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Author Topic: AOL refuses to let customer terminate service.
Relentless Despot.
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When I cancelled AOL five or six years ago I had a horrible time getting them to actually stop billing me and terminate my service.


http://www.nbc10.com/news/9406462/detail.html

An incredible video from CNBC shows an AOL customer trying to cancel his account, but a phone rep won't let him do it. What customer Vincent Ferrari got when he tried to cancel his account was a lot of frustration.

It took him 15 minutes waiting on the phone just to reach a real, live person.

And, what happened next was recorded by Ferrari on audio and lasted about four minutes:

CLOCK READOUT - 00:00

AOL REPRESENTATIVE: Hi this is John at AOL... how may I help you today?

VINCENT FERRARI: I wanted to cancel my account.

AOL: Sorry to hear that. Let's pull your account up here real quick. Can I have your name please?

VINCENT: Vincent Ferrari.

CLOCK READOUT - 00:30

AOL: You've had this account for a long time.

VINCENT: Yup.

AOL: Use this quite a bit. What was the cause of wanting to turn this off today?

VINCENT: I just don't use it anymore.

AOL: Do you have a high speed connection, like the DSL or cable?

VINCENT: Yup.

AOL: How long have you had that...

VINCENT: Years...

AOL: ...the high speed?

VINCENT: ...years.

AOL: Well, actually I'm showing a lot of usage on this account.

VINCENT: Yeah, a long time, a long time ago, not recently...

CLOCK READOUT - 01:47

AOL: Okay, I mean is there a problem with the software itself?

VINCENT: No. I just don't use it, I don't need it, I don't want it. I just don't need it anymore.

AOL: Okay. So when you use this... I mean, use the computer, I'm saying, is that for business or for... for school?

VINCENT: Dude, what difference does it make. I don't want the AOL account anymore. Can we please cancel it?

CLOCK READOUT - 02:21

AOL: Last year was 545, last month was 545 hours of usage...

VINCENT: I don't know how to make this any clearer, so I'm just gonna say it one last time. Cancel the account.

AOL: Well explain to me what's, why...

VINCENT: I'm not explaining anything to you. Cancel the account.

AOL: Well, what's the matter man? We're just, I'm just trying to help here.

VINCENT: You're not helping me. You're helping me...

AOL: I am trying to help.

VINCENT: Helping... listen, I called to cancel the account. Helping me would be canceling the account. Please help me and cancel the account.

AOL: No, it wouldn't actually...

VINCENT: Cancel my account...

AOL: Turning off your account...

VINCENT: ...cancel the account...

AOL: ...would be the worst thing that...

VINCENT: ...cancel the account.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:02

AOL: Okay, cause I'm just trying to figure out...

VINCENT: Cancel the account. I don't know how to make this any clearer for you. Cancel the account. When I say cancel the account, I don't mean help me figure out how to keep it, I mean cancel the account.

AOL: Well, I'm sorry, I don't know what anybody's done to you Vincent because all I'm...

VINCENT: Will you please cancel the account.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:32

AOL: Alright, some day when you calmed down you're gonna realize that all I was trying to do was help you... and it was actually in your best interest to listen to me.

VINCENT: Wonderful, Okay.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:39

"I've never ever experienced anything like that," Ferrari told CNBC.

He recounts how the AOL representative - as a last resort even asked if his dad was home.

"I think I could've put up with everything, but at the point when he asked to speak to my father, I came very close to losing it at that point," said the 30-year-old Ferrari.

Ferrari then posted the call online, and the response was tremendous.

AOL sent him an apology and said the customer service rep was no longer with the company.


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Spend word for word with me and I shall make your wit bankrupt

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Mr. Lava
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That's nothing. When I tried to cancel my subscription to "Boulder Boobies On Bony Bodies" magazine, I had to pay a $200 cancellation fee. I was just frustrated because the magazine really went downhill in recent years. Can you believe they actually started using models that only have JJJ cup sizes! How dare they!

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I came here to teach you about the enchanting rhythms of the universe...

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greenman
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I wonder how he recorded the phone conversation?
Posts: 725 | From: litte rock AR | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
glassman
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he's a blo*ger who expected it to happen...
he had heard other horror stories....
i too have had several bad experiences in the last few years when i have switched services....(due to moving)
even auto insurance turned into a dogfight
you wouldn't believe what i went thru with GEICO....

they insisted they wouldn't cancel our policy until we PROVED to them we had other insurance...

of course we wouldn't give them the info, and they continued to charge us... even threatened to hand us over to a collection agency...

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Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.

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Relentless Despot.
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Oh I would.. I have Geico...
I've had them since about two months before the hurricane.. they have been horrible.
I had to fight for months just to get an ID card.. not to mention the hell I went through with them over the hurrican.. no claim, just had no way of paying them for a month with no phone lines and banks offline... no local office...
The state passed some sort of law making sure no one got cancelled after the hurricane... Thankfully.

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Spend word for word with me and I shall make your wit bankrupt

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T e x
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GEICO insures you without their being paid?

hmmm....

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Nashoba Holba Chepulechi
Adventures in microcapitalism...

Posts: 21062 | From: Fort Worth | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Relentless Despot.
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ohhh they get paid but it was kind of difficult to pay them the first month after the hurricane went through.. The mail wasn't running, we had no power, no phone lines, no cable, no local office, no gas... difficult.

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Spend word for word with me and I shall make your wit bankrupt

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T e x
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I had an "AOL-experience" with EarthLink...

in my case? was *never* a customer, lol...

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Nashoba Holba Chepulechi
Adventures in microcapitalism...

Posts: 21062 | From: Fort Worth | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
glassman
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Entergy's home office is er uh was in New Orleans....

they were sending us nasty bills 800$-1000$ saying we were behind....

i spent several HOURS on the phone with them and reported every smart-mouth to thier supervisor...took notes, hung around on hold for supers....
told me if i didn't send them a new check right away? they'd mess with my credit and cut off our juice...
so sent 'em another....
they cashed all of our checks and we ended with a huge credit.... (over 500$)
after being threatened with cut-off...

they knew the mail was being rereouted around New Orleans.....

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Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.

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Gordon Bennett
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Corporations are becoming so used to having no real competition that they now feel entitled to your money, whether you use their services or not.

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"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a
little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

- Benjamin Franklin

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T e x
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not to mention utilities...

Here, natural gas companies are not overseen by the Public Utilities Commission...the route for complaints is your city, then the Railroad Commission. Our gas company is so bad, the city gas overseer practically begged for my letter, following an episode of misbehavior...

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Nashoba Holba Chepulechi
Adventures in microcapitalism...

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HILANDER
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I went through the same thing when I tried to cancel my Compuserve account last week. I got Steve "The Jolly Bengali" reading from the same script as the dude above. I told him I was recording the conversation and was going to forward it to the attorney general in the state of Washington. It was cancelled then.....I think.

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If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all.

Posts: 1529 | From: Tacoma WA | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

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