AOL Apologizes, Officially.
Nicholas Graham, Executive Vice President of AOL Corporate Communications contacted me to officially apologize for the infamous “Jon” call. Here’s the full text of the e-mail:
Vincent, thank you for returning my phone call. I appreciate hearing from you and being able to talk to you – and to personally apologize for your experience. At AOL, we have zero-tolerance for customer care incidents like this – which is deeply regrettable and also absolutely inexcusable. The employee in question violated our customer service guidelines and practices, and everything that AOL believes to be important in customer care – chief among them being respect for the member, and swiftly honoring their requests. This matter was dealt with immediately and appropriately, and the employee cited here is no longer with the Company.
Vincent – please get in touch with me again in the future I can be of help at all. And good luck to you and to “Insignificant Thoughts”.
Sincerely,
Nicholas
I’ll take it. Thank you very much to both Nicholas Graham and Zach Katzaris of AOL, both of whom contacted me to apologize on behalf of the company. I don’t doubt the sincerity of either, and both of them have promised to make efforts to improve this situation for others.
Technorati Tags: aol, cancellation, nicholas graham, zach katzaris
June 20th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
I had a terribly difficult time at AOL as well. I called to cancel due to going cable, and was disturbingly kept on the line for over half an hour by, unfortunately, I don’t know who. First he tried to subvert my every reason for cancelling, then offered me not one, not two, but three different rate reduction and access plans. Eventually, my attitude became one of obvious but controlled hostility, and it still took me at least 5 more minutes before I was transferred to a completely different individual (after holding several more minutes) who handled the actual cancellation. It is quite obvious from this latter situation that AOL has specialists trained in keeping you on the line until you capitulate. This is one of the worst experiences I have ever had with this type of correspondence. I hope for others’ sake that management is serious about cleaning up this annoying act. I will never even think about doing business with AOL again.
HRN
June 20th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
He only apologized because of the publicity.
It was not sincere.
They have been fined for this ad-nauseum and everyone at AOL is well-aware of the practice. When you get sued by 3 different states, then you become very aware of the problem.
He apologized for PR reasons.
The same thing is happening to 1,000 people as I type this, but they just don’t have the forethought to tape it, or a website on which to post it.
AOL was sorry. Sorry they get caught.
Then know that this will die down in a week, and it will be business as usual.
June 20th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
I agree. They apologized because of the publicity. I cancelled my account last week after 30 minute of arguing with a foreign woman that kept insisting that my email on AOL, which only receives spam will be kept active. She insisted I needed it. I insisted that I didn’t. We went through a few rounds of that until she argued with me that I use AOL all of the time. I have DSL and really don’t. She insisted that I use the messenger all of the time – I really don’t. It was one of the most ridiculous conversations that I’ve ever had. My only guess is that people just get so frustrated that they give up and pay the cash each month only to avoid the customer service issue.
June 21st, 2006 at 12:42 am
I too had problems canceling my account, after I signed up for a “free” 90 day membership. Well to make a long story short, I then recieved an e-mail from AOL saying my bank account was going to be charged the next day. I called AOL, to cancel and was told that they would issue a credit to my payment method, and would give me 3 months for free, isn’t that what I had in the first place.
No credit ever appeared in my bank account, but they did charge my account again. When I called and spoke to the cancelation department, I was told that the 1st credit was denied, but that it would be coming in 30 days. (yes, I typed that correctly). I was also told that they would credit my bank account for the second charge, and that it would take up to seven days. After seven days, when I called, to ask about the credit, I was told it could take up to 30 days for the credit be issued. I told them to cancel my account, and after an hour and a half; resulting in my having to scream and ask for a supervisor, my account was cancelled.
I then called my bank, and contested the charges, provided the bank with the e-mails and letters verifying my claim, and they reversed the charges. I should have dealt with my bank, not AOL.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:23 am
Perhaps you can pass my name and email on to Nicholas Graham. He said in his note to you “Vincent – please get in touch with me again in the future I can be of help at all. And good luck to you and to “Insignificant Thoughts”. I had an account that was next to impossible to cancel – took multiple attempts over the course of 8 months. Each time I thought it was cancelled, charges would show up on my credit card. And, I never got all my money back.
