Saw the piece on The Today Show this a.m. Wanted to let you know that this very thing happened to me TWO YEARS AGO when I was moving and wanted to use my cable company as my ISP.

The AOL rep would not let me off the phone. Actually, she kept me on the line longer than you were kept on. I finally told her that I wanted my AOL service cancelled and that because of her attitude on the phone I would never use AOL again and recommend to my friends never to use their service.

These customer service reps are trained to try and get you to change your mind. My guess is that nobody gets fired.

AOL sucks.

I’m laughing so hard…with you. [Not at you]. And this comment from an AOL subscriber. You were just super in standing up for yourself in the Today Show interview. David-1. Goliath-0.

I saw the segment on the Today show and had to write and tell you I had the same problem years ago when I tried to cancel AOL. Since that time I have advised all friends and family to avoid AOL and go with another ISP company.

It’s interesting that AOL can stay in business with such poor customer service. I would rather go internet-less than ever go through AOL again

Awesome Vinny! Looks like you got your 15 minutes. BTW, GB did you decide your time was NOT wasted by posting a comment? “I think your supervisor would like to know about this!”

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.

Regarding AOL cancellation-
I had AOL a number of years ago and decided to cancel- I called and spoke with someone and got the account closed- or so I thought. Several months later I noticed that I had charges on my bank account that I didn’t know what it was for and so when I checked with the bank they notified me it was AOL. When I called to find out why I was still being charged they told me that my account closure “didn’t go through” and that it was my responsibility to monitor my bank account and make sure that the AOL closure was approved. Needless to say I chewed thier ass but when I finally got a manager he refused to refund any of my money for six months of unused service- which was verifiable- and he still fought me on closing the account. He had the audacity to offer me a free month if I would continue using the service and resignup! I told him I planned on selling all my stock that I owned in the company and immediatly did so. Talk about shady business practices.

Simple solution to this problem as most of these AOL accounts are auto debit from credit cards: contact card issuer and deny charges from AOL then send fax/email notice to AOL to terminat the account. Why spend 20 minutes on the telephone? Very stupid.

Vinny!

I nearly dropped my coffee when I heard/saw the story on MSNBC re: Cancelling with AOL!
Being with AOL “ONLY for the Dell Promotion” time…. I did NOT LIKE ANY OF THEIR SO-CALLED CUSTOMER SERVICE…… No one in Bombay was helpful to me anytime I ever called…

When I found a GREAT DEAL with AT&T with DSL & Great Support online or telephone.. I TRIED TO CANCEL AOL…. Now.. being that I was unemployed, stressed, anxiety ridden… “I” thought I was overly sensitive YET after hearing your experience.. I am RAGING! These people treated me like DIRT.. I TRIED 3 Times to Cancel…gave up as they made me feel like I was going to be killed after cancelling– and mostly…HOW DARE I CANCEL “THE FAMOUS AOL”???? I am sad that some friends esp with kids..love AOL with the security features etc… I did eventually CANCEL/TERMINATE with AOL…Complained that I have never ever experienced such a horrendous, demenaing & abusive situation like their customer service & attempts to cancel…

THANK YOU for getting your experience out there.. You deserve any acknowledgement & interest in your creative works, that you get thru this horrible incident. I regret you had to experience this too.. yet.. I must say I feel a great weight being lifted off my shoulder knowing “I” was NOT the only one who was put thru Hell & Back with AOL ! THEY should be ashamed of themselves!!

Bravo Vinny!

I had a letter read by Letterman on “viewer mail”. I’m sorta famous too….

Re: The above comment from GB:
GB is obviously an AOL employee or some similar capacity and is a “clone” of the AOL representative “John” who simply would not listen to you. There must be a lot of them out there.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your time and effort to actually document AOL’s ridiculous crap and get it out to the public. Do you think AOL would have given you the apology they did if things had not gotten public? Ha! Ha! Ha!
So….. my question is: Why in the world would anyone ever do any business with AOL?

Vincent,

I am with you 100%. I have gone through the same thing. I, like you, took the “high road” and did not swear at the CSR or anything like that, trying to keep my cool but they were trying my patience. I just kept repeating “please just cancel the account”. I was about to pull out what little hair I have left. I applaud your efforts in bringing this to AOL’s attention in the only way that seem to understand.

Best regards,

Dave

…and AOL just plain SUCKS!!!!!

Dear Today,

I am an ex-customer retention representative for AOL and I disagree with the comment made by Nicholas J Graham, AOL spokesperson. AOL does not have “zero-tolerance for customer care incidents like this.” They train people to take an assumptive sales approach to the members that call in to cancel their account. All the questions that “John” asked Mr. Ferrari are questions that we were told to ask and were monitored and graded upon as part of our jobs. We were required to make a specific percentage of “saves” versus cancels and if we didn’t make offers to the members or make our percentage we were not doing our jobs and were given disciplinary action. The only way I can figure that “John” messed up as far as what I heard on the show, is the comment he made about Mr. Ferrari wishing he had listened to him. AOL is lying, it’s plain and simple. In order for the representative to get a hundred percent monitoring score is to go through the whole “Member Connect Sales Process” which includes finding out the member’s concern for cancelling, offering a solution for that concern and telling the member about at least 3 AOL Keywords, and that takes at least 12-15 minutes no matter how fast one talks or whether the person still wants to cancel the account. And I didn’t even tell you all the steps to the process which I found was a very successful sales process that can be applied to all kinds of products and services. The only way I know for it to take any less time than that is to get the retention rep to access the account then say “cancel the account” and hang up because then the rep must cancel the account in question before moving on to the next call. Just thought you might want that tidbit of information. Love the show.

Yours Truly,
Audrey Willoughby
awilloughby8@yahoo.com

Vin you got someone fired! That’s the cost of feeding your ego and blog? Vin u did this while ‘at work’, why don’t they fire you? Did u tell him he was being ‘record’ for commercial gain, if not he may sue you and AOL.
Your blog says “comments maybe deleted at discretion of site owner”…are u any better than the people u attack?

I too have had 2 bad experiences, personally, cancelling AOL accounts, and spent countless hours completing affidavits for customers of the bank I work for who attempted to cancel their AOL accounts and were still charged a fee. The first time I requested a cancellation, I was charged again for the service and had to beg and plead for a refund. Finally I just wrote to the Better Business Bureau, and wouldn’t you know it, I got a refund and a call from and AOL representative to apologize. The second time was just this past Monday. We bought a new computer that offered 6 months of free AOL, and even though that 6 months does not end until mid-July, I decided I better be ahead of the game on that one. My conversation was very similar to yours, only the girl had a much heavier Indian accent, and it did result in me begging for a cancellation. I have learned my lesson and I will avoid AOL like the plague from now on. Thanks for sharing your story.

I actually had a worst experience than this.:( When i moved to my new house last Nov of 2004, we did not have any broadband and DSL access and i did not want to spend a fortune for the Satellite dish provided internet access so i tried AOL with that 3 months free for x number of hours.Nov 3rd is when i have the account set up and as it said there, no credit card required but it has to be tied with the phone bill which i did. So for My Feb Phone bill, i got my first AOL bill included in the phone bill, paid my phone bill, then came March bill. Again paid my phone bill. April 2nd i called AOL to cancel the account because finally we can have comcast. After almost an hour of waiting plus talking with the person in the cancellation department, she told me that my account has been paid for till May 2nd. I figured that was correct because they usually bill you in advance but i told her that i want to cancel the account and she said ok, it will be cancelled but i still can use it till MAy 2nd. I said cool. Then 6 months later i got a collection letter stating i have a balance of so and so from an AOL account. So i was furious and called AOL and they told me that i have had an ample time to pay the account but did not. I explained my case but these people cant seem to put it in there heads. After an hour of frustratinon and yelling on the phone, i have to hang up. I gathered all my phone bills backtracking to the beginning where an AOL is added to my phone bill and copy of records of payment. I am keeping this for a while just in case i need to prove that i paid. For now i dont need to call them and go through the same aggravation, i have all documents proving my payments and that’s all that matters!:|

Just wanted everyone to know that cancelling AOL service is NOT the end of the scenario. When I first got a PC (long time ago), Gateway was offering free AOL for 6 months. My wife wanted to use it since we had paid so much for the PC, and we did, ignoring the pleas from friends who knew better. We used AOL for some 3 weeks, and, after extremely poor service, decided to go with another ISP. I called to cancel, I cancelled over the web, and cancelled via snail mail, and received correspondence that my account was cancelled. And, BTW, I was forced to replace my modem, as it had been totally corrupted by AOL. Then, 2 years later, I got a bill from AOL, stating that I was still a customer, and they refused to acknowledge that I had cancelled the account. So, BEWARE…if you do not place a block on either your credit card, or on your bank account, AOL will continue to bill you, even if you have proof that you cancelled the account. When this happened, I contacted the local police department, and they said there was nothing they could do about it, and that AOL was known for this, and that it was just business as usual.
Just a heads-up for all of you who are cancelling AOL. I commend you for doing so.
Bill

I had the same conversation w/a rep, almost verbatim! Make sure you notify your bank. They continued to deduct from my acct for 3 months, even though I told my bank that the acct was cancelled and not to pay it. I then switched banks and the old bank paid it and sent me a bill! I finally called AOL back and told them that I knew enough pissed off people to start a class action against them if they billed me one more time! I called the bank and told them if they wanted to pay it, fine, but don’t send me the bill! My God, these people are lunatics! I have a sneaky suspicion that the rep you talked to was promoted, not fired.

Vincent: Can I speak to Your Dad, for making this guy lose his job and creating this stunt? ~ lol!

Seriously, Vincent thank you for making it a point of how lowsy customer service is getting today! I applaud you, man! Although I keep AOL (God knows why!) I’m with MSN…

I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!!!!!!

I hated having to call AOL for anything at all when I had to deal with them directly. Unfortunatley I kept having to call them about my monthly payment. It was drafted from my account but NEVER EVER EVER on the same day! Everytime I called them they’d gice me some BS about “it’s always drafted on the 19th of the month” but I had my bank statements in front of me proving they’d wait as much as 2 weeks to draft my payment causing all kinds of problems in my bank account!!! Then one when I called with a general question about my service, I got this D**K called Jesse who treated me like I was a 3 year old who didn’t know how to count or read… then he HUNG UP ON ME!!!

Now I have AOL with Road Runner and haven’t had to talk to them in almost a year. Even when I switched they tried to get me to pay for another month of service, fortunatley they gave me back my $65…

I really don’t believe the whole story has been told. It is stated that the conversation is 15 minutes longI would like to hear the entire conversation. I too have worked in a customer service center (not AOL) and have been sworn at and provoked by the customer. Knowing this I would like to hear the entire conversation.

