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Comments on news posted 2005-08-24 13:14:09: NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced a settlement with AOL penalizing them for making quitting their service too difficult. AOL must pay NY State $1. ..
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Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA
 ·Mediacom
| . AOL was my first ISP. I was a customer for about 10 months or so, even upgraded to their DSL service. Finally I switched to the local cable company and it took me 3 hours on the phone to cancel it. At one point I lost it and started yelling at some guy. I told him that I was sick of being transferred to 'wrong departments' and just want to cancel. I also told him "this is bullshit" and this guy said "I know" and transferred me to the right department.
A year ago I got their BYOA thing for my brother and cancelled it after a week. Told them my brother's moving out (not really  ) and I don't want to pay for it. They said OK and it was done in 3 minutes.
Real rhapsody had a click-to-cancel feature but they removed that and now they force you to talk to someone in India to cancel and yes it's their usual crap ('Are you sure you want to cancel?" etc).
I did not know that Real was part of AOL. Now it makes a lot of sense.
All of this should be illegal. Businesses should be forced to make it just as easy to cancel as it is to sign up. | |
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ablack6596
join:2005-01-28
Scarsdale, NY | Fax I've cancelled twice without any problems. They have a fax # for cancelling. You just fax them your info and it's cancelled. | |
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avantare
Go Tribe
join:2000-02-16
Farmington, MI
| Now-a-days with credit cards It would be rather easy to cancel ANY account you have with a party billing to the card. When you get the bill dispute it with the card company. It's a FRAUDULENT charge/I didn't authorize that charge. Bonus part about this, at least with my bank, is you get all the money back right away AND they get a chargeback fee assessed. HAHAHAHA, paybacks a bitch!!! :D:D
Chuck
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A computer is not a tool. When was the last time you had to do maintenance on your screwdriver? | |
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PalaSS
@comcast.net
| yup I had the same thing happen with me when I got HSI, I had to say No more I got cable so no need for aol, there like o bring ur modem use our email for like 5 bucks a month i was like sorry dont need it then the closed the account  | |
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AOLmonkeywork
@comcast.net
| AOL from Hell When the company pays it's CSR's $7.25 hr, and then lies on the commercials about making $25-30,000 yr, what do you expect. They make the retention dept rape, steal, lie, cheat whatever it takes to keep members, and then promises huge bonus payment if they meet outrageous quotas.
This company sucks and there supervisors are, at the least some young kid who wants to get a bonus for their retention dept. They make these folks act like monkeys fighting over food. Good job NY | |
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midranger4
Stupid Is No longer in Vogue
Premium
join:2002-01-18
Levittown, PA
| Re: AOL from Hell Bear in mind advertisers on AOL are paying a premium to have their ads displayed and are paying based on the number of AOL members they can reach with their ads.
The local newspaper here to which I do NOT subscribe because it is that lame continues to deliver the paper to my door without charge and has for years now. I suspect they do it so they can count me as a subscriber to their advertisers.
Same type thing only with an online service I suppose. I was one of the *originals* on AOL. So original that I dumped Prodigy (remember them) to go to AOL because AOL was preparing to launch their internet browser allowing users outside the walled garden. Hell we didn't know what the internet was but we sure wanted it ! I also had AOL when flat rates did not exist for unlimited use and I paid a number of bills well over 200 dollars a month on a 2400 baud modem.
When I tried to quit them to go to Comcast HSI they made immediate reference to my join date informing me I had been with them since their launch. I said I was sadly aware of how stupid I was and reminding me of as much was cruel. She laughed and canceled me then and there.
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When your freedoms erode to the point of outrage look to a mirror to find the reason why. | |
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audiomax
All Else Fails Pull The Plug
join:2002-02-20
Grand Rapids, MI
| but the software is good i remember when i tried to cancel aol years ago. the guy told me that aol spent 6 billion dollars to develop their software. then i kindly told the guy "thats fine, but whenever i try to log on all i get is beeeep beeeep beeeep, thats doesnt do me any good." of course when i mentioned that i always got kicked offline it was the first time he ever heard of that problem here. i signed up on a friday, and cancelled my account on sunday. it was that bad. | |
| noahfingway
join:2004-04-04
Sacramento, CA | AOL is the devil If you get in bed with the devil you get what you deserve.
Temptation, temptation, give in.....stuck in hell. | |
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ExAOLrep
@cable.rogers
|  The AOL side of things
I, at least, was one of the honest ones. AOL has a specific 'process' called member connect, which we absolutly have to follow, or else we get in trouble, and possible canned if we don't. We are also monitored on our retention rate, and we're expected to meet 55% or else (on the other hand, we receive bonus for getting higher as an incentive).
