Appearance #2 From Today

You do realize of course, that when you talk to a "customer service agent" regarding cancelling your service, you are actually talking to what they call in the industry a "save agent". That's right, "SAVE", as in trying to "save" this account. The IVR menu leads you to a person whom you believe is there to help simply to help you cancel, when in fact you end up talking to a person whose job it is to talk you out of cancelling. Therefore, AOL's response is laughable. They may well have fired the employee, but he is nothing but a scapegoat for what is entrenched policy at AOL. I guarantee you he was only carrying out company policy. The only place he might have gone overboard is right at the end, when he told you "some day you'll only realize I was trying to help you..." Other than that, he was carrying out the AOL customer service policy to a T.

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.

:?
Had the same experience in Sweden, to or three weeks ago, with Viasat. My wife only heard me and thought I was going nuts, repeating the same frase over and over. I will show here this video! Great work!
Best regards
Ante

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.

Must say that the timer is a bit of a scam. It at allready runs on 2mins when the whole video has played for 1min but

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

I have forwarded a link to this website to everyone in my address book who has an AOL address. I included an offer of my assistance in helping them cancel AOL as well as finding a different ISP. We went out with some friends last night and discussed this AOL hell. They currently have AOL and I am going to their house on Monday with a Ethernet cable to meet the local broadband company. Not only will they get away from the crappy dial-up service which they struggle with every time the try to get on line, they will have a much faster connection and AOL loses another $24 a month. This will be the 5th person I have converted. I will keep going from here until everyone I know or meet drops AOL. I am also going to see my shrink, because I think I may be a little OCD.:lol:

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.

Are you dying to get away from AOL? In 1994, I tried to cancel my uncle's AOL account. He had just passed away, which I told "Evelyn" at AOL. She insisted that he might still want to keep the account. I explained, as patiently as I could, that I didn't think so. She just wouldn't let me cancel, so I finally agreed to keep the account open for 3 more months at no charge, but they charged anyway. Another rep finally canceled the account (amazing!!!), but I am still awaiting a $23 refund…and waiting…and waiting….

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:

The absolute best way to buy any on line service is to use a virtual credit card. You set the expiration date and the limit. I have used this method many many times with great success. The card just stops the credit when ever you want it to.

Outsmart online thieves with virtual credit card numbers.
Several major credit card issuers, including Citibank, are offering customers the option of shopping online with virtual, single-use credit card numbers, which expire within one or two months.

Here are some banks that offer this service...

Just copy and paste the address in the address bar of your browser.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20021011a.asp
http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/tour/cb/shp_van.htm

MBNA also offers this service, a good description is found here...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/30/AR2005093001679.html

This is the way to go to end online transactions that are hard to cancel.

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.

To those who choose to criticize Vinny for his weight/size rather than his tactics in cancelling his AOL account, slinging insults does nothing but make you appear childish. Instead, engage him in a debate. Say something useful. Contribute something to either side of the debate. Criticize his tactics if you want. Agree with him. Disagree with him. Whatever. But please, the mudslinging is just so juvenile it's beyond belief.

P.S. If the best you can come up with is a fat joke or comment, while completely ignoring the subject at hand, it kinda makes whatever you have to say that much less important. (Just givin' ya a heads up on that!)

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."

Vincent I dont think this was a bold effort on your part to cancel your account through AOL. but to toot your own horn for the publicity. I think you need to do what the other gentleman said and go to the Gym for god sakes. If you were sitting on your fat butt all the time on AOL , then you wouldnt be in the Shape that youre in now....LOL....good luck ...but I dont think you will stir up any trouble other than for your own self.

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!

In response to GABE WILLIAMS posting... you say vinny should have been a little more personable?... somehow I find it hard to keep cool while on ROT HOLD for twenty minutes.... a little more personable?... maybe he should have chatted a little bit?... Can you actually understand what you are saying GABE? You must be a trainer for AOL.... HEAD BRAINWASHER even...a non-grad promised the fast-track and a whopping $22k/yr + "saves" bonuses.... It's morons like you that disgust me... get a grip... you're the same asshole that bitches if the slightest thing is wrong with your meal... you're the asshole that walks into a store 2 minutes before they close....you catching my drift????You're just an ASSHOLE if you want the cliff notes....

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 finally talked both my Mom and Mother-in-Law in to cancelling their AOL and going with broadband. They both thank me everytime I see them for getting them away from the horrible service they got from AOL. After reading all of the posts about AOL continuing to bill you after you cancel, I called my Mother-In-Law to make sure she checked her credit card statement. Remarkably, she told me that before she had actually cancelled AOL, she googled the topic. She found all sorts of horror stories about people trying to cancel. So when she called to cancel, the rep asked her why. She simply said that she had to sell her computer due to financial reasons and that she no longer had access to the internet. The rep cancelled her on the spot and she recieved a confirmation letter in the mail. It is sad that a 58 year old woman has to lie to cancel AOL.

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

I also experienced the same time of treatment as Vincent. My rep's name was Greg and was as obnoxious as the last guy sitting in a bar at closing time. We went round and round about the software not working on my old Mac. After a good 15 minutes of flat out arguing with this jerk I finally got my request handled. A week later I received a letter from AOL showing my account had been closed PER THE RECORDED CONVERSATION WITH BARBARA. Two years later I'm still receiving their pleas to reinstate my service and the junk software CDs to go with it. Thanks for speaking for all of us!

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.

