AOL told you and the media, they DID NOT FIRE "John". The guy is too valuable for them to fire. I'll bet any amount of money he is still there but using a different fake name, now. I went through exactly the same thing with AT&T WorldNet.

i had the same problem with my dish network when i tried to cancel them. i tlaked to somebody for over 20 minutes there adn he kept trying to say that the price of cable has gone up twice in the last three years i told him dish went up 4 times in a year and that it was alot more he then said that the account was turned off at the end of the cycle i siad fine. then a monthh later i got a bill and it said that i owed them for even more channels than i suscribed to before i cancelled i called them back and they said i didnt speak to a person that was authorized to cancel my account that i had to toalk to somebody else i asked if the person still worked there they said yes that they did i informed thme that if i didnt get the bill wiped and service cancelled that i would sue for deceptive service (a law in florida it has a different name tho) and poof the bill was gone and my service cancelled.

also a an after thought most custmer service calls state that your call may be recorded, so if they are recording him why cant you record them???

A note for Shane and others, it is not illegal in all state to tape a conversation with out the other party knowing, in some state it is legal if only one person knows of the recording, the only time that recording becomes an issue is when you want to use it in a court of law, you have to right to record every conversation you have, but you may not be able to use them i a legal proceding.

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! I am so glad to hear that someone dealt with AOL and their demanding customer service dept. I used AOL for many years. And when I decided that it was cheaper for me to have my phone and internet service with the same company, I requested to have my service terminated. After making several attempts to cancel, AOL gave me about six months of free service. Once the six months was over, I called one of their rep. and had to have a 45 minute conversation requesting that they cancel the service and why I wanted the service cancelled. The conversation became so intense that I was forced to tell the rep. that she was an ass-hole to have me on the phone so long, and if I had to tell her again to cancel my service, I was going to contact every possible executive with the AOL corporation and act a damn fool. So... Vinny... I applaud you for your actions. And, I'm glad to know that someone was in the position to record this activity and take a stand. LaTrice

I WORKED for them as a volunteer, and got free dial up service (BACK IN THE DAY) beta testing new versions and hosting chats on questions for it...
When I decided to not use it anymore,,, THEY REFUSED to cancel my account I told them I would promptly pass out the username and password everywhere I could and the account was canceled promptly

Dude!!,
I just saw your piece on CNN I had an even worse experience with cancelling my AOL account. I cancelled my account in March 05, I spent about 25 minutes on the phone convincing them I did not want there business. I had switched to DSL through my cable company. I got a cancellation number and everything! Six months later I closed my bank account, that AOL had been taking ther money from. About 2 weeks after I had closed the account, I got a overdraft notice from my former bank. Aol had never closed my account!! So that was the first 35 dollar overdraft fee. So i called AOL, After 2 hours on the phone with 3 different associates ( i use that term loosely) all of them barely speaking english they were in India!!! I thought i had finally cancelled my account! WRONG It took a total of 4 more times to get out of the AOL matrix!!! Plus two more overdraft fees from my bank!! From an account that was closed. After all was said an done... AOL over charged me for 6 months, I got 49.95 back , which was taken away in overdraft fees...3 different times!!! I calculated AOL owed me 138.00, but after all the bullshit. I settled for 24.55!! And lost approximately 15 days(waiting for them to electronically deposit my money in a closed account, then the bank would take it away in overdraft fees 3 F---ing different times...that includes driving back and forth to the bank , being on hold for at least 12 hours, and having to put up with that terrible Indian accent!!!!!And like you my friend all I kept saying was I just want to cancell my account. .....PLease let me out of the Aol matrix....If ther is anyway I can help to bring them down I got your back!!! When I saw your piece on T.V. I was like wow how many people have they done this too??.. They have probably made millions on trusting people like me and you !!!!!!!

DOWN WITH AOL.........JOSHUA

same thing happened to me, took 30 min, told the lady i had sold my computer, she asked if i could use my friends, found out on my statements they were double charging me, said i had two accounts, when they admitted it was a mistake they needed me to write a letter explaining the problem and send it certified mail, did that, still didnt get my money back, how many people do think they are ripping off,, somebody investigate, then sue

Netscape is a subsidiary of AOL, and is pulling this same kind of crap, as I've discovered to my disgust. Somehow they lost the record of my request to cancel my account. They gave me a cancellation number when I didn't call to cancel (??), but somehow the cancellation number I recorded doesn't match any numbers in their records, so I'm out of luck.

Well, not really. I'd been paying for the account via credit card, and I had the foresight to have the credit card number changed BEFORE I called to cancel. So they can't touch my funds. Now all I have to put up with is some collection agency calling 5 or 6 times a day, despite my having told them to stop. They refuse to identify themselves, and they call from a different number each time. Betcha this ends up in court.

Sounds painfully familiar. This is how I did it and got instantaneous positive results:
a) Determine which credit card you are using to pay for the AOL service.
b) Call up the bank and notify them that the card has been lost or stolen; can't determine which. Ask them to issue a new card with a new number.
c) Call up AOL and politely request to close/cancel the account. If they resist in any way, then notify them that from this moment forward you will no longer use or pay for the service. You can disconnect this call whenever you wish.
d) I GUARENTEE YOU that they will immediately attempt to charge an additional month of service to your card on file.
e) They will instantly discover the card has been canceled, become irate, and immediately send you a threatening email, mentioning lawyers and lawsuit. SAVE this email for a while, and be assured you are NOW fully disconnected.

Try my method; it works. You get the desired results and some modicum of satisfaction, all at the same time. LOL

Enjoy!

I had a similar response about 18 months ago when it took me 45 minutes to cancel my account. My rep acted as if he couldn't hear me, when that failed he tried to convince me I would be really sorry if I cancelled and it might not be easy to get back on. He gave me several versions of,"I hear what you are saying but I would like to explain why this would be a mistake". He reduced me, a 53 year old woman to shouting and cursing(tho I did tell him it was for the people I hoped to God were listen to this call(which I was told would be taped). I am sure I was not an isolated case - so AOL knew in 2005 that this was occuring:BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEY WANTED.

Over two years ago I did the same thing. I decided to use my broadband provider for my email accounts. For about 30 minutes I had to argue with customer service rep to get the account cancelled and I mean ARGUE. It was ridiculous, I think it's something they are trained to do. I'll never use AOL again, I don't care what they have to offer.

that is funny these are the reasons we call them AO Hell

I recently had a similar type of experience with a credit card I was trying to cancle. In my oppinion this isn't just about a guy trying to hard to do his job. I'm sure these coporations push this type of behavior. If I was John(the AOL guy) I would sue AOL for firing me. Finally, who would use AOL? It's been know for years that they are just pushers. Look at all the CDs that you are given when you don't ask for one.

Just saw your story on cnn.com Great job in keeping your cool while handling this annoying and very frustrating situation. This should be a "heads up" to Corporate America to get a better handle on their customer service relations.
Joanne J-Bird Phillips

AOL was a leader. Way back when AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve were it for dial up access, because there was only dial up access, AOL's online content surpassed the competition and kept getting better and better. AOL tried its own DSL and Cable services but the costly fees AOL incurs on leasing phone lines and maintaining agreements with TWC's Brighthouse division now makes these "legacy" programs overly expensive and too costly too maintain for much longer.

For a novice internet user, or for protecting children for online predators, AOL software and parental controls are outstanding. I get calls all day from people who do not know what a tower, modem, CTRL key or monitor are. For them, AOL is very user friendly.
I am sorry you continued to get spammed. Upper management isn't always the best place for resolution, especially at AOL where there is a lack of communication between upper and local management. Truthfully, your mail probably was never directed to the right source and that is unfortunate.

AOL has made some decisions in the past few weeks that astound us. Delaying the release and no training on AOL Suite, no plans in the works for an AOL 10.0 ( can they keep tweaking 9.0 forever? ) a Safety and Security package the size of Texas, lack of co-ordinated support between AOL and its high speed partners ( Verizon, Charter, etc.) and the unbelievable decision to put ads on all email content. Those floor us each and every day.

I hope AOL can survive and make a decision about what it wants its future to be....

the first internet service account i got was aol, along with my sister, my dad paid for a year in advance for each of us, we liked it we asked for it for xmas the next year but on the third year we moved had no home phone and decided to cancel aol, and get cable, (also my sisters account had not been working for six months they sited her computer, a tech said her computer was fine, even my boyfriend a comp. science grad students said the computer was fine). well that is where the nightmare started first i could not cancel cause even thou everything was under my name the credit card was not, then i got that infomation called them and could not cancel cause i could not rember my address, (i had update my address and i had move three times i was a college student) i was told that as long as i cancel before my service ended i would be done, well after five calls the last my dad made, my service was canceled, in the mean time the automatical charged my dad for my sisters service, something that goes against consumer reg, cause he did not call and ask for extenstion, and when we singed up there was no cancelation clause, well he got hers canceled and then he got charged for my canceled account, them stating since i did not cancel in time. well here we are two canceled account, which they did cancel, and being charged for two one year services, that where not existant, (they erased our email addresses and we could not log in). i will say my dad got his money back he took it to the attorney generals office in north dakota and sued. it did take to years. i am sooo glad you published what you had to go through lets everyone know how sucky they are.

I had the same problem when I cancelled them 3 years ago. I have heard it has gotten worse. This proves it.

I am a former employee of a financial institution who personally took countless calls from AOL customers who stated they were billed by AOL after they had cancelled their accounts. This was the only ISP who engaged in this practice.

It later became quite clear that their retention deparment was engaging in unscruptulous practices when they were sued by and settled with the Attorneys General in New York and Ohio in August 2005.

I cancelled my AOL account months ago. My most recent credit card statement has it reinstated. Who did that? I most certainly did not, and I live alone!
They're usually really nice on the phone...like the person who cancelled my account...or who I thought had cancelled it. Is it possible to SORTA cancel an account? Or did they think I suddenly want it uncancelled??????????!

Aol

Aol has NEVER been a leader IMHO. I maintained an aol account for several years when I was a novice internet user. Aol preys upon people that are not very tech savvy.