When I cancelled my account several years ago…I was offered a free month service to ensure I really wanted to cancel the account. It is the salesperson job to find out the reason for dissatisfaction in hopes to keep the customer as well as attempting to keep the person as a customer. I really believe the cusomer service rep was being antagonized as well. So hearing the entire conversation would clarify that. Thank you.

I know how you feel I myself worked in a call center as tech support. As a tech support worker I was required to try and sell our products as well as taking care of their problems that they called in for. We also worked on a percentage of our sales as well as our hourly wage but in order to get our percentage of our sales we were required to ask every caller if they were intrested in our products and if we didn,t mention every product we have for sale we were marked on our calls and if we didn,t ask all the required questions we did not receive our percentage in sales. And if you had too many calls that you didn,t ask to sell products we were taken aside and more or less told to do better or else. Even though they have a sales department for selling the products, the tech support personal were told that they had sell sell sell. I also think that John was fired because it was brought to light what happens at a call center and was fired to cover the companys ass.

Thanks for the AOL exposure. I had a similar experience about 6 years ago. I was on the phone for what seemed to be an eternity trying to cancel my AOL account. They don’t seem to understand “I don’t want your service anymore!”

And i totally agree with Mr. Glendon Langdale because that IS exactly what goes on in call centers. The ONLY reason that guy got fired is to cover their asses, and partly for him saying in a round about way that Mr Ferrari was also annoying the shit outta him. The part that really sucks is that there are people (like me) who are good at selling and can gracefully take rejection while still making an attempt to sell that have to deal with the now even more persistent stereotype that all telephone salespeople are badgering pains in the ass. This is simply not true.

I had the same experience last month but it went a little further. They agreed to cancel my account after 2 lengthy calls but they said they would keep my screen name for me and I could access the email through aol.com and I wouldn’t lose the name if I ever wanted to sign up again (fat chance). I tried to tell them I never check that email and I didn’t want people sending me emails to that old email address and thinking they got through to me. I wanted the email name cancelled so anyone that sent me an email would get it bounced back to them so they would know they had the wrong email and so they would call me to get the new email. The customer service rep (and I use the term loosely) said I needed to call technical support and they could turn the screen name off. Well I called tech support and went through the entire automated menu again and after about 10 minutes on hold I was disconnected. I did it again and finally got through to a technical support person and they said they couldn’t turn it off (and they couldn’t understand why in the world I would want to give up my aol screen name) and they gave me another number to call. So I called that number, and guess what, it put me back into the exact same automated menu to go to the same department. So needless to say I still don’t have it totally turned off. It’s only been a month and I haven’t received my next credit card statement to see if they have really stopped billing me, I’ll know in another week or so. This is ridiculous, how can a company that has grown the way they have be so bad with customer service. I will never ever deal with AOL again and I’m telling everyone I know the same thing. If anyone knows how to get my screen name totally cancelled please let me know. Thanks.

I am glad I am not the only one that had this issue. I actually got into a cussing match with the “customer service rep” after 30 minutes of telling her to “cancel my account” and she was just ignoring me and sounding like she was reading from a script. I did ask to speak with the supervisor and was disconnected and had to call back and get in another tiff with a different rep. I finally spoke with the manager and he said the account would be cancelled. I had two more bills follow after that convewrsation and had to repeat the process all over again. I finally had it cancelled and tell everyone I know to stay away from AOL. The free CDs you get in the mail are destroyed so no one accidentally gets signed up. I would feel awful if the CD I did not destroy caused someone to become a customer and have to go through this.

Oh Boo HOO! Those of you who work for call centers! When I walk into a store to return something, I don’t get a hassle at all! Why? They want me to come back and try another product! That’s called “keeping the customer”. Whatever happened to “the customer knows best”. You know what you are getting into when you are going through training to work in a call center. Do you feel comfortable with the fact that you trying to talk someone into something they don’t want? How do you feel when you are the person trying to stop a service and keep your credit card from being charged? You write as though there is something you know that the other 99.99% of us don’t know! Our local radio station had people telling them of AOL threatening to send accounts to collection agencies, because they had called to cancel their accounts, only to find out, AOL had not done as the customer had asked, cancel the account! As far as antagonizing a customer service rep at AOL, I find that hard to believe! I am sorry if “John” (maybe “John” is in another department) lost his job over this incident, but it was probably the best thing that ever happened to him, and I am sure, we will see “John” (with his face disguised) on the Today Show, telling us how he was pressured to try to keep Vincent as a subscriber! We have not heard the end of this and I hope other on-line companies (as any other) will learn from this and take heed!

I called and had (or thought I had) my AOL account cancelled in 1999. The amount was being charged to my credit card. I had a cancellation number at that time. I then went over seas for an extended of time and had a credit balance on my credit card account. When I returned from overseas, I found that AOL DID NOT CANCELL my account; kept charging my credit card to the point I was several months past due in payments. The credit card company would not help resolve this matter. I called AOL to no avail. I wrote the company 2 times asking for an explaination. None received. The credit card company said it was my problem, and they knew of other AOL customer problems, but would not credit my account until the received cancellation verification from AOL. That never came. I later worked for a large computer company selling computers. I did everything possible to discourage anyone not to ever sign with AOL. I would tell them to ignore all the free disc that were everywhere. I don’t think any of the several hundred customer’s that I assisted ever used AOL after my telling them of my experience. My closing statement to all of them when recommending an ISP was, “I would not use AOL if it was the last and only provider on earth.”

Vincent:
I do not know if you will get this message, but I got a big “ditto” story for you. I wish I had a tape recorder running when I was on hold forever, like you, and I had the same argument with the customer service rep. I think mine went on longer than yours, and the guy, who I thought was a robot, eventually talked me into keeping the account for another month ( I had to go somewhere ) and calling back then to cancel. Boy, did I regret that. I tried to call back at the end of the month, but I never got through, so I just gave up. I used to pay my AOL bill as part of my Verizon bill (local telephone). Well, the reason I dumped AOL was because I went with the local cable company for broadband and phone. Three months went by, and I get a threatening letter from a bill collector for 90-something dollars because my AOL account was never canceled! I called the bill collectors, who then directed me to AOL. When I finally got through to them, they said there was nothing they can do since it was in collections, and they actually used my recorded call against me by tracking when I called and what I said. Anyway, I just gave up and ignored the bill. It is probably on my credit now.

Great job on Scarborough Country. I just wanted to let you know that what you did was great. Incidently, you said in the interview that you thought this was a recent development, but my story dates back to September 2004. I do not think they should have fired the guy, I think AOL Time Warner should fold up the tent. AOL is a good example of what happens to a company that no longer has a viable service to offer anyone.

I went through a similar horror story trying to cancel AOL years ago. On the phone they’d tell me it was cancelled, give me a cancellation number, and the next month my credit card would get charged. I’d go through the process again and again it’d get charged. Finally I had to change my credit card # and then they called me demanding to know why the payments wouldn’t go through.

AOL ripped me off for 4 months of service that I never even used.

Touche Madeline R! I had the same reaction.

I absolutely hate AOL. I once spent 2 hours on the phone with them trying to get my DSL fixed because I could not log on. I was given six different phone numbers and spoke with eight different people before I finally spoke with someone who fixed it within 2 minutes. I was told if I cancelled my account, it would cost $150.00. So now I am stuck with them for a while longer. They even tried to sell me something on how to use Windows XP. AOL SUCKS!!!!!

How much are you willing to bet that GB, yupAOLsucks, and Smith are the same guy? And that guy’s name is John I bet…

But yeah, prior to cancelling my AOL service, I heard horror stories, just like yours, from people who tried to cancel their AOL service, after realizing that they shouldn’t have to pay broadband-like prices for dial-up service, when reliable dial-up could be had for less than $15 per month. Wanting to completely forgo calling them altogether, I went another route – I simply sent them a fax stating that I would like to cancel my account. It wasn’t even a real fax either – it was sent through one of those internet-based text faxing services (apparently they didn’t require a signature back then, just a SSN, in addition to the other information mentioned above). It worked like a charm.

About 2-3 days later a rep. with a thick southern drawl called me and started giving me this whole spiel about how sorry he was to see me leave, then tried to talk me out of my decision. I said “no”, hung up the phone in his ear as he continued to talk, and haven’t heard from them sense. For about 2 years after that I continued to recieve mailings and CDs from them in the mail, but I always just tossed them out, and eventually they stopped coming as well.

So yeah, for those of you who are concidering giving up on AOL and their dial-up service that they continue to charge $29.95/month for (while other companies charge less than $10/mo these days), but who wish to avoid a situation similar to the horror stories mentioned above, you have two options. The first to send them a fax (as described above), making sure that the information that you include is EXACTLY as it appears in your account (including middle initial, answer to your verification question spelled exactly right, etc). As they mentioned, make sure that you also snail mail a copy of the request to them, and request a notice of receipt.

The other option (as somebody has already mentioned) is to call them, wait until the rep pulls up your account information, state “cancel my service”, hang up once they start haggling you, then call back and get your cancellation number. You account will be cancelled immediately (in theory), and you will recieve your cancellation number immediately from a rep who won’t haggle you because they have nothing to lose.

Happy cancelling!! Screw AOL.

I worked there for 4+ years and made alot of money doing the wrong thing. We FORCED people to keep it by giving them free time and moneyback. that kinda made me feel good and ther are some things it has that are worth $5. If you have any idea how many dumb people there are out there that still pay 23.90. They will fall soon in that states and have it all in india, africa, isreal, phiilipines, and others…

yes, Tomm, little does anybody know that if you are using AOL over broadband connections you no longer have to pay 23.90 per month. You can change to a light usage plan and only pay 4.95 per month, still have unlimited access to AOL through your existing broadband connection, the same email address, plus 3 hours per month of back-up dial up. Does AOL want you to know that? NO. But now you do. So there, NotanAOLsubscriberanymore, there’s what I know that the “other 99.99% of you” does not know. It’s a job and wouldn’t you at least like to have someone you can understand on the phone than someone whose first language is not English? People in stores aren’t paid to do what we do and certainly aren’t paid as well either. So if you are one of the few that still want your AOL interface switch to a light usage plan. I you’re hating your AOL like so many of us have, call to cancel, have them pull up your account, tell them you want cancel, and hang up. Simple as that, loopholes are everywhere, just gotta know where to look.

Hey!

I saw the segment this morning on NBC. Thanks a lot for coming forward and you did a great job! I had a job while in college as a “Retention Specialist” for a financial institution. My manager had the audacity to write me up for failing to retain a 92-year old lady, who had not used her account in three years, and was set to get another $59 membership fee. I’m sorry, but I do like to sleep at night. This manager, by the way, was subsequently fired and I went on to graduate and find a real job.
The problem my old manager had with me is that I was unable to be brainwashed. There were many people I worked with who were very “brainwashable” (I know it’s not a real word), and it is very disturbing! You would think that people who are so incredibly weak minded would eventually catch on that “cancel” means “CANCEL”!!!

btw, big is beautiful I wouldnt change a thing.

