digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

Details of AOL customer retention manual revealed!

consumerist.com — Find out how AOL trains its customer service reps to NEVER let you unsubscribe...

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • teaperson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+75If this was working so well, maybe they would actually be able to keep customers.
    • oOLiquidNightOo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+83"If this was working so well, maybe they would actually be able to keep customers."

      if they worked this hard at trying to improve their business model, maybe they would be able to keep their customers.
    • plamoni, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23They could always treat their customers like MLB.com --

      http://www.code-freak.com/mtblog/rants/mlbcom/

      That was the only experience I ever had that was worse than canceling AOL. It makes what Vincent went through look like a stroll in the park...
    • plamoni, on 10/12/2007, -41/+3Sorry... posted twice... digg this one down...
    • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31If they didn't have a terrible product and craptacular service, they wouldn't have to worry about "customer retention" in the first place.
    • rderveloy, on 10/12/2007, -9/+41AOL is to customer service as __________ is to __________.
      a) Bush, intelligence
      b) Scientology, sanity
      c) TomKat's offspring, demonic hellspawn
      d) All of the above.
    • AMCer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2>>"If this was working so well, maybe they would actually be able to keep customers."

      >"if they worked this hard at trying to improve their business model, maybe they would be able to keep their customers."

      They, in the end, really don't care. They know they are on a slowly sinking boat and in reality, they are just trying to grab as much money from it before it completely dies without spending any money. Improve their business model would mean them putting some money into it.

      IF they really cared about the company and their customers, they would listen to the complaints and try and fix them to make their service better but, that would cost money. It's easier to suck the last drop of blood from the company, line your pockets and ditch the leftover AOL shell.
    • JorgeGonzalez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Plamoni, thank you for giving us another shining example why the NFL is better than any other American sport.
  • billflu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+46"Consumers believe everything is a commodity, i.e. where can I buy the service for the least cost. My objective as a salesperson is to prove otherwise."

    lol
    • armbar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31Seriously, dial-up isn't even worth being called a commodity. It's more like someone selling useless 10 cent balloons at a carnival.
    • ricree, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18"Seriously, dial-up isn't even worth being called a commodity. It's more like someone selling useless 10 cent balloons at a carnival."

      And then charging over $20 per month for said balloons.
    • foolfromhell, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Some sales cannot be made. There is a certain point after which you're just wasting your time. Past that, you risk enraging the customer. Then there's the point where the customer tapes the conversation and humiliates you in the national media.
      lol
  • itsallgeektome, on 10/12/2007, -0/+43Sad thing is that I'm seeing more of this sort of thing from just about every type of subscription service. You end up keeping the service longer just because you dread the:

    1) Hour of wait time for a human voice
    2) Another hour fighting the CSR who is trying to "up-sell" more services (because naturally if you want to cancel you must love the service right?)
    3) A few weeks later find out that the service was not canceled, canceled incorrectly, or sometimes new services added. Extra bonus if you get a threatening letter saying you haven't paid for that service you thought you'd canceled (had this one happen once when I moved).
    4) Repeat steps 1 through 3 until service finally canceled.

    Ordering new services with some companies isn't much better either.
    • simplycontent, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10The exact thing happened to me - ended up paying AOL $150 just to get rid of them. Absolutely ridiculous. I wish there were some sort of consumer board to make sure companies had to follow ethical guidelines. ::scratches chin:: < / sarcasm >
    • KingAdrock, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21Thats why we all have to digg this up and get it in the public eye.

      We have to generate as much bad PR for these lame companies they'll never even think of attemping scams like this.
    • armbar, on 10/12/2007, -14/+1My favorite part of this article is the manual cover that looks like gay siamese twins, connected at the pelvis.
    • evilTak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Dr. Rorschach will soon be knocking at your door...
    • relaxmax, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I have an idea to make companies like AOL treat us better. Why don't we all say at the beginning of the call that "this conversation is being recorded by me". This way, the customer representative will keep in mind the story of John_from_AOL and know his limits.

