Seeya, AOL

Nice.

i've never been an AOL dial up customer before, although I have AIM account just for chatting with friends. But I used to think that with tons of the promotion CD-ROMs in the mail box, AOL was really doing some serious business here, which always involved highest customer satisfaction. But I guess I was so wrong. I will never do any kind of business with them, and not just internet service. Even visiting their website now kinda scares me (who knows what program or activeX they might embed to get private info from surfers)

My experience was at least as bad as the one you first describe. In June of 2004, I attempted to cancel; I'm ashamed to say I lost my temper, then gave up and hung up in sheer tearful frustration - and ended up being charged for AOL services I no longer used for another 3 months. I tried again in September, with a repeat of the same experience, called our State Consumer Protection Office, canceled by certified mail and closed the checking account they debited for payment. Finally, in December of 2004, it seemed to be over. I don't know how they can get away with it.

I informed AOL of my Mothers death in June of 2003. In May of 2006 I received a letter addressed to my dead Mother stating that they were going to cancel her account if she didn't make immediate payment. I did not handle her finances, so I'm unaware if her checking account has been charged all this time, although it seems highly likely.

I can live with (and mostly appreciate) Corporate America and the urge to "upsell" items, or attempt to negotiate you away from cancelling an account. Even the elderly old gentleman I buy tons of veggies from his farm hustles, and I rarely leave with *just* what I stopped for. BUT...he took the time to figure out what I like, dislike, etc. He will call me when the peaches are prime, and knows I will pay for them, but doesn't bother with the kale.

AOL could learn alot here, as can quite a few Corporate America. Selling what a consumer wants gets you more business than just pushing the 'upsell', and counting on high churn numbers so you can afford to lose 5 to 10% of your customer base per month. (Long time AOL business model there)

Think it is an accident that AOL types make it difficult to cancel ? More likely a lot of time and discussion went into how to make that process as difficult as possible while avoiding litigation or such.

I live in the UK and people here seem to understand that no means no...

It was very easy for me. I just cancelled the credit card that was being used. Didn't have to talk to anyone!

I used AOL on and off in the ancient time of 1993 through 1997, but I never had any problems (except busy signals) as many people have complained about. I permanently canceled my AOL account solely because of my present broadband connection. Dial-up is a heritage from the Stone Age of the Internet. If AOL lost that lawsuit about a year ago against the phone and the cable companies for sharing their lines, it pretty much lost its future. Dinosaurs came and went, so will AOL. I have no hard feelings against AOL, but everybody lives in a jungle and is subject to its laws.

If you think it is difficult to cancel your AOL account, try to cancel your local cable service. I called them all night and couldn't get through. Then, I went to their office the next day and stood in a short line for 45 long minutes. It also took me an arm and a leg to cancel the membership of an online book store. All these people obviously intentionally make it hard for you to cancel your account with them.

And don't you just hate those CDs from the mail that always say "No Credit Card Needed" but would then ask for your credit card anyway. I'm sure their lawyers studied it and it's somehow legal. But it sure is very deceptive. I tried the service once but didn't realize I had to call and cancel it and got charge 3 months for a service I didn't use.

AOL sure epitomizes all that is bad in corporate America! It's as "evil" as Microsoft is.

I cancelled in late March; was told service would be canncelled no later than April 2. On April 4 my credit card was charged again. I called the credit card company this time. No stalling at all. The nice fellow at the other end said he would be only too happy to reverse the charge. He said it would not happen again, as AOL would receive a $25 cahrgeback fee. He was right--its gone now. Maybe I should have called the credit card folks to begin with!

AOL is easily one of the most evil companies that exist, and the fact that it is part of time warner doesn't help. that whole empire should be brought down.

I've tried to use every AOL CD I've ever recieved in the mail... but NONE of them have ever flown nearly as far as I had imagined.

I'm surprised so many people are so surprised. I've had three horror stories dating back to 1995. Evil? Nah, just stupid. My mom got free service for 3 years simply by asking to cancel every three months (she was given another free 90 days on every call). it only got canceled when she stopped calling and refused to pay the bill.

I had AOL for several years and had a nightmare cancelling it also. I was on the phone for at least an hour trying to convince the person on the other end I wanted to cancel and did not want 3 free months. She finally backed off and said the account would be closed within three days. 3 MONTHS later I got a nasty letter threatining legal action if I didnt pay that months bill immediately. The bill that apparently was due after the 3 free months they offered that I repeatedly refused originally.
I had another long call with them and finally had to contact my bank to deny any payment to them. They finally went away after about 4 months. They really are no better than common criminals in my book.

