AO Hell

[ImagineFL]

NOTE:  Turn your speakers up and listen to this link of the guy trying to cancel his account. 

Spitzer Hounds AOL
Over cancellation policies

Posted on 2006-07-12 08:47:50

The Consumerist reports that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer will be having a chat with AOL executives over their cancellation policies. While clean cancellation has been a long-standing problem with the company, it was recently illuminated further by one users absurd recorded attempt to cancel service. Spitzer had slapped AOL's nose over a flurry of cancellation complaints last year. Also see this Reuters report.

A man taping his attempt to cancel his AOL account (audio here). "At AOL, we have zero-tolerance for customer care incidents like this - which is deeply regrettable and also absolutely inexcusable," AOL says in a statement. Despite repeated cases like this, the company placed the blame on the employee, saying he violated customer service guidelines and was terminated.

Meanwhile the Consumerist has a story about a daughter who wanted to cancel her mother's AOL account after the woman was killed in a car accident. "After explaining that my mother was killed in the accident, the rep told me that he was sorry that my mom was unhappy with the service," says the woman. "He then suggested lowering the number of hours per month to reduce the bill." He ultimately tells her the deceased mother would need to call to have the account cancelled.

I am so glad that I got rid of AOL about 10 years ago.     I do remember what a pain it was trying to cancel.  After I got it through to them that I wanted to cancel, the person taking my call tried to sell me some anti-virus software.   

[allopathicholistic]

i think AOL is cheese city

someone gave me a prediction back in 1996 that AOL would not be around in 10 years. wrong obviously

[ademas]

I also had difficulty cancelling AOL years ago.  Nothing like this guy, but still...it was pretty absurd.

There was a fun, moderated chatroom there for a few years called "The Positive Living Room"--but it got closed down, without much notice.  It was the only reason I stuck with AOL as long as I did.  I miss some of those people to this day, and wonder how they're doing.

xox

[J.R.E.]

My blood pressure was rising, just listening to this exchange. I had something simular, several weeks ago with earthlink,(but no where near extreme as that) when I canceled, my account after 4 years with them. They tried to convince me to keep my mailboxes. I said NO couple times, finally he said we hate to see you go, your account is officially cancelled. We would like to see you use Earthlink in the future. That was it. I am still checking my statements to make sure there are no charges, but overall Earthlink was pretty good.

I would not have had the patience that guy had.


Ray

[ImagineFL]

I had Earthstink for a year when I was doing a lot of traveling.  The only issue that I had with them was their security.

I would get to my hotel and they wouldn't let me on, I had to call them and bitch to open my account up.  They would suspend it all the time because I would log on in a different city or country everyweek, and this raised a red flag because they thought I was letting others around the work use my login information.

They just didn't understand that SOME people work on the road and I was really in a different city every week.  Blah... I cancelled them and went with AOL and they never gave me any crap.  As much as I hated using AOL, they had a huge list of access numbers.

Patrick

[alisenjafi]

Back in the  late 20th century I got AOL and as the price went up I switched. The guy  also told me I was also paying hidden fees. so my $21. deal was actually $27. this was mid 90's. I am now with Verizon at less than $17.for dsl. So you guys with dial up get with it! You are probably paying more for outdated 20th century technology-  now where the hell is my Rosy the robot?
Cheers
Johnny