      If companies can threaten us with lawsuits and the like, why can't we as well?!
    • relaxmax, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I have an idea to make companies like AOL treat us better. Why don't we all say at the beginning of the call that "this conversation is being recorded by me". This way, the customer representative will keep in mind the story of John_from_AOL and know his limits.

      If companies can threaten us with lawsuits and the like, why can't we as well?! A little bit of media attention will do no harm to you companies, I promise! ;)
  • othersomethings, on 10/12/2007, -2/+28A few years back, my husband (then fiance) had AOL for a brief time while waiting for the whole "We're in our own house and settled" thing to get sorted out, and even after cancelling the service effectively, we still got bills. So we cancelled...but we didn't?

    DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE AOL....
    • khalidur2, on 10/12/2007, -65/+4you have a husband?

      then you must be gays because no girls surf the interweb!!!!
    • catalupus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24My mother in law had to "lose" her credit card and get it replaced to cancel her Earthlink dial-up. They're all the same :-(
    • othersomethings, on 10/12/2007, -4/+17@khalidur

      ....um...no. But thanks for that "clever" comment.
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9You should've told her to call the CC company and ask them not to process the charges instead. You know, you are allowed to say who can charge things to your CC.
    • oringo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@nofxjunkee,
      Not really. I once had my CC# stolen, and it was used to open an AOL service by the thief. I called my credit card company (chase), telling them the CC# was stolen and I need to close that account. They called me back after a week, telling me that they couldn't close the account because there was a re-occuring.charge (AOL). AOL on the other hand refuses (why wouldn't they?) to stop the charge because I am not the person who requested the service!!! After a 3-month battle the CC company finally got AOL to stop the charge and cancelled my CC account.
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I hope you cancelled that card and got one with someone else after that fiasco. The CC company profits from the charges to, so you can't be sure they were being 100% honest with you.
  • Mudcrutch, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4AOL will be free in august.. so are they firing all their phone support people?
  • cosmotron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8This is more like a "How To Give Our Customers A Pain In The Butt"...
  • disrupter, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4Dugg to death
  • canewediggit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+27what about that guy who got fired a couple of weeks back for being the guy on the call with that dude who was all over the news because they wouldn't let him cancel? he should be suing aol now because it seems like all he did was follow their procedures/policies. now they've made him a sacrificial lamb and he was publically embarassed and ridiculed on every news show for a week. if there's a lawyer reading this, i want 10% when you track the guy down and win the case......
    • ericsnels, on 10/12/2007, -4/+29I'm pretty sure they just changed his name and put him in another cubicle.
    • bodger, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5That's what the article is partly about - did you read it?
    • merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2I wouldn't be suprised if this manual is a year or two old, from before the whole deal with NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

      There's absolutely no proof that this manual in any way reflects their current policy. It simply shows how slimey they were at some point in time -- but we already knew they were scummy as hell in the past -- what's the policy *now*?
    • chiller2002, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9The article specifically addresses that issue saying:

      To AOL's credit, John seems to have missed the section that advised to, "Never get angry with the Member...Don't criticize the Member by saying things like "you don't have to be so difficult with me" or "you're impossible to deal with." Maybe that's because most of the manual is devoted to overcoming customer's objections and selling them on AOL's awesomeness.
    • magus_melchior, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@EricN1023:

      "From now on, you'll be called Nancy."

      --PHB
  • thewebguy, on 10/12/2007, -15/+8PDF PLZ
  • dustedbunny, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24This reminds me of an an article on here where the Customer Service person was giving a woman a hard time because she wanted to cancel her daughter's AOL service. And they wanted to actually speak to her daughter. In fact she was on the phone for over an hour with the....and guess what...

    .....her daughter had died in a CAR accident a week earlier.

    AOL. pfft.
    • Inbal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Actually, it was a daughter trying to cancel her mother's account, who died two days before. She clearly said "I want to cancel because my mum died two days ago" and the reply was "what can we do to solve your mother's problem with the account?". How can you get any meaner than that?
  • erkokite, on 10/12/2007, -5/+40This is almost as bad as Scientology.
    • khalidur2, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18YE!!!!! scientology suXX0rz!!!!!!!!!!!
    • techmonkey4u, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5hmmm.. AOL and Scientology? Let's delve, shall we?