As an elderly grandfather with seven grandchildren, I use AOL to keep in touch, get the latest news, and check the weather. Thank you AOL, truly, thank you so much.

I don't have an AOL horror story because I am smart enough not to be an AOL customer ! I could tell you about horror stories of my three siblings account with AOL and thier expereinces. But that would boring, as they are the same as the ones posted here. I guess I'll just continue to do things on the net "my way" and stay with Mindspring as I have for the last 10 years.

i remember when i used to get the cd's in the mail; it was so fun to break them, play frisbee with them and throw them in the trash.

Watched my best friend go through the AOL cancellation juggernaut due to his switch to a local DSL provider. [First time I've ever seen him completely lose it in 12 years.] I immediately went home and called AOL to cancel a 10 year old account. When the rep came on the line, I said "Cancel my Account." Every word out of the rep's mouth was followed by my saying "Cancel my account!" They turned me over to another rep. My response was exactly the same. Finally, they forwarded my call to a confirmation company...where I was forced to validate my information. It still took at least five minutes.

I truly have great sympathy for those who have suffered at the hands of the "retention salespeople" at AOL and the other hardball marketing companies. However; the last respondent (TJ) got it right! DON'T PLAY THEIR GAME BY THEIR RULES. PLAY BY YOUR RULES. Regardless of what they say or do, say only "Cancel my account" or whatever else you need to accomplish during this call. You initiated the call. Control the action as it unfolds. Try to keep your temper in check. Be firm. Remember that the folks at the other end of the line don't write their own scripts, but are just pawns of the big employers like AOL, and whether they like their jobs or not is a whole different matter. Keep your eye on your goal.

AOL is wretched, nuff said.

First let me start by saying I am in the IT field. Not that anyone is feeling sorry for the "sales retention" people right now. But another side of just how evil AOL really is. We had one of there call centers in my home town employeed roughly 1500 people on the low end. No word or rumors they just walked in one day and were told to leave by AOL coporate security. They were out of a job with now word or warning. I have always refused to use them and still continue to encourage people not to use them.

No one that knows anything about the Internet can possibly be suprised by this. AOL has been known as the worst ISP of all time for over a decade now (PCWorld rates it as the worst tech product of all time http://pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125772,pg,2,00.asp ). This can't possibly be news to anyone.

Any truly computer literate person mocks AOL users at any and all oportunities. The only thing anyone I know ever liked about AOL was that my brother liked getting the free jewel cases in the mail for his burned music CDs. And I liked finding new ways to destroy CDs (bending them until they shatter and microwave are still the best).

If AOL was forced to turn over its recordings of its customer service/retention calls, I can only imagine what horrors they hold beyond the one that made recent news.

I have been fortunate to stay away from AOL even under the pressure of my 4 children wanting it when they were growing up. I proved to them using a reliable dial up provider back then that AOL was never needed. Now I am going to attempt to cancel my cable internet account with Cablevision right after Verizon install FIOS. It will be a quick call if I have anything to do with it plus they have an office up the road from my house. Their TV service will be gone as soon as our governor signs the bill allowing Verizon to sell TV statewide. Competition is healthy.

I've never had aol for the reasons others have mentioned. However I did have Call Wave when I had dial-up. (It actually worked well.) That was my first exposure to "retention". I tried to cancel the first time based on some erroneous assumptions I had about voice mail, which they straightened me out on, and I stayed with them. But I was shocked that they forced me to call some armtwister in another county to justify why I was cancelling. I was now wise to the retention routine.

When I got broadband I called to cancel again and this time was firm and didn't waver as mentioned above. I actually felt sorry for them. (Maybe that's part of the ploy!) I imagined them losing customers by the thousands. I wonder if they're still in business?

AOL does have content people cannot get access to if you are not a subscriber. I know many people who retain the service despite having a different ISP / Broadband connection. They ( the users ) keep AOL solely for this reason. Consider AOL bought all of the largest dial-up ISP's and most had unique content.

Same experience with AOL...had to threaten lawsuit and newspaper story...

BUT Earthlink is a paragon of pleasant customer service, in my experience...

