Trouble Cancelling Services

OH my god. I feel my blood pressure rising just reading this thread. I went through this with AOL all the way back around 1999. I've not used them since and I'd rather have my arm cut off than to use them again. :cuss I flew into a complete rage with their representative and was actually yelling at him over the phone.:cuss I'd never done that before in my life. In fact, its probably one of the angriest moments in my entire life. I ended up having to actually cancel the credit card they had to get away from their many tentacles. :eek

Get a load of this. This guy recorded himself trying to cancel his AOL membership, and the customer-service rep was a total tool! The story even made the New York Times.

:lol The sad thing is, the AOL guy is just doing what he is trained to do. I've worked as a CSR, and trust me, you are expected to do things that you would never do without the threat of unemployment hanging over your head.

I do agree that the rep was pretty rude, though. "If you want this service disconnected, you will have to listen to this paragraph." :ohno

Oops. I didn't see this thread when I made my post. Maybe the bad publicity will encourage these companies to just have a cancel button on their site instead of holding their customer hostage. I don't care how good a product is, I won't buy it if I'm being pressured.
Real Networks is another one with a cancel-by-phone policy, which drives me up the wall when I'm trying to get rid of my Big Brother feeds. You spend 10 minutes on hold and another however many minutes saying "no" to the sales pitch.

I won't subscribe to any magazines whatsoever anymore.....I have had a a hard time cancelling in the past or to get them to stop billing me and sending me more after my time is up.....too many other people I know have went thru the same thing! I refuse to mess with it anymore.

I don't have AOL....but I hear alot of bad stuff about them....I have dial-up MSN and I am thinking of getting Roadrunner....wonder if they'll give me hell!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by totoro

:lol The sad thing is, the AOL guy is just doing what he is trained to do. I've worked as a CSR, and trust me, you are expected to do things that you would never do without the threat of unemployment hanging over your head.

I do agree that the rep was pretty rude, though. "If you want this service disconnected, you will have to listen to this paragraph." :ohno

---

I just listened to this thing and it made MY blood boil! The customer was way more polite and patient than I would've been. I'm sure that a lot of CSR take abuse from customers, too. But gees...this AOL tool was one of the worst! Basically threatening the guy that if he doesn't listen to his spiel, he wouldn't disconnect the account. I would've told him I have a recording proving that I called in good faith to get the account stopped. That I am informing my credit card company that they are not to pay any bills from AOL. And that I am escalating this matter to his superior. And then sending AOL a letter stating all this, so that it's on record.

You know, I'm sure they have to say crap as part of their jobs and try to convince customers to stay... but being a tool isn't part of the job description. And contradicting everything the customer says (even if it's true) doesn't win you any points either. This rep could've done his job AND made the customer feel like someone was listening. "I understand you want to leave but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you a few questions first, if you don't mind. I noticed that someone used your account for 70 hours next month, would there be any way we could convince you to remain a customer?" And then AOL should offer an incentive to keep customers who want to leave--half price for a month or two etc. etc. etc. (And of course they should keep records to see if there are customers who abuse this option). But this rep was a condescending jackass.

When I canceled AOL, I told them I didn't have a computer any more. Not much they could say about that.
I like the 'Its against my religion' I'm going to have to use that one in the future.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lois Lane;1953442;

I just listened to this thing and it made MY blood boil! The customer was way more polite and patient than I would've been. I'm sure that a lot of CSR take abuse from customers, too. But gees...this AOL tool was one of the worst! Basically threatening the guy that if he doesn't listen to his spiel, he wouldn't disconnect the account. I would've told him I have a recording proving that I called in good faith to get the account stopped. That I am informing my credit card company that they are not to pay any bills from AOL. And that I am escalating this matter to his superior. And then sending AOL a letter stating all this, so that it's on record.