I had over a dozen emails reporting tech support issues (including the advent of spammers) that I sent to aol (mostly to steve what's his face). The responce was TRIVIAL.

When I cancelled my account, the representative was kinder than he was to you - but to think that aol doesn't breed that abusive culture does not cross my mind. He took almost 10 minutes. I identified myself as a computer technology professional that did not WANT to pay to be spammed. He offered free service for 3 months.

10 minutes - I should have billed at the usual 2 hour minimum.

Regards

Reminds me of the AOL rep when I wanted to cancel my account a few years ago. It was an extremely frustrating 10 minute call because he just wouldn't listen. I told him that I knew he got credit for stopping people from canceling their account and that's why he was being so difficult.

Then he actually told me that wasn't true and that AOL didn't even have a marketing department. Guess those discs can reproduce and mail themselves. I finally hung up on him and called back a few minutes later.

Another rep answered the call and started asking the same questions. I refused to answer any of them and kept repeating that I wanted to cancel the account. Finally the second rep realized that he wasn't going to change my mind and canceled the account.

After reading the postings here for the past several days, and as a current AOL employee ( I work in tech support ) I finally wanted to comment and also provide some insight as to what is happening at AOL right now that is affecting those of us not involved with retention/saves/MRM or whatever they are calling us these days.

Was John right to do what he did? No, because his training teaches him different behavior. Could we really expect John to do things the "right" way post training? Not really. Is obnoxious behavior encouraged "on the floor" once John left training and started taking calls? Yep, it is. It's encouraged by the bonus program AOL has in place for the saves CSR's. Most importantly it is encouraged by the immediate supervisors of the CSR's, whose benefits are calculated based on employee performance. Saves CSR's are encouraged to make big bonuses by their supervisors because that helps supervisors make big bonuses to continue to make payments on those Lexus SUV's that dot our parking lot. My bonus is about 10% of what they make and the ethics in tech support are much better. So, while I would say one could not condone John's behavior, one could understand it. I think that moving forward the company has no choice but to completely change the way saves does their job, and possibly reduce the size of that department and let people just cancel online or call in and not be hassled.

AOL management is now scrambling to save face and it's funny to watch and read their latest communications encouraging everyone to be nice to the customer. I'm always nice, so are my tech co-workers. I suppose our job is made easier because members call us for help connecting online or help using features on AOL so they are usually pretty easy to work with. The irate ones are either just nuts ( who'd harass any company ) or people with legitimate complaints about previous phone calls. Most of that is due to the fact that tech support in India is partially outsourced so we can't trace back to the person who helped make the situation worse for the member before we got involved.

John was his real name, he did work in Ogden, and he was fired.

If you call now and tell us you are recording the call, we cannot hang up on you.

If you call in ( like someone did this morning ) and call me a dick, asshole, fucking whatever....I have to be as nice as possible to you because you are the customer. I have to work really hard to get your POS Windows 98 64 MB Ram PC loaded with our latest software and help you get connected. My call times have suffered and I probably won't get much of my measly little bonus this month, but I do understand why. AOL has become a target for pranks over the last couple of days as a result of corporate behavior.

The best thing that could happen is for TimeWarner to dump us so we can become a leader again.

It's sad things have come this far when it comes to customer service. I recently had a problem with two companies like this involinvg a router and dsl. Told them exactly what the problem was and they had no idea what I was talking about. Their was a conflict with the router and modem thus one ip needed to be changed. After spending 3hrs on the phone the router company gave me vauge instructiosn to solve the problem. In the end neither company could help me solve the problem completly

Being excellent at customer service also entails that you know who and what you are working for. That you are part of a team. This guy demonstrated excellence at his job, but poor choice of employer. I am sure he would have loved to be able to instantly cancel and refund the months remainder. That is a significant long term perspective decision by the company. His bosses three or four levels up should be fired for being short sighted managers. But the "go get your dad" was his idea, and that unreasonable sarcastic attempt should be dealt with. Trouble is, he is most likely a prison contractor working a phone and had nothing to loose to begin with.

"Because it is my job" to me is a poor excuse and the sign of sheep.

I'm glad this story is getting the media coverage it deserves. I had an AOL account I tried to cancel almost a DECADE ago -- SAME DEAL! :) Never considered AOL since, and have recommended to MANY friends through the years to avoid AOL like the plague!

CANCELLED the day after I heard your interview!

THANKS!

Yeah, they gave me a hard time too! Mine was more civil though :) Luckily I know something about computers and computer security to not get duped by them. They gave me reasons like, "oh, but AOL provides state of the art security, anti-virus, spyware detection, etc", and I'm like...uh, I can get those features with my normal ISP and I don't need AOL". They also say "oh, you get unlimited email when you're not logged in, stream video and live radio music, etc". And I say, "uh, I can still do that in www.aol.com even if I'm not subscribed". Basically, every reason they give me why I should stick I always have a rebuttal why I should cancel. In the end, she gave up and cancelled my account.

I saw your story on CNN, and decided to visit your blog. I too have my own frustrating tales of trying to cancel ny AOL account on several occasions. Recently I had been considering whether or not to try AOL again because their rates for high speed in my area I think are lower than my current ISP offers.

But after hearing your story, and reading how many people have had similar experiences, I'm convinced that AOL trains their workers to follow these annoying routines, and I rather not be involved with a company like that.

Even if they are only training their phone reps to try to get the customer to not to cancel-- which is perhaps reasonable-- there's a right and a wrong way of doing things. They need to develop a policy that at least shows some respect for the customer. For example, if they feel they must at least make an attempt to keep the customer, they could ask something like this:

"For company records, would you mind telling us why you're cancelling the account today? (they might even read the customer a multiple choice list of possible responses). But if the customer doesn't want to answer the question, or just says "cancel"-- the customer's wishes should be respected.

I know people, myself included, who have called to cancel their account, only to stay on with AOL a little longer because it is so unpleasant to deal with a rep who won't take no for an answer.

Hoepfully the wide publicity your story is receiving will help bring around some very needed, long overdue policy changes at AOL.

Same thing happened to me. I was on the phone for probably about 20 minutes trying to cancel my account. The woman kept trying to offer me a couple of months of free service or other freebies. I kept telling her that I didn't want AOL. I just bought a laptop with wi-fi and can get free internet at school and at my church. She didn't care. It was sooo annoying, but finally she agreed to cancel it. What worked is that I was not putting up with her crap. I was assertive and didn't fall for her tactics to try to keep me as a customer.

I remember cancelling my account, and it took about a whole hour for the guy to finally do it for me.

Yes i knew alot of people that wouldn't allow the caller to cancel there account. When you ask to cancel they are going to try to keep you, if you tell them you don't want to keep the ISP and they keep trying to talk you out of it stop talking to them and tell them you want to speak with there supervisor. Thats as easy as it gets, you wont have to get mad and it will save you time. One thing to remember you have to ask for the supervisor a few times until they try to connect you to one.

I had the same problem trying to cancel my earthlink account. When I called customer service, they answered in a matter of seconds. When I told them I wanted to cancel, they said that a different department takes care of that and they transferred me. I was put on hold for 20 minutes. Obviously when the person eventually came on the line I was not very happy. I knew the game they were playing. Most people would have hung up before the 20 minutes had passed.

Then I got the same stupid questions that you did. Over and over again trying to talk me out of cancelling. In the end I had to insult him, his mother and every other relative of his before he grew tired of talking to me and cancelled my account.

The problem is that these are not the only companies doing it. Many companies make it very easy to sign up and almost impossible to cancel. Something should be done about it.

Thanks for bringing this problem out into the open.

Ed,

If they only charge for the current month in use, that is fine. But AOL doesn't do that. Using your example, AOL would continue to bill you on July 15th, August 15th, September 15th, October 15th, November 15th, December 15th and so on. Only until you threaten the involvement of legal counsel, does the AOL rep hear the words: cancel my account. AOL's practice is pervasive and AOL reps are just as much to blame. No one with a soul or a heart would work in AOL's CSR dept, period!

--Chey

My son just got a new computer and hooked up to Cox with phone,cable, and internet. He tried to close his AOL account because he no longer needs it and had the same problem getting them to cancel his account.

Darn, this kid is getting too much traffic to his website! lol.

I never used AOL, and do not intend to.

HA HA you guys crack me up. I worked for one of the companies you guys are complaing about. I totally understand why you guys are mad but its our job to keep you from canceling your account. I don't know about the other people but I never tried to piss off the caller to make them hang up so they had to keep there account. To make a remark about a statement i saw about not canceling the account now but doing so in a month. They bill you a month in advance so lets say your bill date is june 15th and you call on june 23 to cancel your account, it is still usable until july 14th because you paid for the month. Then the account gets closed at 11:59pm so you wont get charged again. If you read the fine print you will see that this is how they charge for there accounts. Alot of people argue about wanting the month prorated but that is in the fine print too. My best advice to everyone is read the fine print before you sign anything or agree to do anything.

Several years ago, I tried to cancel an AOL account. It was a nightmare. I couldn't believe how many nosey questions they were asking me, treating me like I was a 10 year old who was trying to return a toy purchased at WalMart. The highlight of the experience was when they transferred me to a customer service rep who was familiar with my geographical area. This guy then tried 'male bonding' with me by making specific references to my town (asking, for example, if I enjoyed fishing at a nearby lake because he used to go there) and trying to buddy-talk me. I was offended and exasperated by the fact that it is easier to get a divorce than to cancel an AOL account.

But the biggest farce of all is AOLs public comments about "this is not the way we conduct business" and "we will not tolerate things like this" when, in fact, they TEACH their customer service people these procedures and tricks. Anything less than a full admission of guilt and public apology from AOL is a lie and should not be believed. I am angry all over again just reading your account and all the others.

If AOL is serious about changing their ways and mending their internal procedures, they should make THIS BLOG the required reading at their company!!!!!