      Both use famous people for promotional purposes
      Both want more money from their members
      Both want more members
      Both target the weak-minded
      Both lower IQ's =P

      Any more?
  • FishersJEFF, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19This just confirms what we all already knew...AOL sucks, Microsoft is evil, Sony will put root kit on your machine...Basically big business is in it to make business and they don't care if in the long run the piss off a couple of customers because they are jackasses on the phone. Bottom line, it is a last attempt by an otherwise desperate Company that was once huge and sees its customer base dwindling.
    • andrew522, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Although, Microsoft hasnt been as much of thier evil selves lately, giving out free pizza and xbox live arcade points, and dropping some of the wga features.

      hopefully it will last.

      all the other companies - I agree.
    • techmonkey4u, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sony is the new Microsoft

      Microsoft's evilness has been surpassed by the RIAA
  • kent1146, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12What I would really like to see is an anti-customer-retention manual... ie, what can you say to stump the guy trying to get you to keep your service, so he leaves you alone and just cancels you already.

    Keep digg'ing! I wanna hear about this story on Diggnation next week!
    • debtman7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Your best bet is to say nothing. Any salesman, of which a customer retention specialist is just one type, uses the same method for bringing you around. They ask questions, act friendly, and dig for information. Primarily what they want are your reasons. Most people feel an obligation to come up with a reason to cancel a service or not purchase something, and a good salesperson knows that if they can invalidate your reasons, an odd quirk of human sociology makes it hard for you to stand up to them.

      Your best bet, then, is to not give them anything. Just say no, or I don't want it. If they ask you why, repeat I don't want it. Keep it up a few times, divulge absolutely nothing else about yourself, and they should give up fairly quickly.
    • chiller2002, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I've also heard that if you tell them that the account was being used/signed up for by someone under the age of 18, they will immediatly cancel the account.
    • ronin2040, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4im wondering, if you stated that you wanted to cancel, then remained silent for a minute or so while they rattled off, and then just repeated yourself, if they might not just get the message?
    • evensong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Thats the exact way I canceled my AOL. About 2 minutes into my retention call, I knew it was going nowhere. Hung up, called my credit card company. Then I called back, asked to speak to the same guy and told him the deal. Funny he began the retention process again.... oh well. Hung up again ;).
    • smuirhead, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I cancelled an AOL account some years ago and the conversation went like this:

      Me: I'd like to cancel my account
      Them: Can I ask why you're cancelling?
      Me: No reason
      [long pause]
      Them: ok. well, i'll cancel that account.

      Never had to talk to them again :)
    • cdawzrd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7How about you be like, I've read your retention manual, I know you have software in front of you called "Merlin" that you are going to try to use to keep me on the line, and if you do not cancel my account immediately I will have my credit card company deny your charges.
  • springlake04, on 10/12/2007, -6/+13Worst tech product ever ...................
    http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,2,00.asp
    PCWorld.com - The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time
  • russizm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7When I worked as a credit card CSR for a huge bank (think recent merges) and a customer wanted to cancel, there was a tab to see if they were "retention eligible". So, if they made the bank enough money we would be forced to transfer them to "an account specialist" which was just retention. If the account was not retention eligible it was just a click of the button to cancel it.

    It wasn't as bad as AOL, (depending if the rep you got had met their accounts saved quota) if you got the point across that you were going to cancel no matter what then it usually wasn't a problem.
    • chiller2002, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've also worked in a CC call center for a big bank (maybe even the same one!) and we had the same practice. No point in trying to keep customers that don't make the back much money. But, I listened in on a couple of the retention calls and they were no where near as bad as AOL retention. Most calls were just asking why they were cancelling and if the bank could do something about it (i.e. lower the interest rate, waive a fee). If the customer just didn't want it anymore, they typically would rattle a few benifets of keeping the account open but in the end would cancel the account if the customer really didn't want the card. In fact, there are a lot of customers that call "to cancel" just to see if they can get the lower interest rate or have a fee waived--they almost always got what they wanted.
  • DavidtheDuke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The last paragraph is a great sum up:

