You want to cancel your AOL account? Forget it

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » June 22, 2006, 4:56 am

Just saw this today, i doubt itll surprise anyone, but cancelling an AOL account can be quite problematic. Talk about bad customer service.

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

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » June 22, 2006, 8:12 am

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.

I see that as: AOL is planning world domination and will only let their customers free.

Lynks · Post by **Lynks** » June 22, 2006, 8:34 am

When I cancel any service and they ask me why, I tell them I'm moving to Argentina, or some other place off the continent.

Sendarie · Post by **Sendarie** » June 22, 2006, 11:21 am

Lynks wrote:When I cancel any service and they ask me why, I tell them I'm moving to Argentina, or some other place off the continent.

Exacty, when I canceled my last AOL account I did almost the same. They asked "Why?". I told them I was military moving to Iraq for 1 year living in a tent with no computers.
Conversation and cancellation took all of 2 minutes including being on hold for a few seconds.

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » June 22, 2006, 11:42 am

On the other hand, people who sign up for AOL sort of deserve this. =P

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » June 22, 2006, 1:15 pm

A high percentage of iPod users and their grandmothers still use AOL. Check the statistics.

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » June 22, 2006, 3:10 pm

Winnow wrote:A high percentage of iPod users and their grandmothers still use AOL. Check the statistics.

Well, seem to recall a story from a while back where they found out that AOL had over 20000 subscribers that didnt own a computer. Mainly in the trailer trash areas, they payed for AOL, but had nothing to use it with

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » June 23, 2006, 12:17 am

Jesus Christ, that guy must've been hired by Chase, and I spoke with him when I tried to cancel my account. The only difference is I talked even longer to him. Other than that, it's so fucking similar it would send shivers down your spine.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » June 23, 2006, 12:33 am

customer retention techniques all come from the same textbook.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » June 23, 2006, 2:02 am

When you call someplace they can record calls "for quality assurance" purposes as they state in the beginning of the call. But are you allowed to do the same without announcing it?

Tinkin Tankem · Post by **Tinkin Tankem** » June 23, 2006, 4:35 am

Yes. There are actual companies that monitor these sorts of things. Say a company calls you and you ask them to take you off of their list and they do not. There are companies that will trace all of the calls and you have to do nothing for follow up. Telemarketing is a big deal and the law suits involved are rather large as well.

Gnomies · Post by **Gnomies** » June 23, 2006, 11:53 am

When you call someplace they can record calls "for quality assurance" purposes as they state in the beginning of the call. But are you allowed to do the same without announcing it?

No. You have to announce it.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » June 23, 2006, 2:40 pm

That's what I thought. So technically he violated a law or two by recording the conversation.

Gzette · Post by **Gzette** » June 23, 2006, 3:20 pm

depending on where you live, you do or don't have to announce it. the federal standard is that only one participant in a telephone conversation must be aware that recording is taking place. however, if the person was in california or florida all parties would have to consent to recording. its gets a little more complicated when involving the broadcasting of the conversation. However the Supreme Court upheld a case in which an illegal wire tap (neither party was aware of recording) was passed onto a media outlet. the court found that since the recording was not done by the media outlet, it was a violation of their first ammendment.

yeah i just took media law

Nick · Post by **Nick** » June 23, 2006, 3:50 pm

That's what I thought. So technically he violated a law or two by recording the conversation.

Technically this quote is a pointless issue as that isn't the thing that's fucked up about this.

Fuck AOL.

Siji · Post by **Siji** » June 23, 2006, 5:38 pm

I've known two people that have had nothing but problems with AOL when trying to cancel. From AOL refusing to cancel the account to cancelling and then resuming billing again after a few months.

Personally, I quite enjoy getting on the phone when I'm nearby and a family member or the like is having problems with a phone rep. It annoys the shit out of me to listen to someone sit there and let the phone rep continue on and on with their script. Fuck that. Shut up. Cancel the account. What part of that aren't you getting?

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » June 23, 2006, 5:43 pm

Nick wrote:
That's what I thought. So technically he violated a law or two by recording the conversation.
Technically this quote is a pointless issue as that isn't the thing that's fucked up about this.

Wow thanks for pointing that out. I never would have guessed. All this time I thought the whole point of that article was that he (may have) illegally recorded the conversation.

Deward · Post by **Deward** » June 26, 2006, 12:22 pm

One of the good things about having a kid is you can hand the phone off to them. My son can barely talk but he can make all sorts of animal noises. I just stand in the background and ask him what does each animal say. Eventually they give up and hang up. Plus I am sure it gets annoying when the kid hits random buttons. Maybe a few of them will go tone deaf after a while.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » June 26, 2006, 10:20 pm

yeah harrass the guy trying to make a living.

Hoarmurath · Post by **Hoarmurath** » June 26, 2006, 11:04 pm

Deward wrote:I just stand in the background and ask him what does each animal say. Eventually they give up and hang up.

And this helps to cancel an AOL account how?

Xyun · Post by **Xyun** » June 27, 2006, 12:00 am

Coincidentally, I cancelled my Vonage account today. I knew I had made a mistake by selecting cancel on the voice menu because I was on hold for 20 minutes, then the lady tried to get me to upgrade my account! I had to repeat cancel about 4 or 5 times. I asked if I could retain the phone number but she said I had to keep the account on until a new company called them and asked for it.

This process is one my brother had been through. He said they wouldn't give up the phone number for 2 months during which time they of course billed him. Knowing this, I decided to get a completely new number instead of deal with that company anymore. This means I have to redistribute my new number to all my clients, vendors, and utilities. I was willing.

Word of advice, Vonage provides horrible services. You will lose calls in the middle of conversation, get fuzzy calls, lose service for long periods of time, and even not receive calls where they called you but it didn't register on your phone.

Avoid vonage.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » June 27, 2006, 12:25 am

whats vonage precious

cid · Post by **cid** » June 27, 2006, 3:28 pm

Another call to AOL

http://www.break.com/index/aolsupport.html

Xyun · Post by **Xyun** » June 27, 2006, 6:52 pm

kyoukan wrote:whats vonage precious

eh? engrish prease.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » June 27, 2006, 9:01 pm

Xyun wrote:
kyoukan wrote:whats vonage precious
eh? engrish prease.

I think she's hitting on you?

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » June 27, 2006, 9:28 pm

What is Vonage? I've never heard of them.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » June 27, 2006, 9:49 pm

I've been on Vonage at home for almost a year now. Only real downtime I've noticed is when the linuksys router they originally sent me died.

Got the new one and it's work fine since.

Post by **Sylvus** » June 28, 2006, 11:35 am

kyoukan wrote:What is Vonage? I've never heard of them.

Vonage is the "big" (someone correct me if I'm wrong) VOIP phone service provider. Think home phone through your internet.