Finally, everyone will believe me!!! Three years ago I cancelled my AOL account after enduring an unbelievably rude and crude CSR. I was cursed at, called names and hung up on. I asked for the supervisor and was told I did not need to speak to a supervisor. I was told I had cancelled a day too late and would have to pay an extra month for service I did not want. It was jaw dropping! My family thought I was exaggerating my experience but now I am vindicated.

I loved reading your page and hearing about you in the news. When my father passed away I had a really hard time cancelling his account. He received 3 "We miss you; come back" letters after I made the phone call. I am pretty sure he didn't get them.

I canceled my aol account two monthes before my trial ended. I cancelled ahgead of timecause I knew I'd forget. I called and battled for 10 minutes trying to cancel my account."Why don't I keep your account active till your trial period ends". -aol rep
" I believe I may not have been clear so I will say it again. I am calling to cancel my account.- me. What part of "cancel my account" is not clear. I saw your segment on CNN and excited that someone taped the call to share with the World. Thank you!

This recording demonstrated that the legendary reputation of AOL was not just an exaggeration. But I am surprised at the defensive reaction of so many people who obviously haven't read carefully.

Anyone who wants to defend AOL needs to look at AOL's history, not just this one caller's recording. Yes, poor customer service is common-place and continues to grow. Yes, you can rattle off many companies who are just as reluctant to cancel customer accounts. What sets AOL apart is its apparent Standard Operating Procedure of telling customers they've canceled their membership, while continuing to draw money from the customer's credit/checking account in the hopes that the customer won't check their statements. AOL has a reputation among bank employees that sets them apart from others.

And why do people point to the AOL rep's claim that Vincent had 545 hours of usage, as if that were a fact? How gullible can you be??? Any company that continues to draw money from customer accounts, after fooling them into thinking they've canceled, will have no compunction about telling their phone reps to lie to the customer. If one has to choose between Vincent's honesty and AOL's honesty, there's really no contest unless you can give a body count of how many people Vincent has ripped off or how many states Attorneys General have filed class action suits against him.

As for "John" being fired, it may well be true. I'll wait until I see a reporter stick a microphone in his face. Until then, given AOL's track record on truth-telling, I remain skeptical. And to those who keep picture-painting about his "wife and kids": How do you know he isn't childless and beats up his girlfriend every night? I can paint pictures too, but they're just as meaningless as yours.

I also laugh at people begrudging the caller's "15 minutes/seconds of fame". It's a small counter to AOL's YEARS of INFAMY. Whether he intended it or not, he did a great service for those who wish to cancel their AOL and have procrastinating, because now is probably a good time. With all the publicity, there may be a narrow window of advantage. When they ask why you're canceling, just say "too many lengthy customer service calls" Thereafter, whatever they say, you can tell them they are just proving your point.

I KNOW THE FEELING! I AM TYPING THIS LARGE TYPE CAUSE IT EASY FOR ANYONE OVER 50 TO READ IT! I HAD THE SAME TYPE OF PROBLEM WHEN I CANCELED MY AOL ACCOUNT (GET THIS) THREE YEARS AGO! I DONT USE CREDIT CARDS SO I WAS USING MY ACCOUNT TO PAY FOR THE SERVICE! WELL THEY TOLD ME TO OPEN ANOTHER ACCOUNT WITH MY BANK IF I WANNA MY SERVICE TO CONTINUE! AND THEN IT GOT REALLY WEIRD I SAID CANCEL MY ACCOUNT AND GOT ALL THE STUPID QUESTIONS THEY ASK AND THEY HAVE THE FACTS RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM ABOUT THEIR SUBSCRIBERS! IT TOOK A LONG TIME FOR THE REP TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT PLUS I TRY CALLING BACK AND TRY TO GET A REASONABLE PERSON TO TALK WITH! AOL WELL SORRY TO SAY IT SUCKS BIG TIME!

I had a similar problem with trying to cancel an AOL account. They tried to sell me new computers, etc., as well. They then told me that they'd cancel my account but let me have it for an extra month so I could take care of informing friends of my new e-mail address, etc. I asked what happens after the one month. They told me that if I don't call them back that I get auto-billed and my account becomes active again. Yeah, watch out for that trick.

They also told me all about my usage as well -- I hadn't used the damn thing in 6 months.

In response to Steve's comment about going in with a chip on your shoulder - I started off my call very politely. I said please, I said thank you, I used a calm quiet tone. I even asked the guy how his day was going. Then HE got rude with ME because I wanted to cancel. Same deal. They like to hang up on you when you're canceling, too, so you have to go through the same trouble.

Even after cancelling, they billed me once more. I called my credit card company and reported it.

They said they don't tolerate this kind of thing from their employees.
Bullcrap! I went through weeks to get them to cancel. When I threatened to get a lawer they finally canceled. It is their policy to have their employees do anything to keep you. When they get a serious threat or are shown on CNN
they say OH! We will fire the employee because that is not our policy.
They are nothing but greedy liers.

I cancelled AOL last year (2005) I really had no problems BECAUSE I went on the blogs and read everything so when I called AOL I was ready for them. I told the person on the phone "I didn't want to hear anything from him but Ma'am your AOL account is cancelled". He still tried to find out who I was going with and why. I told him it was none of his business. My account was cancelled..

This ALSO happened to me when I canceled. It tool over 20 minutes and a lot of back of forth. AOL is LYING when they sent you that letter saying it was an isolted incident. It is protocol for them to do that when they have a customer on the line trying to cancel. Thanks for bringing this in the spotlight.

Hey,

I just saw you on CNN...and I think that it is kind of funny how hard it is to cancel AOL. They are soo scared of losing business for some reason. I worked in a Call Center at one point in my life and when people would threaten to cancel...I would tell them go right ahead, its not going to hurt us. I mean if someone wants to cancel something then they should be able to do it right then. But oh well...

---Madison---

I saw your story on CNN today...what a joke. Thank god I never used AOL..or what I like to call "Internet for Dummies 8.0".

I know I sound like the dozens of others who have posted here, but the exact same thing happened to me about 2 years ago. Actually, after listening to your audio file, my rep was even a bit ruder I think. I called at 2 a.m. (I'm a night worker) and got an Indian CSR. She gave me the whole run around, and like you, I insisted I just want my account canceled. Then she told me she couldn't do it. Why the hell does AOL give you a number to call for cancellations, and it goes to reps who can't even perform the task? Wth? I asked to speak to a supervisor, and the rep got pretty hostile, stating that the super wouldn't be able to able to cancel my account either. The super gave me another 800 number to call. I waited until the next afternoon and called, getting someone in the States who was able to cancel my account and wasn't rude about it.

I have a friend that used to work at a MSN call center. His whole job was to talk people about of canceling their Internet accounts. It's called a "save." He even talked a woman out of canceling her recently deceased husband's account. Pretty awful, but then again, he was trying to support his ailing mother and himself, so I can understand the need to bring home a paycheck.

Hey there!

I cancelled my AOL account a couple of months ago and it took more than 15 minutes to do, and then I got disconnected. I figured that was part of the scam but it did get cancelled so it worked out.

I didn't interrupt the person, tried to answer all their questions but I was definitely annoyed. At the point where you started interrupting him and just responding "cancel the account" he went off script, however, the beginning was verbatim for what I got when I called. So I guess they fired him because he went off script, but that annoying process is THEIRS and they want it that way---so it's not like the guy got fired for reading the script part. Had you not gotten straight to the point by repeating "cancel the account", they would have continued to ask about your usage, your connection speed and what other ways you plan to email people (as if there aren't a ton of FREE email options available these days!) Several of the questions were re-worded, but the same question. A stall technique, any means necessary to get you to stay on. What a pain.

THEN, after all this, I get a note from them telling me I can use their email for FREE by using the website interface and not their software. LOL What a joke. I'm so glad to be out from under them and their monthly charges.

I work at a call center and we would never behave like that! When someone wants to cancel an account with my company, we have no retention scripting at all. We just say, "ok, here is your reference number for canceling the account," and that's that. However, my company has many other heinous things that they do to their customers which are really not cool.

I've heard horror stories about AOL while on the phone with customers. One guy had his nephew come to visit, and because of the above-mentioned shopping programs, (all you have to do is be logged into AOL and it stores all of your credit card info for one-click shopping), his nephew ordered a ton of shit off the internet on his uncle's credit card.

I remember once a few years ago, my roommate tried to cancel her AOL account because she was going to work for the Forest Service for six months in a cabin with no electricity. The AOL rep kept wanting her to get me on the phone to see if I wanted AOL. My roommate, being way too easily pushed around by other people, actually brought the phone over to me. I refused to speak to the rep and just repeated, loudly, "AOL sucks." It took my roommate forever to get them to cancel the account, but now she has AOL again. Maybe they didn't let her cancel the account after all.

The only reason that call center reps are that aggressive about anything is because at call centers they have all of these stupid incentive programs for reps that have no basis in reality and are directly at odds with actual customer interaction.

I went through a similar exercise when I tried to cancel my AOL account. They gave me every reason under the sun not to cancel my inactive, obsolete and unwanted account, none of which convinced me.

Finally, I said, "Ok here's the deal, your calls are recorded for QA I'm also recording this call. You have my name, account number and security info for verification, you heard me say no less than 15 times to cancel my account. If a new charge appears on my credit card I will then remand that to Visa collections for fraudulent charges and you can explain to them why you felt it necessary to continue charging me for services I very clearly don't want'." It was AMAZING how quickly the CSR switched to cancel mode.

"John" no longer works for the company. All they did was change his name to 'Andy" or whatever.

When I worked boiler-rooms, we used to make bets on various things. For instance, how long before the customer got pissed off. (The shortest time won). How long could you keep the customer on the line, etc. all approved by the managers, who get a piece of the action when we keep the customer.

Of course the managers are under pressure not to lose customers, so they sanction these in-your-face tactics because be-littling is the surest way to keep them, percentage-wise.

It's good that the bait wasn't taken by those of you who have told your stories here. But there are thousands more who fall for this crap. If not, they'd shut down the CS dept. and REALLY fire "John".