I used to work in retention/customer service for a call center and it is definitely a high stress job. This agent of AOL was definitely out of line, but at the same time I think Vincent is a very bored man. He says he works for a cellular company. I worked for one of the largest cellular companies and they have the exact same type of calls take place on a daily basis. I think generally though we never hear from all the satisfied customers of any company. I’m sure as consumers we all have been treated poorly by a customer service rep, but does this give free reign for us to hold this over that agents head in a recording of their job. Vincent was not even close to patient. Jon seemed to be very nice at the beginning of the call until Vincent says: “dude, why does it matter?” when Jon asks whether he used the computer for business or personal. I don’t know how many times I’ve been stopped in the mall and had a cell phone rep try to get me to cancel my existing service. Once again the AOL rep was out of line, but if Vincent wasn’t an ass hole to him in the beginning and at least heard him out I am sure the call would have been carried differently. We all need to take a look at the big picture here.

ex aol employees unite!!!

They had the cameras facing your back!

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/4042/backwards7zh.jpg

hey Guys get over it ,

people are doin their Jobs anywhere in the world. Some fat ass wants to make a mockery of a job he is done that , trusts me he wouldnt get so much of commitment from his wife of girl friend as the people in AOL are providing service for him . Ask him to record the conversation of him with his girl friend if he has one . You will coem to know wat a loooser Vincent Ferrari really is .

Cheers

When I left the UK in 2003 to return home to Australia after working there as the CEO of a company I cancelled my AOL account by email and phone. They cancelled my email address and access but continued to debit my bank account for some 9 months before I could stop them. I have all the copies of my emails and notes of my phone calls from Australia-and they ignored the lot. Needles to say I would not sign up with them on my return to Australia. Eventually I was able to cancel the direct debit with my bank who were not helpful. Their actions amount to FRAUD. How can I recover what they took fraudently-and, give support to what you are doing.
Denis Groves

Vincent, Once Again you are the Best!
Your patience and professionalism was PERFECT.

Jerry,

That’s addressed in the recording.

He told me it was being used by my dad. My dad doesn’t have the software on his computer. I know this because I set up his computer.

It really is that simple, and it’s exactly what I told the rep. He was probably looking at AIM usage because my father still uses AIM.

I thought I cancelled my account one month but billing then showed up the next month. After calling AOL back and reminding them that I had already cancelled and was still being charged, the rep, after a lengthy “you need AOL” conversation, finally told me, “Too bad, we already have your money.” I immediately called my credit card company, explained the situation and they credited my account for TWO months worth of AOL service. I got the last laugh.

I laughted when I watched you on today, I called AOL to cancel an account that was susposed to be a free trail,I went through at least three people trying to get the cost off my bill,they all tried to get me to not cancel, it was like they did not even hear what I was saying, I am very easily pissed off and even when I started getting madder and madder they just would not hear me. I tried to get them to let me talk to their supervisor, after at least 30 minutes, and me not being very nice they finally took it off my charge.I really never thought anyone but me had this problem, But I still have to say….its not as bad as the five hours I waited on hold for a MSN tech. support. They asked me all my info,and kept telling me just a minute, I really blew when the final time they came on the phone….five hours later , they said Hi, my name is Tom…..how can I help you, we were starting the conversation all over again.

Sorry guys…I forgot to put my email address if you had any questions or comments:

numbnutz@aol.com

Just saw the video about cancelling AOL, just wanted to say, the SAME thing happend to me. It went on and on and on like yours, haha… so glad you brought this to people’s attention and maybe AOL will improve their customer service.

When the Day came for my mom to dump AOHell for ATT/YahooDSL It took her three phone calls and over 30 minutes on hold to Canceled her service with aol!!

I’m really glad I heard about your experience. I just canceled my account about 2 weeks ago (at least I think I did) after having AOL for 6 years. I was only on the phone for about 25 minutes or so, but it was one of the most frustrating experiences with a service center that I have ever had. I’ve worked in a call center before, so I always try to be especially nice and patient when making calls. The AOL representative repeatedly ignored my kind request to “just cancel the account” and tried to convince me that I didn’t know what I was doing and sell me security features for my new DSL connection. By the end of the call, he gave me no choice but to be rude – it was the only way he actually listened to what I was saying.
Thank you for calling attention to the poor service.

Two Problems. First one: all salesmen have been trained to the rules of the games they play. 2nd problem: Consumers have not.
My conversation with AOL, when I cancelled, was so close to the same as Vincent”s , someone might think we had a script. How foolish I feel now that I know how to cancel. I recommend sending the rules of How to cancel to anyone in your address book with .aol. The grief you will save with better the world we live in.

Vincent:

Way to go – what a GREAT idea! Several years ago I went through a real mess closing my CompuServe account after it had been bought by AOL.

The “customer service” rep never did close the account, they simply flagged it as “saved by me” (meaning they got a commission) and the bills kept coming in.

I had had the account for many years. During this time my credit card number had been changed and somehow CompuServe continued to bill using the old number and the credit card company honored it!?

When I called back to “cancel again” they said that the account was not closed! I listened to the story about how the account had been “saved by me” according to the customer rep.

The best part was they simply refused to cancel the account unless I was able to provide the original credit card number used to open the account about seven years earlier. I called the credit card company and they would not tell me what it was – fortunately I was able to find an old expense report with the number to remove “excuse” from them.

I called at least ten times to close the account! You accomplished a miricle since you apparently closed it in one call.

Several years later the State of New York and AOL had some sort of settlement on this issue. I could have gotten about $40 back however I felt that the paperwork would be too much so I didn’t pursue it.

Once again – way to go!

Kid

I too used to work for AOL. I was hired as a Sign up by Phone (SUBP) rep, but when the company decided to move that department out of the call center I worked in, we were all forced to either, retrain for Retention or quit. So into training I went. Let me add that I was in the SUBP department for 2 years and actually loved my job. If someone was having trouble with setting up a free trail or had questions they would call in and we would help set it up. Well after 3 weeks of training for retention I hit the phones. It was horrible!! I hated it from day one!! We were expected to “SAVE” the member from closing the account. After a month of it I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to quit!! I feel that a lot of employees that we hired as SUBP reps got screwed because we weren’t given a choice and were forced to do a job that we weren’t hired to do!! And I can confirm that we were trained to do whatever it takes to keep a memeber. Wheter it be free time, money back, or a new price plan. Bonuses were given based on the number of accounts that were “SAVED” per month! I also want to add that NOW you can get AIM mail free!!! One way to get someone to keep an account we would say you can keep your email, well now you can get email for free!!!! I have the SAME email that I have had 1998 but I DO NOT pay for it!!!

Kudos to you…all I have to say is at least you got someone that spoke English. Try going through that same call from a rep in India like I did. AOL will NEVER get my business.

The system that thay had us use to calculate hours of usage only used dial up hours as a reference

U go mate… these bastards got me 2ce. Your tale ought 2 b a memo 4 the free world.

kudos!

Add me to the list. It was 5 years ago and I don’t remember the details but when my local cable company offered broadband, I called to cancel AOL. It was the WORST custoomer service experience over the phone I’ve ever had and I’ve said that numerous times to numerous people. I understand and expect that they will give you information about how great their service is to try to retain you, but this was insane. The rep went on and on and on, never taking “no” for an answer. I ended up yelling “CANCEL MY F*CKING ACCOUNT!”

Poor Vincent. What he doesn’t realize is that AOL doesn’t really cancel the account. They put it in a “dormant” state. It will be automatically reinstated if Vincent accidently clicks on his AOL icon to access AOL. I have heard of many people who think they have cancelled their account with AOL only to see the charges still showing up on their charge card several months later. Good luck Vincent. I hope you’re one of the lucky ones who gets it right the first time.

thanks for doing this! i have always wished i had recorded my own cancellation call a few years ago. they kept me on the phone for about 20 minutes… passing me back and forth, telling me how many times i had signed on in the last month (like that would change my mind), basically ignoring what i was saying.
it’s laughable that the powers-that-be issue statements that make it like these customer “service” reps are acting on their own. they obviously have been instructed to prevent client loss through these manipulations.
thanks again, man.

Hi Vincent,

Good job with the call.. What I find funny is the response you got from the aol corperate office. They say that they have “Zero Tolerance” for this kind of thing, but yet thousands of people experience the same kind of problem. I would go as far as to suspect that the reps are actually trained to keep people from cancelling in the same way your call went, and the guy they fired was merely the company scapegoat, because you, I, and countless others have had the almost exact same experiance with account cancellations.

In my case, I got so frustrated that I hung up, after clearly speaking my intentions of cancelling my account, and it was the same month that my debit card expired and I was issued a card with a different number. AOL then sent me a letter wanting updated billing information and I sent it back to them with CANCEL THIS ACCOUNT written in black magic marker. Guess what? They then sent me a letter saying my account was going to COLLECTIONS. I paid for 2 months AFTER my MULTIPLE cancellation requests.

Thanks for stepping up to the plate and getting some attention drawn to this matter. It would be interesting to have Jon, the guy that they fired in your case come out and talk about the job as an AOL account rep. Could shed a little light on this.

Thanks again and take care,
Charlie

I’m glad more of AOL/CServe’s conniving ways are coming to light. When I tried to leave them, they begged me to stay on and promised me 60 days of benefits. I gave in, thinking I’d get 2 months of $24.95 service. Instead, the incompetent AOL/CServe representative signed me up for a minute-by-minute plan, which I never agreed to. Heck, I am computer savvy and had worked in tech support! I knew better. Then I was hit with a bill for $1,983 (for 2 months’ service!). I fought it for 10 months, and when they threatened to ruin my credit, I paid the bill and have never stopped spreading the word about my bad experience with them … and I never will. AOL makes ya stupid.

I’m still looking for my apology letter from AOL and maybe compensation for my 20 min time on the phone to cancel my account.

GOOD BYE!! AOL

I’ve been having the same problem with AOL for the last 6 months. I cancelled my account back in Dec.05, over the phone. On my next month’s credit card statement, they continued to bill me for $25.90. I called them again, and “re-cancelled”. Then in March, they charged me again! So, I called my credit card company, and they credited my account. Then, on my recent statement, they charged me again. So, I called my credit card company, and then I called AOL for the third time this year. They kept me on the phone for 27 minutes!! After I hung up, I made a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
I think this whole thing is crazy! I haven’t used AOL since December, when I purchased a laptop and started using wireless.

This is incredible!! I bet there are THOUSANDS of people who have gone throu the same BS trying to cancel AOL. I know I did….. I have never in my life been so angry with sombebody on the phone. I kept saying over and over “which part of “Cancel my account you don’t understand?” ….. and then AOL charged a fee to my account after it was cancelled!!
I agree with a previous comment…as addicted as I am to the internet, I would rather have no internet at all than having to deal with AOL.
AH! and one other thing: you know those annoying CD’s they keep sending in the mail… I return them to them by writing on the envelope “Return to sender”
Boy…… I HATE AOL!!!

