Heh… I love talking about myself in the third person…

Vincent Ferrari uploaded his famous AOL cancellation call on June 13th, 2006. A screenshot from AOL’s internal database shows that 10 days later AOL revised its policy for what reps should do if a customer says they’re recording the phone call.

This is a revision of their previous policy, shown in the second screenshot, mandating hanging up on customers who said they were recording the call.

AOL saw this story was blowing up and figured that people might try to duplicate Vincent’s call. Rather than telling them to buzz off, which could’ve created another infamous bad customer service call, AOL told its reps to “continue to provide the outstanding customer service all our members deserve and expect.” Clever, very clever.

Here’s why I find this amusing. Despite their uncomfortableness with recording calls, there isn’t crap they can do about it.

Why?

Because of the words they speak at the beginning of every single call: This call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.

That’s right folks. Once they tell you the call is being recorded, you do not have to inform them of anything, end of story. Obviously, you may want to check with a lawyer to be sure, but that’s the way it is. Don’t take my word for it and then come back to me if you get sued by some tools. Instead of improving the customer experience, AOL just makes it harder to protect yourself when you get your own John on the phone.

That’s why no one gives two craps about AOL any more.

via Consumerist

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