AOL is past it's time.... There are still a lot of "new" people to the Net, but now the email address isn't as "Sticky" as it once was... But, I am one of those that have had an AOL address since 91' and I can't seem to close it to lose it.... I don't have the sw loaded, just use AIM and check email via outlook... Why!??!! I don't know... Oh well, I'm a donkey!

Well, no horror storie here. I am an AOL customer for 2 years now., canceld once but returned later. They seem to be much nicer in Germany than they are in the US though

Why on earth would you expect a company that your trying to stop paying to make it really easy for you to do so? They mail out millions of cds that you just pop in your computer to get you to sign up.

I currently have AOL. Simply put the software stinks. Why? How abput this: I have a tray icon called "AOL Dialer" and i have a cable connection. Also, The software frequently installs annoying updates that say "AOL is improving your connection experience", but, this only applies to dial-up and it requires you to restart the PC (luckily i have spybot S&D's TeaTimer. This allows me to deny the AOL software to change registry values to "Restart Needed". I'd give AOL a 2 out of 10

IV HAD AOL FOR A WHILE IV BEEN A SUBCSRIBER AT DIFFERENT TIMES AND I HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM, WHICH I THINK IT IS DO TOO, KNOWING HOW THEY RUN THERE SERVICE, IF I WOULD WANT TO CHANGE A PAY SERVICE, (MUSIC ETC.) IT WOULD BE DONE YOU HAVE TO BE TO THE POINT, WITH ANY SERVICE IT DONT MATTER IM SATTISFIED WITH AOL .

Several years ago I signed up for several free AOL memberships and in those days they were truly free. The fourth time I applied (#3 had expired) I had to call AOL support if I wanted to get my free offer. I called and the rep. was genuinely surprised at what my file was tagged with: I had been banned. Banned by AOL. Can you imagine that? I just laughed, hung up, and never looked back.

Today I consider myself a lucky person, I'm not good enough for AOL. They kicked me out. I still smile when I think about it.

And yeah, just kill the credit card and AOL goes away. Did I tell you my very first membership WAS paid. After they took what I though was too long to get me a confirmation letter, I cancelled the card. I guess the free ones were memberships #2 - #4 really. Oh well, I'm banned ... I love it

The guy that made that recording was a complete jerk, so I have no sympathy for him. I've cancelled a few AOL accounts, and while they try to talk you out of it, if you are polite and simply remain adamant that you wish you cancel your account, you won't have any problems.

I had AOL and used my phone number for payment. I had to change my phone number. And please "Keep Your Eye On Your Credit/Debit Card" to make sure they don't bill you after you "cancell". Juno Internet billed my friend and myself. We never did get out money back. Then for some odd reason, MSN Internet got my debit card numbers and the debit card wasn't even "activated" and i never did activated but closed the account. I makes me angry that The United States Government don't do anything and let all these people get away with all this. All the ISP's are guilty of "not allowing you to cancell and billing you after you have supposedly cancelled"Robert

I've had the same problem with Sprint. I tried to cancel my cell phone after the contract expired and they actually kept billing me after I had asked to cancel. Then when I refused to pay the bill, they had their collections department call. I explained that I wouldnt' pay because I had requested to cancel and that Sprint would not stop billing me. Eventually I had to report them to the BBB.

Simply tell everyone to "Boycott AOL"!!!! i would love this company go bankrupt.

OMG, I hate these guys! They're a bunch of crooks! I reported them to the Better Business Bureau and will never use any of their services ever again or encourage anyone I know to do business with them.

I called them to quit dial-up because I had signed up with cable broadband, and they told me that due to my status, they would leave my service on until the end of the month "as a courtesy." Month after month go by, and they are still billing my account. I called them up to challenge my account status, and they deny that my old call ever happened, and they wouldn't remove the charges.

I hate the bastards. Everyone of their employees deserve to die a slow and painful death (excuse my venom, LOL).

OMG, I hate these guys! They're a bunch of crooks! I reported them to the Better Business Bureau and will never use any of their services ever again or encourage anyone I know to do business with them.

I called them to quit dial-up because I had signed up with cable broadband, and they told me that due to my status, they would leave my service on until the end of the month "as a courtesy." Month after month go by, and they are still billing my account. I called them up to challenge my account status, and they deny that my old call ever happened, and they wouldn't remove the charges.

I hate the bastards. Everyone of their employees deserve to die a slow and painful death (excuse my venom, LOL).