Hahaha. That is really, really funny. Good for you! Seriously, by doing this you’ve saved countless other people in the future the same hassle. And you know that behavior had to be encouraged by the company, otherwise why would some rep go to all the trouble.

Crossposting a portion of the comment – because I do think I’ve made some good points that deserve to be reviewed, and I welcome the feedback on this blog.

“RJ, explain to me how the customer — or any citizen in the free world, for that matter — is legally bound to give a Customer Rep a “good enough” reason for canceling a service he’s paying for.”

I never stated he was legally bound to give a “good enough” reason. I said that he LIED about why he wanted to cancel the account. That alone makes me lose respect for the guy.

Let me point you out to this article:

http://www.cepro.com/news/editorial/13792.html

Not this part here “While the AOL rep definitely handled the situation poorly, he was right to ask questions. The cancellation process is a good opportunity for dealers to mine clients for information. Obviously, if they are canceling, the company didn’t serve them well enough. It’s the service rep’s responsibility to try to find out what the company could have done better.”

Instead, Vince decided to be rude to the rep by interrupting him and not get the matter resolved in a respectful manner. However, had Vince himself been more respectful to at least listen for a moment rather than bait the rep, I’m sure that you’ll agree that the call could have ended in an entirely different matter. This isn’t a matter of AOL being unwilling to cancel the account. It’s a matter of the rep taking the call responding negatively to Vinnie’s own rudeness during the call and now it’s being scrutinized. There is a fact being overlooked. If the rep hadn’t been rude to Vinnie there, there would be no story.

I am in no way condoing the way the the rep handled the call towards the end. He lost his composure and behaved poorly. I do handle some retention calls myself (though it’s not the primary function of my job). The stress is high – not just because a portion of the pay is dependent on keeping paying customers, but because of being berated constantly while trying to do the job. I’ve been working in the customer service industry for more than twelve years. More than ten years of that has been spent on the phone. Burnout happens, and I suspect “Jon” probably needed a vacation.

Unfortunately, the mindset of “the customer is always right” has grown into this creature that somehow gives the idea that there is no reason to be respectful to the customer service employee – there is often the mindset that the CSR is just a mindless stupid drone who has his head shoved up his ass and is there for the customer to walk all over.

It happens enough in retail as it is (I’ve worked that side too) and I’ve been crapped on by customers in that respect. It’s significantly worse on the phones. In the world of retail, there is typically face-to-face interaction. People have that human element in front of them and it seems to create a filter – where somebody who is upset will at least be willing to deal with the person in front of them (or at least keep in mind that they are talking to another human being.)

When working on the phones, I’ve heard people say things and behave in ways that they would NEVER do if they were face to face. Why? Because there is that lack of human contact. The connection is gone. They don’t have a fear of repercussion or feel a need to have regard for the other person’s feelings. That said, when it comes to the customer service industry, phone representatives have it the hardest. It’s probably the most stressful of all jobs in the customer service industry. I don’t know how many reading this have worked in a customer service job. Put yourself in the rep’s shoes for a moment. Whether you have done this type of job or not, the best way to get excellent customer service (even if cancelling an AOL account) is to be an excellent human being. This doesn’t mean being a doormat, it means being respectful and courteous in your exchange, inspite of how you may feel.

The question is, can we objectively look at this phone call and say that Vince was on his best behavior? If that is his best behavior, you certainly don’t want him to be the face leading the cause for better customer service.

Hey I saw you on the today show and had to tell you my fiance went through the same thing trying to get rid of the tyrants!! Thanks for making that public!!

RJ – Since you chose to reference this paragraph, so shall I.

Not this part here “While the AOL rep definitely handled the situation poorly, he was right to ask questions. The cancellation process is a good opportunity for dealers to mine clients for information. Obviously, if they are canceling, the company didn’t serve them well enough. It’s the service rep’s responsibility to try to find out what the company could have done better.”

1. while it may be a good opportunity to “mine” clients for information…I, as a client, have no legal, personal or moral obligation to oblige. If you want to take up MY valuable time to figure out how to increase YOUR profits….you had better ask verrrrrry nicely….

2. JOHN had no intention of cancelling Vincent and then finding out how AOL could have served him better. His priority was “retain” Vincent as a customer. Naming the “Cancellation” Center the “Retention” Center represents the most blatent conflict of interest….it just gives me the creeps….

3. When dealing with a client who is adamant about cancelling their service, well then you, as a CSR, should just do that and move on to the next call. JOHN chose to berate, degrade, insult and flat out refuse Vincents request.

4. Whether Vincent was on his best behavior is completely irrelevant. If I pay YOU for a service….it’s YOUR job to be on your best behavior, not mine.

See…I can cut and paste, too.

Just saw your interview on CNN. I applaud you, and want to tell you that AOL did this to me back in 1994. I had been a customer and decided I wanted to cancell my account. They told me that all I had to do is tell them on the phone, and they would cancell it. I immediately stopped using AOL, and didn’t give it another thought. At the time I had a finanacial manager paying my bills, and hadn’t mentioned the AOL cancellation to her, as I thought it was a small matter. After a year went by, she questioned me about the $9.95 that was deducted each month. I told her that I had cancelled that account a year earlier. AOL stone- walled me and never fully refunded my money. The point is this; AOL has been conducting fraudlent billing practices for many yearsl, with full knowledge, and ptemeditated corporate strategy that a percentage of the public will not check their statements. I also use to work for Wells Fargo in the collecitons department, and had several conversations with their, (Wells Fargo), Fraud unit. They often had conplaints from bank cusomters about AOL. Don’t be fooled by the apology. AOL is only sorry they got caught on tape with media follow up. I have been telling this story about AOL for years. By the way, this is common business practice with many companies and corporations. If you pay by Debit or credit and cancell a purchase or return something, CHECK YOUR BANK STATEMET THAT THE CHARGE WAS BACKED OUT OR REFUNDED. ALSO, WATCH THAT THE CHARGHE IS NOT RE-CHARGED BACK TO RE-DEPIT YOUR ACCOUNT.

Well the words were practically the same. My guy was
John too. Only my John seemed more threatening.
I asked to speak to a supervisor and he said “NO”.
As I remember I ended the call telling him that I considered my account closed. I also asked him if it made him happy using these tactics and his
response was yes.
I called back a little later knowing I’d get another agent, and asked for a supervisor and again the answer was “NO”. I told him my account should have been canceled, he said it was. I got a letter that it was closed about a week later.
A lot uglier then this episode.

same here, I had to beg them to close my account and plead with them, they didnt listen to me at all and they were trying ANYTHING for me to keep the account, I thought it was cancelled until I got my credit card bill they kept charging me, I called aol and my cc which removed the charges for a few days then put them back on siding with AOL!! This went on for about 4-5 months, each month aol charged me even though I stopped using them, I finally had to close that credit card and open a new one. I would rather never use the internet again if there were only AOL. Screw aol. I would NEVER go back to them, they are pure evil, they are the devil. They have no ethics. Screw them all.

As a person who builds computers part time I can tell you that I NEVER recommend AOL. Half of the repair work I do usually turns out to be some glitch caused by the AOL software or unwanted software that gets loaded on from there ads. When I sell a computer, I make it clear I will not support any problems if a customer loads on AOL. Same thing happened to my father in law. Except after agreeing to cancel the account he kept getting billed and spent even more time getting that staightened out. Thanks

after being on and off AOL several times, i finally learned the trick to keeping my sanity:

1) do NOT call to cancel; fax or mail
2) immediately call your bank or credit card and have them make a notation on your acct that you have cancelled AOL and do not authorize any more charges. ask if they want a copy of the fax or letter.
3)if AOL threatens you with collectors, ignore them.

there is v little they can do except put it on your credit report. this scares most people, but no one pays attention to certain things on a credit report: doctor bills, record clubs, AOL. if you have otherwise good credit, it has no effect. lenders know these creditors have bad practices, and don’t pay attention to them. plus you have the right to protest anything on your credit report, ie “I cancelled AOL on such-and-such date, but they never stopped billing me.”

4)do not let AOL needlessly upset you; do not talk to them. it ain’t worth it!

I absolutely hate AOL and this just give me all the more reason to hate them, their software sucks. It’s a control freak.

That is so awesome though that you recorded all that. GENIOUS!

Here’s a simple and powerful point: It’s rude to try to control a conversation, and especially rude when you are dealing with a customer who simply wants something he is entitled to.

The only way to depose a conversation tyrant is to become confrontational, point out what he is doing, and shift the conversation to the appropriate topic. Subtle hints will work for polite people, but conversation tyrants won’t bat an eye. Explicit requests will work for all normal people, but conversation tyrants will manage to resist even those. The only recourse: confrontation. In this case: “Cancel the account. Cancel the account. Cancel the account. Cancel the account.”

oh an easy way to cancel, is to claim that you just bought an ISP and make the general statement as to why should i bet with AOL when I have high speed now? infact promote the fact to the rep that they are doing a good job that if they cancel the account now that you would consider hiring them.

I know what you mean man I try to cancel my aol acct but i was on the line with there asshole for 30 min i know what vinny is felling AOL have relley bad servies i hate AOL:evil:

Sorry that I posted this in another group as well, but 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.

Great idea, Brian. I’m going to do the same!!!!

Bravo to you! I wish I would have taped my experience with AOL. My nightmare occurred on a Saturday afternoon last summer. I called AOL to cancel my account because I also just didn’t use it. My CSR whose said his name was Chris was nice at first, but then after a couple of minutes says to me “I know what’s going on here”, I respond, “Oh really?” “and what might that be?” He claimed I was canceling because I was going through a divorce or a break-up and was just doing this out of anger. I exploded. No remaining calm like you did. I told him what nerve he had and that I wasn’t even married and sorry, but he was wrong about the reason. I asked him if he was having a slow day and if this is what they taught in CSR class. In hanging up he just had to get a last little jab in at me, saying, “Well, I hope you BOTH have a nice rest of the day.” I was the only one here. Lastly, AOL waited like 2 or 3 months and then they took $25.00 out of my checking account for canceling. Like I would’ve forgotten about my coversation from hell with Chris.

I had AOL for about a year back in the early 90′s, and even then they had a bad reputation for the way they handled cancellations. When it came time to cancel, the rep asked me why I was cancelling, and I told him I no longer had a computer nor any plans to own one again. Wasn’t much he could argue about with that answer, even though he sounded very surprised.

I saw one comment in here from someone that AOL lied to , saying that in order to continue using AIM they needed to keep paying for their accounts. What a bunch of scumbags AOL are! The AIM service is free, and always has been. You don’t even have to use AOL’s ad-ridden AIM client to use AIM.

With all the crap AOL has been pulling for years, it’s a miracle anybody ever signs up with them.