I'd bet ten bucks ol' "John" is Employee of the Year.

I had the same problem with AOL myself, they also have these shopping programs and credit watch programs, and if you don't read the small print after a month they will automatically sign you up if you don't cancel in writing. Well, I did send letters for both programs saying to cancel, and guess what - they tried to debit my bank account a $79 membership fee! I put a stop payment on the charge, and called AOL three times and got the same runaround - they wouldn't cancel my subscription. Finally, on the fourth call I made, I got a gal who actually listened to me and said she would cancel the subscription and even gave me a confirmation number - she said that type of thing (the phone runaround) happens all the time. I tell everyone I know that AOL is the worst ISP ever!!!!

It has to be obvious to everyone that these workers are being trained to respond this way. I know several people, myself included, who also had to deal with this. The first time I tried, I actually become so outraged I just hung up the phone.

Unbelievable that this isn't just happening once in a while.
Just the other day this occurred to me, not with AOL but with a collection agency being used by Direct TV.
I had tried to settle a bill with Direct TV since I had canceled my service but was still being billed for an extra month, even though they always bill a month in advanced.
Then I have this company called Allied Interstate harassing me. Calling from 7 am to 11 pm on weekdays and weekends approximately 10-15 times a day over a $63 bill that I didn't even owe.
When I tried asking for their supervisor the customer rep simply hung up the phone on me not once but multiple times.
Finally they put me through what supposable was the supervisors answering machine and I told them I had contacted my lawyer regarding this matter of them harassing me and that I knew the laws in the State of Florida regarding collection.
I finally got a call back from some guy named Enrique. I repeatedly asked for a supervisor.
The guy just kept telling me that he would not pass the call through unless I settled the $63 bill.
I must have been on the phone with this guy for like what seemed an eternity (must have been like 15 minutes).
And still he would not pass me to a supervisor.
I had to tell him if he understood English and seriously it felt like I was speaking to an idiot.
I was forced to contact Direct TV again and of course they apologized for what happened.
But really what good is an apology when nothing seems to change in this ever increasing customer rep world!!!!

I had the exact same experience in trying to cancel AOL. I was on the phone for a long time before they finally let me cancel. I even asked questions like "Are you actually trying to stall so I'll just give up and not cancel?" To which he would reply: "No, but did you know that AOL provides superior virus protection and protection against identity theft" It got to the point where me and my wife who were both on the phone, were yelling profanities at the guy, and he threatened to hang up if we kept at it! How ridiculous is that? How could this be a company policy? Do they honestly expect that I would EVER come back as a customer after treatment like that?

It wasn't "normal" behavior.

Normal behavior is spending 10 minutes trying to convince the customer not to cancel constantly.

Normal behavior is not threatening the customer with "your going to let me speak or else".

Normal behavior is not "the feeling is mutual my friend".

Perhaps alot of you people did not listen to the audio on THIS site, the FULL recording where he does all these things and only heard the edited 3 minute version floating around where they removed the personal insults and threats from the recording.

Take a listen to the one on this site, there is no way any logical person can say any company, even AOL, instructed employees to do what this guy did.

:evil:
I went through pretty much the same thing when I tried to cancell my account last fall. And all for naught as now I have a collection agency after me treatening to ruin my credit worse than the Bush Administration already has. So I went through a 15-20 minute ordeal to get my account cancelled, only to find on my next bank statement that they were still removing money from my bank account. So I called the bank and changed my account so AOhelL could no longer steal my money for an account I had already cancled. When they couldn't get to my bank account any more, I started getting 3-4 calls a day telling me I owed them money, a few weeks of this went by when the calls began to come from a collection agency. They want $101.00 to leave me alone. I tell them I would be more apt to spend 1000 times more than that on a lawyer than to give in to their blackmail. After they hear the word Lawyer they back off for a few weeks and then start the harrassment again.

In spite of the AoL supporters and shills comments to the contrary, Federal law does indeed allow the covert recording of phone calls with the consent of at least one party to the call. 38 states and DC allow the recording of conversations to which they are a party ** without ** telling the other parties that they are doing so. This is referred to as "one-party consent". As long as you are a party to the conversation, it is legal for you to record it.

California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington require, under most circumstances, the consent of all parties to a conversation.

The appropriate section of the U.S. Code is Title 18 U.S.C. §2511(d) which reads: It shall not be unlawful under this chapter for a person not acting under color of law to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication where such person is a party to the communication or where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to such interception unless such communication is intercepted for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of the Constitution or laws of the United States or of any State.

I'm so glad AoL cancelled my account.

I am really disapointed that AOL acted like this was an isolated incident. It took my six months to get AOL to cancel my account, I had more then 20 conversations likethe one Vinny had. Way to go recording it! This is how all of AOL phone customer service people act, at least each time I called. I feel bad that the guy lost his job, I am sure he was doing what he was trained and told to do. It was sad to see AOL deny this behavior as normal for them.

To the people saying "He's just doing his job", that's a load of crap.

He went way beyond "doing his job".

He didn't just "annoy" the customer.

He insulted the customer, threatened the customer, argued with the customer and yelled at the customer.

AoL may unofficially tell their employees to do certain things but this goes way way beyond any of that.

I hope this tape haunts that employee for his entire life and he winds up begging on street corners or doing handjobs for lunch.

I just saw your story on th CNN web site - good for you! I, too, had major issues cancelling my AOL account about 9 or 10 years ago and the conversations I had with the customer service reps sounded so much like yours I about fell off my chair. I became absolutely livid after having asked numerous times to just cancel the damn thing, and still they kept transferring me around, trying to sell me things, demanding to know why I was leaving.

My reasons for leaving were not lack of use, but rather some serious issues. I took online classes and would consistently be knocked offline during class. I guess back then if you didn't type anything, they assumed you weren't using the service, so they booted you. This after a good 20 minutes minimum time to actually log on. (before the cable/DSL days)

I expressed my dissatisfaction in emails to friends and - I kid you not - received a chastising email from an AOL person in response to my conversations!!! So how the hell did he get that info? Reading my emails? I had no idea who he was and the emails were only sent to my personal addresses. Somehow he tracked the conversation and felt he needed to butt in to defend his company. I was on the phone the next day to cancel, and even after explaining this (I had kept the email proof, too) they wouldn't let me go.

I tried again days later with different reps - also to no avail. In the end, a two-page fax with a law suit threat was what finally ended my contract.

So I feel your pain - and despite what they say, it's not this one operator. My nearly identical experience (minus the dad part!) was almost 10 years ago with at least 2 different operators. I don't buy for a minute that they "do not tolerate this kind of harrassment" or whatever they said.

I'm so glad these practices have finally been made more public - I hope this encourages AOL to change their policies.

AOL has been known to be this way for at least 10 years. AOL got caught with their pants down. Hopefully everyone who has supported this policy will get fired.

I feel your pain. I've gone through that process twice. Once back in about 1998 cancelling my own account. Then again about a year and a half ago cancelling my mom's account (I had to force her off of it by getting her a new computer all tricked out with her own website and permanent e-mail). Both times were very similar including offers for free time, that I'd need to reconsider my desire to cancel, blah blah blah. Its amazing how difficult they attempt to make it all in hopes that you'll get so frustrated and stay.

I'm so happy to know that my immediate family does not use that service. If only I could get cousins off of it.

I once canceled an AOL subscription with a conversation that featured the following:

Me: I have broadband, so I really don't need your service at all. I signed
up for a trial because I needed to complete an offer for another site.
AOL Guy: What do I have to give you to get you to stay with AOL?
Me: A million dollars and a blow job'd do it.
AOL Guy: (laughs) Listen, if you saw me, you wouldn't be asking for that.
And anyway, you're a college guy, shouldn't you be getting laid
all the time? Why aren't you getting a blow job right now, while
you're on the phone?
Me: A man's got to rest!
***

I promise, that's all real. Eventually, he agreed to cancel my service, but not before he charged me for an extra month.
A.

AOL is A O HELL!!!!!! i had to sign up for aol just so i could re establish internet after my computer crashed....it came pre loaded with A O HELL so i thought what's the harm, right? well....i got my ISP program downloaded and then called up AOL to tell them i didn't want their service anymore...so the first thing i did when i called them was i told them the reason why i downloaded it in the first place (sure to make THEM happy!!!) and then I waited while the woman pulled up my account...she then proceeded to tell me "hey we got this for 199,999,999.95 a month..." "lady...i don't want your service...i want OUT!!"..."are you sure?".."yes i am sure.." "hey we got such and such program for 200,000,000.00 a month".."maybe you didn't hear me lady...I SAID I DON"T WANT YOUR SERVICE ANYMORE!!!!! JUST CANCEL MY ACCOUNT!!!".."are you sure???"...."YES!!!! YES!!!! A MILLION TIMES OVER YES!!!! I AM COMPLETELY POSITIVELY ABSOLUTELY SURE I DON"T WANT AOL!!!! CANCEL MY ACCOUNT!!!!"..."okay but if you wish you can call us back to sign up..."..."yeah right lady that's not happening"..."okay sir your account is cancelled thank you for choosing A O HELL..."GOODBYE and THANK GOD!!!!!" CLICK!!!!!

I wish I would have taped mine, such a good idea. They flat out refused to cancel my account because I hadn't completed the free trial. (I just didn't care for the software and speed). When I asked for a manager I was also refused. When I asked for the person's name I was speaking to. I was refused "I already told you my name". I ended up hanging up and calling back, once I was done waiting they informed me that my account had already been cancelled. I will never use their service again and have encouraged my friends and family to cancel their accounts.... that is if they can get them cancelled. Its great that you have brought this to more people's attention because the only way that this business is going to get the message is if it starts hurting them in the pocketbook.

Dave
Charlotte, NC

similiar experience.
the guy should not have been fired, as it is obviously company policy to do this.
I have hundreds and hundreds of their "free" disks that I have picked up at stores just because they pissed me off.

