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Trying to Cancel AOL

TheOldMole Jul 04 2006 11:35 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/business/yourmoney/02digi.html?_r=1&8ym&emc=ym&oref=slogin

ScarletKnight41 Jul 04 2006 02:56 PM

That's hysterical. The flip side of AOL's mania not to lose customers is that I was having some AOL issues last fall, and I clicked the "cancel AOL" option just because I was tired of talking to different customer service representatives all over the globe who didn't understand my problem. Not only did they fix my problem, but they cut my monthly fee substantially. So the answer is that instead of waiting forever for AOL tech support, threaten to quit and they'll treat you good. It's dysfunctional, but you can make the system work for you.

Rockin' Doc Jul 04 2006 07:36 PM

That clip was both infuriating and funny. The idiot manning the phone for AOL was being a complete ass. He was irritating me just listening to the call. I had a similarly frustrating experience this spring with Golfsmith. I had ordered a golf club for my son. When it arrived on 2/28/06, the shaft of the club was snapped in two a few inches above the club head. I called and informed one of their customer service reps of the problem and they promised to send a replacement club out immediately. After 10 days of waiting in vain, I called them again. This time they told me they could not replace the club since it had been bought on closeout and they had no more in stock. Ultimately, it took 5 phone calls to their customer service people and a call to my credit card company in order to get a refund for the returned club. The representatives at Golfsmith, though polite and professional, had every conceivable excuse as to why they could not refund the money at the time of each call, though they kept promising to do so eventually. I didn't receive a full refund on my credit card until mid June. Had I not called in my credit card company, I suspect I would still be waiting for the refund.

metirish Jul 05 2006 09:28 AM

When I cancelled AOL last year I had no problems except they wouldn't allow me to access my AOL mail, when I called they to ask wy they said it was because I had cancelled my account, that's fair I thought but then about a week later I was able to get to that mail......never again would I have AOL...I hate it.

ScarletKnight41 Jul 05 2006 09:52 AM

I have actually had a couple of occasions in recent weeks where the customer service rep has wanted to get off the line but my use of the protocol held her hostage to a long phone call. One had to do with Comcast. I was on hold several minutes for something, got cut off, and had to call and wait on hold all over again. By the time I got through to a rep, I had a list with several different Comcast-related items that I wanted to discuss. Every time she would wearily ask, "Is there anything else I can help you with today?" I said, "yes" and launched into a new topic. Nothing major - just my normal Comcast complaints (such as the fact that we don't have ESPN Classic. Hmmm - I forgot to mention that we don't have SNY HD - that's something for the next phone call....). The other had to do with Samsung. We bought a new TV in the fall, and it broke - just after the time where we could have exchanged it at Circuit City. We had to send it to Samsung, because apparently they don't have any repair shops in our vicinity, and it took about a month to get it back. In the meantime, whenever we called for information, we'd get the runaround. Very frustrating. A few days after we finally got the set back, a chirpy customer service rep called and said, "So, you recently sent in a television for repair!" I answered,"It depends on your definition of recently," and went on from there. The poor girl was trying to do her cheery little follow up phone call, and I went through everything about the experience that guarantees that I will never purchase another Samsung product again. I was polite about it, but I wanted my frustrations of the prior month recorded for posterity. Plus it made me feel better to frustrate them for a moment, considering how frustrated I had been with them.