Saw the piece on The Today Show this a.m. Wanted to let you know that this very thing happened to me TWO YEARS AGO when I was moving and wanted to use my cable company as my ISP.

The AOL rep would not let me off the phone. Actually, she kept me on the line longer than you were kept on. I finally told her that I wanted my AOL service cancelled and that because of her attitude on the phone I would never use AOL again and recommend to my friends never to use their service.

These customer service reps are trained to try and get you to change your mind. My guess is that nobody gets fired.

AOL sucks.

I’m laughing so hard…with you. [Not at you]. And this comment from an AOL subscriber. You were just super in standing up for yourself in the Today Show interview. David-1. Goliath-0.

I saw the segment on the Today show and had to write and tell you I had the same problem years ago when I tried to cancel AOL. Since that time I have advised all friends and family to avoid AOL and go with another ISP company.

It’s interesting that AOL can stay in business with such poor customer service. I would rather go internet-less than ever go through AOL again

Awesome Vinny! Looks like you got your 15 minutes. BTW, GB did you decide your time was NOT wasted by posting a comment? “I think your supervisor would like to know about this!”

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.

Regarding AOL cancellation-
I had AOL a number of years ago and decided to cancel- I called and spoke with someone and got the account closed- or so I thought. Several months later I noticed that I had charges on my bank account that I didn’t know what it was for and so when I checked with the bank they notified me it was AOL. When I called to find out why I was still being charged they told me that my account closure “didn’t go through” and that it was my responsibility to monitor my bank account and make sure that the AOL closure was approved. Needless to say I chewed thier ass but when I finally got a manager he refused to refund any of my money for six months of unused service- which was verifiable- and he still fought me on closing the account. He had the audacity to offer me a free month if I would continue using the service and resignup! I told him I planned on selling all my stock that I owned in the company and immediatly did so. Talk about shady business practices.

Simple solution to this problem as most of these AOL accounts are auto debit from credit cards: contact card issuer and deny charges from AOL then send fax/email notice to AOL to terminat the account. Why spend 20 minutes on the telephone? Very stupid.

Vinny!

I nearly dropped my coffee when I heard/saw the story on MSNBC re: Cancelling with AOL!
Being with AOL “ONLY for the Dell Promotion” time…. I did NOT LIKE ANY OF THEIR SO-CALLED CUSTOMER SERVICE…… No one in Bombay was helpful to me anytime I ever called…

When I found a GREAT DEAL with AT&T with DSL & Great Support online or telephone.. I TRIED TO CANCEL AOL…. Now.. being that I was unemployed, stressed, anxiety ridden… “I” thought I was overly sensitive YET after hearing your experience.. I am RAGING! These people treated me like DIRT.. I TRIED 3 Times to Cancel…gave up as they made me feel like I was going to be killed after cancelling– and mostly…HOW DARE I CANCEL “THE FAMOUS AOL”???? I am sad that some friends esp with kids..love AOL with the security features etc… I did eventually CANCEL/TERMINATE with AOL…Complained that I have never ever experienced such a horrendous, demenaing & abusive situation like their customer service & attempts to cancel…

THANK YOU for getting your experience out there.. You deserve any acknowledgement & interest in your creative works, that you get thru this horrible incident. I regret you had to experience this too.. yet.. I must say I feel a great weight being lifted off my shoulder knowing “I” was NOT the only one who was put thru Hell & Back with AOL ! THEY should be ashamed of themselves!!

Bravo Vinny!

I had a letter read by Letterman on “viewer mail”. I’m sorta famous too….

Re: The above comment from GB:
GB is obviously an AOL employee or some similar capacity and is a “clone” of the AOL representative “John” who simply would not listen to you. There must be a lot of them out there.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your time and effort to actually document AOL’s ridiculous crap and get it out to the public. Do you think AOL would have given you the apology they did if things had not gotten public? Ha! Ha! Ha!
So….. my question is: Why in the world would anyone ever do any business with AOL?

Vincent,

I am with you 100%. I have gone through the same thing. I, like you, took the “high road” and did not swear at the CSR or anything like that, trying to keep my cool but they were trying my patience. I just kept repeating “please just cancel the account”. I was about to pull out what little hair I have left. I applaud your efforts in bringing this to AOL’s attention in the only way that seem to understand.

Best regards,

Dave

…and AOL just plain SUCKS!!!!!

Dear Today,

I am an ex-customer retention representative for AOL and I disagree with the comment made by Nicholas J Graham, AOL spokesperson. AOL does not have “zero-tolerance for customer care incidents like this.” They train people to take an assumptive sales approach to the members that call in to cancel their account. All the questions that “John” asked Mr. Ferrari are questions that we were told to ask and were monitored and graded upon as part of our jobs. We were required to make a specific percentage of “saves” versus cancels and if we didn’t make offers to the members or make our percentage we were not doing our jobs and were given disciplinary action. The only way I can figure that “John” messed up as far as what I heard on the show, is the comment he made about Mr. Ferrari wishing he had listened to him. AOL is lying, it’s plain and simple. In order for the representative to get a hundred percent monitoring score is to go through the whole “Member Connect Sales Process” which includes finding out the member’s concern for cancelling, offering a solution for that concern and telling the member about at least 3 AOL Keywords, and that takes at least 12-15 minutes no matter how fast one talks or whether the person still wants to cancel the account. And I didn’t even tell you all the steps to the process which I found was a very successful sales process that can be applied to all kinds of products and services. The only way I know for it to take any less time than that is to get the retention rep to access the account then say “cancel the account” and hang up because then the rep must cancel the account in question before moving on to the next call. Just thought you might want that tidbit of information. Love the show.

Yours Truly,
Audrey Willoughby
awilloughby8@yahoo.com

Vin you got someone fired! That’s the cost of feeding your ego and blog? Vin u did this while ‘at work’, why don’t they fire you? Did u tell him he was being ‘record’ for commercial gain, if not he may sue you and AOL.
Your blog says “comments maybe deleted at discretion of site owner”…are u any better than the people u attack?

I too have had 2 bad experiences, personally, cancelling AOL accounts, and spent countless hours completing affidavits for customers of the bank I work for who attempted to cancel their AOL accounts and were still charged a fee. The first time I requested a cancellation, I was charged again for the service and had to beg and plead for a refund. Finally I just wrote to the Better Business Bureau, and wouldn’t you know it, I got a refund and a call from and AOL representative to apologize. The second time was just this past Monday. We bought a new computer that offered 6 months of free AOL, and even though that 6 months does not end until mid-July, I decided I better be ahead of the game on that one. My conversation was very similar to yours, only the girl had a much heavier Indian accent, and it did result in me begging for a cancellation. I have learned my lesson and I will avoid AOL like the plague from now on. Thanks for sharing your story.

I actually had a worst experience than this.:( When i moved to my new house last Nov of 2004, we did not have any broadband and DSL access and i did not want to spend a fortune for the Satellite dish provided internet access so i tried AOL with that 3 months free for x number of hours.Nov 3rd is when i have the account set up and as it said there, no credit card required but it has to be tied with the phone bill which i did. So for My Feb Phone bill, i got my first AOL bill included in the phone bill, paid my phone bill, then came March bill. Again paid my phone bill. April 2nd i called AOL to cancel the account because finally we can have comcast. After almost an hour of waiting plus talking with the person in the cancellation department, she told me that my account has been paid for till May 2nd. I figured that was correct because they usually bill you in advance but i told her that i want to cancel the account and she said ok, it will be cancelled but i still can use it till MAy 2nd. I said cool. Then 6 months later i got a collection letter stating i have a balance of so and so from an AOL account. So i was furious and called AOL and they told me that i have had an ample time to pay the account but did not. I explained my case but these people cant seem to put it in there heads. After an hour of frustratinon and yelling on the phone, i have to hang up. I gathered all my phone bills backtracking to the beginning where an AOL is added to my phone bill and copy of records of payment. I am keeping this for a while just in case i need to prove that i paid. For now i dont need to call them and go through the same aggravation, i have all documents proving my payments and that’s all that matters!:|

Just wanted everyone to know that cancelling AOL service is NOT the end of the scenario. When I first got a PC (long time ago), Gateway was offering free AOL for 6 months. My wife wanted to use it since we had paid so much for the PC, and we did, ignoring the pleas from friends who knew better. We used AOL for some 3 weeks, and, after extremely poor service, decided to go with another ISP. I called to cancel, I cancelled over the web, and cancelled via snail mail, and received correspondence that my account was cancelled. And, BTW, I was forced to replace my modem, as it had been totally corrupted by AOL. Then, 2 years later, I got a bill from AOL, stating that I was still a customer, and they refused to acknowledge that I had cancelled the account. So, BEWARE…if you do not place a block on either your credit card, or on your bank account, AOL will continue to bill you, even if you have proof that you cancelled the account. When this happened, I contacted the local police department, and they said there was nothing they could do about it, and that AOL was known for this, and that it was just business as usual.
Just a heads-up for all of you who are cancelling AOL. I commend you for doing so.
Bill

I had the same conversation w/a rep, almost verbatim! Make sure you notify your bank. They continued to deduct from my acct for 3 months, even though I told my bank that the acct was cancelled and not to pay it. I then switched banks and the old bank paid it and sent me a bill! I finally called AOL back and told them that I knew enough pissed off people to start a class action against them if they billed me one more time! I called the bank and told them if they wanted to pay it, fine, but don’t send me the bill! My God, these people are lunatics! I have a sneaky suspicion that the rep you talked to was promoted, not fired.

Vincent: Can I speak to Your Dad, for making this guy lose his job and creating this stunt? ~ lol!

Seriously, Vincent thank you for making it a point of how lowsy customer service is getting today! I applaud you, man! Although I keep AOL (God knows why!) I’m with MSN…

I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!!!!!!

I hated having to call AOL for anything at all when I had to deal with them directly. Unfortunatley I kept having to call them about my monthly payment. It was drafted from my account but NEVER EVER EVER on the same day! Everytime I called them they’d gice me some BS about “it’s always drafted on the 19th of the month” but I had my bank statements in front of me proving they’d wait as much as 2 weeks to draft my payment causing all kinds of problems in my bank account!!! Then one when I called with a general question about my service, I got this D**K called Jesse who treated me like I was a 3 year old who didn’t know how to count or read… then he HUNG UP ON ME!!!

Now I have AOL with Road Runner and haven’t had to talk to them in almost a year. Even when I switched they tried to get me to pay for another month of service, fortunatley they gave me back my $65…

I really don’t believe the whole story has been told. It is stated that the conversation is 15 minutes longI would like to hear the entire conversation. I too have worked in a customer service center (not AOL) and have been sworn at and provoked by the customer. Knowing this I would like to hear the entire conversation.