Awww man ... this is the 1st time I've heard about how difficult it is to cancel AOL ... and I'm suppose to cancel it for my parents shortly. I thought it might be a bit annoying (I've dealt with whining credit cards reps before) but this is ridiculous.

It sounds like the same script that an abusive rep from another company used (Prudential ... trying to cancel a life insurance policy) although he asked for my mom instead (and I'm in my 30s).

Do all these reps from these companies hang out at a bar somewhere after work and swap best practices on how to abuse their customers??? They probably get huge bonuses after retaining a customer. Extra points if you can make them cry!

IF YOU FEEL YOU HAVE BEEN WRONGED BY AMERICA ONLINE'S BUSINESS PRACTICE WHETHER IT'S FALSE CANCELLATION OR CONTINUED BILLING AFTER CANCELLATION, CONTACT YOUR STATE'S ATTORNEY GENERAL. ENOUGH COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY THE STATE'S ATTORNEY GENERAL WILL PROMPT AN INVESTIGATION AND POSSIBILY, A CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT. AOL NEEDS TO BE SUED AND THEIR BUSINESS PRACTICE NEEDS TO CHANGE. I MYSELF HAVE JUST FILED A COMPLAINT WITH THE CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE OVER AOL'S BUSINESS PRACTICE. I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO DO SO. LET'S PUT A STOP TO AOL'S FRAUDULENT BUSINESS PRACTICE.

I listened to that recording and I couldn't believe my ears. I had a similar run in with UPS and their CSRs are hopeless. Fortuneately I documented my calls. But THIS call takes the cake. OMG I'm glad I never got sucked into AOL. I never, in a million years, would have expected this Nazi-like interrogation from this firm. Wow.

I also tried to cancel my AOL account and was told after more than 45 minutes of arguing with someone who was "trying to do me a favor" by giving me a month free and when I pushed to cancel, proceeded to tell me "how unappreciative I was since he was trying to do me a favor" then said he would close my account. I then got two months later a collection letter from a company AOL sent my account to for services rendered AFTER I had already canceled the account. When I called them, they told me the account had not been canceled and they would cut my overdue bill in half (though I did not have AOL during that time). I told them I would take them to small claims court and the account was erased from the billing collector and I receive an apology letter. This was over a two week period of time. I think AOL is a disgrace and a big scam.

If all employees are singing the same song who do you think is pushing them to do so??? I would encourage all AOL customers to close their accounts to send the message that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.

Letter sent to AOL - Never did get reimbursed but the account was FINALLY cancelled:

September 19, 2005

Reference Account ###########
Tracie Danner
# West # North
City, Utah 840##

Attn: Billing Operations and Services

In November, 2004 I signed up my daughter for a 6 month free trial of AOL. After only 2 free months, a charge came through my account in January, 2005 for $23.90. I called AOL and disputed this charge and was told that I couldn’t get a reimbursement (apparently AOL doesn’t allow reimbursements?) but that I could get 2 months of free service. I complained that I was still owed 4 months of free service. I assumed that the issue was resolved. In February I was again charged $23.90. I called AOL again and we had the same conversation as in January. Again, in March, the charge came through and I once again called AOL and was assured that the next 4 months would be free. I did receive 2 months of free service (April and May) but in June the charge again came through for $23.90. At this point, I called AOL and requested that the account be cancelled completely and no further charges be assessed. Subsequently, I have been charged for the AOL account in June, July, August, and now September. I have called you EACH month and have been assured the account is cancelled and no further charges will come through but NOTHING has been done.

CANCEL MY AOL ACCOUNT NOW!

At this point, I am demanding a refund for all of the charges that YOU have incurred in 2005. I am owed for any and all monthly charges that should have NEVER happened. I am enclosing a statement that shows each month activity from AOL in my bank account. You owe me $167.30.

At this point, if I encounter ONE MORE charge through my bank account that is going to AOL, I will involve legal counsel and discuss my rights for consumer fraud.

I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you that I have been treated with nothing but disrespect through this nightmare. So much so, that during a conversation I had today with one of your employees, she actually snickered and said that my 25 year old daughter may be the problem and am I sure that this is all true. Excuse me? Who is the customer here and what is she insinuating? I will have nothing but bad things to say about America Online for the rest of my life. I will now give AOL bad reviews and will not recommend your services to all of my friends and family members.

I want to receive a phone call to discuss reimbursement. You can reach me at work ###-###-#### during normal business hours.

Sincerely,


Lezlee Danner

aol played with me as well when I called to cancel. They actually told me "no" when I requested the cancellation. They said it was mandatory for me to have the last 4 digits of my credit card used to open the account. The account was several years old....I no longer had that card. It was a nightmare. I will never go back to them ...no matter what

I had a similar experience with AOL when I wanted to cancel them upon getting Verizon DSL. What a crock of poop I had to go through, they tried everything....even lowering the price (my response to that was IF YOU GIVE IT TO ME FOR FREE I MAY RECONSIDER!!!!), they also tried to tell me that I would still be billed as they charge a month in advance. My Response to that was YOU DO THAT YOU'LL GET A LETTER FROM MY LAWYER - NOW, CANCEL THE DANG SIHT NOW! and I hung up.................Needless to say, they cancelled the account effective that day and never took anymore money out of my account.

about 5 years ago i had the free trial of aol. i cancelled it after 28 days, before the 30 days you have to do that. they gave me a cancellation number and i thought everything was fine. about 1 month later i got a bill in the mail for a month of service. i called to see what happened and they told me i never cancelled my account. i gave them the cancellation number they gave me and they told me it did not exist! i was very upset, and told them i was not paying it. the woman on the phone started swearing at me, yes she actually swore at me. i asked to speak to a supervisor who did the exact same thing. i have never had such awful customer service in my life. how this company is still in business is beyond me. i ended up paying the bill because they sent it to collection and i really had no proof. my advice is anyone cancelling an aol account needs to record that conversation and have them state the date to you. it is legal in ny state to record a conversation without the other party knowing but i am not sure about other states. aol is truly an awful awful company!

I have soooooooooo been there with AOL. It took 3, THREE phone calls over 4 months to get them to cancel! I was accused of lying when I had actual case numbers, I was accused of racking up usage hours to the tune of $250 when I didn't even have a phone line connected to the computer (switched to cable modem), and finally, I was threatened with blackballing (of what? AOL?!) by a 'supervisor' who refused to give his name. AOL still calls and mails me begging me to come back! Oh I soooooooooooooooooooooooo HATE AOL!!!!

AOL STOLE MY MONEY!!! THEY SAID THEY CANCELLED MY ACCOUNT…. BUT DIDN’T… 4 MONTHS LATER, I SAW THE CHARGE ON MY SAVINGS ACCOUNT…. ( it was an account that I didn’t check often…. )

Good for you.! I had the same problems canceling my account. The rep. said that she cancelled my account….after arguing with me and trying all ways to retain my account… Only to find out that they continued to charge my bank account…for 4 months!!!! I called them back and demanded a refund of my $80 …. I sent a registered letter to the head quarters with all the details, but nobody ever responded…

They are only acting this way because they got caught….. but this has been their practice….

If you ever cancel, please keep an eye on your account….. I lost $ 80 that way.

Still mad…
Elizabeth.

The only way I could get my deceased relative's AOL account cancelled was to cancel the credit card the account was using for the monthly fees.

I don't for a moment believe that the executives at AOL are blind to what goes on. Every AOL rep I've ever encountered when trying to cancel their service has done the same thing. I'm very sure they train their employees to respond to any account cancellation request in the same manner. I've had the horrible pleasure of spending 15-20 minuntes along on the phone with an AOL customer service rep with a thick Indian accent when trying to cancel an account and yes all they do is repeat the question "Why?" Their almost like that horrible BellSouth that keeps trying to push services down your throat when you've stated "NO!," thirty thousand times.
To all people that are stuck with AOL and any other bad/outdated/unneccessary provider, just be a stickler and if you have to go an hour+ on the phone to get what is rightfully yours then do so, I did!

Just wanted to add my support, and emphasize that this customer service rep was NOT a one time fluke. I cancelled a very small AOL account a couple of years ago and had a terrible time. The woman would not cancel it, though I kept repeating myself. It probably took about half hour of arguing with her, and not only will I never go back, I tell all my friends to avoid AOL like the plague. Thanks for raising your voice about horrendous customer service. AOL needs to realize they lose more business than they get with such horrendous tactics. Any AOL executive who pretends this isn't company policy is trying to pee on your shoes and tell you it's raining.

I listened to the tape. Certainly the rep became very annoying. I've been through the same with many cancellations. But frankly listening to Vincent irritated me to pieces as well. The CSR wasn't much better, and he should have given up earlier. But Vincent's tone only escalated things. Let's all be a little nicer to each other. We all have to live in this world together.

Everyone's been through the same AOL crap everyone else has listed here. It's surprising that a Congress that has time to waste with gay marriage and video game labels hasn't gone after AOL for the sh*t they pull every day.

I feel sorry for the CSR who got fired, because I know he was trained to do his job the way he did. It shows in the way every other AOL customer service rep acts.

I had the same problem cancelling AOL on 6/6/06. Must have taken 30 minutes--and I must have said "I want the account cancelled" 30 times. Then it was on to the anti-virus, spyware software they provide and my computer would not be protected--"I'm not interested just cancel the account." On and on this went...I have never been hassled this bad by a company. AOL is totally responsible and I hope other AOL members will find an alternative to AOL service. Since my daughter also has as account I intend to cancel her membership. ALSO MY ACCOUNT WAS BILLED FOR SERVICE FROM 5/25-6/25/06 AND YOU DO NOT GET REFUNDED FOR THE PARTIAL MONTH WHEN YOU CANCEL!!!!