I think its AOL policy, not the representative. I have the experience where they kept telling me, but what is the problem you're having, when I said none that I just wanted to cancel, they said let me give you another 30 days of free trial, I said NO, still the account was not cancelled, it took us more than 3 months of trys everytime we got the bill.... THANKS for bringing this to the media. There should be a class action against them for this.

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.

I myself have had a lot of problems with canceling with aol. Except after i finally thought my cancelation was done it wasnt... They continued to bill me for three months without my knowledge and then i got a letter in the mail telling me that they are going to get a collection agency after me if i didnt pay. (which by the way i never did) just my thoughts. awsome work with recording the call.

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.

I had the vey same problem canceling my account with AOL. I thought it must their policy to desperately keep customers.
In fact many of the questions & my answers were the same as many of you. Its too bad they need to do this to survive.

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.

My sister passed away of ovarian cancer in February. About a month prior she asked me to cancel her AOL account. The AOL rep I got made your guy sound like a Boy Scout. He refused to listen when I said my sister was dying and no longer needed the account. He asked if I wanted it transferred to another person. I repeatedly said, “Just cancel the account.” He even asked "How sick is she?" He even asked to speak with her so he could try and convince her to stay. After 30 minutes he finally budged when I asked if he has a sibling and when he refused to answer I said “I hope no one is as insensitive to you when they die as you have been to me.”

With so many examples or such abhorrent behavior, it’s obvious that AOL not only condones but encourages its people to be rude, obnoxious and insensitive. I was completely floored that a human would be so insensitive in such a trying time.

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!!

Oh, and just another note for you, AOL tracks the number of hours spent online based on login and logout time of the AOL software itself, whether it be via a high speed connection or dial up. AIM operates independently of this. So if the numbers stated by the rep were accurate (they should be, the call hadn't spiraled out of control by then) then the AOL account WAS being used that much.

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.

I tried to cancel my cell with Bell Canada for about 4 months. It was in December when I first contacted them after losing my cell. After calls, and e-mails finally 3 months ago the stop charging me for services I had not used, and fortunately they accepted to pay me back PART of what I had been charged while not having the cell. It added $72.04 cents.

When am I going to get the cheque?

According to Bell Canada, it takes up to 6 months for the system to submit these type of cheques, while they do automatic withdrawals frmo my account every month.

Every month I still get a nice statement showing that they owe me $72.04. Yet no cheque submitted.

Therefore Vincent, what took you 21 minutes is taking me 2 seasons already to get: Winter 2005 and Spring 2006.

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.

My husband and my brother also had similar encounters when cancelling their AOL accounts. When comcast hi-speed finally came to the boonies, we all switched from AOL. I was in the room when my husband called, and they kept him on the line forever trying to convince him that he NEEDED AOL in spite of the hi-speed internet because their service was "superior" in blocking viruses. Never mind that their software crashed one of our laptops! My husband went from nice to seriously irate when the CSR told him "You don't understand!" My husband then shouted back "NO! YOU don't understand! You're badgering me and I don't appreciate it. I want to speak to your manager NOW!" The guy then cancelled his account.

My brother had a similar account and had his phone call in front of my parents.

I wish investigative journalism would cover this, like Nightline or 60 Minutes. I also agree with most of the other posters that a class-action suit REALLY needs to be filed!

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!!!

I had an issue today. It was not with AOL, however, it deals with the issue of "Bad Customer Service"! I had 2 unauthorized charges on my bank account from a company called "Search For Talent" based in San Francisco, California. I called the company to cancel whatever business I had with them and I must have waited 15 minutes before I even spoke to a human! When the man answered my call, he told me he would be looking up my account. He left me on the phone for well over 5 minutes and it was silent! I thought he hung up on me! I had to say, "Hello...Hello, are you still there?" He came back and said yes and that he was looking up my account. Again, more silence for another 5 minutes or so...I again said "Hello??? Did I lose you?" He came back on the phone and said in a rude manner, "I told you I was looking up your account". I asked why he couldn't find me and asked him what the issue was. He then started raising his voice and repeated that he was trying to look up my account. I started getting angry and told him that that was bad customer service to keep me on the phone without letting me know what was going on. He then raised his voice louder and even threatened to hang up on me! I was irrate at this point and hung up on him! I reported this company to the Better Business Bureau and then called my bank. My bank is filing a fraud case against this company! Do not every sign up with this company!

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.

HI. I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH. I WONDER IF THESE PEOPLE ARE TRAINED TO DO THIS! I REMEMBER THE CONTRACT I WAS GIVEN YEARS AGO WHEN I FIRST HOOKED UP WITH A.O.L. THE FIRST MONTH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FREE, WELL AFTER I WENT THROUGH ALMOST THE SAME *#@! YOU WENT THROUGH, I WAS THREATENED WITH A LETTER TELLING ME THEY WERE GOING TO TAKE ME TO COURT BECAUSE I SUPPOSEDLY OWED THEM $19.95. THEY CONTINUED TO SEND THOSE LETTERS FOR APPROXIMATELY 2 YEARS. NOW, WHEN I GET ANY MAIL FROM A.O.L., I DON'T TAKE A SECOND LOOK. I PUT THE CD'S IN THE CD EATER UPPER AND I PUT THEIR FLYERS IN THE GARBAGE ! MAY GOD BLESS YOU SIR, FOR YOUR PATIENCE.HOPEFULLY THESE PEOPLE WILL GET A CLUE AND CLEAN UP THEIR MESS.

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'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'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.

