Light Mode!

lose another 400 pounds and then your site will be in light mode.

great job Vince, I just saw your clip in CNN!

Squeezing enough publicity out of this, pal?

Please keep the site "light". I don't know what it was like before (blame AOL :), but I prefer "light" sites without fancy graphics, backgrounds, or animations. Content = king :)

AOL had a presence here in Jacksonville, FL for many years. I was offered jobs there 3 different times, but something always gave me second thoughts. However, I've worked in a number of call centers with ex-AOL employees, and the stories I've heard make this one seem tame, if you can believe that!

While AOL alleges it "fired" this John guy, more likely than not he was laid off, along with hundreds of other retention reps, when they closed their retention call center in May (http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/0...).

In any event, I work with a number of former AOL retention reps and they are simply NOT allowed to cancel an account without putting the user through these sorts of ordeals. And I can also confirm that I've heard similar stories about how they will tell you things like "you can use your Netscape browser". However, when you do, it REACTIVATES the account, and you're billed again.

Also, these reps get big bonuses based on how many accounts they "save". They give away flat screen TV's, and all sorts of other really nice prizes as incentives. So it's no wonder these reps can get aggressive. Also, their computer system simply won't allow them to cancel an account without going through screen after screen after screen. I've been told that they fastest it can go is maybe 15 minutes.

There is ONE way to beat them at their own game, however, and have a little fun doing it. They are expected to accept a certain number of calls per hour. You could simply start talking, leading the rep on, and drag the call out for 30, 45 minutes, until the rep's desperate to just get you off of the phone lest his or her "stats" be ruined for the day.

There's no place for this, but "retention" is a standard part of business these days. You'll find it with credit card companies, cable services, cell phone carriers - anywhere that involves a subscription or regular payment. It's one thing to inform people of new features, offer to resolve problems, and otherwise sincerely help customers who may have called to cancel, but when they are insistent, as Mr. Ferrari was, it's clear that there's not acceptable course of action but to respect his wishes.

One other thing you can do, although it may be inconvenient, is to change your credit card number by notifying your bank that you've "lost" your old card and want a new one with a new number. Then, when they try to debit your account, it will be declined. Another way would be to purchase a VISA gift card, change your billing to that, and after it's been debited, toss it in the trash. That way they'll have no legal way to bill you. At least you'll avoid the phone ordeal that Mr. Ferrari, and THOUSANDS of others have had to endure.

There are other ways to beat them. I can ask for more if anyone is interested

Abuse of the AOL TOS, what a great idea!! That's silly smart.
JC

Hey Vincent,

I had the same issue when trying to cancel AOL back 4 or 5 years ago, until my brother told me that when he could not get his account canceled, he simply began rampantly violating AOL's TOS -- entering chatrooms and being inappropriate, etc -- until moderators warned him. He then got inappropriate and abusive to them, and his account was canceled within 3 days.

I did the same thing and it took 5 or 6 days, but I was booted without the hassle of phone hell.

Thanks for an interesting story. You were the water-cooler topic all morning today.

Jem

I just watched your video on NBC. I get support like that all the time, so thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention that they're not the only ones getting support like this.

I've been in the wholesale dial business for several years, and most of my customers are small ISPs who try for ever to get cancellations for their customers who wanted to leave AOL. This is what AOL does. They make it difficult to leave (under stated) and if you inadvertantly sign on, they bill you. They have extremely intrusive dialer software which can't be taken out of your system, if at all. Icons can't be taken out, so it's designed to cause you to use it, especially by accident. John did'nt get fired, he changed his name and was probably given a raise for his tactics. No, really!

JC

John

Congratulations on your success with AOL, good for you. Now may come the fun part. I cancelled their dial up service over a year ago, but was unable to remove the icon from my computer, so at the advice of another unfortunate customer, I called aol customer service and threatened to sue them given that I was paying for dsl/broadband with someone else but could not get onto certain websites because the aol dialup icon kept intervening, I lost business as a result. It took over an hour of a technical guy with whom I was connected to walk me through disabling the icon, when we were disconnected. I tried calling back but could not get through to the tech depart because I didn't have an acct.