When I cancelled my account several years ago…I was offered a free month service to ensure I really wanted to cancel the account. It is the salesperson job to find out the reason for dissatisfaction in hopes to keep the customer as well as attempting to keep the person as a customer. I really believe the cusomer service rep was being antagonized as well. So hearing the entire conversation would clarify that. Thank you.

I know how you feel I myself worked in a call center as tech support. As a tech support worker I was required to try and sell our products as well as taking care of their problems that they called in for. We also worked on a percentage of our sales as well as our hourly wage but in order to get our percentage of our sales we were required to ask every caller if they were intrested in our products and if we didn,t mention every product we have for sale we were marked on our calls and if we didn,t ask all the required questions we did not receive our percentage in sales. And if you had too many calls that you didn,t ask to sell products we were taken aside and more or less told to do better or else. Even though they have a sales department for selling the products, the tech support personal were told that they had sell sell sell. I also think that John was fired because it was brought to light what happens at a call center and was fired to cover the companys ass.

Thanks for the AOL exposure. I had a similar experience about 6 years ago. I was on the phone for what seemed to be an eternity trying to cancel my AOL account. They don’t seem to understand “I don’t want your service anymore!”

And i totally agree with Mr. Glendon Langdale because that IS exactly what goes on in call centers. The ONLY reason that guy got fired is to cover their asses, and partly for him saying in a round about way that Mr Ferrari was also annoying the shit outta him. The part that really sucks is that there are people (like me) who are good at selling and can gracefully take rejection while still making an attempt to sell that have to deal with the now even more persistent stereotype that all telephone salespeople are badgering pains in the ass. This is simply not true.

I had the same experience last month but it went a little further. They agreed to cancel my account after 2 lengthy calls but they said they would keep my screen name for me and I could access the email through aol.com and I wouldn’t lose the name if I ever wanted to sign up again (fat chance). I tried to tell them I never check that email and I didn’t want people sending me emails to that old email address and thinking they got through to me. I wanted the email name cancelled so anyone that sent me an email would get it bounced back to them so they would know they had the wrong email and so they would call me to get the new email. The customer service rep (and I use the term loosely) said I needed to call technical support and they could turn the screen name off. Well I called tech support and went through the entire automated menu again and after about 10 minutes on hold I was disconnected. I did it again and finally got through to a technical support person and they said they couldn’t turn it off (and they couldn’t understand why in the world I would want to give up my aol screen name) and they gave me another number to call. So I called that number, and guess what, it put me back into the exact same automated menu to go to the same department. So needless to say I still don’t have it totally turned off. It’s only been a month and I haven’t received my next credit card statement to see if they have really stopped billing me, I’ll know in another week or so. This is ridiculous, how can a company that has grown the way they have be so bad with customer service. I will never ever deal with AOL again and I’m telling everyone I know the same thing. If anyone knows how to get my screen name totally cancelled please let me know. Thanks.

I am glad I am not the only one that had this issue. I actually got into a cussing match with the “customer service rep” after 30 minutes of telling her to “cancel my account” and she was just ignoring me and sounding like she was reading from a script. I did ask to speak with the supervisor and was disconnected and had to call back and get in another tiff with a different rep. I finally spoke with the manager and he said the account would be cancelled. I had two more bills follow after that convewrsation and had to repeat the process all over again. I finally had it cancelled and tell everyone I know to stay away from AOL. The free CDs you get in the mail are destroyed so no one accidentally gets signed up. I would feel awful if the CD I did not destroy caused someone to become a customer and have to go through this.

Oh Boo HOO! Those of you who work for call centers! When I walk into a store to return something, I don’t get a hassle at all! Why? They want me to come back and try another product! That’s called “keeping the customer”. Whatever happened to “the customer knows best”. You know what you are getting into when you are going through training to work in a call center. Do you feel comfortable with the fact that you trying to talk someone into something they don’t want? How do you feel when you are the person trying to stop a service and keep your credit card from being charged? You write as though there is something you know that the other 99.99% of us don’t know! Our local radio station had people telling them of AOL threatening to send accounts to collection agencies, because they had called to cancel their accounts, only to find out, AOL had not done as the customer had asked, cancel the account! As far as antagonizing a customer service rep at AOL, I find that hard to believe! I am sorry if “John” (maybe “John” is in another department) lost his job over this incident, but it was probably the best thing that ever happened to him, and I am sure, we will see “John” (with his face disguised) on the Today Show, telling us how he was pressured to try to keep Vincent as a subscriber! We have not heard the end of this and I hope other on-line companies (as any other) will learn from this and take heed!

I called and had (or thought I had) my AOL account cancelled in 1999. The amount was being charged to my credit card. I had a cancellation number at that time. I then went over seas for an extended of time and had a credit balance on my credit card account. When I returned from overseas, I found that AOL DID NOT CANCELL my account; kept charging my credit card to the point I was several months past due in payments. The credit card company would not help resolve this matter. I called AOL to no avail. I wrote the company 2 times asking for an explaination. None received. The credit card company said it was my problem, and they knew of other AOL customer problems, but would not credit my account until the received cancellation verification from AOL. That never came. I later worked for a large computer company selling computers. I did everything possible to discourage anyone not to ever sign with AOL. I would tell them to ignore all the free disc that were everywhere. I don’t think any of the several hundred customer’s that I assisted ever used AOL after my telling them of my experience. My closing statement to all of them when recommending an ISP was, “I would not use AOL if it was the last and only provider on earth.”

Vincent:
I do not know if you will get this message, but I got a big “ditto” story for you. I wish I had a tape recorder running when I was on hold forever, like you, and I had the same argument with the customer service rep. I think mine went on longer than yours, and the guy, who I thought was a robot, eventually talked me into keeping the account for another month ( I had to go somewhere ) and calling back then to cancel. Boy, did I regret that. I tried to call back at the end of the month, but I never got through, so I just gave up. I used to pay my AOL bill as part of my Verizon bill (local telephone). Well, the reason I dumped AOL was because I went with the local cable company for broadband and phone. Three months went by, and I get a threatening letter from a bill collector for 90-something dollars because my AOL account was never canceled! I called the bill collectors, who then directed me to AOL. When I finally got through to them, they said there was nothing they can do since it was in collections, and they actually used my recorded call against me by tracking when I called and what I said. Anyway, I just gave up and ignored the bill. It is probably on my credit now.

Great job on Scarborough Country. I just wanted to let you know that what you did was great. Incidently, you said in the interview that you thought this was a recent development, but my story dates back to September 2004. I do not think they should have fired the guy, I think AOL Time Warner should fold up the tent. AOL is a good example of what happens to a company that no longer has a viable service to offer anyone.

I went through a similar horror story trying to cancel AOL years ago. On the phone they’d tell me it was cancelled, give me a cancellation number, and the next month my credit card would get charged. I’d go through the process again and again it’d get charged. Finally I had to change my credit card # and then they called me demanding to know why the payments wouldn’t go through.

AOL ripped me off for 4 months of service that I never even used.

Touche Madeline R! I had the same reaction.

I absolutely hate AOL. I once spent 2 hours on the phone with them trying to get my DSL fixed because I could not log on. I was given six different phone numbers and spoke with eight different people before I finally spoke with someone who fixed it within 2 minutes. I was told if I cancelled my account, it would cost $150.00. So now I am stuck with them for a while longer. They even tried to sell me something on how to use Windows XP. AOL SUCKS!!!!!

How much are you willing to bet that GB, yupAOLsucks, and Smith are the same guy? And that guy’s name is John I bet…

But yeah, prior to cancelling my AOL service, I heard horror stories, just like yours, from people who tried to cancel their AOL service, after realizing that they shouldn’t have to pay broadband-like prices for dial-up service, when reliable dial-up could be had for less than $15 per month. Wanting to completely forgo calling them altogether, I went another route – I simply sent them a fax stating that I would like to cancel my account. It wasn’t even a real fax either – it was sent through one of those internet-based text faxing services (apparently they didn’t require a signature back then, just a SSN, in addition to the other information mentioned above). It worked like a charm.

About 2-3 days later a rep. with a thick southern drawl called me and started giving me this whole spiel about how sorry he was to see me leave, then tried to talk me out of my decision. I said “no”, hung up the phone in his ear as he continued to talk, and haven’t heard from them sense. For about 2 years after that I continued to recieve mailings and CDs from them in the mail, but I always just tossed them out, and eventually they stopped coming as well.

So yeah, for those of you who are concidering giving up on AOL and their dial-up service that they continue to charge $29.95/month for (while other companies charge less than $10/mo these days), but who wish to avoid a situation similar to the horror stories mentioned above, you have two options. The first to send them a fax (as described above), making sure that the information that you include is EXACTLY as it appears in your account (including middle initial, answer to your verification question spelled exactly right, etc). As they mentioned, make sure that you also snail mail a copy of the request to them, and request a notice of receipt.

The other option (as somebody has already mentioned) is to call them, wait until the rep pulls up your account information, state “cancel my service”, hang up once they start haggling you, then call back and get your cancellation number. You account will be cancelled immediately (in theory), and you will recieve your cancellation number immediately from a rep who won’t haggle you because they have nothing to lose.

Happy cancelling!! Screw AOL.

I worked there for 4+ years and made alot of money doing the wrong thing. We FORCED people to keep it by giving them free time and moneyback. that kinda made me feel good and ther are some things it has that are worth $5. If you have any idea how many dumb people there are out there that still pay 23.90. They will fall soon in that states and have it all in india, africa, isreal, phiilipines, and others…

yes, Tomm, little does anybody know that if you are using AOL over broadband connections you no longer have to pay 23.90 per month. You can change to a light usage plan and only pay 4.95 per month, still have unlimited access to AOL through your existing broadband connection, the same email address, plus 3 hours per month of back-up dial up. Does AOL want you to know that? NO. But now you do. So there, NotanAOLsubscriberanymore, there’s what I know that the “other 99.99% of you” does not know. It’s a job and wouldn’t you at least like to have someone you can understand on the phone than someone whose first language is not English? People in stores aren’t paid to do what we do and certainly aren’t paid as well either. So if you are one of the few that still want your AOL interface switch to a light usage plan. I you’re hating your AOL like so many of us have, call to cancel, have them pull up your account, tell them you want cancel, and hang up. Simple as that, loopholes are everywhere, just gotta know where to look.

Hey!

I saw the segment this morning on NBC. Thanks a lot for coming forward and you did a great job! I had a job while in college as a “Retention Specialist” for a financial institution. My manager had the audacity to write me up for failing to retain a 92-year old lady, who had not used her account in three years, and was set to get another $59 membership fee. I’m sorry, but I do like to sleep at night. This manager, by the way, was subsequently fired and I went on to graduate and find a real job.
The problem my old manager had with me is that I was unable to be brainwashed. There were many people I worked with who were very “brainwashable” (I know it’s not a real word), and it is very disturbing! You would think that people who are so incredibly weak minded would eventually catch on that “cancel” means “CANCEL”!!!

btw, big is beautiful I wouldnt change a thing.

