Caught on Tape: AOL Rep will not let a Customer Cancel Account

A 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


For the rest of the story as well as the taped conversation follow the link:

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

My god, I would have been screaming bloody murder at the asshole after only about 60 seconds of this BS.

Go to profile/preferences and edit your credit card info for the auto billing feature.
Call your credit card company and tell them you "lost" the card.
They will issue you a new one with a new number
send aol an email telling them you are cancelling the account and have cancelled the credit card.

don't give them your new email address
they will get tired of trying to bill a credit card that keeps saying NO.

THE END

You know there's a problem when it's less hassle to get a new credit card than to cancel your ISP account.

and you'll be rid of AOL in a hurry..

If you still DO credit cards (we cut ours up and use a debit card now..Do NOT USE A DEBIT CARD with AOL)

anyway,,. If you still do ccs, get one with a LOW limit..(demand a low limit, and don't let them raise it)..use THAT card for online purchases..that way if someone got the number, they could not charge much due to the low limit...

:thumbsup:

I've actually had to do this when a bogus service listed an 800 number that directed me to some other site entirely.

Or something similar. I was using the auto billing feature with a card that was about to expire, and that had no other charges. When I encountered resistance from AOL I told them they could cancel or I'd cancel the card. They didn't seem too concerned, and I found out why.

When they continued to bill (I naively assumed for just the last month) I allowed the card to expire, figuring I'm safe. Coincidentally, the account was transferred to a new company which issued a new card, with a new number, and a sticker saying the card couldn't be used unless I called an 800 number to activate it. I didn't. Didn't matter. Next month I got another charge. I called the credit card company to dispute it, and asked how I could get a charge on a card which hadn't been activated, let alone from an AOL account I had cancelled. Well, you see, because of the auto billing feature, it follows the old card to the new card, blah blah, blah -- call AOL for a refund. So I do. They won't refund to the old expired account, and won't refund to the new one, unless I give them the number.

I called the credit card company back and got the forms to dispute the charge. (Why didn't i use AMEX?) Next month a new charge appears. This time I tell the credit card company I'm going to cancel the card. Suddenly no more AOL account, and a two month refund -- even though I didn't give AOL the card number.

Yeah...right. They more than likely promoted him to call center manager.

told before I could do that I would have to fax them a copy of my driver's license. I said Bullshit - they didn't need it when I opened the account and I would not send it to them. They said I would have to send a certified letter to them cancelling my account, which I did with pleasure. About 6 or seven months later I got a bill from them for over $500 for a shadow account they had made up at the time I opened my account with them. It seems in my letter I failed to tell them to cancel ANY AND ALL accounts they had with my name, and since I didn't mention this shadow account I didn't even know about, I was liable for it. I had no choice but to pay it or go to court, which would have cost me the $500 or even more. Never, ever, never again will I have anything to do with AOL and I tell everyone I know about this story.

of course they blamed the rep. its not like he handled the call exactly the way AOL told him too. :sarcasm:

I'd documented the reps' names every time I called.

customers to cancel.

and when I asked my friends, everyone who'd been an AOL account holder said the same thing. My rep even laughed at me during the conversation. It took 3 calls, and in the meantime, my card was charged two more times. I understand there was a class action suit brought against them, but it appears they haven't changed a bit.

They will leave you alone :) and you don't have to talk to a single person

My card was tied to other subscriptions and needs and I just didn't want to have to reapply a new card for everything. Additionally, at the time, I was employed in the customer service department of a major newspaper. We often have the same policies as other service organizations. Newspaper subscriptions are continuous unless we are notified, so the bulk of my calls was from people who would call up enraged that they had been given a bill. Usually it was easy to take care of, as the billing is in advance.

Often, the customers I dealt with had tried the same tactic but simply cancelling your credit card or disputing the charge does not legally indicate that you are canceling service. There could be any number of reasons why the card is rejected; theft, new card, outdated expiration date, switching banks, requesting different service, etc. We wouldn't be aware of why until the customer told us. The charges are still valid then. We'd had numerous customers say that they cancelled their subscription any number of methods—writing on the bill, telling their carrier, up to and including not picking up the paper any more or even writing it on the newspaper and throwing it back at the carrier! Only writing on the bill would work, but you may still incur more charges if you do not send it in enough in advance. Normally, a good protection and consumer rule of thumb is to document your attempt to cancel, and the date. I was not provided with a paper bill from AOL with which to respond in writing, and finding a place on their website to contact them by letter is impossible. Some things they just deliberately make difficult to do.

My attempt to forestall new charges by doing what I thought was the correct method obviously didn't work. It should have worked, and worked to protect me, but they have it set up so that any attempt to cancel will not be acted on.

I hate AOL. That was even before the web got quicker.

account. It took me a good 15 minutes on the phone after I reached a human. Of course, I wasn't quite as plainspoken as Mr. Ferrari.

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.