So yeah, we were pressured to really try our damnest not to make it easy to quit, but there was one policy we also had to follow: if the AOL member properly verifys the account, states they want to cancel, and does not clearly accept to our retention effort (which involves us having to read a legal full disclosure which states the account is being saved, and the terms of the retention), then we have to cancel the account.
Oh, and FYI, one of the things that members commonly mistake as AOL not properly cancelling an account is when the member does not verify the account properly when calling. When you call and cancel, they need to know they are talking to the right person, and not some angry neighbor or ex-gf/bf calling to cause havoc. If you don't properly verify the account, then it won't get cancelled!
Now, after explaining all that, I would like to list off a few of my AOL member pet peeves. It's easy for everyone to point the finger at us, but at the same time you have to realize that you guys make our lives hell sometimes and take advantage of a few things:
1. AOL is a paid service. Even though they offer free trials, that doesn't make them a free ISP. Signing up for them while going away on vacation, or otherwise having no intention on paying a single bill is ridiculous. I probably disliked the freeloaders the most. Don't be a mooch!
2. Having an AOL membership is like having a gym membership, or renting a home. They don't charge based on usage, they charge based on having the membership. In other words, if you legitimately signed up, and forgot to cancel, then tough luck, your $ is rightfully theirs. It says clearly in the TOS you accepted to (you all read that when you signed up, RIGHT? No, I didn't think so...) that valid charges are non-refundable. If you went on vacation for a month, you wouldn't expect to not have to pay your rent, would you?
3. Asking for a supervisor (especially immediately without even trying to speak to the representative). This is a pain in the @ss for several reasons. The supervisors do not have any more authority than the representatives. They are there to make sure that the reps are doing their job, and to help out on technical problems (which is why they are called *supervisors*). The reps are the highest authority you can speak to. When you bother to speak to a supervisor, you're wasting your, their, and everyone elses time by holding up the line. If you don't like the policy or decision: tough! Deal with it. You shouldn't have signed up OR read the TOS in the first place.
4. Being IGNORANT! That job sucked @ss big time enough as is, but it's ppl who just say "I WANT TO CANCEL" or "None of your business" repeatedly who really piss us off, and make us want to screw ya over (although I never did, I was so tempted to on many accounts) and b) frustrated with other members and occasionally have bad attitudes from the get go.
5. Calling back to confirm cancellation. Now I understand that with how bad of a rep AOL has for cancelling accounts that you'd like reassurance, but when you call back to confirm cancellations, you're screwing up the AOL reps retention percentages. Then they are forced to go through the entire cancellation process, and try to get you to reactivate the account, and again, you're wasting everyone's time. Get your cancellation # the first time you cancel, and you'll get a confirmation letter in the mail... be content with that.
I'm sure there are several more annoyances I had, but I'll stop at that. Now, I will leave with a parting gift for future AOL cancellee's:
Here's the EASIEST way to cancel an AOL account!
Simply call the AOL cancellation dept. After properly verifying the account, just say you want to cancel, and then hang up! Seriously! Policy dictates that if a member calls, and verifys the account, and the call is terminated, if the last intent of the member was to cancel, they MUST immediately cancel the account.
Anyhoo... just wanted to shed some light, and vent some of my previous frustrations of the position with everyone. Just remember there's 2 sides of things, and AOL really isn't as evil as everyone thinks. Some ppl are just plain stupid, and don't read/follow instructions properly, and they have to deal with the consequences. Of course, we're living in a day and age where everythings backwards. No one wants to take responsibility for their own mistakes, and you can get sued just for speaking your own honest opinion or doing what *should* be right... you put two and two together, and you get the morals and ethics of society. Lucky us. I feel bad for what future generations will have to go through if things have gotten this bad already. Ciao4now. | |
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Jenn70
@aol.com
| AOL Reactivated a Cancelled Account I cancelled my AOL account last year. Received a letter today that they were terminating my account for not updating my billing information and that I owed them $95. I called and was told that someone had logged onto my account in May (6 months after the cancellation) and that had automatically reactivated my account. They said I have to pay for all months following that.
I told them I hadn't logged onto anything and that the bill wasn't valid. They said that collection proceedings would be started if I refused to pay.
So now I'm on hold to talk to their "fraud" department, but have been waiting for 45 minutes (what kind of service is this??)
As far as I'm concerned, they can send me to collections until the cows come home. There is no way I'm paying this bill when my account was closed a year ago! | |
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aolsell
@bezeqint.net | i sell aol i actually sell aol people, and you wont believe how many people find the service good & helpful.. | |
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