I used to work in retention/customer service for a call center and it is definitely a high stress job. This agent of AOL was definitely out of line, but at the same time I think Vincent is a very bored man. He says he works for a cellular company. I worked for one of the largest cellular companies and they have the exact same type of calls take place on a daily basis. I think generally though we never hear from all the satisfied customers of any company. I’m sure as consumers we all have been treated poorly by a customer service rep, but does this give free reign for us to hold this over that agents head in a recording of their job. Vincent was not even close to patient. Jon seemed to be very nice at the beginning of the call until Vincent says: “dude, why does it matter?” when Jon asks whether he used the computer for business or personal. I don’t know how many times I’ve been stopped in the mall and had a cell phone rep try to get me to cancel my existing service. Once again the AOL rep was out of line, but if Vincent wasn’t an ass hole to him in the beginning and at least heard him out I am sure the call would have been carried differently. We all need to take a look at the big picture here.

ex aol employees unite!!!

They had the cameras facing your back!

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/4042/backwards7zh.jpg

hey Guys get over it ,

people are doin their Jobs anywhere in the world. Some fat ass wants to make a mockery of a job he is done that , trusts me he wouldnt get so much of commitment from his wife of girl friend as the people in AOL are providing service for him . Ask him to record the conversation of him with his girl friend if he has one . You will coem to know wat a loooser Vincent Ferrari really is .

Cheers

When I left the UK in 2003 to return home to Australia after working there as the CEO of a company I cancelled my AOL account by email and phone. They cancelled my email address and access but continued to debit my bank account for some 9 months before I could stop them. I have all the copies of my emails and notes of my phone calls from Australia-and they ignored the lot. Needles to say I would not sign up with them on my return to Australia. Eventually I was able to cancel the direct debit with my bank who were not helpful. Their actions amount to FRAUD. How can I recover what they took fraudently-and, give support to what you are doing.
Denis Groves

Vincent, Once Again you are the Best!
Your patience and professionalism was PERFECT.

Jerry,

That’s addressed in the recording.

He told me it was being used by my dad. My dad doesn’t have the software on his computer. I know this because I set up his computer.

It really is that simple, and it’s exactly what I told the rep. He was probably looking at AIM usage because my father still uses AIM.

I thought I cancelled my account one month but billing then showed up the next month. After calling AOL back and reminding them that I had already cancelled and was still being charged, the rep, after a lengthy “you need AOL” conversation, finally told me, “Too bad, we already have your money.” I immediately called my credit card company, explained the situation and they credited my account for TWO months worth of AOL service. I got the last laugh.

I laughted when I watched you on today, I called AOL to cancel an account that was susposed to be a free trail,I went through at least three people trying to get the cost off my bill,they all tried to get me to not cancel, it was like they did not even hear what I was saying, I am very easily pissed off and even when I started getting madder and madder they just would not hear me. I tried to get them to let me talk to their supervisor, after at least 30 minutes, and me not being very nice they finally took it off my charge.I really never thought anyone but me had this problem, But I still have to say….its not as bad as the five hours I waited on hold for a MSN tech. support. They asked me all my info,and kept telling me just a minute, I really blew when the final time they came on the phone….five hours later , they said Hi, my name is Tom…..how can I help you, we were starting the conversation all over again.

Sorry guys…I forgot to put my email address if you had any questions or comments:

numbnutz@aol.com

Just saw the video about cancelling AOL, just wanted to say, the SAME thing happend to me. It went on and on and on like yours, haha… so glad you brought this to people’s attention and maybe AOL will improve their customer service.

When the Day came for my mom to dump AOHell for ATT/YahooDSL It took her three phone calls and over 30 minutes on hold to Canceled her service with aol!!

I’m really glad I heard about your experience. I just canceled my account about 2 weeks ago (at least I think I did) after having AOL for 6 years. I was only on the phone for about 25 minutes or so, but it was one of the most frustrating experiences with a service center that I have ever had. I’ve worked in a call center before, so I always try to be especially nice and patient when making calls. The AOL representative repeatedly ignored my kind request to “just cancel the account” and tried to convince me that I didn’t know what I was doing and sell me security features for my new DSL connection. By the end of the call, he gave me no choice but to be rude – it was the only way he actually listened to what I was saying.
Thank you for calling attention to the poor service.

Two Problems. First one: all salesmen have been trained to the rules of the games they play. 2nd problem: Consumers have not.
My conversation with AOL, when I cancelled, was so close to the same as Vincent”s , someone might think we had a script. How foolish I feel now that I know how to cancel. I recommend sending the rules of How to cancel to anyone in your address book with .aol. The grief you will save with better the world we live in.

Vincent:

Way to go – what a GREAT idea! Several years ago I went through a real mess closing my CompuServe account after it had been bought by AOL.

The “customer service” rep never did close the account, they simply flagged it as “saved by me” (meaning they got a commission) and the bills kept coming in.

I had had the account for many years. During this time my credit card number had been changed and somehow CompuServe continued to bill using the old number and the credit card company honored it!?

When I called back to “cancel again” they said that the account was not closed! I listened to the story about how the account had been “saved by me” according to the customer rep.

The best part was they simply refused to cancel the account unless I was able to provide the original credit card number used to open the account about seven years earlier. I called the credit card company and they would not tell me what it was – fortunately I was able to find an old expense report with the number to remove “excuse” from them.

I called at least ten times to close the account! You accomplished a miricle since you apparently closed it in one call.

Several years later the State of New York and AOL had some sort of settlement on this issue. I could have gotten about $40 back however I felt that the paperwork would be too much so I didn’t pursue it.

Once again – way to go!

Kid

I too used to work for AOL. I was hired as a Sign up by Phone (SUBP) rep, but when the company decided to move that department out of the call center I worked in, we were all forced to either, retrain for Retention or quit. So into training I went. Let me add that I was in the SUBP department for 2 years and actually loved my job. If someone was having trouble with setting up a free trail or had questions they would call in and we would help set it up. Well after 3 weeks of training for retention I hit the phones. It was horrible!! I hated it from day one!! We were expected to “SAVE” the member from closing the account. After a month of it I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to quit!! I feel that a lot of employees that we hired as SUBP reps got screwed because we weren’t given a choice and were forced to do a job that we weren’t hired to do!! And I can confirm that we were trained to do whatever it takes to keep a memeber. Wheter it be free time, money back, or a new price plan. Bonuses were given based on the number of accounts that were “SAVED” per month! I also want to add that NOW you can get AIM mail free!!! One way to get someone to keep an account we would say you can keep your email, well now you can get email for free!!!! I have the SAME email that I have had 1998 but I DO NOT pay for it!!!

Kudos to you…all I have to say is at least you got someone that spoke English. Try going through that same call from a rep in India like I did. AOL will NEVER get my business.

The system that thay had us use to calculate hours of usage only used dial up hours as a reference

U go mate… these bastards got me 2ce. Your tale ought 2 b a memo 4 the free world.

kudos!

Add me to the list. It was 5 years ago and I don’t remember the details but when my local cable company offered broadband, I called to cancel AOL. It was the WORST custoomer service experience over the phone I’ve ever had and I’ve said that numerous times to numerous people. I understand and expect that they will give you information about how great their service is to try to retain you, but this was insane. The rep went on and on and on, never taking “no” for an answer. I ended up yelling “CANCEL MY F*CKING ACCOUNT!”

Poor Vincent. What he doesn’t realize is that AOL doesn’t really cancel the account. They put it in a “dormant” state. It will be automatically reinstated if Vincent accidently clicks on his AOL icon to access AOL. I have heard of many people who think they have cancelled their account with AOL only to see the charges still showing up on their charge card several months later. Good luck Vincent. I hope you’re one of the lucky ones who gets it right the first time.

thanks for doing this! i have always wished i had recorded my own cancellation call a few years ago. they kept me on the phone for about 20 minutes… passing me back and forth, telling me how many times i had signed on in the last month (like that would change my mind), basically ignoring what i was saying.
it’s laughable that the powers-that-be issue statements that make it like these customer “service” reps are acting on their own. they obviously have been instructed to prevent client loss through these manipulations.
thanks again, man.

Hi Vincent,

Good job with the call.. What I find funny is the response you got from the aol corperate office. They say that they have “Zero Tolerance” for this kind of thing, but yet thousands of people experience the same kind of problem. I would go as far as to suspect that the reps are actually trained to keep people from cancelling in the same way your call went, and the guy they fired was merely the company scapegoat, because you, I, and countless others have had the almost exact same experiance with account cancellations.

In my case, I got so frustrated that I hung up, after clearly speaking my intentions of cancelling my account, and it was the same month that my debit card expired and I was issued a card with a different number. AOL then sent me a letter wanting updated billing information and I sent it back to them with CANCEL THIS ACCOUNT written in black magic marker. Guess what? They then sent me a letter saying my account was going to COLLECTIONS. I paid for 2 months AFTER my MULTIPLE cancellation requests.

Thanks for stepping up to the plate and getting some attention drawn to this matter. It would be interesting to have Jon, the guy that they fired in your case come out and talk about the job as an AOL account rep. Could shed a little light on this.

Thanks again and take care,
Charlie

I’m glad more of AOL/CServe’s conniving ways are coming to light. When I tried to leave them, they begged me to stay on and promised me 60 days of benefits. I gave in, thinking I’d get 2 months of $24.95 service. Instead, the incompetent AOL/CServe representative signed me up for a minute-by-minute plan, which I never agreed to. Heck, I am computer savvy and had worked in tech support! I knew better. Then I was hit with a bill for $1,983 (for 2 months’ service!). I fought it for 10 months, and when they threatened to ruin my credit, I paid the bill and have never stopped spreading the word about my bad experience with them … and I never will. AOL makes ya stupid.

I’m still looking for my apology letter from AOL and maybe compensation for my 20 min time on the phone to cancel my account.

GOOD BYE!! AOL

I’ve been having the same problem with AOL for the last 6 months. I cancelled my account back in Dec.05, over the phone. On my next month’s credit card statement, they continued to bill me for $25.90. I called them again, and “re-cancelled”. Then in March, they charged me again! So, I called my credit card company, and they credited my account. Then, on my recent statement, they charged me again. So, I called my credit card company, and then I called AOL for the third time this year. They kept me on the phone for 27 minutes!! After I hung up, I made a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.
I think this whole thing is crazy! I haven’t used AOL since December, when I purchased a laptop and started using wireless.

This is incredible!! I bet there are THOUSANDS of people who have gone throu the same BS trying to cancel AOL. I know I did….. I have never in my life been so angry with sombebody on the phone. I kept saying over and over “which part of “Cancel my account you don’t understand?” ….. and then AOL charged a fee to my account after it was cancelled!!
I agree with a previous comment…as addicted as I am to the internet, I would rather have no internet at all than having to deal with AOL.
AH! and one other thing: you know those annoying CD’s they keep sending in the mail… I return them to them by writing on the envelope “Return to sender”
Boy…… I HATE AOL!!!

