Complaint Review: AOL - Internet

I had had America Online since 1997 and decided in mid-January that I wanted to cancel it. And I have to admit AOL is good at being very calculating at what they do to keep a person as a member. So one evening I called the number where you cancel. And like everyone else has documented the customer service representative was trying everything to get me to stay with AOL (offering the free months, why AOL is so good, and so forth). Eventually the person gave me a confirmation number and told me to stand by for the legal disclaimer. I must've waited close to 30 seconds for the disclaimer and never heard anything. So I assumed the person had hung up the phone, because they didn't play anything music like a person normally does when they get put on hold; instead that was absolutely dead silence. So I hung up. I didn't feel easy about that, so about 5 minutes later I called the number again to verify that my account had been cancelled. The person asked if I had a confirmation number and I gave it to them, and he says, "Sir I have some bad news. Our systems just went down so I won't be able to check on that for you." To which I said, "That's too bad. I was having second thoughts about cancelling and wanted to see what to do about reactivating." And the customer rep says, "I can help you with that, I can reactivate you from here." So I said, "how are you able to do that? I thought the systems were down?" To which he replied by saying, "Sir, the systems just started working again." That's when I said, "Great, now you can verify that my account has been cancelled." To which he said, "Wish I could sir, but that part of the system still isn't working. That probably won't be working again for another hour. You can try calling back then." I decided not to wait the hour and called about 15 minutes later and had a different person talk to me. So I asked to verify i've been cancelled. Surprisingly, this person didn't say anything about the systems being down. And she said I was cancelled and was free to use my account until my billing period expired. So I went to bed and got up the next day and decided I wanted my account cancelled that very day, whether I got to use the remaining days of my billing period or not. I just wanted to get away from AOL. The person I talked to did the same thing of trying to get me to stay. By this time I was getting impatient and said to the person, "by law when I say I want to cancel you are to cancel." And as a person would expect, she went from being the pleasant representative to the defensive representative because she was sensing she was losing a battle that she's too often to used to winning, to which she said, "I know all about the laws sir, we're AOL. (not sure what that comment meant) And i'm processing your cancellation." To which again she was trying to get me to stay. About 2 minutes later of that, I said, "so has my cancellation been processed?" To which she replied with, "it's still processing sir. I don't know why, but our computers have been very, very slow today." Eventually she got done with the processing part, and like the first person I had contact with, she told me to wait for the legal disclaimer. And again I waited for about a minute with the phone totally silent for this legal disclaimer. But I figured this time I'm gonna wait for it. Eventually it came on and towards the end of the disclaimer was told to push 1 of 2 buttons, either the pound (#) or star (8). The # would keep my account active, and the * would confirm I wanted to cancel. I was told during the recording that I would receive a confirmation letter within 7 to 10 business days after cancelling in the U.S. mail from AOL. It's been nearly 4 weeks since I called in my cancellation and have yet to receive that letter. However, AOL always charged my credit card on the 4th day of every month. I've looked at my credit card statement and I can thankfully say they didn't charge me. So there's several things you need to do. #1, as has been pointed out, make sure you get a confirmation number. #2, make sure after the customer service representative finishes up that you stay on the line (no matter how long you have to wait) and hear the legal disclaimer recording and be sure to press the button that confirms you want to cancel. #3 when the date comes that you think your AOL account has expired, DO NOT try to sign on to AOL to confirm you've been cancelled. Because instead of denying you access, it's gonna let you online and what you've done is reactivated your account. As I said, AOL is very calculating to avoid accepting a cancellation. They have customer reps, who not only are begging you to stay, but also are trying to work on your nerves and make you agitated to see if they can get you to hang up the phone so you have completed the cancellation process. And if that doesn't do it, making sure there's dead silence on the phone for a lengthy period of time between the time the customer rep finishes up until the time the legal disclaimer comes on. Hoping either a) the person is again so agitated that they lose patience waiting and they hang up or b) the person feels like they've been hung up on so they hang up, again not completing the cancellation process.

WHEN YOU CALL TO CANCEL MAKE IT VERY CLEAR TO THEM YOU DON"T WANT TO DISCUSS YOUR REASON OR DECISION. YOU JUST WANT TO CANCEL " NOW ". THEN MAKE SURE THEY GIVE YOU A CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION # . WRITE IT DOWN . YOU SHOULD THEN RECEIVE A LETTER IN THE MAIL ABOUT YOUR CANCELLATION > THEY CAN"T FIGHT YOU ANY MORE . FIGHT BACK . MAKE SURE YOU"RE THE ONE IN CONTROL OF YOUR MONEY , NOT THEM . OH , they will get nasty after a while , if you chose to sign back up and cancel . That's how low down they are . They act like they are # 1 , and # 1 over you .