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AOL ATTENTION JOB SEEKERS AOL is a ripoff employer Jacksonville Florida
Anyone considering going to work at AOL Jacksonville, Orlando, OKC, Salt Lake City in the retention/inside sales department THINK AGAIN.
They have to run ongoing ads to get people because:
AOL has consistently and historicaly ripped off their subscribers and your job, if hired, is to try to keep these people, who are pissed because AOL has overdrafted their checking accts., pushed their credit cards over the limit, and in many cases overbilled them by hundreds of dollars, to stay. Thinks it's next to impossible, it almost is.
When your start, you'll invariably be put on a shift that's either 3pm to midnight or the ungodly work hours of 5pm until 2am. During your day or night shift you will be bombarded with call after call after call of people ranting raving and cursing at you for something AOL has screwed up. The initial anger that the member has because of billing issues, etc., will be compounded by the fact that they've had to stay on hold for typically 20 minutes to 45 minutes waiting to talk to someone.
Then, generally, the only tool that you have to help people and keep them as members in to give them one month of free service, or if they're pushy 2. Sometimes you can even give back one month in cash but it is frowned on by your supervisor even in cases of gross over-billing. The thing that is most humorous is that they expect you to keep these people by telling them things about the AOL service. Credit is always a last resort. You are expected to wow the members by telling them about great KEYWORDS that are relevant to their likes and dislikes. This should be their incentive to stay. Yeah right! Most people who use the internet know what their looking for online, don't need keywords, and most of the people who call to cancel know that AOL offers absolutely zero that you can't get somewhere else for a lot less. The Pop-up blockers firewalls, etc. that they tout can all be downloaded from many sites, Download.com for ex. for free.
The coup de grace of the program is, since they constantly advertise for employees, if someone is a performer, they slowly but surely build a case against her or him so they can let them go when it becomes economically unfeasable to keep them. They don't want to pay five or six thousand a month to someone when they can get flunkies that make two or twenty five hundred a month to replace them. I saw it happen time and time again.
I started with a group of about twenty and a year later when I left only three or four of my initial group that I was hired with were still there.
My point is, if you are planning to leave your current job for this don't do it. The only rationale for working here is if you have been out of work for a long time and you are desperate. Even then, keep sending your resume to other companies because you won't want to stay. The law of averages is highly against it.
David
Amelia Island, Florida
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Jacquelyn
Oklahoma City,Oklahoma,
U.S.A.
No longer an AOL employee as of today! I do not agree with AOL's business practices..
#2UPDATE Employee
Mon, February 02, 2004
Today is one of the best days of my life. Not because I graduated college or won the lottery, today I'm quitting AOL. I worked in the highspeed retention department of AOL for one year. I was ALWAYS an honest saver. (An honest saver usually runs about a 55% retention rate) I gave money back as I see fit especially for non usage, and yes even for broadband. I do not agree with AOL's business practices. We are all trained not to give your money back, because members will cancel anyway. AOL employees get a bonus for the least amount of money given away for a month. We were taught its "ok" tell members to call back to the cancellation dept when our systems are down to ensure proper cancellation and not cancel their accounts. Its all a numbers game if we cancel too many accounts our jobs get threatened.. so we have to shove the internet service down someones throat, give the full disclosure and then hang up with them as fast as possible. I never gave out silly keywords, because lets face it, you can do the same things one any other internet service. This morning as I read through all of the complaints, I breathe a sigh of releif that I dont have to come to work and hear the complaints. Hehe.
Good luck everyone!!!