Kudos to you. You were able to accomplish what I was unable to do for eight months.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:46 am
Dude, your acceptance of that bullshit ‘apology’ from AOL is really stanky. You think these ‘Johns’ act like this on their freaking OWN?
What world do you live in? I mean, you from NYC! Don’t let these AOL virus aholes get away with ‘we so sorry. we immoliated the ‘John’ that used to work for us. That will solve the problem. Hope you is happy’.
Unbelievable. Hopefully you are very young, in your 20’s or so. You’ve got an edge to you that I understand. But you have this 15 minutes of fame. If you sell out, twenty years from now, you will seriously regret it. The way to handle this is to do what that *edge* tells you to do!
Explain how AOL is a virus, how they track every move you make on the internet; how it is *OBVIOUS* company policy to train the ‘Johns’, since I ditched my AOL account in 1996, and got pretty much the same BS that you got. Just a different day, my man.
So do the right thing. Tell the EVP or whatever the f he is that he’s full of s. That the person he needs to fire is himself. Since he and his ilk promote that policy.
And, oh, BTW, don’t forget to put in a word or two about the freaking cable and baby bell monopoly/oligopoly we got going on here. I’ve been where you are right now dude. I did the wrong thing. You are primpin’ on the ‘Today show’ thing and all, and you’ll go in there and they’ll tell you what little, very small, window of things they want to say.
And if you just KA and do that, you’re just another ‘John’ who just ain’t working for AOL just now…
June 21st, 2006 at 3:02 am
I had the same experience. The only thing I can compare to my conversation with the AOL rep is trying to shake a Sun Myung-Moon cult member on the UC Berkeley campus back in the 70s.
June 21st, 2006 at 5:25 am
No selling out here, man. Had they offered me anything to shut me up, it woulda been all over the news (as it is, I’m going to be on CNBC and the Today Show today).
I can only take people on their word. I’m a good Catholic boy from the Bronx and that’s the way I live. That doesn’t mean I’m naive or crazy either, but I don’t doubt the sincerity of the letter, despite its impersonality (most of it was a statement that was previously issued).
We’ll see if things change. Something tells me this story isn’t going away as easily as they would like it to.
June 21st, 2006 at 7:08 am
Hi,
I appreciate your publishing the call and talking about it. I had a very similar experience last night with AOL though. Unfortunately, I just read the article about your experience this morning, or I would have also recorded the call. Reading this makes me feel kind of sorry for the guy who you talked to who got fired. What he did (at least judging by all the response to your article) was clearly in accordance with AOL policy and he seems to have been made a scapegoat because of the publicity. In the meantime, AOL just continues to harass people who want to cancel their accounts. Too bad that they apparently haven’t really learned anything from this.
June 21st, 2006 at 7:37 am
Vinnie
Saw you on cnbc this am
had THE SAME EXPERIENCE
no longer use the service and will never recommend it
Scott
June 21st, 2006 at 7:49 am
I guess it is desperation from AOL that is making them do anything and go so far not to do lose a customer in their rapidly shrinking market size.
I was working with Netzero internet formerly, in the technology sector though, and am pretty confident that no customer would ever have to go through 45 minutes to just cancel an account.
I’m not sure if they have it automated such that the user can cancel it online himself through simple steps, but definitely friendlier than AOL.
I wonder what others think or if they’ve faced such problems with Netzero too. With the whole dial-up internet market’s pie decreasing in size, these ISP’s better increase their retention rate through better customer satisfaction, not this way.
June 21st, 2006 at 7:51 am
Hey Vinny,
Saw you on CNBC today, man. I liked your response when you were asked if your next mission was to take on Sprint and others listed!