You know, I'm sure they have to say crap as part of their jobs and try to convince customers to stay... but being a tool isn't part of the job description. And contradicting everything the customer says (even if it's true) doesn't win you any points either. This rep could've done his job AND made the customer feel like someone was listening. "I understand you want to leave but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask you a few questions first, if you don't mind. I noticed that someone used your account for 70 hours next month, would there be any way we could convince you to remain a customer?" And then AOL should offer an incentive to keep customers who want to leave--half price for a month or two etc. etc. etc. (And of course they should keep records to see if there are customers who abuse this option). But this rep was a condescending jackass.

---

I don't know Lois, I've dealt with enough people in certain places that I think
"are you a tool?" is a question on the employment application and if you check yes, you automatically get the job. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stargazer;1945173;

OH my god. I feel my blood pressure rising just reading this thread. I went through this with AOL all the way back around 1999. I've not used them since and I'd rather have my arm cut off than to use them again. :cuss I flew into a complete rage with their representative and was actually yelling at him over the phone.:cuss I'd never done that before in my life. In fact, its probably one of the angriest moments in my entire life. I ended up having to actually cancel the credit card they had to get away from their many tentacles. :eek

---

Argh!! Why did I open this thread? I'm all angry again. :cuss

The folks at Vonage must train right alongside the dolts of AOL.

One of my brothers got my parents hooked up on Vonage. They had it for over a year and they seemed to have a lot of problems with it. I don't know anything about Vonage, but I guess sometimes one needs to reboot their PCs or the Vonage thing if it isn't working and, for my parents, this was too over their heads.

So at the begining of June this year, my parents sold their house and moved up to their summer cottage. They decided to go with the all-in-one package that roadrunner offers up at the lake.....cable internet, digital TV and digital phone.

In the process of moving, Dad had to cancel several other services. When he tried calling Vonage to cancel, he was on the phone for over an hour before he finally got a human to talk to him. This was on a Tuesday and Dad wanted the phone cut off on Thursday. The customer rep said that Dad would have to call back on Thursday to have it cancelled. Dad really has no patience for this type of nonsense. So he asked me to cancel Vonage for him....from his phone at his house. I had all the info necessary to cancel the account....username, his phone number, and his billing address. Just those three things were needed to cancel the account.

So it is now moving day, the moving van came and went. My parents took off. I finished up cleaning and vacuuming the house for them. My husband was going to meet me there when he got out of work to help me finish up last minute odds and ends.

I am now at the point where it is time to cancel Vonage. I was on the phone for over 45 minutes listening to the recording saying that "due to the high volume of calls, I should expect a wait of 15-20 minutes before speaking with a customer rep." They even recommended not calling too early in the morning or too late in the evening. One would have better luck calling in late afternoon. This was about 4 p.m.

When I finally got the human on the phone, I told her I wanted to cancel the account. She asked for my name and I gave her my mother's name. Then told her my dad's name, his username on the account, the phone number and the billing address.

She said she couldn't cancel the account because I was not the person whose name was on the account. I said I was his wife, I certainly had his permission, and we were moving. I was calling because he refused to sit and wait for over 45 minutes to get someone on the line. She still wouldn't do it. This went on far too long. I even asked this woman what their policy is if the person whose name is on the account dies? Do they cancel the account then or do I, as the widow, have to continue their service because he isn't around to cancel the damn thing? I then asked if I would have to send them a change of address and give them the address of the cemetery. I was getting more and more PO'd at this woman.

Finally (and it had been a really long day!) hubby shows up after work. I told her to hold on as my husband just came back from "the new house" and I yelled out my Dad's name and handed the phone off to my husband. I gave him the sheet of paper with all the info on it and he answered the three questions in no time flat.

He then was on the phone for at least 10 minutes trying to get this woman to understand that we wanted the service canceled and we didn't want to take it with us to the new place. Finally he said that he wouldn't sign up for Vonage ever again after the way he treated his wife and hung up.

Geesh! I think if my hubby hadn't come when he did, I'd still be on the phone with her! Now whenever I hear that stupid commercial for Vonage on TV, I switch channels.