I had several similar experiences that were very irritating to me, but the worst was a few years ago when my wife and I thought we cancelled and then were charged for another couple months. I ultimately called them back 3 times subsequent to that bill and basically had an all-out verbal war with these "customer service" people. When I later recounted the story to my parents they said it sounded like I had "bad people person skills" and needed to calm down a little. A few months later my sister was visting my parents when she decided to cancel her account. My dad was sitting in the kitchen within earshot of the conversation. He called me that night (after my sister's 1 hour conversation ended) and apologized. He wrote them a letter and received a similar response as Vincent did. Let me be clear about something. This is not a personality problem on the side of AOL customer service. I actually think it's a shame that "John" who spoke to Vincent took the heat and was fired. Should we really believe that John is just a bad guy, or that "John" was the sole person that has upset so many people, or even that AOL just has really bad luck when it comes to hiring all these customer service people. Absolutely not! "John" is a well trained AOL employee - he may in fact be there best in show. It's a POLICY. AOL trains these sales(wo)men to be this persistent. "John" is a scapegoat. And I'm not even sure we can say AOL has done anything wrong - at least legally - in many of these cases. They are a for-profit company in a capitalist society. And frankly I think their product sucks, so I suppose this is what they need to do to survive out there. What can be done though is to tell as many people as possible about your experience and those of others, attempting to save your friends and family from similar hassles and headaches. I actually consider it an obligation on my part - saving everyone possible from this ridiculous and annoying salesmanship. And I also happen to believe there product is very inferior. I asked a popular electronic store to remove AOL software from the computer I was buying (as part of the purchase deal) because I wanted it nowhere near my home. I don't trust it sitting idle on my computer. The guy told me I definately wasn't the first person to ask him for that. I also think it would be wise for everyone who has had similar experiences to take handfuls of those free AOL discs you see at various stores, and trash them. Save as many people as you can from these stress-provoking AOL people. And for God's sake - DON'T EVER BUY THERE STOCK! Why? because their product fundamentally sucks and eventually enough people will realize that just because the first 90 days is free, there are so many better options out there. If they train there employees that way, I have this nagging feeling that AOL has core management problems that may lead it to crumple as other hollow companies have in recent years. Hopefully their partners like CNN will realize this before it's too late. Wouldn't want them to crash and burn as well. And remember, when you get that next bill from AOL after you thought you already cancelled your subscription: You Are Not Alone.

I had joined AOL to try out the trial BYOA for 30 days. I tried to cancel it and it was supposed to automatically cancel. However, there was a letter that AOL had sent extending my free access by a month and that if I wanted to cancel it, I would have to call responding to the letter. I never received the letter and only found out about it after the fact I received a charge on my acct from AOL for the $14.95 BYOA fee. When I called AOL (also known as AOHell in my book), the guy that I spoke with called me an idiot and said that AOL was superior to any other company and refused to cancel my account. This was a couple of years ago... how I wish I had recorded that call because I would have sued AOL for it. Anyways, I called AOL back the next day and was refunded and yet they still offered me yet another free month. I said 'NO' and it was finally done. I will never ever use the services of AOL and will never recommend them to anyone.

It took me over an hour to get rep that would hang up on me. I would call back adn select the "wanting to open a new account" option and wow- I was connected in 2 seconds to alive rep! I'd ask them for help since I was on hold for that long and then got hung up - they sounded really apologetic and said they oculd only take new orders.

The AOL free software is so sticky on your computer that it takes many many actions to delete all that junk they load your computer with. I will NEVER go back to AOL. Not worth it!!!

man. i had a similar experience in '01. i got some guy named 'steve' from new delhi who did a very polite job of ignoring everything i said. i was calling because a blasterworm virus had fried my modem and the whole pc was practically useless so why pay for the net, right?

the guy offered to put my account on hold for 3 months free and after my repeated, "no thanks! just cancel it!" he then, 25 minutes later, said that he would send me a brand new modem for free. by this time he was actually hysterical with the need to save my account while i was just kind of blown away by this sort of behavior.

i worked as a csr in a call center for an insurance company, and while we had to save accounts as well, (2 a month mandatory), we weren't pressured or fanatical about it. often we'd just not even make our quota and nobody cared all that much. we were way more focused on not being assholes on the line because that's what we got seriously marked on. we could fail for the month for tonal quality or misinforming the customer. which would get you fired really quick.

and while i could appreciate the guy 'steve' and the pressure he had from his guidelines...i was completely floored with the offer to fix my crappy home built computer for me. i endured his speech about logging in and activating my service if i changed my mind, more entreaties to let him buy me a new modem plus the account hold and finally got him to process my cancellation. then he actually lied to me and said that no funds would be drafted again ever. AOL yanked it out of my account that very second!

i went up to my bank the next day and the bank manager said, "oh god. yeah. we'll take care of it. we deal with this from AOL constantly." they didnt ask for proof or anything. it is that common of a problem. and AOL continued to try drafting out of my account for 8 months. but the repeated denials of my bank for funds and a bank manager actually filing a fraud claim against them finally stopped it.

and even though AOl has a seriously jacked up way of treating customers, i have to feel bad for those guys who work for them.

call centers are hellish places to work even if the company is decent. but to have to go in knowing for certain that you're going to be in a hostile situation all day. intentionally. constantly. and the customers reaction is 9 times out of 10 triggered by what you're forced to say. by company guidelines! my god. the amount of financial desperation you have to be in to work in that environment... holy crap. that company is effin evil.

not to say the guy you dealt with wasnt out of line, he sounded new as well. it's probably best he was fired, if he was, because he would have probably gone nuts down the line. csr's are constantly flipping out.

call center jobs are completely dehumanizing. our place was fairly laid back, but the company was still entirely self-serving and ruthless for the most part. we had to constantly say or do things we didnt agree with. i did this for 4 years and by the end of it i was a complete wreck. i just stopped coming in one day after my 73rd nervous breakdown, and that was the smartest thing i have done in my entire life.

ugh.

i wouldnt attack vinny though. even though you went in pretty sure you were going to be dealing with shit, you didnt act any worse than most other customers would have. usually if a customer calls in totally firm and sounds trigger-happy, the reps are told to comply immediately to avoid a scene or a complaint. this is true with most companies. most call centers are even organized by similar guidelines provided by a single corporation that is hired to simply provide a system of operation. from interaction with the customer to how employee call-offs are handled.

just shows how bizarre AOL is. they dont even try to hide how they feel about consumers.

A number of these posts trouble me because a lot fo people seem to be aying that the CSR is not responsible. Nazi Soldiers used that excuse at Nuremburg. Can you really hide behind "doing your job" when you are part of a corporation that is doings its customers wrong? At some point, aren't you responsible for your part as a cog in that machine? Does trying to earn a living excuse you from responsiblity? If you willing do nasty things to people becuase it is part of your job... then staying in that job makes you just as corrupt.

When I canceled my AOL, it was a 45 minute phone call in which the guy, "Mike", wanted me to guess which country he was in, what time of day it was, and then kept begging me not to cancel. I, too, kept saying, "please, I just want to cancel the service, I really don't use it anymore" but that didn't seem to be the correct answer and Mike seemed interested in making me feel like he was my friend so I wouldn't cancel the service. After 45 minutes, I finally was able to get it canceled and get off the phone. Since that time, they call me constantly and send me so many of the introductory CD's in the mail, I'm getting sick of paying for their trash!

Yo dude, just saw the piece on cnn.. I had a very similar experience. My 10 year old daughter signed up for aol after being grounded from the computer. She thought she could sneak in use aol for the free time and cancel before we got charged. well her scheme worked until she failed to cancel the account. My debit card was charged and her cover was blown. Now I go to cancel the account and It was a nightmare. They actually made me use the time I had left on the account and at the end of this time I was asked to call back and recancel at which point I would receive a refund. Crazy, Right??? It gets better. Now they send me a letter which I must sign and Have faxed back to them 24 hrs before my account is charged again.. 1 in a million people would be able to accomplish this feat. This was a scam not only to keep the first months charge but to get another months charge out of my account. Well I was dilligent, I went as far as to change my bank accounts. My wife works at our bank so this made it a bit eaiser. Guess what. I followed all of their stipulations even had the paper faxed back to them.. They tried to charge that now dead account... They are fucked up. In the end I did get my money back, only after I threatened to go to the news and the BBB. I fairness I had similar experiences when canceling other IP services, always trying to get you to stay offering free time and not letting me cancel until the last moment. But AOL took the cake. I now use Verizon Broad Band and am pleased, but I wonder what would happen If I tried to cancel, maybe I will try it today for kicks...

I seriously believe that a class action law suit is the best way to resolve AOL's unethical treatment of it's former customers.

After paying out several million dollars, they might actually decide to change some policies.

John at AOL was made their scapegoat, he shouldn't sue Vincent, but AOL for wrongful dismisal.

Hit a large corporation, in the only place that matters to them, the bottom line. This will be the only way for any change to occur.

i had the same problem last fall except i wasn't as nice as you. i got into a yelling match with the AOL rep. i talked to. by the time the call ended i was shaking.

Here's a good one! Exactly 12 months after I cancelled AOL, two electronic withdrawals from my checking account for approx. $184.00 were taken out. One for some roadside/travel assistance program I allegedly signed up for (which I didn't), and the other for a "free" legal assistance program which, again, I allegedly signed up for!

Here's the kicker, after I spoke with an AOL rep about their error and how I no longer was a member and the fact that I wanted my checking account credited accordingly, they (AOL) responded by saying it would take some 30 business days to re-credit my account. Luckily, I didn't accrue any overdraft charges from their ACH deductions, yet still was a huge inconvenience to me just the same. Point being? Watch your back folks! Although you think you have cancelled, any connection with your original AOL account set-up and your mode of payment still exists with AOL Billing. Computers can still take your money once they have your checking account even though you long since cancelled. Gook Luck! J.Jelepis (Texas)

Good morning:

I had a similar experience canceling my AOL account. They just don't want to let you go. They even sent me a form to fill out which drags the process out even longer. Please note, if you try to cut them off by calling your credit card company and telling them to stop accepting the AOL billing they will tell you they can't do it! Nice set up for AOL with a willing partner in your credit card company. I note for the record it was very easy to set the thing up and an abuse of a customer to cancel.