I think those "service" reps must be paid for each sucker they talk into keeping their account.

but their free discs that come in the mail every week sure do make good targets for my kids when they shoot their BB guns...

it will probably be on olberman tonight.

it's BS - I read a story this morning about someone who got billed for the dead mother's AOL service, and AOL still refused to cancel the account.

service. the woman kept asking me why i was canceling. i told her i was switching to working assets and she looked it up and tells me that aol is cheaper. i said i didn't care i still wanted to switch. she kept going on and on and on about the difference in rates. i told her that wald is a "greener" company, they give a portion of my bill to charities at the end of the year, i get a pint of free ice cream each month (first 12 mos) and they regularly sent me info on calling or writing my reps in response to their actions and decisions. this woman just would not stop with trying to not cancel my account. finally she said she did it.
but a few months later it showed up on my phone bill AGAIN. and i had to do it all over again. that made me so happy...:eyes:

over too long a time for AOL to claim this is an "isolated incident". They are just plain full of shit if they expect anyone to believe that.

I actually need to do this in the next couple of weeks.

If they give me any shit, the person is getting fired.

...and there's no electricity allowed!

with you. Let them know up front that if they do not comply with your request you will file a complaint with your Attorney General.

http://media.putfile.com/AOL-Cancellation

Incredible...obviously, AOL punishes the customer service reps who let people cancel the account.

"You're annoying the SHIT out of me!!!" sez Vincent

"If you want me to cancel the account, you're gonna LET ME SPEAK....!!!!" and then the rep reads a big long paragraph.

It's like the AOL MAFIA!!!!!!!

I'm glad I've never had AOL ~ and never will.

AOL HELL INDEED!!

Educate A Freeper - Flaunt Your Opinions!
http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

other items that I pay automatically can also be cancelled without ever talking to a person.

Basically, after awhile, you can write your own ticket with them concerning your service, they are that desperate not to lose customers.

I did lose my cool with one rep several years ago when AOL kept calling us on a **daily** basis about upgrading our service to broadband, which we were in no financial position to do at that time. I kept telling them no, and telling them again not to call back, so on this particular day I lost my patience and let this guy have it. He wound up calling **me** crazy and HE hung up, but the upside is, they never called back.

Sometimes enough is just enough.

It took two different sets of phone calls until I finally got someone on the phone who had a clue and didn't try to jerk me around. They really are full of shit if they are claiming this isn't policy.

Just make canceling difficult and you can keep billing people.

I had no problem with grandma's credit cards, bank account, etc. They froze the accounts right on the phone and asked for a copy of the death certificate and gave me the fax #. Within 3 days they were all closed. I didn't spend more than 3 minutes on the phone with any of them.

AOHell kept me on the phone for 20 minutes basically accusing me of being a damn liar and scam artist. (But the service was just used 2 weeks ago!! -- well duh, she was alive 2 weeks ago) I finally told them the card was cancelled already and they were more than welcome to destroy the credit of the dead woman and hung up.

But wow, that would have been a recording for the ages if you had done what this other guy did.

I have a funny feeling that a lot more people are gonna record their interactions with AOL from now on...!

Step 1: compile a list of four or five hundred e-mail addresses. Type them all into the "bcc" field of an e-mail message. Save and close this message.

Step 2: duplicate this message about thirty times.

Step 3: go to your inbox and find 30-40 pieces of spam. Porn spam is best, with Viagra spam second and dick enlargement spam third. "Prestigious degrees from non-accredited universities" spam is okay too if that's all you have. (But since you're on AOL, you should have quite a bit of really foul spam on hand.) Copy the text of a spam and paste it into one of your blank e-mails. Repeat until you've turned all those e-mails into spams.

Step 4: title all of those messages with spammy-sounding names.

Step 5: send the whole batch through your AOHell account.

You'll be gone within the hour, and no judge in the world would do a thing to you.

They can't think for themselves and AOL would love nothing better than to think for you. They will tell you what you need. They are "The Deciders". Sound familiar?

We dropped AOL years ago when they took it upon themselves to sign me up for Entertainment Weekly, giving them (EW) my credit card info without my permission.

KO just played some of the tape with Vincent Ferrari

Dad is in his 80s, sharp as a tack and a sort of crotchety, Andy Rooney-ish guy. When he got high-speed Internet service at the retirement home, he decided to cancel AOL, which he hadn't liked much anyhow. So he got some AOL "customer service" rep on the phone, and the ensuing conversation (Dad's part) was pretty much like this (I was in the next room, eavesdropping and laughing my ass off):

I'd like to cancel my account.
...
No, I want to cancel it.
...
Yes, I have high-speed service.
...
Because I don't want it any more.
...
I've signed up with another ISP and I want to cancel AOL.
...
Because I don't want AOL. I have xxxxx now.
...
No, I don't want more features. I want to cancel AOL.
...
There's no problem with the service. I just don't want it any more.
...
No, just cancel it.
...
Cancel my account, dammit. Now.
...

Anyhow, this went on for about 10 minutes, and Dad was getting madder by the minute. Maybe the AOLer figured he could take advantage of an old person, but it didn't work. Dad refused to cave in and they finally canceled his account. Then it took a couple more hours to find and delete all the hidden bloatware AOL puts on your computer.

AOL is evil.

he is a computer dude, and he HATES it. i don'tcare. so we have never had aol to deal with

when you had to have a service to send email to people on those services. In '95 I cancelled and went through hell. I noticed for months afterwards they were still charging me even though I'd cancelled. It took me canceling the card to finally dump them!

JG

I tried to cancel AOHELL after the end of a 2 month trial and AOL just kept on trying to tell me that AOL keywords are the best thing since sliced bread.

and like pulling teeth to get written proof that the account had indeed been canceled.