Hahaha. That is really, really funny. Good for you! Seriously, by doing this you’ve saved countless other people in the future the same hassle. And you know that behavior had to be encouraged by the company, otherwise why would some rep go to all the trouble.

Crossposting a portion of the comment – because I do think I’ve made some good points that deserve to be reviewed, and I welcome the feedback on this blog.

“RJ, explain to me how the customer — or any citizen in the free world, for that matter — is legally bound to give a Customer Rep a “good enough” reason for canceling a service he’s paying for.”

I never stated he was legally bound to give a “good enough” reason. I said that he LIED about why he wanted to cancel the account. That alone makes me lose respect for the guy.

Let me point you out to this article:

http://www.cepro.com/news/editorial/13792.html

Not this part here “While the AOL rep definitely handled the situation poorly, he was right to ask questions. The cancellation process is a good opportunity for dealers to mine clients for information. Obviously, if they are canceling, the company didn’t serve them well enough. It’s the service rep’s responsibility to try to find out what the company could have done better.”

Instead, Vince decided to be rude to the rep by interrupting him and not get the matter resolved in a respectful manner. However, had Vince himself been more respectful to at least listen for a moment rather than bait the rep, I’m sure that you’ll agree that the call could have ended in an entirely different matter. This isn’t a matter of AOL being unwilling to cancel the account. It’s a matter of the rep taking the call responding negatively to Vinnie’s own rudeness during the call and now it’s being scrutinized. There is a fact being overlooked. If the rep hadn’t been rude to Vinnie there, there would be no story.

I am in no way condoing the way the the rep handled the call towards the end. He lost his composure and behaved poorly. I do handle some retention calls myself (though it’s not the primary function of my job). The stress is high – not just because a portion of the pay is dependent on keeping paying customers, but because of being berated constantly while trying to do the job. I’ve been working in the customer service industry for more than twelve years. More than ten years of that has been spent on the phone. Burnout happens, and I suspect “Jon” probably needed a vacation.

Unfortunately, the mindset of “the customer is always right” has grown into this creature that somehow gives the idea that there is no reason to be respectful to the customer service employee – there is often the mindset that the CSR is just a mindless stupid drone who has his head shoved up his ass and is there for the customer to walk all over.

It happens enough in retail as it is (I’ve worked that side too) and I’ve been crapped on by customers in that respect. It’s significantly worse on the phones. In the world of retail, there is typically face-to-face interaction. People have that human element in front of them and it seems to create a filter – where somebody who is upset will at least be willing to deal with the person in front of them (or at least keep in mind that they are talking to another human being.)

When working on the phones, I’ve heard people say things and behave in ways that they would NEVER do if they were face to face. Why? Because there is that lack of human contact. The connection is gone. They don’t have a fear of repercussion or feel a need to have regard for the other person’s feelings. That said, when it comes to the customer service industry, phone representatives have it the hardest. It’s probably the most stressful of all jobs in the customer service industry. I don’t know how many reading this have worked in a customer service job. Put yourself in the rep’s shoes for a moment. Whether you have done this type of job or not, the best way to get excellent customer service (even if cancelling an AOL account) is to be an excellent human being. This doesn’t mean being a doormat, it means being respectful and courteous in your exchange, inspite of how you may feel.

The question is, can we objectively look at this phone call and say that Vince was on his best behavior? If that is his best behavior, you certainly don’t want him to be the face leading the cause for better customer service.

Hey I saw you on the today show and had to tell you my fiance went through the same thing trying to get rid of the tyrants!! Thanks for making that public!!

RJ – Since you chose to reference this paragraph, so shall I.

Not this part here “While the AOL rep definitely handled the situation poorly, he was right to ask questions. The cancellation process is a good opportunity for dealers to mine clients for information. Obviously, if they are canceling, the company didn’t serve them well enough. It’s the service rep’s responsibility to try to find out what the company could have done better.”

1. while it may be a good opportunity to “mine” clients for information…I, as a client, have no legal, personal or moral obligation to oblige. If you want to take up MY valuable time to figure out how to increase YOUR profits….you had better ask verrrrrry nicely….

2. JOHN had no intention of cancelling Vincent and then finding out how AOL could have served him better. His priority was “retain” Vincent as a customer. Naming the “Cancellation” Center the “Retention” Center represents the most blatent conflict of interest….it just gives me the creeps….

3. When dealing with a client who is adamant about cancelling their service, well then you, as a CSR, should just do that and move on to the next call. JOHN chose to berate, degrade, insult and flat out refuse Vincents request.

4. Whether Vincent was on his best behavior is completely irrelevant. If I pay YOU for a service….it’s YOUR job to be on your best behavior, not mine.

See…I can cut and paste, too.

Just saw your interview on CNN. I applaud you, and want to tell you that AOL did this to me back in 1994. I had been a customer and decided I wanted to cancell my account. They told me that all I had to do is tell them on the phone, and they would cancell it. I immediately stopped using AOL, and didn’t give it another thought. At the time I had a finanacial manager paying my bills, and hadn’t mentioned the AOL cancellation to her, as I thought it was a small matter. After a year went by, she questioned me about the $9.95 that was deducted each month. I told her that I had cancelled that account a year earlier. AOL stone- walled me and never fully refunded my money. The point is this; AOL has been conducting fraudlent billing practices for many yearsl, with full knowledge, and ptemeditated corporate strategy that a percentage of the public will not check their statements. I also use to work for Wells Fargo in the collecitons department, and had several conversations with their, (Wells Fargo), Fraud unit. They often had conplaints from bank cusomters about AOL. Don’t be fooled by the apology. AOL is only sorry they got caught on tape with media follow up. I have been telling this story about AOL for years. By the way, this is common business practice with many companies and corporations. If you pay by Debit or credit and cancell a purchase or return something, CHECK YOUR BANK STATEMET THAT THE CHARGE WAS BACKED OUT OR REFUNDED. ALSO, WATCH THAT THE CHARGHE IS NOT RE-CHARGED BACK TO RE-DEPIT YOUR ACCOUNT.

Well the words were practically the same. My guy was
John too. Only my John seemed more threatening.
I asked to speak to a supervisor and he said “NO”.
As I remember I ended the call telling him that I considered my account closed. I also asked him if it made him happy using these tactics and his
response was yes.
I called back a little later knowing I’d get another agent, and asked for a supervisor and again the answer was “NO”. I told him my account should have been canceled, he said it was. I got a letter that it was closed about a week later.
A lot uglier then this episode.

same here, I had to beg them to close my account and plead with them, they didnt listen to me at all and they were trying ANYTHING for me to keep the account, I thought it was cancelled until I got my credit card bill they kept charging me, I called aol and my cc which removed the charges for a few days then put them back on siding with AOL!! This went on for about 4-5 months, each month aol charged me even though I stopped using them, I finally had to close that credit card and open a new one. I would rather never use the internet again if there were only AOL. Screw aol. I would NEVER go back to them, they are pure evil, they are the devil. They have no ethics. Screw them all.

As a person who builds computers part time I can tell you that I NEVER recommend AOL. Half of the repair work I do usually turns out to be some glitch caused by the AOL software or unwanted software that gets loaded on from there ads. When I sell a computer, I make it clear I will not support any problems if a customer loads on AOL. Same thing happened to my father in law. Except after agreeing to cancel the account he kept getting billed and spent even more time getting that staightened out. Thanks

after being on and off AOL several times, i finally learned the trick to keeping my sanity:

1) do NOT call to cancel; fax or mail
2) immediately call your bank or credit card and have them make a notation on your acct that you have cancelled AOL and do not authorize any more charges. ask if they want a copy of the fax or letter.
3)if AOL threatens you with collectors, ignore them.

there is v little they can do except put it on your credit report. this scares most people, but no one pays attention to certain things on a credit report: doctor bills, record clubs, AOL. if you have otherwise good credit, it has no effect. lenders know these creditors have bad practices, and don’t pay attention to them. plus you have the right to protest anything on your credit report, ie “I cancelled AOL on such-and-such date, but they never stopped billing me.”

4)do not let AOL needlessly upset you; do not talk to them. it ain’t worth it!

I absolutely hate AOL and this just give me all the more reason to hate them, their software sucks. It’s a control freak.

That is so awesome though that you recorded all that. GENIOUS!

Here’s a simple and powerful point: It’s rude to try to control a conversation, and especially rude when you are dealing with a customer who simply wants something he is entitled to.

The only way to depose a conversation tyrant is to become confrontational, point out what he is doing, and shift the conversation to the appropriate topic. Subtle hints will work for polite people, but conversation tyrants won’t bat an eye. Explicit requests will work for all normal people, but conversation tyrants will manage to resist even those. The only recourse: confrontation. In this case: “Cancel the account. Cancel the account. Cancel the account. Cancel the account.”

oh an easy way to cancel, is to claim that you just bought an ISP and make the general statement as to why should i bet with AOL when I have high speed now? infact promote the fact to the rep that they are doing a good job that if they cancel the account now that you would consider hiring them.

I know what you mean man I try to cancel my aol acct but i was on the line with there asshole for 30 min i know what vinny is felling AOL have relley bad servies i hate AOL:evil:

Sorry that I posted this in another group as well, but 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.

Great idea, Brian. I’m going to do the same!!!!

Bravo to you! I wish I would have taped my experience with AOL. My nightmare occurred on a Saturday afternoon last summer. I called AOL to cancel my account because I also just didn’t use it. My CSR whose said his name was Chris was nice at first, but then after a couple of minutes says to me “I know what’s going on here”, I respond, “Oh really?” “and what might that be?” He claimed I was canceling because I was going through a divorce or a break-up and was just doing this out of anger. I exploded. No remaining calm like you did. I told him what nerve he had and that I wasn’t even married and sorry, but he was wrong about the reason. I asked him if he was having a slow day and if this is what they taught in CSR class. In hanging up he just had to get a last little jab in at me, saying, “Well, I hope you BOTH have a nice rest of the day.” I was the only one here. Lastly, AOL waited like 2 or 3 months and then they took $25.00 out of my checking account for canceling. Like I would’ve forgotten about my coversation from hell with Chris.

I had AOL for about a year back in the early 90′s, and even then they had a bad reputation for the way they handled cancellations. When it came time to cancel, the rep asked me why I was cancelling, and I told him I no longer had a computer nor any plans to own one again. Wasn’t much he could argue about with that answer, even though he sounded very surprised.

I saw one comment in here from someone that AOL lied to , saying that in order to continue using AIM they needed to keep paying for their accounts. What a bunch of scumbags AOL are! The AIM service is free, and always has been. You don’t even have to use AOL’s ad-ridden AIM client to use AIM.

With all the crap AOL has been pulling for years, it’s a miracle anybody ever signs up with them.