Dang...I wish I had thought to record my 45 minute conversation with the guy from India or Indonesia who told me that it was UnAmerican to cancel my America On Line. I closed a bank account to ensure that AOL didn't get any mre of my money.

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

Nice work.

It took me over 25 mins to cancel my account.
I was put on ice. They just kept me on hold to try
and test my patience.
Their loss, I will NEVER subscribe to them again.
Clearly management is directing them to act this way.

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.

Personally I believe your doing the right thing. Document...Document...Document!!!

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.

Until all this happened, I didn't know AOL was fined by New York State in 2005 for being too hard to cancel. Incredible. This goes way beyond a single call.

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!"

I was so excited when I heard this conversation on the radio when going to work today. I really hope you have made an impact and that AOL really does change their practices, but we know those chances are slim. I applaud you on how you handled the telephone conversation. You were short with him and you could have been all nice and that doesn't get anyone anywhere. I could tell you were a "geek" (or knew about computers) on how you talked (being in that position myself more than once, sad when the caller knows more than the customer service rep) Lets just hope you don't get charges on your credit card in the future, you know it could happen, lol

Luckly I have never signed up for free AOL ( A O HELL), and it looks like it has saved me a lot of trouble. I wonder how it will effect their stock? I bet a lot of people are going to have the courage to cancel now and the publicity is really getting out there this time. Enough is enough, AOL is crap, their software is crap, their service is crap, when I see it on a computer I am fixing (besides AIM) it is an auto uninstall if I am going to fix it. Thank you for doing this service!

For those people that think he should be ashamed, he should be commended for getting that guy out of AOL and hopefully onto a better, more satisfying job than at that hell hole.

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

kudos!

I had AOL from 1994 until December 1997 and never went back. I didn't have to call to cancel. I was thrown off :) I got spam e-mail from an AOL member. I replied and told them to do certain physical acts to themselves in vulgar terms and not send me spam anymore. That person forwarded it to TOS. TOS cites ME for harrassment. Why, I don't know. I'm not the spammer. Within minutes I got more spam, replied in kind and after three strikes, I was literally disconnected from AOL and the sign-on screen said "This account is terminated."

So it's simple to cancel. Just do something to violate the Terms of Service. Send spam. Disrupt chat rooms. Be offensive.

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

Dear Mr. Ferrari,

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.

I had the same experience last year. The rep kept me on the phone asking me questions, and then he kept telling me about all the added features I would get and "It'll just be a second while I transfer you to the sales dept". He kept insisting on transferring my call to a sales rep who could upgrade my service, when I called to cancel it. I was reacting much like you did, in utter disbelief. I was on the phone for probably 20 minutes. WOW, I am happy to hear this replayed on the radio, I was not even sure if I had really had this experience or had dreamt it. GOOD WORK!

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!!!

I had a similar "disconnect" experience. After 3 months of trying (unsuccessfully) to get AOL to apply my "free year" of service to my new computer I called to cancel the account. I had service provided in conjunction with my phone at NO charge, and didn't need the service. As with everyone else I got the hard sell. The last straw was when the rep told me that I was, and I quote, STUPID for trying to cancel.

After my head stopped spinning I very calmly told him that I wanted to speak with his supervisor. I then proceeded to read the supervisor the riot act, informing him (since they obviously have NO CLUE) that calling people stupid is not the way to retain a customer, and then went on a general tirade about how much I hated AOL. He canceled my account without further ado.

I'm thrilled that their tactics have been exposed like this. Too bad there's still fools out there who will believe AOL's "zero tolerance" statement.

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

About a month ago I went through the same cancellation nightmare. I wasted over an hour of my precious, never-to-be-lived-again life talking to those jerks.
My wife wanted to try the free AIM software which loaded all kinds of junk on her computer. She uninstalled the obnoxious software after a few days and quit using AIM. Somehow - we don't know how - she ended up getting an AOL account and they began billing a credit card that she swears she never entered or approved. We think this was especially suspicious as the name used for the billing was my name, and if she ever buys anything on line, she uses her name on the account.
Anyway, I was very polite for a long time when talking with John (I kid you not) at AOL. He went through all the stuff others have described and I told him he obviously was well trained and had done an excellent job of trying to keep me as a customer, but I wanted to speak with his supervisor since I wanted the $25 refunded. The supervisor was very rude and I finally told her that I would chalk up the $25 loss to a bad experience and get on with my life. When I asked her how I could get confirmation for the cancellation, she said I would have to log into my AOL account (which I had never wanted, never bought, never used) and that they never mailed a cancellation notice. The first time they transferred me to the cancellation department, the call was disconnected! I actually had to call again to reach the cancellation department. About a week ago, I received a cancellation letter in the mail.
If ever there was a class-action suit against AOL, I would sign on in a heartbeat. IMHO they outright stole money from me and their hard sales tactics cost me a slice of my life. I find it unfathomable that anyone would work for such a company.
Please advise everyone you know to never, ever use AOL.

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.

I never even used aol; it came with a free trial on my computer. When the bill appeared, it took a similarly long conversation to convince the rep that they cannot force me to have a service I did not order, want or use. They kept billing me two months after this anyway! Recently they called me again at home to try to convince me AGAIN to change my mind! What eejits!

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.

Hey N/A...
i posted this on another section in this blog...but thought i might help educate you about the company you work for.


Teri Says:

Seriously?!?!?

To all the loyal AOL employees/customers who chose to respond to this blog:

If AOL is so wonderful, then why are they losing every class action lawsuit that is filed against them?

the website “Consumer Affairs”
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/
has a plethora of information concerning AOL’s horrendous “Customer Service” and “Billing” practices….

