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.

““While it would be bad press for AOL to sue Vinnie for it, the rep would be perfectly within his legal rights to sue him for loss of job, possible defamation of character, and the like.”

Sorry — that wouldn’t fly. AOL fired him. If he goes after Vinnie, no jury in the world would find for the Plaintiff. Not to mention Vinnie could countersue.

AOL’s practice of “recording this call for Quality Assurance purposes” pretty much opens the door both ways.”

The law doesn’t work like that. There are clear guidelines, and if he broke the law, he broke the law. Period. As a result, depending the what the law favors, it’s entirely possible to see Vince getting served a lawsuit for illegally recording the call by the rep who was fired. In the end, even if Vince decided to countersue, it should be understood that Vince is the one going on all the radio stations and TV and the like. That could wind up being more ammunition against him than for him if that’s the case.

Unfortnately for your general summation, jurors are required to make a judgement based on whether or not the law was broken, regardless of their personal feelings on the matter. Whether or not they agree with what Vince did, objectively, if he broke the law, they would have to find for the plantiff – now as to what they agree the plantiff should get if that were the case – that’s a whole other matter.

“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.

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.

And how does one go about proving that said customer’s answer wasn’t good enough to satisfy the Customer Rep?

I’ve got a better one: AOL stacks the deck against the customer, making their legal “covenant” lopsided in AOL’s favor — That’s not a legally enforceable contract, either.

Since when does a customer have to do a song and dance, begging for the release of obligation — bending to the whim of a Customer Service rep who is paid bonuses to say “No” to the customer? Does that sound like an equal, legal relationship to you?

Sound like good faith to you?

Sorry — that wouldn’t fly. AOL fired him. If he goes after Vinnie, no jury in the world would find for the Plaintiff. Not to mention Vinnie could countersue.

AOL’s practice of “recording this call for Quality Assurance purposes” pretty much opens the door both ways.

Actually, for business purposes, it’s legal for AOL to record the phone call – however, per the FCC, Vinnie was also legally required to advise AOL he was recording the call.

State laws tend to rule here however, so depending on where Vinnie was, he may have engaged in criminal activity when he recorded it. For example, California has a all party consent – meaning that he was required by law to state that he was recording the call to all parties involved (this includes the rep) if such is the case – prior to the conversation.

While it would be bad press for AOL to sue Vinnie for it, the rep would be perfectly within his legal rights to sue him for loss of job, possible defamation of character, and the like.

Speaking as somebody who also takes calls, while I do agree that the CSR who took the call didn’t do the right think, Vinnie goaded him and was a bit rude himself. Most of the customers I deal with are friendly enough, and are reasonable most of the time. Most of them are respectful to listen. What Vinnie did was disrespectul and for the following reasons, should NOT be lauded as some kind of hero:

1) He may have engaged in illegal activity by recording the call
2) He lied to the rep about why he wanted to cancel.
3) He used company property at the place where he works to record the call (misappropriation of company property?) This could also cause his company to fall under legal action since their equipment was being used.

Essentially, Vinnie was equally unprofessional and rude, and I wouldn’t want him as my employee.

No laws were violated. In fact, AOL routinely tells customers that their calls “may be recorded for Quality Assurance”.

So, it’s OK for AOL to record the call but not the customer?

As long as one party to the call knows it’s being recorded, it’s completely legal. And, obviously in the case of the crooks at AOL, necessary.

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2005/aug/aug24a_05.html

I had their service for 6 months, it didn’t work for the last 3 months of that period and not only did they NOT give me a refund for 2 of those months, they charged me a cancellation fee because according to them, I broke my contract…

VONAGE BROKE THE CONTRACT BY NOT GIVING ME THE SERVICE I PAID FOR!!!!

After at least 20 calls…
Countless hours on my cell phone before 9pm trying to get it fixed…
3 months without phone service (and no 911!)
Having to hold for at least a half hour before each call…
Having to hold another half hour after finally being connected to a person…
Spending a half hour trying to convince that person that I have rebooted the modem already…
Spending $80 on a new modem because the warranty on the one they give you only last 30 days…
The time and gas it took to return the new $80 modem when that didn’t fix it…
The countless hours on my new Lingo phone trying to convince Vonage to give me back the money they stole from us because we didn’t have service…
The 8 times they’ve argued and yelled and hung up on us when we tried to tell them that they broke the contract and we deserve a refund…
And the last time when I attempted to call their corporate offices in New Jersey, just to find out that all of their numbers are in Canada, and there doesn’t appear to be a number in the United States, to finally be routed back to their Helpdesk to be told that Management declined the refund request because we broke the contract.

ARGGGHHH!!!!

DO NOT RISK YOUR LIFE AND THOSE OF YOUR KIDS JACKING WITH VONAGE!

Vinnie, forget blogging…. You’ve got a new business to pursue:
Leading the revolution against Money Grubbing Customer Service Practices!

Why earn my money when they can just steal it?

If you think that talking to John (no last name or CSR number) at AOL caused your account to be canceled you had better review your credit card very closely next month.

In reality, the only sure way to cancel an AOL account is to cancel your credit card.

John Doe will be promoted . . . to teach other CSR’s and AOL will continue their dishonest Mode of Operation . . . business as usual!

Ralph Nader would be proud of you! Great job in anticipating that you should tape your call to cancel AOL in advance. I wish I had the forsight to do the same thing about 2 years ago when I had to endure the same battle with their customer service department. I have to admit that I did not keep my cool and they kep t hanging up on me so it took about 5 calls to finally get the account canceled.

I think your simple recording is going to be a HUGE topic on the agenda of AOL’s next Excecutive Board Meeting.

THANK YOU

I just saw your segment on YouTube, cool stuff man. It’s just aggravating having to deal with reps like that. I’m in retail sales and I know the line that shouldn’t be crossed. It’s just messed up that these reps work like that, pushing and pushing just trying to make the sale – no care for the other persons feelings.

When I called back to officially cancel, I got some fellow who wanted to try to again try to “fix” my DSL service. I had a fever at the time and said I wasn’t about to hook all the gizmos up again, plus it wouldn’t work no matter what if my phone lines aren’t set up for it. I had to argue with him for almost an hour. Then I demanded to be put through to Cancellations which put me on hold another half hour. And then I had to argue with the idiot who handled that dept. He kept telling me that my DSL service according to his records “worked perfectly.”
I finally got a cancellation number out of him, but then he informed me I would be liable for some $20 shipping fee on the modem. (Two other reps who signed me up swore there’d be no charges whatsoever if the DSL didn’t work.)
I promptly called the credit card company and filed a protest on any charges. In retrospect, I see that Earthlink is based in Texas (?) and I have had bad experiences with based there & some other states. I’ll probably have to file a complaint with California Consumer Affairs about Earthlink and its fraudulent practices. It’s also maddening to have to try to deal with all these outsourced people in India who just make things up as they go.

What’s really stupid is that I oversee a computer lab and deal with lots of students. I can badmouth Earthlink to about 100 people every week in person. What’s the problem with these companies? The web and media nowadays get the word out fast, so all the glorious ads these joker companies put out is lots of money wasted.