    "Instead of investing in a system that people actually wanted to use, AOL created a system for duping customers into not exercising their right to leave for cheaper, higher-quality services. Behind the rhetoric of "Member Services" and "World Class Value" are suits that see their members as spreadsheet numbers. The suits sleep soundly as long as one column is kept high and the other low."
  • popsumer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25Hey Digg , this is The Consumerist. We are scanning the 81 page manual as we speak and will post a PDF as soon as we can. Thanks for digging! Stay tuned...
  • DannyX0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5It used to be different, I remember when I would use the three-months-for-free AOL cd and before the time was up, I'd call to cancel and they'd just give me another month free. It wasn't until six months later that they finally let me cancel.
    but now I have DSL, ha!
  • ericnmu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1You Gotta Love It? wtf is that supposed to mean?
    • stonr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I believe it was a slogan at some point
    • a7thson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2So, actually "You Gotta Love It" is quite appropriate, in an unconscious sort of way. It appears they wanted to make appear that you had no other option.

      "Instead of investing in a system that people actually wanted to use, AOL created a system for
      duping customers into not exercising their right to leave for cheaper, higher-quality services."
  • haggie, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1An article on how much AOL sucks and how hard it is to cancel. That's headline news.
    • Gateway20, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Maybe not, but an article on how they train their employees to do it is.
  • caselogic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8my experience was the AOL woman telling me that i was an idiot because i don't use there resource hog of a anti virus. lame. and after repeatedly yelling at this person to just sit in silence and they canceled my account. she hung up on me. lame again.
  • bradleyjx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The best part of the story for me is that once I reached the bottom of the page, there was an ad...for AOL 7.0.
    • shaolinpunks, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6i'm tempted to turn off adblock just to see that
  • deuceace, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4AOL's business model :

    1. Make crappy product
    2. Use agressive marketing / retention tactics to trick n00bs into signing up and staying on
    3. When n00bs finally realize that they are overpaying for an inferior product start offering it for free
    4. ????
    5. Profit !!!
    • jadedknight, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4WHAT the ***** is with the same comment like the one above in every story. STFU
    • chiller2002, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Dude, really, calm down. That is most likely a parady of the whole..

      Step 1: Open a Business
      Step 3: Make a Profit

      What is step 2? Dunno, but...
      Step 1:....
    • dawgma, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2He is probably from Fark.

      The people of Fark like to repeat jokes over and over again. They must be a little brain-dead from all the beer they drink.
    • sremick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Apparently you are unfamiliar with South Park and Slashdot.
    • dawgma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3But it is Fark that admittedly *worships* the cliche
    • Gnascher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Actually ... that one's been recycled on Slashdot long before Fark was more than a single page with a picture of a squirrel with big nuts.
  • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I think part of the reason this saga has come so far is because of Vincent's name. I mean, he's got a pretty swank name if you ask me.
    "Hey girls, my name is Vincent... Vincent Ferrari" *wink*
  • Xfraze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I used AOL when I was like 8. Needless to say, I got my dad's account banned because I would send spam and be disruptive in chat rooms. Those hot college chicks you were talking to? Yeah...that was me.
    • dunezone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I had it back in 94 or 95 and my brother gave out our password to one of those random message, the ironic thing is that AOL cancelled our account instead of us cancelling it.
    • Smoove, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Somehow I always figgered those hot chix were really gay eight-year-olds. Now I know for sure.
  • Crowe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I love hearing these. Does anyone have some more recordings of people's experience with AOL?
  • jankar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3When i used to use the Good old AOL back in the day Prolly when i was 10 the best was listening to the AOL phone pranks, wish i still had a copy for you but the best one i remember was when, this kid had the tech support rep. believing that his computer had a bad virus that caused it to start smoking and because his mom was networked to the computer she was starting to smoke as well.... the lady on the phone told him she needed to check with her supervisor and see what was wrong.... Classic AOL Pranks... Ahh they deserved it...
  • geoncoder, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Sounds like this poor bastard

    http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf
    • stonr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2omg! that would be hell.... but any reputable conspiracy theorist knows this already is reality.
  • Yusayoh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2God, I wish I recorded mine. AOL should die one of these days.
    • chiller2002, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Rent "The Corporation". Great movie about analyzing corporations as a human being.
  • ArcusOfSV, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3"A bit of an ill-fitting suit, if there ever was one, since in his inquest, John never found out that Vincent was an IT professional."