June 21st, 2006 at 8:00 am
Yup, That was my experience also with AOL. I got a woman who wouldn’t let it go. John, the guy you got, was trained to do so, so they sould retrain or fire them all!!! Thanks Vincent, for exposing AOL for what they really are.
June 21st, 2006 at 8:01 am
Reading Lee’s comments convinces me that I am unlikely to receive the credit AOL promised me.
After she graduated from college, my daughter (with my permission) used my credit card to take advantage of the “free” trial — only so she could download Juno’s software. (She’s Very frugal!)
She never had any intention of paying for AOL service. At the end of the trial she cancelled, but, after a lapse of about a year, charges began appearing on my credit card statement.
When she contacted AOL to complain, she was told that a telemarketer they employ had told them that my daughter had consented to have the account re-opened!
Lies, lies, lies!
Good luck to you, Vincent. Just be sure to check your credit card statements for years to come.
Randy
June 21st, 2006 at 8:04 am
If you go into any place of business and want to return or cancel anything, they’re going to ask you why. All you had to do was let the poor guy speak and you would’ve gotten what you wanted either way, it’s the way service works and always has been. Have you even ever been outside of your house? You have a blog so you probably don’t leave like must other people who have blogs. I’m surprised you changed out of your feetie pj’s for the interview. Anywho, I just can’t believe how rude your were to that poor guy…and then HE gets fired. Sure, he crossed the line eventually, but only when provoked. The worse thing is that this if so obviously orchestrated to publize your blog. Shame on you. On the other hand, Aol sucks, so smart move on that front.
June 21st, 2006 at 8:13 am
Vinny
Just saw you on CNBC. Great interview. I would appreciate getting from you the info on Nicholas Graham as I would like to tell him about my own absolutely dreadful experince with AOL. IT is absolutely NOT true that your experience was a fluke. It took me months, yes months to cancel my account and even so, I was being charged incredibly high monthly charges (sometimes $145.00) without anyone being able to tell me why! Of course I never got my money back. Now mind you, I had other internet service from my own cable provider so used the AOL account rarely- I was the main subscriber to AOL, with three email addresses and one son with his. Bills were absolutely preposterous- when I called to cancel (probably more than 25 times, it was ABSOLUTELY impossible to do so- either you got cut off, talked non stop to stop me from talking, asked incdredibly unprofessional questions… was never, ever connected to a supervisor, or they just kept going on and on, bringing up another subject as it happened to you- pass the phone to your MOm…. Hey, I’m a 60 year old mom myself, I”M the mom! Well, to no avail until finally after a 45 minute screaming session with a guy, I was able to get the word in. CANCEL. I received a letter confirming the closure of the account but not until January (21st I think) which still gave me according to AOL, a few weeks in which to “think it over”.
My middle son, who lives on his own and is an actor, also had exactly the same problem cancelling- I was with him in the apartment and said, wait for this to happen today! It did not happen, he had to call again and again. He also was in the most incredible screaming matches for almost an hour. No supervisors available, ever.
Forgot to mention, AFTER I was finally able to cancel, I received several phone calls at my home, from AOL, trying to convince me to reinstate the account, even saying that they were keeping my email addresses for a time in order to allow the changing of mind!!!!
Anyway, I would very much like to speak to Nicholas Graham and would appreciate you emailing me his information. This cannot stop here- it is a total problem and just as it happened to me that I had to absorb these ridiculous amounts of moneys charged because nobody would clarify the situation with me, plus the canceling problems which were positively horrendous, I do not believe that AOL should get away with this.
What hurts me the most is the fact that they had the gall to fire ONE guy when their entire crew is trained to handle customers exactly this way.
Thanks Vinny for your effort. It is greatly appreciated. Please let’s not stop here.