THe worst part i had to face was after seeing my credit card bill, which never showed up the name AOL and the amount was 4.95$ exactly yhe amount I bought telephone calling cards for international calls, and I somehow missed it (I used that card only for buying a dell computer once and calling cards). One fine day I see 29.99$ and I call them. ok I'll now tell you about AOL keywords. Listen Ma'am, I don't wanna know. Cancel my account I pay 50 freaking $$ to Bellsouth, never used AOL after the first week of buying my computer, DID NOT GIVE CREDIT CARD NUMBER ever.

we take it from Dell!

WHAT? ok, just cancel my account.
Have you ever tried typing people in AOL??
What is this, can you cancel my account or not?

I can do it here, but please let me know if you ever tried the keyword 'video' in AOL.

If you can't cancel my account now, please transfer my call.

I was finally able to cancel my account, they gave me an address to send a snail mail to P.O.Box in florida where I can 'start' the process of getting my billed amount for that month back.
I just calle dmy credit card company and told them toput a hold on any further transaction from AOL. Ever since that day I hate anything related to AOL internet or free CD's and am always extra careful with credit card statements.

I had EXACTLY the same conversation with AOL 2 monthes ago!! They were horrible. My situation was that I had signed up for a "freebie" subscription until I could get my Broadband connection installed. Then, I really just forget to unsubscribe - until I noticed a charge on my credit card for the service - that I wasn't using. I called to cancel and ended up getting a huge scare tactic sales pitch about how the RR service that I had recently subscribed to - didn't have the coverage and safety as AOL (yeah - this about their sister company). So - he literally scared me into agreeing to keep their basic service - even though I questioned him several times about the security features that RR advised they had set up.

Long and short of it is - I was transferred to the AOL help desk to help me upload the basic security features - which COULDN"T be installed because of the security features that came with my RR connection. I ended up talking to two different help desk folks - as the first guy ditched me "becuase I didn't know what I was doing"... both of the tech's did tell me that I would have to uninstall my RR security before AOL would work.

Needless to say - I was upset. I called back AGAIN to just have them cancel my service and after 10 minutes of not doing it - I finally had to ask for a supervisor and threaten to report them to the BBB.

AOL SUCKS!

Hello:
I was employed by Aol until May 9th,until they shut our call center down.We had a system to follow and it really sucked,because when you didnt believe in what you were doing and werent even using Aol at home-it was hard.But like any other it was a job and paid the bills,quite well for a while.
It was always sell value,price plan and credit and by this time the customer was so pissed off,and we were required to read that shitty presentation about Aol.com.A little friendly advice,tell the guy to cancel it,hang up and he or she is required to cancel the acct.Then call back and make sure it was done,and when you cancel,tell them.The Unknown Ex Aol Employee said,this is for all the people in Jacksonville.Aol Sucks!!!!!!!!!
Sincerely
The Unknown Ex Aol Employee

My wife had a very similar experience canceling her $9.95 a month e-mail account. It turns out that it was free the whole time! She still has the same AOL e-mail address and functions (webmail only). Nothing has changed! If you're paying for the $9.95 e-mail, cancel it...you're paying for something that you could be getting for free.

YOU GO, VINCENT!

I'm still a paying member of AOHell? Why? Because I like to read the old format of AOL's message boards. Once the backdoors to this format are slammed shut for good, I'll cancel my account. I'm only paying a few bucks/month for my unlimited Bring Your Own Access (BYOA) membership, anyway, and usually manage to pay nearly nothing by doing Opinion Place surveys.

A little over a year ago I threatened to notify the FCC about AOL's price plan scam, and got six free months of AOL for that. (I did end up notifying another regulatory group...LOL.)

I do not like AOL's capricious and inconsistent enforcement of Terms of Service (TOS). I also do not like being forced to be a part of AOL's English language immersion program whenever I call. If I'm going to be a volunteer, I should get free AOL, just like the former "volunteers" who hosted the message boards and chats. And, heck, how about a year's worth of free AOL like THEY got?

How noble they all proclaimed to be, too, insisting that they did not do it for the free AOL. Now it's a year after they all got canned, their free year of AOL membership is up, and they are cancelling AOL in droves. (Now what was that about not "volunteering" for the free AOL?) There is a "secret" area for ex AOL volunteers, and they all gripe and whine. LOL...they actually think they are going to get Certificates of Appreciation that were promised to them over a year ago now....they will never get them. How sad that they think they matter!

I had the exact same thing happen to, maybe even the same guy! I was on the phone for 37 minutes. It actually took two calls to cancel it

I've been telling this story since 1994. 12 years! They've always sucked and I hope this puts them out of business for good.
Read my story on my blog. http://bertalee.blogspot.com/

I had the SAME problem with trying to cancel AOL. They were nasty, unprofessional and when I asked to speak with a supervisor, they refused! I then asked for the name of his (the man/BOY) I was talking to and he told me to call STEVE CASE & gave me a phony telephone number. Between trying to speak to a human being and them getting the troll on the other end, I spent 1 hour on the phone. NEVER AGAIN AOL!

Not only did I repeatedly have to call to cancel, AOL continued to automatically withdraw the monthly fee from my checking account. Eventually I had to close my checking account and reopen it with a different account number. They then continued to bill me and eventually cancelled my account for nonpayment. A (h)OL(es)!!!

PS: I was asking about "downloading " music as opposed to merely "playing" it.

As I said, I'm much happier with Napster.

I tried to find out how much it would cost me to "download" music from AOL Music Now (They had given me a free month.) It took me FIVE (5) HOURS (yes, you read that right) to get this answer. There are no prices posted anywhere. And of course, I cancelled the account. I got a letter a few days later regarding my account. I called to be sure that it was cancelled.

This was one of the worst experiences I have ever had with an Internet co. BTW, I am now with Napster (monthy service), and I am quite happy.

Brad,
Sorry to hear about your dad....AOL seems to make it quite difficult for grieveing families to cancel their service. Absolutely vile, in my opinion.
karma's a bitch...wouldn't want to be near that CSR when he gets his.


"Well, that was quite classy; I’m sure Teri will take it back."

hehe...good one.

Melissa,

I think Teri questioned your class, and your responded,

"Eat crap! I work for t-mobile in customer service. You need to have alot of patience to work with boneheads like Vincent. Are you upset because I told him to loose weight? "

Well, that was quite classy; I'm sure Teri will take it back.

I didn't see Vincent on television, but if indeed he needs to "loose" weight I'm sure he's aware of that. What has that to do with anything anyway? I've had similar experiences with AOL, and I'm quite thin. But I think anyone should be able to cancel an account without enduring such nonsense.

I'm not upset at all dear....just pointing out the tremendous lack of class you possess.
Have a nice day.

Melissa, you're a bitch. Vincent is an honest man showing the seedy underbelly of the AOL corporate world. Maybe this bad publicity will make them change their tactics, but obviously people like you will still exist in the world, so do yourself a favor and fire yourself from your job. It's people like you that disgust consumers and make them not want to shell out their hard earned money to hungry-for-cash pigs like you who are just going to spend it on vibrators because they're too much of a bitch to get any.

Shane, that has to be about the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

" second of all so many people lie to cancel something instead of being honest."

Does this nonsense even need comment? You seem to be under the impression that you're not allowed to cancel something if you don't have a good reason.

"but obviously the man’s father was using the acct and on a regular basis. so why not transfer the act to his father to continue enjoying the service. "

Um, if so his father could get his own account. You seem to think that if someone's using an account you're paying for you shouldn't be able to cancel.

Again, you don't owe a company an explanation of why you're cancelling its services. Ridiculous.

Teri,

Eat crap! I work for t-mobile in customer service. You need to have alot of patience to work with boneheads like Vincent. Are you upset because I told him to loose weight?

I recently tried to cancel an AOL account being billed to my recently deceased father. My mother and I both talked to them, and they flat out refused to cancel -- though my mother was on the checking account it was being billed to. The reps are no doubt just people trying to earn a living. But what they are doing is still slimey. They should be ashamed of themselves, but those who set the policies deserve the blame.

Well Melissa,

Aren't you just the epitome of the word "class".

no doubt an AOL employee.

I just wanted to mention that I used to work for an outsoucing company that handled some of AOL's cancellation traffic, and THIS IS HOW YOU ARE TRAINED. It is AOL's retention policy to never give up. AOL's denial of knowledge/involvement and firing of their employee was completely wrong.

Imagine if you will a couple hundred page training manual full of tips on how to keep them on the phone, how to turn their complaints around into benefits, how to trick them into telling you their interests, etc. You have to sign a NDA just to read this thing! (BTW, I have not violated my NDA by talking about the manual, AOL, I have included no specifics.)

Here is my url for all the myspace people on here! I forgot to leave it earlier

http://www.myspace.com/nmcutie21

that is such garbage -1st of all it is against the law to record anyone withnout consent. second of all so many people lie to cancel something instead of being honest . the "gentleman"" that called to cancel his acct. became verbally abusive by using profanity and making statements that could be considered hostile . yes the aol rep should cancel the acct - but obviously the man's father was using the acct and on a regular basis. so why not transfer the act to his father to continue enjoying the service. I have enjoyed aol for 9 yrs never had a problem with customer service at any time. maybe he should improve his atttitude and realize people in the customer service do not have to tolerate rudeness and we as consumers should learn some manners. love aol and would never change. also so many of these non-aol users who have problems with their so called internet service have no problem popping in a trial disc and when their other service works again cancel aol. so stop using the service when your other service sucks aand you can't get internet. freeloaders.

Vincent, You are Fat and need to loose weight. Action plan follows:

- Get over yourself, get off your fat ass and stop reading all these comments that are being sent to you.

- Get some exercise, Instead of sitting in a chair and calling companies to climb your way up to FAME

- If you are online for as much as you are. How much was it again?? over 500 hours was it??? Look up useful information, like some diets you can go on dude.

- And the last thing is, For getting all the money you got paid for the controversy you stirred up, Hire a personal trainer!!, Just don't record him and get him fired If he doesn't get you into tip-top-shape.

One more thing, after reading these comments I'm glad I never gave AOL my credit card number!

