 ExitWoundPorsche Snob
join:2001-12-13
State College, PA
 ·Vonage
| Happened to my mother! Happened to my mother too. Almost down to the letter in the responses that are in the article. They would not accept that she wanted to cancel. She demanded to speak to a manager/higher representative, and he did the same thing, but at the same time putting her down. Basically it was like this when she got to the manager:
Mom: I'd like to cancel but your staff won't let me.
AOL: What seems to be the problem?
Mom: I want to cancel. I don't use AOL anymore and I am not going to pay for it.
AOL: Are you having issues that we can fix?
Mom: NO. I want to cancel. Take me off your service. I do not want AOL anymore.
AOL: If you're unhappy with your current plan, we can credit you for the month and sign you up for....
Mom: NO. I WANT OFF. I DON'T WANT AOL ANYMORE. CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THIS?
AOL: I'm sorry ma'am, but you've interrupted me. Now I have to start all over again.
This went back and forth for a good 10 minutes, with the AOL staff hounding her about letting him finish his sentences and offers and whatnot. Since my mom was on repeated automatic biling from the credit card, she HAD to cancel and not hang up.
But at this point my dad, who is normally pretty quiet, picked up the phone because he heard my mom yelling, and he started being just as unreasonable as AOL was, but on purpose to make the staff angry with them in the hopes of them cancelling their service. He said things like "Listen, I can't understand you. Go back to Bangladesh or wherever you are and put me on with someone who speaks English!"
It went back and forth and eventually they did cancel her. But we couldn't believe what she went through. We emailed her this article though. hopefully, people will be testing it out and AOL will get whatever is coming to them.
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»www.theexitwound.com |
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| yeah my dad had problems cancelling my grandfather's account when he passed on.
not to mention the large amount of people AOL charged money from the month following cancellation!
too many to be accidental i would think (i was "one" in late 1996 when i finally tried a free hour disk - never could get logged in due to busy signals - cancelled account still got charged for the account following cancellation!) |
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dweeb
join:2002-06-23
Ferndale, MI | I had a similar problem about 5 years ago.
me: I want to cancel.
aol: Well we offer $100 in grocery coupons each week you can print out.
me: Just cancel the service.
aol: So you don't like saving money...
This went on and on until he finally cancelled it. He was also taking it personal and getting angry with me because I wanted to cancel the service. |
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wh5916
join:2006-02-09
Newport News, VA
1 edit | reply to ExitWound
said by ExitWound:Mom: NO. I WANT OFF. I DON'T WANT AOL ANYMORE. CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THIS? AOL: I'm sorry ma'am, but you've interrupted me. Now I have to start all over again. And this, in a nutshell, is one of the biggest problems with call centers...and I speak from experience, unfortunately. In many cases, there are script/points that the CS rep is ***required*** to touch upon, no matter how silly or pointless that they may be to the person who is calling in. Try to show some common sense by deviating from a script or required point if it isn't needed, and you risk flunking a call monitorial--and the people who monitor calls can be just as ignorant/stupid as the ones who seem to think that rigid scripts/points to touch on is the only way to run a call center.
The powers to be who make these ridiculous rules have probably never put on a headset and been made to abide by the absurdities that they sit back and create. The result? A call center filled with people who come across as mind-numbed zombies. |
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