June 21st, 2006 at 8:43 am
Vinny I saw the clip on the Today show. It’s not yet done with AOL. I had AOL for years till I decided like you to get rid of it. Your 15 min call was a short one. I had to call them back a few times before they got it threw there thick heads I don’t want it anymore. I finally got so feed up with the AOL employees I in a loud voice told them I want to talk to your boss now. I was transferred and started the whole loop over again. I was told “No Mr. $#$@ you don’t want to cancel really“. I told whomever I was talking to yes and if you don’t I will seek legal counsel. Finally, they canceled BUT the end wasn’t anywhere near soon enough for me. They canceled my account but for some reason still were trying to get the monthly fee. I kept a close eye on my account, I was told by friends AOL sometimes doesn’t stop taking there monthly fee. I went down to my bank to put a stop payment for AOL on my checking account. You would think it’s over right. I haven’t had AOL for 2-3 years. I just called AOL a month or so ago, I was told I owe them for past payment. I wasn’t very nice to whomever I was talking to. AOL never really truly goes away. I’m not even going to get started on there tech area. Do they speak English?
Good Luck Mike
June 21st, 2006 at 8:46 am
Vinny I saw the clip on the Today show. It’s not yet done with AOL. I had AOL for years till I decided like you to get rid of it. Your 15 min call was a short one. I had to call them back a few times before they got it threw there thick heads I don’t want it anymore. I finally got so feed up with the AOL employees I in a loud voice told them I want to talk to your boss now. I was transferred and started the whole loop over again. I was told “No Mr. $#$@ you don’t want to cancel really“. I told whomever I was talking to yes and if you don’t I will seek legal counsel. Finally, they canceled BUT the end wasn’t anywhere near soon enough for me. They canceled my account but for some reason still were trying to get the monthly fee. I kept a close eye on my account, I was told by friends AOL sometimes doesn’t stop taking there monthly fee. I went down to my bank to put a stop payment for AOL on my checking account. You would think it’s over right. I haven’t had AOL for 2-3 years. I just called AOL a month or so ago, I was told I owe them for past payment. I wasn’t very nice to whomever I was talking to. AOL never really truly goes away. I’m not even going to get started on there tech area. Do they speak English? I now have High Speed Cable.
Good Luck, Mike
June 21st, 2006 at 8:57 am
I just wanted you to know that I had the SAME experience. Thanks for bringing it out. They made it a miserable experience, but at the end of the day, there is no use for AOL anymore.
June 21st, 2006 at 9:12 am
Another AOL comment if you can stand one more. My mother signed a contract with AOL about October 2004 for 12 months. She died 6 months into the contract. Even though we called, sent written requests, and mailed a certified copy of the death certificate, AOL still charged her credit card 2 months after she died for a $50.00 cancellation fee. Thanks for standing up and calling attention to a company that uses improper business practices.
June 21st, 2006 at 9:15 am
Same story with me. I did a free 90 day trial period when I first moved to Florida. The SOB at the other end of the AOL Customer Service line would not let me cancel my membership. After telling them that I don’t need or want to use their service, they put another person on the phone. Honestly, it was dealing with Time Share Salespeopl who just don’t let up!!! Finally I said “F*ck AOL, and you and if you were the last internet provider on earth I would start writing letters and going snail mail again!” I let my bank handle it. Told them to NOT accept any charges from AOL and the whole ugly story behind trying to quit my free service. I agree with one of the other people who posted here, the higher ups at AOL know full well this is how they train their staff to deal with people who want to cancel their service. Once the heat of your appearance on the Today show quiets down it will be business, all be it BAD business, as usual.
AOL SUCKS!!!
JMO
Mary
June 21st, 2006 at 9:24 am
Berfore the publicity they were probably rewarding this guy for his ability to keep customers.
June 21st, 2006 at 9:30 am
Vinny,
The real crime here was that ‘Jon’ got fired for doing what AOL forces him to do. If you recall he told you that if you wanted to cancel, you’d have to listen to his “paragraph”. Who talks like that? What he was trying to tell you was that AOL forces him to read the paragraph and he could get fired if he did not. I had the same problem back in 1995 and the guy almost cried because I wouldn’t let me read the paragraph. He finally said, in a low voice, “I’m only doing my job”. I said – go ahead and read your paragraph.