    If he really was an IT pro he wouldnt have been on AOL in the first freaking place. Ugh..everybody and thier hamster is an IT Pro nowadays.
    • DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1agreed everybody that knows how to use a mouse and keyboard thinks they are an "IT Pro".
  • rhamej, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Dugg, I hope this one stays on the front page for weeks.
  • jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I wonder what Libertarians would say about this... "well, the free market would blablablablabla"
    • NSResponder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What better example can their be of a free market, than someone telling AOL to ***** off because they jerk him around?


      -jcr
    • NSResponder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1D'oh! s/their/there/
  • Niz1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2just so happens im going to Cancel AOL tomorrow, it has been a great service so far but i still haven't got my upgrade and im pissed off, also that my router has stopped working (doesnt support LLU) and they refused to give me a free wireless router even though new or upgrading customers can get it free. e.g if i was on AOL silver £18 i can get a free wireless router if i switched to AOL Platinum £30 but im on AOL platinum and id have to pay to get the router, either way it would mean another 12 months, so i might as well switch.
    • sremick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Be sure to record the call for the rest of us to enjoy. Make sure you get a long-enough blank tape.
  • tombomb, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2If you know anyone who uses AOL you take them by their hair and you rub their nose in that AOL disc like you rub a dog's nose in pee and then you hit them with a stick and say "No."
  • dogbark, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Aol is what's wrong with the internet.
  • strebormj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Excellent. SImilar to my experience trying to cancel MSN several years back. The first call got me a verbal that they would cancel it. A month later, when I got another bill, I called back, waited forever, and got another verbal that they would cancel. A month later, when I got another bill, I called back, got another verbal, and the address of someone to write to. Wrote the individual, and asked for written confirmation. A total of six months later, I got a response saying that my account had been canceled. That is, they billed me for 6 months, at $19.95/month, for about $120 total, after I had tried to cancel. When I asked for a refund, they said that I had only canceled the month before, and had been using the service for the previous six months. When I pointed out that I had NOT EVER EVEN ONCE used the service in the previous six months, having switched to another ISP before canceling with them, they ignored me and kept my money. $120 is a lot to steal from a customer, but after all the aggravation, it's a fair price to never have to deal with them again.

  • forteller, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2And they fired that poor guy that just did what he had to, just becouse some guy recorded the call and got on the news for it. AOL said they fired him becouse they don't allow that kind of behaviour...
  • FitFinlay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2scum bags
  • taylorhayward, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4AOL Corporate Office: 703-265-1000

    Enjoy!
  • mbateman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This may seem surprising and shocking to an outsider but this it is counterintuitive for a service company like AOL to make it EASY for you to unsubscribe. If it was 100% unsuccessful they wouldn't do it.

    AOL has many problems. Their customer exodus isn't going to be cured by having agents strongarm their customers into staying. The real fact of the matter is AOL is delivering decreasing value as the internet matures. There are simply better FREE alternatives.
    • NSResponder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Exactly. "Retention Agents" are a symptom of a business that's heading for oblivion. Call your broker, and make some money shorting their stock.

      -jcr
  • digitallysick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I dont understand why people dont just use aol im for free, sign up for g mail and get netzero or someother cheap dial up, it all dials to the same #, might as well pay less, i cant see any reason for a 50+ meg program to run with "features" for dial up.
    • DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1because they're ignorant or stubborn.
  • Hardcase, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5AOL doesn't have a lock on the "customer retention" game.

