The Last TV Appearance

Yes folks, that’s right. Tonight it all comes to a head with me on Nightline on ABC (Check your local listings). I even got to hang for a bit with Consumerist head guru and almighty consumer defender and power shaker Ben Popken, which is appropriate because I never would’ve thought of recording that call without his site.

The topic of the show is customer service and how blogs and such are becoming the fightback method for modern consumers. Bear in mind they talked to me for about an hour and are only doing a 9 minute segment total, so who knows what’s gonna make it and not. They even came to my apartment Wednesday to shoot some B-roll so if you missed it on CNN you get to see it on ABC :-)

Tune in tonight!

[tags]nightline, me, vincent ferrari[/tags]

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  • http://www.sugarraydodge.com Davey

    Be sure to You Tube it!

  • Bill

    VERY cool!

  • http://profilepixies.com Zac

    I’m watching it now! I love this, thank you for recording this! It needed to be done. :) If you want to talk, you can reach me on AIM at ‘iammzac’ :) You seem like a really cool guy. See you around!

  • dan

    Glad to see the abc bit on you. It took me about 3 months to cancel AOL. AOL gave me two months free and i just quit paying for it. You had a short call time, mine was like 2 hours.:)

  • Mike

    Good Evening:

    Just saw the Nightline story and I have to say, KUDOS TO YOU, MAN!!!

    I just cancelled my service w/AOL after 8 yrs and they did the same thing to me! All the stalling, and “…what’s the problem,? I’m showing alot of usage by you” or “Could we interest you in our highspeed AOL?”

    I am glad to see people like you, “the little guy”, taking the fight to corporate America’s front doorstep. God Bless You, Ferrari!!

  • Puck Cub

    Heh, just caught about the last half of the segment on tv tonight. (july 15 2006) I paid for an account i didn’t use for almost 4 years simpley because America OFFLINE wouldn’t cancel my account without password/login etc even though i had the credit card information they were using to charge the fees to. (it was an account i’d put on hold while i moved around figuring out what i wanted to do. in 2 years i’d forgettin the login and password, and who ever keeps written records of that stuff?) So anyways, 4 years later i’m tired of them hitting my credit card, and i’m not about to cancel the card just to stop their autowithdrawls, so tried one more time, and got the same run around you did. They didn’t want to cancel my account. they even tried to sell me useless crap i couldn’t afford and didn’t even need. but unlike you, i didn’t get away with a simple 21minute call. was well over an hour and a bottle of aspirin later.

    So i guess you found out that AOL isn’t as ‘user friendly’ as they claim. i give them credit for being tenacious, but i take those points away because they don’t know when to quit.

    and a final note, with Nitelines followup, … AOL said they fired the clutz… to which i’m thinking…… Fired only him? ALL Their operators are told to behave this way. they should remove their entire operator systems and replace it with a computer! :) ) hahahahahah

  • Carol Yob

    I had a very similar experience with AOL several years ago when my daughter wanted to use AOL because she thought their search engine was better than most she had used to do research for school work. When she tried to cancel the service and they asked her why she told them we already had Net Zero High Speed for $15.00 a month so they convinced her to take their $15.00 package. What the rep didn’t make clear was that the package only included 2 hours and that each additional hour cost $5.00. 2 hours is nothing to a teen-ager so needless to say she racked up quite a bill and when I enquired about the charges they refused to give me a full refund even though they in all actuallity made a contractual agreement with a minor. As far as I’m concerned AOL is a virus that every anti-virus software should remove from every computer and their customer service is anything but that!

  • http://ickmusic.com Pete

    Just saw the Nightline piece. Well done, Vinny, well done.

  • zee

    Vinny, good piece. I’ve had my account for over a decade and your experience has made the argument for finaling canceling AOL. A really bad habit i won’t miss.
    zee

  • http://annesembroiderytx.tripod.com Anne Beckett

    Excellent interview and story! SO glad others have had the balls and know-how to get back at the AOL bastards.. Can someone now help me with SBC? They’re even worse since they control much more than the shits at AOL!!
    NOt to worry, I spread my anti-SBC (now AT&T) all over the place and have, easily, been able to convince many people to drop their bullshit phone “service”.. ha! service.. ah- hmm!!!

  • http://WakeupU.S. Anthony lemons

    Vinny, good for you. I am glad the steam hasn’t run out on this story. I’ll be back to keep up on the current events here. http://anthonylemons.blogspot.com Wake up U.S.