Jon also told you that he could “stall” you all day. He used that term which should let you know that it was something that is in the culture of the company.
Get real, do you think Jon really wanted to stay on the phone with you? He was annoyed to.. that he had to pull up your account and look at your hours and all of that, all the while knowing you want to cancel.. He got the short end of the stick. He was rude, but your frustration made you rude and his frustration with the AOL culture may have made him rude.
Imagine if you had to tell someone they “needed” AOL – who in the world “needs” AOL?? If I had to peddle that BS, I’d go bonkers every now and again too.
Bottom line, the apology is not sincere. Look at the FCC website and find all the fines against AOL for this same thing. No employee would risk it after such publicity unless he was told he had to do so. AOL is up to no good and needs to stop. The fines they are given do not outweigh the revenues from the customers they keep – its simple math.
June 21st, 2006 at 9:30 am
I heard your interview with Matt Lauer and couldn’t beleive that so many other people have had a hard time cancelling AOL. I thought I was the only one. My calls to AOL were also interminably long and by the time I was done, they had offered me another free month of service. Because I just wanted to get off the phone, I stupidly accepted thinking I’ll just cancel the next month, but of course, the thought of calling back and going through all of it again is why AOL wins and I am still a “member”. Haven’t used the service in months. Today, I will cancel and hopefully, due to your story, it won’t be as bad!! Thanks for bringing this to the public.
June 21st, 2006 at 9:54 am
Ah, I too tried to cancle my acct 2 months ago and am still being charged for it. I don’t even access it any longer!
You go Vincent!!
June 21st, 2006 at 10:24 am
I think this is article about problems with AOL is great. It’s hard to believe nobody documented an AOL customer service call before with all the reported problems with AOL.
Two quick points:
First of all, I don’t buy the apology from AOL given by Nicholas Graham, Executive Vice President of AOL Corporate Communications. Why would an employee of AOL in this situation (and all the employees in all the reported situations) go so inredibly out of their way to violate AOL company policy just to prevent a customer from cancelling their AOL account? It makes absolutely zero sense. You’d think that it would be so much easier for the employee to just cancel the account. Why would the employee make their job so much more difficult for themselves and enrage a customer when they can just “follow company policy” and take care of the matter promptly. I have never known anybody to willingly make their job more difficult for no reason! And, to think that “Jon” went so far out of his way to violate AOL’s customer service policy in the process is just an insult to everyone’s intelligence, especially when you have to assume their was nothing to gain on his part (i.e. commission).
Second, it so hard to believe that AOL has escaped so much scrutiny and animosity over the years for completely dumbing down the Internet, gouging customers, and holding people hostage to its system. So much rancor has been directed towards Microsoft, but at least Windows and Internet Explorer let you know there is an Internet out there. They give you options to use other browsers and help you understand how to use the Internet. A lot of AOL users still don’t even know how to type in a URL. The easy to use AOL interface may have once had its place, but the web has changed. Through busy signals, high rates, poor performance, and the havoc AOL products can reek on your computer system, it’s just such a shame that people continue to use their service. Well, I guess I now see why. If AOL doesn’t let you cancel your account…then I guess you have no choice.
June 21st, 2006 at 10:31 am
Bravo Vinny!!!
I woke up this morning and found that my husband had taped your interview on the Today Show. It immediately brought back the heart palpitations I experienced the day I tried to cancel. After approximately a 25 minute go-round with the A.O.L. rep, many expletives on my end (I commend you for your patience) my husband finally had to take the phone from me and finish (another 10 minutes)and he ended up hanging up on them. My rep insisted that we wait for her computer to take the information which was an extremely slow process. Maybe AOL needs to update their software. She said the account would not be cancelled until she could cancel in her computer. I doubt very much that anyone was fired because the script was exactly the same. After we finally hung up neither of us was sure if the account would be cancelled but I did receive a confirmation letter from the them the following week.