Let’s start with the most recent first (Thank you Vinnie)

1. AOL EMBARRASSED BY CNBC REPORT ON ITS BUSINESS PRACTICES:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/06/aol_cnbc.html

2. AOL SETTLES WITH NY, AGREES TO CLEAN UP CANCELLATION PROCESS:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/ny_aol.html

3. OHIO SETTLES LAWSUIT WITH AOL:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/oh_aol.html

4. OHIO LATEST TO SUE AOL:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news03/aol_ohio.html

5. AOL LOSES 2 MILLION CLIENTS, FACES SUBPOENAS:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news03/aol_subpoenas.html

6. CLASS ACTION SUIT ACCUSES AOL OF DOUBLE BILLING SCHEME:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news03/aol_doublebill.html

7. AOL OFFERS TO SETTLE FEDERAL CHARGES:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news03/aol_ftc.html

8. CLASS ACTION AGAINST AOL SHOP DIRECT:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/aol_unauthorized_charges.html

Along with this, is a section of “Consumer Complaints”

1. CANCELLATION DIFFICULTIES:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/aol_cancel.html

2. DOUBLE BILLING:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/aol_double_bill.html

3. “FREE HOURS”:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/aol_free_hours.html

4. UNAUTHORIZED CHARGES:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/aol_unauthorized_charges.html

5. AOL SHOP-DIRECT COMPLAINTS:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/aol_unauthorized_charges.html

Let’s get the WHOLE truth out about the departments you represent.

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!!

Ferrari you just craving attention, its BULL. I am an aol employee and the only thing that we work on is a thing called MSI (member service index) We send out surveys and the customer fills them out on our performance. If they become low then we are fired. Obviously he was a good consultant and was not looking for trouble. I admit he was going a little over board but Ferrari nagged it on. He was doing his job of what aol askes us to do. If he wouldn't have made an attempt he would have had his bonus taken away and he would have been fired anyway. Vincent Ferrari went in knowing that he was recording the conversation and he knew he was going to put up a fight and make a big scene. As a consultant we are here to help and do everything we can to help you. If you are going to be an ass about calling in to cancel.... THEN DON'T CALL we don't need to hear your crap. Fax us in and cancel 703 433-7283 put your screen name, address, and BC's (billing contacts) name and send in that you want to cancel. Like I said we are here to help people with there accounts not listen to you all moan and complain. Face is no one wants to hear you bitch JUST SEND IN THE FAX!

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.

Just saw you on some TV show. You should also cancel your account with Taco Bell, McDonald's, Ponderosa, Pizza Hut, and Chili's.

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

numbnutz@aol.com

I worked for AOL's retention department about a month ago. AOL's billing systems don't monitor AIM usage. I can't wait until the account gets signed on to and it is accidentally reactivated. I will laugh my ass of. Did anyone else notice that this call didn't go bad until Vincent said 'dude, why does it matter?' when the rep just asked him whether he used it for business or personal?

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.

This isn't just AOL being AOL, it's corporations being corporations. Keep in mind that the guy probably doesn't even work for AOL, but some pissant third-party company. And oh, by the way, I didn't see it posted elsewhere on this page, but AOL has already been warned about this type of thing by none other than Elliot Spitzer less than a year ago.

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 had a similar experience when I decided to get verizondsl. The AOL rep kept interupting me trying to convince me. And the kicker... I asked if I could still keep my AIM screen name because it's free and he said I had to pay about $10 a month to keep the name and e mail address. I said no but recieved an e mail shortly after asking if I wanted to keep them for free! My Aunt fell for their trick a year before and she pays while I get it for nothing. Fair? I don't think so. And to the jackass "GB" that left a nasty comment.... it's your opinion but there is no need for making fun of people. Grow up. Nice work making people aware of the bad customer service!

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.

One Question. The representative told you that there had been usage on the account. Did you ever consider that he might be telling you the truth at that point. I had an AOL account once, and I didn't think we were using it, so I called to cancel it. When thaty told me that it was being used, I was smart enough to investigate it. I found out that my college son was using it at school. I wasn't lied to, just well informed. They told me if I cancelled the account, it would just reactivate if the person who used it continued to use it. So I fixed it by having my son stop using it. I was very happy that they told me that it was being used, so I could be fully informed.

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

Look what I found about AOL http://facts.deadlycomputer.com/

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

Roy Andy,

You should really try to be coherent when leaving comments. It keeps you from coming across as a blithering idiot. If you and people like you, want to roll over and be a plastic play-doll for companies that use bullying tactics as part of their customer service, than roll over and take it. But don’t expect everyone to be a blithering patsy like you.

Now, shut yer pie hole.

Cheers

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

HI

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

They had the cameras facing your back!

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

;-)

Vincent,

I applaud you for going on TV and telling the truth about AOL. I've told my story about my experience with the company awhile back:

http://www.customersarealways.com/2006/02/my_bad_customer_service_experi.html

Since then I've read all kinds of horror stories which makes me wonder if AOL is even really paying attention to what's being said about them or if they really don't care....

ex aol employees unite!!!

"It is not fun being chained to your headset at AOL Saves 8 hrs a day "

get another fucking job. no one is keeping you there.

took me 30 minutes to cancel my sister's account too.. fucktards.

go vincent!

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.