    Way back before AOL or even desktop PCs, really, I worked for an insurance company. I sold insurance (shudder) door to door. I even made decent money at it (for a college dropout with pretty much no training in anything). We had a script. It included all the motions, do this, say that, pick up this, etc. The Company even scripted the questions and protests from the customers and we had scripted answers for everything - and I mean, everything. I never ran across a question or a comment from a customer that I hadn't already heard in a training session, so I always had an answer. In the end, it was just a matter of wearing down the customer.

    If I could get in the door, it was almost certainly a sale, 90% of the time. Yeah, I knocked on a lot of doors, but I probably got past 5% of them. Then I just had to be a smarmy, conscienceless, soulless bastard. Because the product paid me a 60% commission in the first year and was just a tool to generate leads to load the poor, unsuspecting customer up with absolutely pointless (but with embarrassingly high commissions) insurance products when it came time to renew.

    I did it for 8 months, then quit and joined the Navy. In retrospect, I'd have to say that having the opportunity to shoot at people from a distance was a more morally palatable choice than sucking up their money for a worthless product.

    -h-
    • justinvt, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Wow - You sound like a total dick. Do you think about your life decisions and their consequences before you make them?
    • Hardcase, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@justinvt, look up the word "sarcasm".

      I only sound like a dick. It was 25 years ago. I got over it and you can too.
  • geminus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I actually wish I had an AOL account so I could cancel it!
    • ai42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Just find the number and tell them you would like to pre-cancel your future account. I'm sure they will try to sell you something.
    • mrngoitall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i was actually thinking about doing that...
  • mattyshack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I had my AOL account for years, I finally cancelled because I only used it for testing purposes and I really didn't give a crap what my websites looked in the AOL browser anymore.

    It was a very confusing conversation, and I thought I cancelled, but somehow a couple of months later a charge showed back up on my CC. I called up again, and they said that my account was still open, but they had given me two free months. I went through it all, again, and I think for the most part I've cancelled my account. Although I am always on the lookout for that phantom charge from AOL.
  • p8ntballer1662, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@ Matty

    The same occured for me. Before i got cable, i was using AOL Dial-up (:b). When I finally got it years ago, i called in and spent HALF AN HOUR on the phone telling them to cancel my damn account. confused after the call, i looked back at my CC bills for the next few months. Neraly a YEAR later, i started seeing charges from "AOL." Frustrated and quite pissy, might i add, i called in and they said i had been using it, when i didn't even have the program on my damned computers for a year. Frustrated and dispondent, I started to bitch at the rep, and finally, after another HOUR of my life down the drain, my Acc was canceled.

    so, in conclusion, ***** AOL.
  • penwen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5***** AOL
  • alpha736, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I've known AOL sucked for as long as I can remember. I never had AOL service, but my friends did. I've already convinced one of my friends to get rid of AOL and go with something better. If everyone could just do that for everyone they know, the world would be a better place.
  • censorme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My buddy canceled his account and AOL tried to screw him with some bogus one month free offer that he never agreed to. They stick you with one month free then restart your account. Who would agree to something stupid like that if they are canceling their account and just got DSL. He noticed like six months later that they were charging him again (I know, a long time). I remember his last words to the rep when he canceled was " So I'm not going to have anymore charges on my account right? Were done, my account is canceled." When he called to get a refund they hung up on him three times. He spent two hours on the phone dealing with six different people. They finally agreed to give him his money back but only after they tried to short change him first. He said " this isn't like making a car deal where you make an offer and I make a counter offer. You fraudulently charged me now I demand full repayment." My friend now hates AOL with a passion. AOL sucks more today then ever. Someone needs to compose a script for canceling your account with AOL that covers all the loopholes and deflects against retention ploys.
  • fallenone05, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I see that you guys are really ellaborating here, good for you. All I have to add: ***** AOL!!
  • DenZ88, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Wait, here's a tech deal.

    If you're still using AOL, call those guys up and let them lead you around via the guide. Then try to aim for 3.99/mo. service. Guaranteed cheap, ad-infested, 28.8 kbps dialup service.
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 57 of 57 discussions
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.