I realize that this is a response to old post of Vincents experience with AOL…but I would like to share it anyway
I used to work for a outsourcing company in Jerusalem, Israel. For a year and half, I and 280 others worked for the AOL project. It ranged from customer recruitment, reactivation of old AOL accounts, billing and retention. Our site was the top rankings out of 12 sites for quality, customer service, etc…yet AOL in its pursuit of money…outsourced the outsource to India. Many AOl members complimented us because we spoke English they could understand. Also the members found India, etc to be rude, pushy, doing their own thing. One example is that every account has a history of calls, etc and what was done to the account. Most of the entries from India was meaningless phrases, one word, or codes…and at time, the MRM reps in India ingnored or did the exact opposite of what was dicussed with the Member.
Now in-re cancelling accounts. There is two ways: (1) immediate cancellation…which means it is cancelled that very moment. The only draw back to that is if the member has paided to the next billing date, they are out the money. (2) The other way is to have the account cancelled on the next billing date…which is OK, but there is 50/50 chance you will get another bill, because the billing date is not only closing date of the prior billing, but the start of the next. So, it is best to cancell before the billing date…as close as one can. But do not cancell on the billing date. Also, get the cancel confirmation number and keep it for reference.
When I was layoffed…AOL had just introduced a new set of credit guidline(as of 12/07) and it means that there is no more free months, and the member has to show any problems are AOL’s fault to get any money back. Before then it was more liberal…but a rep’s future on the phones was to keep the amount of free months, credits, and money way down.
There is much more…but in-re cancellation…ask for an immediate cancellation. The rep may try to cajole you to reconsider(after all the poor rep has to deal with “coach” and weird “keep it real” draconian rules) it. But stick to your guns. And if you paid for your service already…wait to a day or two before your billing date…call in an cancel…immediately. This will help.
Lastly, to those who have problems with India…they drove us crazy too, and caused us and the AOL members too much heartache. In spite of all this, I liked working on the AOL project…I tried to help people and gave them what they wanted. I never pushed to retain accounts, etc. I think if AOL wants to survive and flourish…it should totally rethink the way it handles members. The customer comes first and if the complaint, issue, etc is legit…by all means help them and not hinder them.
PS: AOL used to push video professor…this is a rip off…say no. Also, they were pushing HSIO(high speed internet option…aol and another company). See what the HSIO package is about by going to keyword: highspeed and then compare it with the other company or the company AOL is a partner with to see which is the better package.
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February 28th, 2007 at 4:23 am
I realize that this is a response to old post of Vincents experience with AOL…but I would like to share it anyway
I used to work for a outsourcing company in Jerusalem, Israel. For a year and half, I and 280 others worked for the AOL project. It ranged from customer recruitment, reactivation of old AOL accounts, billing and retention. Our site was the top rankings out of 12 sites for quality, customer service, etc…yet AOL in its pursuit of money…outsourced the outsource to India. Many AOl members complimented us because we spoke English they could understand. Also the members found India, etc to be rude, pushy, doing their own thing. One example is that every account has a history of calls, etc and what was done to the account. Most of the entries from India was meaningless phrases, one word, or codes…and at time, the MRM reps in India ingnored or did the exact opposite of what was dicussed with the Member.
Now in-re cancelling accounts. There is two ways: (1) immediate cancellation…which means it is cancelled that very moment. The only draw back to that is if the member has paided to the next billing date, they are out the money. (2) The other way is to have the account cancelled on the next billing date…which is OK, but there is 50/50 chance you will get another bill, because the billing date is not only closing date of the prior billing, but the start of the next. So, it is best to cancell before the billing date…as close as one can. But do not cancell on the billing date. Also, get the cancel confirmation number and keep it for reference.
When I was layoffed…AOL had just introduced a new set of credit guidline(as of 12/07) and it means that there is no more free months, and the member has to show any problems are AOL’s fault to get any money back. Before then it was more liberal…but a rep’s future on the phones was to keep the amount of free months, credits, and money way down.
There is much more…but in-re cancellation…ask for an immediate cancellation. The rep may try to cajole you to reconsider(after all the poor rep has to deal with “coach” and weird “keep it real” draconian rules) it. But stick to your guns. And if you paid for your service already…wait to a day or two before your billing date…call in an cancel…immediately. This will help.
Lastly, to those who have problems with India…they drove us crazy too, and caused us and the AOL members too much heartache. In spite of all this, I liked working on the AOL project…I tried to help people and gave them what they wanted. I never pushed to retain accounts, etc. I think if AOL wants to survive and flourish…it should totally rethink the way it handles members. The customer comes first and if the complaint, issue, etc is legit…by all means help them and not hinder them.
PS: AOL used to push video professor…this is a rip off…say no. Also, they were pushing HSIO(high speed internet option…aol and another company). See what the HSIO package is about by going to keyword: highspeed and then compare it with the other company or the company AOL is a partner with to see which is the better package.