I worked in this job (saves) for 14 months. A part of the training was to attempt three times to keep the customer. You were fired if you didn't try hard enough to keep the customer. The hypocritical part of this is that AOL fired the guy for doing exactly what they tell him to do. What many people o not realize is that the easiest way to get out of the account is to say you are leaving the country. That is the hardest save and there is nothing in the agents training that he can use to keep you.
The agent wasn't well trained because he didn't verufy properly (that is most likely the real reason he was fired--he didnt ask for address or the secret question--which is a firing offense). He also made the mistake of calling the customer a liar by confronting him with usage.
Nevertheless, people like Vincent need to have some charity. Vincent was polite but not personal. He claims that he called with an objective approach to see whether it is hard to cancel or not. It is clear though from the start that he was impersonal and I think he could've found a way to give the guy some answers and steered him towards cancellation with a bit of humor like saying, are you calling me a liar, or I am 30 years old manm why do you need my dad. It is not fun being chained to your headset at AOL Saves 8 hrs a day and forced to try and 'save' people. AOL fired this guy but I doubt they will telling their people to try three times to save somebody. (4 minutes is about what they tell you to have the client on the phone for)

btw, big is beautiful I wouldnt change a thing.

I am not apologizing for "John's" lack of congeniality or respect. It is NOT part of the job to insult the people that call in by conducting ourselves the way he did. This is NOT an isolated incident and in my earlier comments I did note that AOL is lying in their apologies to Mr Ferrari. I believe that all of you who have written in your horror stories deserve all your money back and apologies, and I did all that I could to credit people who were cheated out of money as a retention rep when i was one. There are people who have jobs in call centers that are above human dignity, and there are people like "John" who ruin our reputations. That's just something we all have to deal with. AOL deserves whatever they get.

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”!!!

Thank you for doing a service for us all. I'm going to cancel AOL soon so wish me luck. .

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.

I'm sick of these apologists for "John" at AOL who say he "was just doing his job." That's too bad. There are some "jobs" that are beneath human dignity.

And these same apologists ignore the absolute flood of eerily similar testimonials from across the country. People completely unconnected with each other relating the same experiences.

Where are all the apologists for AOL's continuing scam of charging people after they've cancelled?

Just doing their job, after all.

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...

Also, for those people who claim that service this horrible is 'normal', shame on you. I cancelled my Cingular service about a year ago, after my contract had expired, and they didn't give me NEARLY this much grief. The rep asked me why I was cancelling, I told him why, he asked me if I had signed up for mobile service elsewhere, I told him 'yes', he said 'okay', cancelled the account, and that was the end of it. Cancellation calls should be like THAT -- the reps should ask a couple of questions to gauge why the customer is leaving so that the company can access why they are losing customers, NOT try to pester you and try to sell you service, and then send you on your way.

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.

KUDOS Vincent!!! I went through the same experience 2 years ago. The dialogue between me and the AOL REP. was almost identical to yours. I guess they all have the same script. It must have taken me 20 minutes to do what should have taken me 2 minutes - cancel the AOL account. Thanks for the exposure!!

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!!!!!

Dunno if you're collecting these stories at this point (and you really should -- what a coffeetable book) but here's yet another, albeit not dire.

I called AOL a few days after my Dad died in Sept. 2001 to cancel his account -- my Mom was freaked about money -- and after I notified them of his death & gave proper i.d. info, they tried to talk me into keeping it for "someone else in the house."

(Keep in mind that not only am I grieving, my Mom's grieving, and that my Dad unexpectedly went into the hospital on 9/11--unrelated to the attacks--and died a few days later. I mention this just to convey the shellshocked state of my mind.)

When I explained that the only other person in the house was a 78-y-o woman who had never been on the internet in her life and further, was the grieving widow who wanted it cancelled pronto, it still took another 10 minutes to get the cancellation confirmation. I was so stunned and pained that this person would try & take advantage of grieving folks that I didn't even have the heart to complain or ask to speak to a manager.

I hold the company as responsible as the employee, if not more -- without AOL's retention policies, I believe the average sales rep -- hell, the average human -- would respect the wishes of grieving family members. And it's clear from the comments I have seen all over the internet that this crap is coming from many more reps than just the proverbial "few bad apples" -- which is always what institutions say when they get nailed for talking points such as those employed by AOL retention reps. However, it does take compliant employees to enact these misbegotten policies, bad apples make this stuff even worse, and humans are personally responsible for their actions.

I am so glad this story is getting the play that it is -- AOL may even have to do more than fire one poor hapless schmuck. And even if not, people may get wiser about AOL & companies like them. Thanks, Vincent, for staying so calm in the face of unrelenting annoyance -- and for taping this.

"They (corporations) cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicate, for they have no souls." -- Sir Edward Coke (1152-1634), "Case of Sutton’s Hospital," 10 Rep. 32.

Touche Madeline R! I had the same reaction.

I too had a trial account and when i cancelled she went on about how there was virus protection blah blah, i told her i did not need her telling me how to run my computer. She asked if she could put me on hold and I told her it would be better than listening to her. IT was the worst cacellation experience i've ever had.

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.

GB... he may be big and round but you've shown you're infantile and angry. Worry about your own life. Start by moving out of your mom and dad's basement.

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 saw your interview on Today and I have to tell you that I had THE EXACT SAME EXPERIENCE with AOL. This was a female rep and I swear to god, I got so freaking nasty with her and she STILL KEPT TRYING TO GOAD ME INTO NOT CANCELLING! It took me in excess of 20 minutes to get through to that freaking moron that she was NOT going to get what she wanted from me. Thinking back, her questions and responses to me were pretty much like what was said to you which leads me to believe that they have been given a script to follows, ie, questions and comments to use. I don't think this guy's dialogue was original...