If you think it is hard to cancel your account and subscription to AOL..........

....have you checked your computer lately??? You think the salesmen are malicious, check out the AOL software you installed on your computer! It is pervasive in nearly every aspect and is configured to take over your computer changing many of the preferences.

And privacy.......Ha! Kiss it goodbye if you have the AOL software on your computer (ever heard of trackers and beacons?)

Their software screws so much stuff up. I've tried to help friends with their computer after AOL and frequently end up doing a complete Windows re-installation to completely get rid of the thing.

I had no problem : I used AOL from the start "even met my wife in an AOL chat room" they were good to me "sent us to Six Flags, for a day for free.", then Verizon came up with the $14.95 DSL deal, i sign up, called AOL a wile later to cancel, i just told them the truth, they tried to talk me out of cancellation, I said that i had my mind set, "but no, thanks!" they said "no problem!" and that was it!!!! really no problem!!!! no stress!! they even let me keep my AOl screen name for free.. Thanks AOL!!!!!

When you end your post with "Thanks AOL," That begins to suggest that you work for their marketing department.

Don't fall into the trap (for anyone who's reading this thread)!

i call it AOHell

AOL reminds me of Sprint and ATT who also harassed me for more than 6 years regarding bills I wouldn't pay for debts I didn't agree to.

AOL also reminds me of the terrible customer service I got from the local phone company when I lived in PA. The rep tried to upsell me on everything when all I wanted was plain touch tone service with no frills. Finally I got so aggrevated I had to ask for the manager after 20 minutes of a sales pitch.

AOL sucks. Only losers and newbie use the service. Their CD's do make great coffee-table coasters though.

I signed up for AOL only because my Gateway computer had a free 6 month trial included. When I tried to cancel my membership, I was told by the customer service rep that my bunghole smelled like Swiss Cheese. Of course I was upset by this untrue remark so I asked for a supervisor. The supervisor proceeded to tell me that my taint was hairy and smelled like goat cheese. This was simply untrue as well. I always wax my taint and it smells like roses.

To hell with AOL...they are poopyheads!!!

BONER!!!!!

BONE......................r

That is all.

Stinky bunghole, i am sure that is not your real name. although i have smelled a freshly waxed taint and it smells glorious. like a bed of roses. we should get together sometime so i can wax it for you the stick my nose in it. that is a huge turn.

Did someone mention B-O-N-E-R???

i have a Bone.....r right now. waxed taints give me a hard on

I Have had the pleasure of canceling a many of trial aol accounts in the late 80's and early 90's. I had to be very straight forward and stern to say the least, but was never verbally assaulted, which is still against the law. Then I found it was better to make myself a guest of someone elsees account, no need to cancel, find another free one, which is also against the law. I have recently bought a DELL laptop and home pc that both came with a free subscription to aol. So the 1st thing I did was format and reload. Take that aol. It is not even worth the drive space to have aol on my system. Wouldn't use it if they paid me. My new issues is with DSL VS Broadband. DSL sucks and Bellsouth. That's right. I said it. Bellsouth is the new AOL. Basterds.

I was also grandfathered into the $4.95/month plan. They recently increased it to $6.95 so I decided to part ways with AOL. I sent a letter to them, and they promptly canceled my account. Fortunately, I was able to keep my screen name and can use the AOL web mail for free now.

I recently switched service from dialup to dsl. My dialup was Netscape. They are a great company and released me with no problem.
AOL and other ISPs should take lessons from Netscape. Customer service is what it is all about !!Q

I recently switched service from dialup to dsl. My dialup was Netscape. They are a great company and released me with no problem.
AOL and other ISPs should take lessons from Netscape. Customer service is what it is all about !!Q

To all: I was the one that ended my previous post with "Thanks AOL!" and i assure you all that, i do not work for AOL in any shape or form,
nor did they pay me to "kiss they're ass here."
As a former AOL user, i can tell you that, i was happy with the stress free service AOL had provided me.
To some of you: You didn't get those two free Six Flags tickets, just for having an AOL account did you? I did, for that: Thanks AOL!!

I only use AIM. Reason: w w w . i p - r e l a y . c o m (just erase the spaces between letters and periods to make it a URL).

I was an AOL customer in the 90?s up until they went to unlimited access and you couldn?t log on to the network because their servers/access nodes were swamped. At that point I cancelled the account and it was a nightmare to say the least. This was pre-Times-Warner days and from all the posts I?ve read, the ability to cancel AOL accounts has not gotten any better.