I commend you for taking this to the next level. I really wanted to reach through the phone and choke the life out of her. Maybe with advancing technology we will be able to do that some day.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:07 am
Sorry they got caught is right!
I HAVE A GREAT STORY. My husband called to cancel an AOL account that was in my name. After the run around, the gal asked to speak directly to me. I got on the phone and plainly said, “Please cancel the account.” She then gave me the same run around. I stayed polite and again said, “Cancel the account.” Her response was, “DO YOU ALWAYS DO WHAT YOUR HUSBAND TELLS YOU TO DO?” I was livid, lost my cool, and after profuse swearing on my part and her using the same line, “I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” she finally canceled the account. I called AOL to complain, and I never received any kind of response. Good for you.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:08 am
I HAVE A GREAT STORY. My husband called to cancel an AOL account that was in my name. After the run around, the gal asked to speak directly to me. I got on the phone and plainly said, “Please cancel the account.” She then gave me the same run around. I stayed polite and again said, “Cancel the account.” Her response was, “DO YOU ALWAYS DO WHAT YOUR HUSBAND TELLS YOU TO DO?” I was livid, lost my cool, and after profuse swearing on my part and her using the same line, “I don’t understand why you’re so upset,” she finally canceled the account. I called AOL to complain, and I never received any kind of response. Good for you.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:20 am
Heather’s “Marketing at Microsoft” Blog
I don’t know how to make this any clearer for you: cancel my account!…
Saw Vincent on the Today Show this AM. He’s the guy that taped his call to AOL to cancel his account…….
June 21st, 2006 at 11:27 am
Saw you on the Today show regarding cancelling aol. I am a computer consultant and the only residential work we do is for business clients. They will ask us to go to their house to setup stuff and a popular request is when they get broadband and leave dialup.
If they have aol I always mention that the cable or DSL provider is now their ISP and aol is no longer providing that function so they might want to consider cancelling aol.
I have seen this same scenerio dozens of times even after I prep them that it is difficult to cancel aol. They will call and after a wait and threading thru an antomated system they politely ask to cancel their account. They are asked why and they reply they have a new broadband ISP and don’t need aol. They are told how important aol is and that they will loose their screenmane *forever* and they need aol with their new ISP. I suggested that clients also give other responses such as “I am moving into a retirement home, I am leaving the country, I decided I don’t want to use a computer anymore” etc and none of those responses are acceptable.
The aol person keeps insisting they need it and offers various discounts and logic why they shouldn’t cancel.
The minimum call I have ever heard was 30 minutes. The longest was almost an hour. A few mentioned that charges still appeared on their credit card after cancelling. One said they even had to cancel the card after making multiple requests and aol started charging another card without asking.
Contrast this with every other dialup provider I have seen where you simply go to the “I want to cancel my service” web page and at the most get asked to pick from a few choices why you cancelled.
June 21st, 2006 at 11:35 am
My mother-in-law died in the fall of 2004 and it took me several months to get AOL to cancel the account. I only noticed the charge on her credit card after my husband had me take over her bills, so when I called to cancel, telling “John” that she had died and no longer needed AOL, he kept trying to give her a discount on the service if I’d leave it open. I repeated that she had died, and that there was no phone line at the house, the house was being sold, and please cancel it. He offered me another “great package” every time I told him this.
I said, “She has died, she has ceased to be. She is no more.” I tried doing the Monty Python Dead Parrot routine, which did not move him. I was near hysterical laughter at the ridiculousness of the thing.
This guy was EXACTLY like the idiot you got on the phone; he kept me on the phone for 45 minutes, actually asked to speak to my mother-in-law, said she’d have to cancel the account, and then would start arguing with me all over again, “You need AOL, you need to keep it for the email account. Was there a problem with the service?” on and on.
It’s a game, a huge game.
I asked to speak to his supervisor and he became rude with me, and after talking to me for another ten minutes while he “waited for his supervisor to be available” he hung up on me. I called back and got someone in India who was actually polite, did not insist on reading me a statement, did not argue with me, and promised to cancel the account.