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."

I saw Vincent on MSNBC and I also tried to cancel my AOL account and it took an amazing 22 minutes to get past the recordings and to talk to a person we could actually understand. Email me back to find out more.

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!

My friend and I both had similar experiences. We were given a wait time of three hours and finally hung in there because it never got any shorter. The actual talk time was about ten minutes with the same pressure you received then were each told that the service was cancelled. To go one further, though, they did not cancel and we both ended up having to close our checking accounts where they were directly taking our monthly charges from because after two more calls a piece, they still had not stopped withdrawing the money. It took two months for the reimbursement after they had the nerve to send me a notice saying I owed them for a couple of months because my bank account was no longer active!!!! Go AOL!

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.

Low life scum. I am so glad their little dirty scam has been outed by you on national TV. I tried to cancel fathers account. He is terminaly ill and was present on the phone with me. These leaches would NOT cancel unless I answered an endless list of "none of their business" information. "but why are you cancelling" they asked for the 5th time. He is dying! Please hold... and the torture continued.

May they Rot in hell!!! and the Reps... are accesories to a crime.

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.

This is beautiful. This is positively beautiful. This clip really made my day. I went through the similar thing with AOL about a year ago and I couldn't believe what tremendous pain I encountered while talking to some jerk there about cancelling. By the time I got off the phone much later, I was so angry that I never wanted to hear or see the dreaded three-letter "AOL" again. If I had known what I was going to encounter at that time, I would have recorded my call and published it as well. I feel as if I got my revenge through your media exposure! Thanks!

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.

dude, please pick up a copy of [url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743236742/002-7298906-3166412?v=glance&n=283155]"Dr Phils' The Ulitmate Weight Solution"[/url] your life depends on it!

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!"

Thank you so much for letting people know what type of service the costumers receive from AOL. My experience was even worse because when I tried to cancel my first time I was dumb enough to take the free month that they offered and later y come to find out that without my authorization they sign me up for a 1 year contract. When I tried to cancel the second time and told me about the contract they said I would be charged a cancellation fee of $50. They cancelled it alright, but only after they got their $50. When I called back to get my refund, they told me to send a letter with the copy of the credit card statement so my money could be refunded. After 1 month I called back and they said the refund was refused cause I had agreed to the contract. I lost my temper and called them liars and that I wanted to listen to my reordered conversation agreeing to this so called contract. They said that wasn’t possible and they just hang up on me.

I would rather go my merry life without internet if AOL was the only ISP available!!!

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.

Sorry everyone. But the people on at customer service are trying to keep you as a customer and talk you into staying. Yes, you got put on hold. But guess what, if you call my place of business and ask to speak to the sales department manager you get put on hold also. We want everything in life to happen the second you push a button. Well, life isn't that way. So, you wanted to stop using AOL, all large customer service company have a long wait time. I talked to Earthlink to cancell about two years ago, I was on hold for 20 minutes. And that life!
I guess you want to child in less than 9 months also.

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 was not suprised when I heard the story on the "Today Show". About 4 years ago, my family went with a High Speed Connection and we no longer needed AOL. Aside from several other problems we were having with AOL, I prepared myself for the phone call to cancel, as I had heard many horror stories about trying to cancel. I decided, my best approach would be just to say I no longer had a computer. Who can argue about keeping an internet service when you do not have a computer? Oh, AOL can! After nearly a 15 minute conversation, they finally gave up and cancelled the subscription. But let me tell you, he actually tried to convince me, that someday I would buy another computer and I would be better off just to keep paying the monthly charge and when I had the new computer, I would already be established and it would be like not skipping a beat! Yes, I lied, I still had a computer, but again, I really didn't imagine there could possibly be any argument! Anyway, still get several discs from them a month, but just toss them in the trash. I really had thought they may have changed their policy. I can understand trying to get a customer to stay, but after several times, like Mr. Ferrari of saying over and over, just cancel the account, please AOL, listen, we only need say it once. If you want to try and save it, then after the third time, take the paying public's word, stop the insanity and just cancel it!
Vincent, I applaud you for recording it, so everyone can hear first hand how AOL is. I do not believe their apology, because if what they say is true that they do not tolerate the high pressure tactics to have a customer stay, then no one would be working in the AOL cancellation call center.

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...

Vinny---good for you! I wish people had told me a couple of years ago to record my conversation when trying to cancel! I had the same nightmare. I'm glad someone finally exposed them.

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...

same exact thing happened to me on several occasions. should be a class actio against those fools.

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.

I used the fax option when i quit aol about five years ago. they faxed me back saying that they could not find my account and that i should call a customer service rep who could help me. i faxed back noting that my middle initial did not appear on my fax and yet it did appear on their reply fax (just as it appears on my account) and asked if it was just a lucky guess. they canceled my account and sent me a form letter very quicky when i faxed back again explaining that i intended to press the issue of their deceptive practices. they are sneaky and awful. too bad nbc news doesn't really investigate it. it would be a big black eye for aol.

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

That's funny. I cancelled my AOL account 10 years ago and had a similiar problem. I can't believe this is still going on!

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. :evil: 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!:|

My daughter had the same issues. While she was in Iraq AOL had continued to bill her for an account that they supposedly canceled before she left.

Below is the letter that we sent to Jonathan Miller Chairman and CEO America Online, Inc. We not only got a full refund but a personal apology from Mr. Miller. If you have these kind of problems do as my dad suggested and go strait to the top of the food chain. It is amazing how S--- rolls down fast.