You think getting rid of AOL is hard? Try to cancel a cell phone plan after your contract is expired.....

I had AOL as many internet users did at one time or another many years ago. An unexpected Divorce forced me to cxl. Through a ton a arguing they agreed. problem was I still got charged every Month!!! Each back statement I called them, and always got the same thing, "we show no record of that charge sir." BS. I called the BBB and reported them. Had to change checking acoounts to stop the charges, which lasted 4 months before I got wise. AOL doesn't understand CANCEL!! Even "if" they accept it, they will find a way to back door you in the end.

Roger -- good idea! Tell the customer service rep that YOU are recording the conversation as well. My only personal experience trying to cancel AOL involved a 20+ minute conversation with the rep questioning my intelligence since "it'd be stupid to NOT agree to 90days of FREE service". Ugh. An absolute distaster... I don't feel mad at the reps since there is a lot of pressure to keep a certain number of members who call to cancel (i.e. their job depends upons on it), but I'm sure AOL contracts calllcenters under the condition that they keep the percentage of users who actually cancel below a certain threshold.

I also can't help but think there are some AOL folks who have posted on here, given the "AOL is the greatest thing ever" tone of a handful of posts here.

Well my Aol canceling was a long one 45 minutes. He just would not execpt no I do not want it for an answer.He tried everything he could to make me stay.
Finally I got LOUD with him and told him to cancel the account.He did.But til this day 5 years later they still send me those CDs saying come back.
I now call them AO-hell.

That sounds like my experience, only the customer service rep I had got really nasty. I used to say that AOL was good if you were new to the internert. I now recommed that everyone stay away from them. I know that I will never use AOL again. Treating people who wish to cancel the way they do can only lead to an even worse reputation for them.

I found a good use for AOL CD's. I used them to make a pulley for my drill press. I'm handicapped, so I made the drill press foot operated. The pulley was the best use I've found for CD's from the highest priced ISP with the poorest service.

It's like The Firm... you don't get out of AOL alive, either.

I haven't had an AOL account in years, but my mother in law did, and we always dreaded ever having to talk to their customer service for even the simplest tasks.

i got rid of AOL a long time ago BEST thing i ever did and will never go back to them ever ever agin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First I had tried to cancel around Oct. and was told it would be best to keep the account till March since it's paid for in advance and it wouldn't be worthwhile to cancel then because it would cost the same and I wouldn't be able to use the service (or at least this is what I thought he was trying to say). I said I just want it canceled and he said he could have it canceled in March without me having to call back, so I was like FINE.

Needless to say I didn't trust that it would really be canceled, so I called again in March and was told it wasn't canceled, but they would cancel it. My mother then received her credit card bill with the yearly aol charge on it (early to boot-on her bill for Feb when the account wasn't even due until March). I told her NOT to pay it, so she called the CC and told them to stop payment. Now I called again and canceled. Now the rep told me if I wanted to keep the same email account I had to sign it within 3 days of canceling and sign up for the free aim account which would directly forward my old aol email for free. (Ha apparently this is the catch that UNCANCELS it)

So I no longer have aol service on my computer and can't use many of the aol features. I have aim which is supposed to be free.

But then mom gets two letters from aol saying they are sending her bill to collections. WTF!!!!! What bill?! My service was canceled. It use to be that I could not log on through aol only aim, but now I can because the mail says aol and aim mail. Yet when I do sign on to aim there is a join aol icon. So lame. Mom calls aol and tells them we canceled months ago. The rep says sorry I can't do anything its already been sent to collections!!! Great so now what? Screw up her credit because aol is a bunch of crooks.

I don't know what to do. I have been web surfing and found out what I should have done. Such as not logging back onto aol since apparently that reverses your cancellation, send your cancellation in witting which they have to sign for it. God I hope I can find all of the information from when I canceled, but probably not. They purposely let you think that your account is closed and then like a dummy you get rid of the confirmation numbers, reps and time and dates.

YOU THING AOL IS HARD TO GET RID OF TRY CANCELLING PEOPLE PC!!

They have a real nice AOL campus in N. Virginia right off of RT 28 thanks to all of the poor souls that assumed they wouldn't bill anymore... muhahahaha. They have lots of hidden buildings in N.VA were they do sacrifices....