The following month there was another charge. I called again, was told the account was cancelled but that they had the right to charge us for that month. I countered with a threat to call the state Attorney General, and the account was cancelled and two months charges were refunded to us.
Honestly, this guy asked to speak to my dead mother-in-law.
My dad has AOL. He will be 88 this summer. When the time comes, I will be sure to tape my cancellation discussion with this company.
Thank you.
Jeanne
June 21st, 2006 at 12:22 pm
My two nieces used to work for aol and they told me that’s how they are taught to respond to people that want to cancel their account. Do whatever it takes to keep the customer. If you lose too many customers, you lose your job.
When I called to cancel my account I was armed with this knowledge and was ready to do battle.
My girl did everything she could think of to keep me. First, if you can believe this, she told me she could not cancel my account at that time and I would have to call back next month to cancel. What?! I told her no. This would be my only call.
She offered me 2 free months. I said make it 6 and you have a deal. No, that’s too many.
After more arguing she put me on hold for 5 minutes “to ask her supervisor if it was ok to cancel me”. My nieces told me this is another tactic they use once you’ve made them mad in order to stall you. Apparently they think they’re really getting you with this one.:roll:
I don’t believe the appology was sincere and I don’t believe John was fired either. That letter of appololy is just another way to pacify people because you went public with this.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:18 pm
i am so disappointed in the way that the general public is vilifying “john” for doing his job! vincent was incredibly rude! we are human beings, people! he simply followed company guidelines for connecting on a personal level with the member in order to acertain their motives for cancelling. do you know how often members call us with absolutely no information to be able to properly verify an accounts info, then rages at us for their inconvenience? how would they like it if we let their online stalker have free reign to their private info, just because the got a little upset and screamed at us?
where john made his mistake is that he let a total JERK get under his skin and lowered himself to the level of someone whose idea of cust svc doesnt extent past the drive through window at mickey d’s! for that, his job is forfeit, he is aware of that, and we all feel sympathy for him, but he screwed up. maintaining a professional demeanor is difficult but necessary. vincent, you deserve to be sued for recording a call over state lines without both parties awareness, talk about breaking the law! get a good attorney, buddy! i wish people would realize how many comapnies who are monopolies in their field just dont care whether they loose you or not. i triend to cancel my cable service because it wasnt working, do you think they even once asked me why i chose to leave them? why should they care? well, at aol, WE DO CARE. our product is the #1 in the industry for a reason. don’t fault us for treating you like your business is worth our time!
June 21st, 2006 at 1:21 pm
Vincent, I applaud your efforts to bring to our attention the bad customer service of the largest internet provider in the world. I admit it is bad even though I worked in the “retention” queue of AOL (or “saves” as it’s called in the company) for about 7 months. From one side, I feel for the employee because he got fired. He was trying, however poorly and unsuccessfully, to do his job and he does deserve that because he was so bad. But unfortunately, there are still thousands of others just as bad or worse that are blindly following AOL’s policies.
The 3 weeks of training you go through to “save” members is really more like brainwashing. They convince you that you really are doing the best thing for the member. Showing them all the great things they will give up by cancelling, all the “benifits” and perks that other services don’t provide. This may be true, and I was actually pretty good at convincing people to stay. I even did it with class and respect, unlike the employee you dealt with. They pay you bonuses on top of your hourly rate for how many saves you get, and with my results, I was paid better than any other job I’d had in the past. But after a while, the job became painful. Not because I had to deal with rotten people – and believe me, I dealt with my fair share – but because I realized that I wasn’t helping these people. I was just annoying them as you say in the recording. I did feel bad after talking to the 80 year old grandmothers who signed up for their spoiled grandkids to be nice and then got screwed by AOL with charges and lies. I even dealt with the occasional deceased member – it is a task to convince their grieving relative to stay with AOL.