Text of letter:

My daughter Andrea contacted AOL in late March to cancel her AOL account. She was being shipped over to join her National Guard Division in Iraq (see attached orders). Since she would not return for several months she asked that the account not be continued. In May she saw that AOL had billed her $23.90. She called AOL from Iraq and after waiting 20 minutes on her phone card she spoke to customer service. They apologized that it had not been taken care of and assured her it would this time. Then in June someone called Andrea’s mother in Idaho confirming that Andrea was continuing her AOL account. Her mother also told that person that Andrea was in Iraq and could not and did not want AOL’s service.

Andrea came home for leave last week and in going through her statements realized that AOL had continued to bill her for this service. She called on October 12th and spoke to an AOL customer service agent. This person told her that not only had she not cancelled her service but that her records showed that Andrea had agreed to continue. When she tried to explain that was not possible, the customer service person all but alluded that she was lying. She said there was no cancellation number and that there was no record of her other calls. Andrea became so distraught that she asked me to help her, since she goes back to Iraq on October 17th. I called and cancelled her account. However the service representative said she could do nothing about the prior charges. She apologized then tried to get me to continue the account (Cathy CATGHA78). She told me to call Billing and Operations. I asked for the number and she gave me an 800 number, which turned out to just be the regular service number. I then tracked down the Billing and Operations extension and Kay ( Employee number 16659) told me that there was nothing they could do and that I needed to write your Jacksonville, FL office for them to review crediting her back. When I explained that Andrea was leaving back to Iraq in three days and that I would like to have someone handle this before she left. He finally passed me on to his supervisor Colin (Billing Operations Phase 20). Colin again said that I would have to complete the request in writing though he did give me a fax number in Florida to expedite our request. He confirmed that someone at AOL had indicated that Andrea wanted to continue your service and none of her other calls, except the October 12th call, had not been noted in Andreas records. Then after he told me there was nothing he could do he then offered me a 25% discount to continue the AOL account.

This very disappointing and frustrating! How can a large American company not try to support and help one of the people that are in Iraq trying to defend our country? What we would like is for you to immediately credit her account and credit card for the 5 billings of $23.90 that have been deducted through September. We would also like for you to confirm that her account is permanently canceled and that her October billing credit is completed.

We would appreciate your immediate assistance in resolving this issue.

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 watch the today show this morning. Then read all the comment left. I think vicent was not wasting time helping or makeing other aware is not wasting time. about 5-6 year ago my husband call Aol to cancel . We have two boys (at that time almost in the teen years). We had call for about a year for them to help us with the pop porn ads. Ever with the parental control at that time was not stopping them. So my husband called to cancel they were very helpful and understanding.The phone call was about 10-15 min long.
About 3 month later I felt we were missing money out of the checking account. So I sat down look at the bank monthly statement and found some misstakes i made so did not think any about it. about 3 more months went by. I had a check bounce so i went to the bank with the monthly statement. So i could get help well it has been a couple of years ago a can't remember what the bank said but I thought the check account was fixed. my husband and I thought if we kept about 2 hundred dollars over even if i made a mistake it will cover us. a couple more month went by and I still though there was money missing. noone could find were it was going. about a year and half later my husband atm card was stolen so about 5 min after it was stolen I canceled the atm. the bank sent a new one.
about 3 month after that Aol sent a letter telling us we have not paid our account. So I called Aol they would not talk to me because I was not on the account. My husband called told them we do not have a account with them. He also told them when he called to cancel. Aol said they show when he called to cancel but it was not canceled.We wanted to know why and wanted our money back from the day it was canceled.
I went to the bank with the monthly statement a told her ( the teller and I were becoming friends during this time I was in there a lot. I knew someone one taking money out of the checking.)The bank teller and I went over the statement for about 30 min before we found it on the monthly statement. She told me i could have though the bank canceled the automatic withdraw. So if you cancel Aol I would go to the bank and cancel down there also.My bank have had many complaints about the monthly statements so about 2 month after our experience the bank had changed the statement .
now each transaction has thier on line with spaced in between. My checking is back to order now.
My husband talked with Aol for two month and I talked to some legal advise but we did not get any where. My husband does not like to handle thing like this he was willing to let it go.
I was not but Aol would not talk with me even with the husband on the phone with me at the same time. Aol said the could not help us because our complaint was not mad in the 90 day after the cancelation. Aol all so said that my husband agreed that if they could fix the pop up in the future that he would come back.
I fell the company had a great product the would not have to trick people to stay with them I think Aol are thieves. I Know that I am no the olny one this has happen to If any lawyer are out there I would love to see a class action suit done on Aol. Any company that have to brainwash people that are trying to cancel to stay with them they should be shut down.

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?

Hi Vincent,
Thank you so much for bringing this story to light. I didn't realize until after MY horrible experience (by looking online) how often this happens. I have never been more angry on the phone as the day I tried to cancel my account.

