Why did it take 27 minutes to cancel AOL?

[Used and Abused]

First let me say, if you want free internet service, believe it or not, you can get it, indefinitely, with AOL. I had free service for a year, but the catch is, each month you have to call and say you want to cancel. The sales reps are paid or given a bonus to keep you on as a customer, so they play nicey nice for 5 minutes then offer you a free month to check out all their "wonderful" services. But this time I really meant it, and as a result, had to endure 27 minutes of begging and pleading from the rep. I felt so sorry for him, but without a phone line, there's no point in keeping the service!

[bluestateguy]

1. Their customer service is abominable

Their "technicians" are dumb, ill-informed and don't know how to do anything that is not on the script.

[B Calm]

2. I'll bet you're still not off of it.

I hate AOL with a passion. My sister was on it because it was free for a period of time. I warned her not to try it, well it took months to get her off.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Easy solution: cancel credit card, get another. Usually does the trick. nt

[Used and Abused]

7. lol that's a bit extreme

Just out of curiousity, were you kidding or have you done that before?

[LoZoccolo]

3. I'm Sicilian. I /love/ to deal with high-pressure salespeople!

Ha ha ha ha! My dad taught me all kinds of junk in this area! Within 20 seconds I would have had them answering my questions!

[tjdee]

4. They figure you'll get tired and hang up.

And thereby still have AOL.

Took me a bit longer than 27 minutes to cancel with them.

[Used and Abused]

8. I was really tempted to hang up

But I knew that the 24th is the billing day so I had to hang in there!

[McKenzie]

5. you might find this site interesting

I wouldn't touch AOL with a barge pole for dozens of reasons.

http://anti-aol.org/faqs/aas/

edit: best to look here>>>

http://anti-aol.org/faqs/aas/faq.html

[gizmo1979]

9. It took me 6 months to cancel AOL

I canceled in Aug,they still charged in Sept, canceled in oct,they sent me 20.00 I thought I was done Nov they charged me twice.Finally went to the better business bureau, and by January it was finally gone.I've had friends with the same problem they must do it on purpose!

[nytemare]

10. You might have to wipe your computer clean

I heard from my computer guy that when people cancel AOL and try to go on other services that it will crash the system after a while. Might be worth some researching on your part to save some trouble later.

It really sucks that they do that.

[Enraged_Ape]

11. 27 minutes? Surely, you jest. Try 6 to 8 months.

It took regular phone calls to these asswipes for at least half a yearo get me off the AOL ranks. They played every game in the book to get me to stay, and I cancelled in 1995.

You will never be free of them unless you move out of state or die. I'm sorry, but that's the "free" hell you've bought into.

[shirlden]

12. Canceling AOL was one of the

worst experiences of my life. I try never to be rude to anyone, but I finally hung up on the jerk trying to get me to stay with AOL. It was like a half hour of me saying "just cancel me, please". When he offered me free service for 6 months, I said "no way". Because I would just cancel again in 6 months and I would rather swallow a live snake than have to do this cancellation thing again.
Geezzzzz was I pissed.
That was months ago and I am still bothered by it. No AOL...not ever, no way.

:argh:

[miss_kitty]

13. It only took you 27 minutes? you jammy jammy bastard!

It took me 4 times 27 minutes spread out over a month and they just called me last night to see what they could do to get me back as a customer.

How 'bout Drop Dead? Go out of business? Never ever charge me? Hell I don't even want it for free. I was so glad to get every bit of AOL spyware and programming of my box

Make sure you uninstall the viewpoint media player (spyware, auto installs with AOL) and the waol shit. :evilfrown:

[SW FL Dem]

14. LOL - I spent 2 hours last night with AOL

first online and then on the phone looking for help with a problem. The first tech guy hung up on me and I was told that they were not able to take complaints over the phone. Some supervisor (located in India) told me that I has to send my complaint by snail mail. I have stayed on AOL because of friendships I have made over the past 6 years, we have weekly chats, but I have reached my limit. Unfortunatly, I haven't found a good substitute for the chats.

[Used and Abused]

15. yahoo

Great chat with voice. There are a couple interesting Dem chat rooms in the Government/Politics section of chat, under the user created rooms (not the default Yahoo rooms).

[AllyCat]

16. Because they are evil. I'd suggest majorgeeks.com

to help you get rid of it. CCleaner, Spybot Search & Destroy (w/ DSO Exploit Fix), Ad-Aware SE Personal with VX2 plug-in, and stuff on their support forum might help.

Good luck!