In the end, I quit because of the guilt of what I was doing and the “carpal tunnel syndrome” of my brain from asking the same questions and repeating the same script over and over. I think customer service is one of the most difficult jobs there is and if the executives in charge would try it for a day, they would agree and maybe even change some policies. But we know that will never happen and these horrible tactics will continue because they are still making money doing it this way, and not losing enough – even with this bad publicity – to make the change.
Even though I have high speed with a different company, I still have my AOL account, mainly to keep my long time email address. But I know if the day ever comes to cancel it, I can do it with confidence. For those who still need to cancel their AOL accounts, try mailing a registered, return receipt requested, letter to AOL here:
AOL
PO BOX 17100
Jacksonville, FL 32245-7100
In addition, fax the same request to 1-703-433-7283.
Just keep this legal junk in mind. If you miss one thing they won’t cancel the account. And keep copies for yourself as well.
From the AOL website:
“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.”
Hopefully this helps any other members who are having trouble with this. Last thing to keep in mind – large corporations are brutal and willing to do almost anything to keep their customers. They will lie, cheat, and steal and somehow justify it later in apologies and PR statements. Customers shouldn’t have to put up with it, but try not to take it out on the CSR who is doing their job. Respectful persistance goes a long way in getting what you want.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:28 pm
just a work about the above post from brad, the jacksonville call center was previously closed this year, can you say “disgruntled employee”? the 3 weeks of training we go through at aol are to inundate us in the culutre of aol, yes, OF COURSE! it’s not brainwashing, that’s rediculous, next thing you know you’ll be saying there needs to be mass interventions in which we are encouraged to leave or employment where the atmosphere is one of competetive fun and spirit and find jobs making have the money to balm some sort of guilt we dont even feel! if you use aol, you are in a safer environment, period. facts are facts. we have the right to charge for that safety, but we understand that the consumer has the right to cancel. we will do so if given the chance to do our jobs properly, always.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:49 pm
The Dinoblog » Update on Vincent Ferrari and AOL
[...] I continue to be fascinated by this story. He finally received a personal apology by AOL. But I wonder, would Vincent have gotten this apology from the VP of AOL Corporate Communications had this not become as popular as it did? Probably not. Its an obvious public relations move by them in light of all the publicity and I have a hard time believing its sincere. I doubt Vincent’s story, or that of hundreds of other people who have tried to cancel, will lead to any changes in the way AOL handles customer relations. June 21, 2006 10:48 am | Filed under: [...]
June 21st, 2006 at 2:46 pm
When I called to cancel my AOL membership I, like so many others, experienced the same exact long drawn out conversation! I cancelled during a break-up where my name was on the account and I was leaving the residence…why I explained that to the guy in customer service was a last ditch effort to just get the membership cancelled, and get off the phone – but it was terrible! Good going, Vincent!
June 21st, 2006 at 3:14 pm
I can’t even tell you how this hit home. My husband and I had the same situation 3 years ago when we tried to do the same. We were “disconnected”, re routed, and argued with throughout the entire process. If this happened 3 years ago I find it hard to believe that someone hasn’t brought this issue up to the higher ups before. They are quite clearly not concerned with their customer service. Why else the extra ad budget. People leave because they are unhappy. It took a hold on their unauthorized charges to our AMEX card, and approximately 3 hours of spamming them to get them to agree. (Only to have them re-activate the account without our authorization, this happen to anyone else?? They said it reactivated when we clicked the icon on the desktop. If it is cancelled the first time, the icon shouldn’t work.Are they kidding me????)
June 21st, 2006 at 3:36 pm
It’s about time. I had an AOL account for two months because I needed dial up. Once my need for dialup was over, I called to cancel. 55 minutes later they were still begging me to try AOL for Broadband, 2 free months, etc etc etc. They asked me who I was going to use for ISP, I told them Time Warner (road runner). They never heard of them. HELLO !!! You are the same company.
AOL is not sorry, John shouldn’t have lost his job, his supervisor and all the higher ups should have because they are the ones telling him to do this. John was not an isolated bad CSR, he was trained to be this way.