  • mike yow

    man…i saw you on the tube! 4-5 yrs ago i had the same experience. the idiot kept at me when i told him i just didn’t want AOL anymore. he kept with me, like you, with “well why not? what’s wrong?” and i finally got ugly with him too…what was it he refused to hear ” ijust don’t want it!!”…what jerks! and then getting the software out of my ‘puter…what a friggi’ nitemare!!….rock on man…

  • JasonT

    Did anyone youtube it?

  • http://www.sugarraydodge.com/ Davey

    Be sure to You Tube it!

  • Bill

    VERY cool!

  • http://profilepixies.com/ Zac

    I’m watching it now! I love this, thank you for recording this! It needed to be done. :) If you want to talk, you can reach me on AIM at ‘iammzac’ :) You seem like a really cool guy. See you around!

  • dan

    Glad to see the abc bit on you. It took me about 3 months to cancel AOL. AOL gave me two months free and i just quit paying for it. You had a short call time, mine was like 2 hours.:)

  • Mike

    Good Evening:

    Just saw the Nightline story and I have to say, KUDOS TO YOU, MAN!!!

    I just cancelled my service w/AOL after 8 yrs and they did the same thing to me! All the stalling, and “…what’s the problem,? I’m showing alot of usage by you” or “Could we interest you in our highspeed AOL?”

    I am glad to see people like you, “the little guy”, taking the fight to corporate America’s front doorstep. God Bless You, Ferrari!!

  • Puck Cub

    Heh, just caught about the last half of the segment on tv tonight. (july 15 2006) I paid for an account i didn’t use for almost 4 years simpley because America OFFLINE wouldn’t cancel my account without password/login etc even though i had the credit card information they were using to charge the fees to. (it was an account i’d put on hold while i moved around figuring out what i wanted to do. in 2 years i’d forgettin the login and password, and who ever keeps written records of that stuff?) So anyways, 4 years later i’m tired of them hitting my credit card, and i’m not about to cancel the card just to stop their autowithdrawls, so tried one more time, and got the same run around you did. They didn’t want to cancel my account. they even tried to sell me useless crap i couldn’t afford and didn’t even need. but unlike you, i didn’t get away with a simple 21minute call. was well over an hour and a bottle of aspirin later.

    So i guess you found out that AOL isn’t as ‘user friendly’ as they claim. i give them credit for being tenacious, but i take those points away because they don’t know when to quit.

    and a final note, with Nitelines followup, … AOL said they fired the clutz… to which i’m thinking…… Fired only him? ALL Their operators are told to behave this way. they should remove their entire operator systems and replace it with a computer! :) ) hahahahahah

  • Carol Yob

    I had a very similar experience with AOL several years ago when my daughter wanted to use AOL because she thought their search engine was better than most she had used to do research for school work. When she tried to cancel the service and they asked her why she told them we already had Net Zero High Speed for $15.00 a month so they convinced her to take their $15.00 package. What the rep didn’t make clear was that the package only included 2 hours and that each additional hour cost $5.00. 2 hours is nothing to a teen-ager so needless to say she racked up quite a bill and when I enquired about the charges they refused to give me a full refund even though they in all actuallity made a contractual agreement with a minor. As far as I’m concerned AOL is a virus that every anti-virus software should remove from every computer and their customer service is anything but that!

  • http://ickmusic.com/ Pete

    Just saw the Nightline piece. Well done, Vinny, well done.

  • zee

    Vinny, good piece. I’ve had my account for over a decade and your experience has made the argument for finaling canceling AOL. A really bad habit i won’t miss.
    zee

  • http://annesembroiderytx.tripod.com/ Anne Beckett

    Excellent interview and story! SO glad others have had the balls and know-how to get back at the AOL bastards.. Can someone now help me with SBC? They’re even worse since they control much more than the shits at AOL!!
    NOt to worry, I spread my anti-SBC (now AT&T) all over the place and have, easily, been able to convince many people to drop their bullshit phone “service”.. ha! service.. ah- hmm!!!

  • Anthony lemons

    Vinny, good for you. I am glad the steam hasn’t run out on this story. I’ll be back to keep up on the current events here. http://anthonylemons.blogspot.com Wake up U.S.

  • mike yow

    man…i saw you on the tube! 4-5 yrs ago i had the same experience. the idiot kept at me when i told him i just didn’t want AOL anymore. he kept with me, like you, with “well why not? what’s wrong?” and i finally got ugly with him too…what was it he refused to hear ” ijust don’t want it!!”…what jerks! and then getting the software out of my ‘puter…what a friggi’ nitemare!!….rock on man…

  • JasonT

    Did anyone youtube it?