I wrote into the TODAY show as well to let them know I appreciated the story. This is how my experience went:

The first person I talked to was a really nice girl from some western state like Texas or Arizona. She tried REALLY hard to keep me but was never rude. She did try to convince me that their new software would work for my MAC although I was pretty sure it wouldn't. After a while she realized she didn't really know for sure and told me a (MAC) colleague had passed by her desk and told her to send me to him, so I unwittingly agreed. When I got through, I asked the guy what state he was in and it wasn't even the same state as the girl! He also confirmed my suspicion that the AOL software was not compatible with my MAC but by then the girl had achieved her goal as keeping me as a customer. He then had to send me BACK to "cancellation" which this time I was sent out of the country. The person I was transfered to was JUST LIKE the guy Vincent encountered. He REFUSED to listen to me and cancel my account. This conversation lasted at least 20-30 minutes and when he FINALLY conceded to cancel the account, he refused to give me my cancelation number until I listened to his "exit speech". I told him I didn't need to hear all that, I just needed my number. He refused several times until I finally had to hang up and call back. The next guy (also out of the country) gave me my number immediately and without the schpeel.

I don't really believe the AOL "apology" though. Obviously, this IS their practice as Brad attested to. I think it's horrible the way this is allowed to go on. But hopefully your story will save a lot of people the stress and aggrivation.

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

I have worked as an outside consultant for aol. Their ethical standards relative to cancelling accounts are questionable. AOL scripts used in their call centers, is clearly written to the advantage of the company and not the customer. By the time the majority of members(that call to cancel their account) go through the entire discovery process with the CSR they are exhausted, angry and plan pissed off. The goal of the CSR is at the end of that call they put a "save" on the account - period. How they get there is another story. aol has closed many call centers across the country in the last month - their unscrupulous methods are coming to an end.

...and AOL just plain SUCKS!!!!!

I just read the MSNBC story on your AOL problems. We had our own back in the fall (http://peaceableimperatrix.blogspot.com/2005/11...) and we've never had an account with AOL. It's amazing what corporations do that just shoot themselves in the foot.

Glad you finally got the media to pay attention to this problem.

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

it's about time a class action suite was brought against AOL. I tried and did cancel my daughter's account and then they locked her out of IM! For a teenage girl this was terrible!

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?

The bottom line is that AOL should shut down his business !!! That is bad customer service; they don't understand or even listen to the customer !!! Do you understand the word "CANCEL"? It's bizarre because when I cancel my AOL account a week ago the person's name was also John. Looks like the all customer reps is named "John" !!!
Anyways with this kind of strategy AOL you won't last long in this business !

I had a letter read by Letterman on "viewer mail". I'm sorta famous too....

Yep, same thing happened to me three years ago. During winter break my soph year of college I went home and my parents didn't have internet access, so I signed up for the free hours, then cancelled in Jan. Well, I thought I cancelled in Jan, apparently they lost those records. When I finally realized what the coded line on my bank account was the next winter (that was causing overdraft charges on my bank account) I called up AOL and had a lovely 3 hour phone call! Well, needless to say they tried to convince me that the "online professors" would be of great service to me while I was in school. I replied by saying that since I lived in the dorm, my professors were directly across the street from me. Needless to say they continued to try to sell it to me on this point, despite the fact that I told them I had a free high-speed connection that was included in my dorm. Aarrgh. And would they refund my fees since they could see there was no usage on the acct for an entire year. No, of course not, but they would give me a year free starting today (did she not understand that I already had free internet access?) I had to ask at least three times for the cancellation number. And my exit recorded phone call tried to sell me the service again. I definitly tell people not to sign up for AOL when they ask me. I would suggest that everyone who reads this does the same.

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!

Question: Do you know how long AIM (AOL instant messenger)has been available for free?
I just found out last month that it is now free and have been paying for it up to May of this year.
I tried to cancel my plan 2 years ago and they suggested I keep my AIM for a minimal monthly fee.
Just wondering...
Lindsay

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.

Thank you so much for going public with this. About 5 years ago I cancelled AOL. It took numerous phone calls, and yet they kept charging me. I finally had to cancel the credit card they had on file. Then, they had the nerve to send me to Collections!!

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.

Hi VIncent,
I'm so glad you are bringing this to everyone's attention. That "zero policy" they talk about in their "apology" is bull, though. My friend tried to cancel and the rep actually told her, "I can't do that, I'll get fired if I let you cancel". They were willing to offer her free service to stay!
It's bad, they're evil and I'm glad you're speaking out. THANK YOU!!

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.

I cheered when I saw this. What you don't know is this: AOL routes subscriber cancellation calls to a phone center in Spokane, where employees receive bonuses for talking customers out of canceling. A waitress for a chain restaurant (which more than slightly resembles "Flingers" from Office Space) bragged to me that her husband works in the unit and has the lowest rate of cancellations. What do you want to bet that her husband is "John from AOL"?

Jason Plank, former AOL "retention associate" says that if you really want to cancel you account, you should call AOL, tell them to cancel your account, then hang up:

"If you ever want to easily cancel your AOL account, send them a written request via snail mail. Or, call them, let them pull up your account, request them to cancel it, and then hang up. They are required to cancel your account in cases of disconnection if the last statement you make is a cancellation request."
http://jasonplank.blogspot.com/

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!"

Wow are you ... large and round!!!

...spend more energy exercising; it'll do you good, and do much more good than this recording stunt...

By the way, do we understand correctly that you took [wasted] time while on the job to call and cancel your AOL service? I think your supervisor would like to know about this!

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 :evil:

I had such a hard time cancelling my AOL account almost a year ago I ended up having to close my bank account to get them to start charging me. I also gave up trying to get reimbursed.

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.

Here all this time, I thought it was me. I went through this 4 years ago. They are bleeding subscribers and they are desperate to stop it. I was offered several free months of service, told my cable ISP would not provide the "level of service" that AOL did. Thanks for outing them. Carl Grossman, Orange, CA.

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.