Let's Watch Some Television, Eh?

Looking at the call time layout, I can't really see a big deal.

4 minutes to get through the menus, well, that is a bit high. 11
minutes on hold, I can understand that with a company like AOHell. He
didn't mention the time he called, so it probably was during a busy
day. 5 minutes with the rep is nothing. I do wonder about the bit with
the dad. Odd that they didn't play that part, isn't it?

There are two sides of each issue. In that broadcast, not hearing all
of the call, including the imflamatory "Can I talk to your dad?" line,
is not really showing both sides of the issue. This is one that I
would like to hear the entire conversation.

WoW. thats not fair that AOL fired john, thats not kewl cuz the fact
is john was probably trained to do the call exactly this way (except
for the "can i speak to your dad" sounds kind of bad).
i worked for a phone company before and they would listen to the calls
and the calls had to be done EXACTLY one particular way, if it didnt
work it was always the employees fault, they really do hold the
employee responsible when a customer is lost (even in circumstances
beyond the employees control). if keeping the customer did work then
there was always a problem with how the employee did it, it took too
long, or too many offers were used or this and that. i think john may
have felt under pressure that if the guy was going to cancel anyways
he might as well push it, if the account gets canceled then thats
johns job even though he could not stop it. i literaly mean they fire
people employees for customers canceling. jobs like johns are
extreamly high stress and i feel bad for him. im not saying this is
the way to treat people, but i am saying he was only trying to keep
his job that was already bad and probably has a 2000% turnover rate
for how bad it is (as an employee its hard to take the "you will never
do the job right" sort of treatment)
im sorry AOL customers, and any customer in general goes through that
sort of pushiness. sooner or later telemarketing in america will be
better controled!!! (yes i consider that to be telemarketing)
i hope vincent is aware there are laws about recording a conversation
without someones permission. the recording will not be admisible in
court because no permission was granted (which means if john disputes
the termination the recording will not be considered) i feel concered
there may be some liability to vincent behind that recording. its one
thing to have it for personal use but to play it for the world without
all parties involved permission is a big deal.

I had the same problem also. I called AOL and it took 30 min for me.
I just put the rep on speaker phone and let him talk with just a few
yeas and uh huhs put in, but I wasn't paying attention. When he
finished I told him again to cancel and finally he did.

Actually he was just following policy. Not by being rude but for
trying to save a customer. At the end, he is required to read that or
the cancel is null and void. But he didn't have to be so pushy
either.

This is definitely a black eye for AOL. Hopefully they'll review
their retention procedures and understand that, for the one person
they do manage to retain with such tactics, they create a bunch of
vocal mavens dedicated to making them look bad.

I had the SAME kind of experience. The lady wouldn't stop asking why
do you want to cancel, I'll give you free months, do you have high
speed...

The funny thing is.. I had a high speed plan. I tell her yeah I have
DSL and she goes into how it will only cost 15 bucks with dsl. Yeah..
umm I knew that. That's the plan I had.

Then she goes into the... well you used this account for 1000 minutes
last month... Yeah because I leave it on with the DSL. That doesn't
mean I used it OR liked it.

I also had to say just cancel, just cancel, just cancel. I wish I had
taped my convo.. maybe I could have been on TV too! LOL.

Funny yet sad at the same time. I also suspect that John and other
customer nonservice ;) reps were told to not let anyone cancel if they
could possibly avoid it. Because logically, WHO CARES? At work, if a
client sends a letter saying, "we've hired ABC Company and we no
longer need your services," we're bummed we lost a client, but we
don't harass them into giving it a second thought.

I think AOHELL made John into a scapegoat, and that's a very lame
thing to do.

I had problems trying to drop AOL several years ago, but most recently
a similar situation happened to me with Earthlink. I talked to a
woman and she wouldn't cancel my account without asking all kinds of
questions. I wish I had taped my conversation with her! Don't waste
my time!

I seem to be one of the very few people out there who has never
had a problem with AOL. I've been using it for over 10 years, I have a
very good price, no annual commitment, no problems at all.

This employee took things too far, but I'm not sure firing him was
the thing to do. It seems a little harsh to me. I don't blame Vincent
for being upset, and I think he kept his cool pretty well.

Maybe management could have, I don't know, actually used the recording
to train the CSR's better, and taken the time to discuss with him what
he'd done wrong and how he could handle it in the future.

Personally, I found this video to be hilarious! I was also greatful
for the hard proof of a customer service rep acting like a COMPLETE
a$$ - I think sometimes we have a tendancy to misbelieve our fellow
consumers when they tell us stories like this because they sound too
unbelievable. Maybe after having heard this, we'll all be a little
more likely to give the writer the benefit of the doubt.

On the other hand, as obnoxious as the rep got and as out of line as I
do honestly believe he was, Vincent wasn't exactly being pleasant and
friendly, himself. I think it was completely ridiculous of the rep to
argue with a customer who wants to leave AOL, but Vincent could have
just continued to be patient and polite and give the rep the answers
he was looking for.

Oh, and hey, Mr. Rep - did it occur to you when you were looking at
the hours and hours of usage on the account the customer says they're
not using, that someone else may have gotten ahold of the account
information and are using it for free access, and that this would be
an INCREDIBLY valid reason for canceling the account???? Usage on an
account that shouldn't have any means a) the customer is paying for
someone elses joy ride and b) there's a customer out there using your
service and not paying you. Just sayin', when *I* worked for an
online company.................

I went through the AOL cancellation process and while I didn't have
anywhere near the conversation Vincent had, the representative did
make the offer of 1 (or more) free month(s) to stick around. What
could be wrong with that? So, I kept AOL for another month or so but
I knew I had to call and cancel yet again. So, 2 days before my free
period was up I called again and had no problem cancelling.

How frustrating that had to be for him. To ask to speak to this grown
man's father was absurd!

I hope AOL learns from this because I don't believe that people who
call to cancel want to be talked into not cancelling. There is a
reason they wish to cancel, one which they don't have to explain to
the representative. I'm really glad Vincent taped this call and
shared it with the media, it just validates all of the cancelling AOL
horror stories.

If I were Vincent Ferrari, (either a great fake name at the bar or
porn monikor) I would've thought seriously about finding that s.o.b.
and putting the fear of Margaret's God into him. And I could.