I saw this story on CNN and found this site through google... I can't believe they couldn't get the message after you were so blunt with them (what part of "cancel the account" is so difficult to understand?).

I had a similar experience when I tried to cancel my account with SBC--my first call was put on hold indefinitely and then disconnected. When I called back they bounced me through three departments, and put me on hold for another fifteen minutes...and when I finally got to someone who could cancel my account, she tried several times to get me to keep my service, or agree to keep some kind of reduced service for a lesser charge--and on top of it all, she kept calling me "ma'am", despite me having a clearly male name and voice. To their credit, after several minutes of insistence that my account be cancelled, they finally agreed to do so.

It really is a shame that companies train their employees to do this.

It is awesome working for AOL's retention department. They pay their employees very well, 14.80/hr + mad commision for saving people from cancelling. Over all working part-time because of the fact I go to school, I make 1,200.00 every 2 weeks for a wopping 25 hours a week I work!

Even If I was not working for AOL, I know If I were calling any company to cancel any of my service, I would be polite to the customer sales rep.

This Vincent Guy was provoking the Rep. and Knew exactly what he was doing.

Been there with AOL. and done that. I went to a sister company of AOL. Each time I called, I was a given free month of service. Three months later and four calls, the CSR said "O.K." My son-in-law experienced the same scene when he had to cancel his father's account after his father died. The CSR gave him a bad time. but, persistence paid off,

SAME EXACT thing happened to ME!!! BUT you had better WATCH your ACCOUNT!!! My card was debited the 23.90 for MONTHS after canceling it. I didn't notice my account was short, it started a few months after canceling AOL. When I noticed the charges I called and AOL said they could see the day I called to cancel the account JUN 2005, AOL didn't cancel it, there was NOTHING I could do because I didn't have my cancelation Number anymore SEPT 2005. SO I CANCELLED it AGAIN OCT 2005, and ONCE again they started to charge me FEB 2006. But NOW I am NOT being charged, and I am finally RID of that WORTHLESS COMPANY!!! It is FRUSTRATING to have to deal with AOL people, I would rather deal with the IRS!!!

Wow, listening to that was deja vu for me, lol. My husband cancelled our long standing AOL account last month and I remember him saying over and over again "cancel my account, cancel my account - WHAT PART OF CANCEL THE $&%&% ACCOUNT DO YOU IDIOTS NOT GET!!!!" It went on for at least 10 to 15 minutes. I also had friends who were in hot water with a credit card company because AOL continued to charge their card for over a year after they had offically cancelled. Also my mother had a hard time with them when she closed her account. They claimed hers was being used as well, but it couldn't have - Her computer was not functioning at the time because her hard drive fried.

This whole hassle must have started in the last few years, since I cancelled my account back in the early '90s and cancelled accounts for my parents in 2001 and 2002. No problems, no recurring charges, nothing at all. I assume when they started losing customers to broadband, they adopted a more aggressive strategy to keep subscribers at all costs, probably to inflate receivables to make AOL attractive enough for the next buyer...

I worked at AOL a little while ago, and one running joke on the floor was, "Our first duty is to piss of the customers". Most people who call are already mad as hell, and there was a game to see how mad we could make them before they hung up. Especially the ones who were annoying, thought they had rights (clearly they didn't know who they were calling!) or if it was time to go to lunch or something.


Most people who work there hate it, and the only entertainment is trying to make people completely infuriated. There's no consequences, because they pay beans and everyone does it. I would come in two or three hours late every day, but they never fired me, so I finally just gave my two-weeks notice and pretty much stopped showing up after three days.

I used the "ID theft" angle on things like Vincent's call - if they denied the usage that was happening, then I would say...well, in that case, it looks like someone else must be using your account. I can give you the number for our fraud department, and they can assist you further. Also, you may want to contact your ISP and local law enforcement.

If they did admit there was usage, and there were clearly children using it (like a username "roxygirl999" or something) then I'd tell them they might want to get their other users to pull their information out first...bookmarks, emails, and so on, because once it's cancelled, using the software again will cause the account to reactivate (which is true, but it's not an issue until the account closes...an omitted detail).

I use to work for this evil empire. This is the sort of crap that made me leave. The truth is, I kinda feel a little bad for John as he is, quite contrary to the line the company spokesperson wrote in the response quoted by Matt Lauer, is to RETAIN RETAIN RETAIN. He may have gotten - well - a BIT carried away, but the policy IS to make it EASY in and IMPOSSIBLE out. The logic was, and this is almost an exact quote from one of the supervisors there while I was working there . . . that the goal is to get the members so frustrated with the process of closing the account, and offer them free time on the network so that they will just give up and decide it is too damn much trouble. I hope they did not offer you $20 in free gas to join their shoppers advantage club. That was their old deal.

I am so happy to have my soul back.

Great recording. Brought chills down my spine.

BTW, does AOL still make you click through a bunch of pop-ups just so you can check your e-mail? They did that back in '98 when I tried their free sample. Now, when I get the "free" discs in the mail, I give them to my kids to destroy. They love to smash them.

I dont care if "he's just doing his job". Hes the one who sought and continued employment with a prick firm with prick policies.he gets paid to be a prick.Im sorry but... well...you know what Im sayin.

I agree the rep had drug the call out more then he should have. But I have worked for AOL and they are a wonderful company!!! I feel bad for the people who have had a bad customer service rep who just didn't get a clue. AOL doesn't train it's employees to be like that at all, and the reps that are like that make our jobs really hard and usually are not there for too long. Yeah we want to help people see what they are giving up but it wasn't our job to badger people. I just hope that the bad experiences that prev AOL reps caused would not make people think that's how the company works. I really love AOL and I know the over 30 million AOL customers would agree too. This statement of course does not reflect the views of AOL, I just stand behind a wonderful company and challenge anyone who feels badly about AOL to actually take the time to talk to a sup and be calm about the situation . Working in a call center is the most stressful job and being yelled at every five minutes by people who creat AOL accounts and try and blaim it on AOL because they don't know what they are doing gets a little old, and it's hard to be nice to people when they jump all over you for an account they or one of their children created. Also if people would take the time to read what they are signing up for and how to use it they would know you can cancle you AOL account with out even calling AOL at Keyword Cancle.

ok...
"Debbie" - when posting a comment, please do us all a favor...
MAKE FUCKING SENSE!

example: "You don’t work this site is you only income who are you trying to fool."

didn't your first grade teacher teach you about the PROPER USE OF PUNCTUATION??? you know, so you don't sound like an idiot....

anyhow....no the CSR didn't hang up on vincent, this is true. however, telling the customer to call back when he "has an epiphany and realises he made a fatal mistake" or basically says things to the effect of "if you don't listen to my scripted speech, i won't cancel your account" is not a GOOD thing. this would cause alot of people to say more than "you're annoying the shit out of me"

let me clear another thing up for you Debbie....
Yahoo is a FREE SERVICE that offers web-based email, chat rooms, online games...oh...and a SEARCH ENGINE THAT'S BEEN AROUND FOR ABOUT 15 YEARS NOW. the only time you would "pay" for a yahoo account is if you want any premiums (similar to hotmail....more mail server space, the ability to download goat porn attachments if you feel the need to...you get the idea). ...but in no way is it a "service" in the same sense as an ISP.

Netzero is easy to sign up for...offers a 30-day money back guarantee if you don't like their service...same with netscape's dial-up service (remember, netzero and netscape are both dialup services). Yahoo is NOT AN ISP....not even remotely. see, it's n00bs like you that keep AOL in business. you'll never get it....don't pretend you do....

further, insulting this person's weight, (i'm guessing) would be the "pot calling the kettle black" in your case. i'd bet bill gates' yearly revenue on it.
i'd also be willing to bet that if this guy had a GOOD experience...he would have posted it. true, it wouldn't have garnered as much publicity....(remember typical americans are into what's "shocking" these days...then again...is anything shocking anymore?)....it would've proved the point that all these people who CLAIMED to have had bad experiences cancelling an AOL account were exaggerating. the only "edit" that was made was the beep when Vincent states the last 4 numbers of his credit card.

i'll tell you what...
why don't YOU cancel your AOL acct, record the conversation...post it (if you know how to....) and prove to all of us that this guy was in the wrong....

What comment #6 said is right. I had the same sort of thing happen to me when I cancelled my "free" aol account, which actually cost me money in long distance connection fees.

AOL probably has a policy to make their "customer service" people talk customers out of cancelling. I wonder how many they convince or intimidate into keeping it? The strategy must work, because they've been doing this for years.

P.S., I don't believe that the phone monkey in your recording was fired. I wouldn't be surprised if he was promoted.

AOL and their techniques is to blame. They guy, as a scapegoat, got canned. Sure, I will agree that maybe he was out of line, but these people are trained in trying to make you change your mind. AOL has never been a top rated customer service company, as a matter of fact it has always sucked so this is nothing new. There are great CSR departments out there, with people that truly understands that treating customers correctly which translates in not having this kind of response from the public.

To AOL (I am sure someone is reading our responses hahaha):
Kudos to you, you guys are a case review for college business majors and those on their MBA´s, on how NOT to make business. I am sure you guys are not stupid, but your CSR personnel sure makes you like a bunch of idiots.

For my part, I am just thankful I never been a member of AOL.

Wow, this brings back memories!

When I wanted to cancel eWorld, back in 1995, all you had to do was go to the customer service area, click on cancel the service, and then, after a warning menu where it asked if you really wanted to cancel, it said good-bye and we hope you come back. Didn't even take 5 minutes...

Flash forward to 1996, when I wanted to cancel AOL. Spent an hour looking for some way to do it (over 2 days), couldn't find out how to cancel, thought I was an idiot. Finally, I think about looking up a customer service number on their site, in order to phone them to cancel.

I call the number which is on my computer screen, after 10 minutes get somebody to cancel me, and then, as I turn to hang up the phone, my computer beeps! And it says, "You have been disconnected because your account no longer exists!" Or words to that effect. That damn quick they pull the plug on me!