Nothing, really.
Except for the Unnecessary Anger Generation portion of the script that the customer service reps have to read.
I'd had AOL a long time ago, and it wasn't great, but the latest go-'round with them was much more pleasant. I signed up for one of those 1070 free hour deals with a disc I got in the mail, and I have to say that the service was much better this time. Only a few unexpected times when it knocked itself offline, but overall, about as good as any other service, and they had a pretty robust popup/spam/virus blocking system. So, after the free trial, I let it go on for the next few months. Then they had a price increase from $21 (which is too high considering services such as NetZero) to $26.
26 bucks for dialup? When I found out my phone company had DSL for the same price, it seemed pretty dumb to keep paying for worse service--and the inability to use the telephone during the ultralong sessions of Googling.
After I got my new service fixed up, I called AOL customer service last night to cancel it. After the usual round of 5,000 voice prompts to make sure my information is kept secure, I was routed to the pleasant voice of a young woman in Southwest Asia. And then I went though all the same questions again.
Finally got time to say that I wanted to cancel my service, so I had to give some reasons--1) I can get DSL, and 2) DSL is just as cheap. More questions, more reading from a prepared script about how great and wonderful AOL is, more begging to stay with them, last-ditch decreases in price, the reminder that I can still access AOL over my DSL for only $9 extra per month--on and on.
Nope. Nope. Nope. Not interested. Nope. Nope. No thank you.
Until something in the script called for the girl to challenge me--"You say that price is important to you, but you do not want to save money with this plan!? Why would you say you want to save money if--"
GRR!
DO NOT CHALLENGE MY DECISION!
"Because I want to cancel my service, and I want to cancel it now, and I have tried to be as patient as I possibly can over the past ten minutes, and I am not interested in ANY additional services, nor in continuing to pay for anything from AOL, and I want my account cancelled now!"
Another five minutes of script reading.
::sigh::
Got an idea, here, AOL--don't be a butt towards me if I decide to cancel my service. My money, my decision, and I don't need you to berate me for it.
Hmph!
Stupid AOL.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at March 29, 2006 02:34 PMHi Terry,
Glad that you survived spring break. Did you ever
try the NEW Whataburger(tm)?
Also I heard that the best way to cancel AOL is to
tell them to change your billing to another credit
card & cancel that credit card!
Posted by: Sine Nomine at March 29, 2006 02:52 PMI thought it was Blogger that was stupid? I am so confused.
Posted by: Larry Anderson at March 29, 2006 03:04 PMWe had AOL several years ago. I remember that it was a major ordeal to get it cancelled.
Posted by: Kathy at March 29, 2006 03:30 PMUnfortunately, Larry, stupidity is not one of those database entries restricted to a single value.
Posted by: skinnydan at March 29, 2006 03:36 PMOne of the AOHell customer retention service centers is just next door to Lindquist Field where I go for my summer baseball fixes, right here in Ogden.
Those folks that work in customer retention draw a much higher pay than the ones available to sign you up on the front end.
Posted by: Nate at March 29, 2006 04:07 PMThanks, Sine--we did manage to try that new Whataburger several weeks ago. Pretty darned okay--big and messy, just like me!
AS FOR CANCELLING--I don't mind them trying to keep me, but I'd prefer them not imply that I'm a fool for dropping them. That's sort of a turn-off. It's fine for me to be self-deprecating, I don't need any help.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 29, 2006 04:21 PMA caution: keep an eye on your credit card/bank statement for a couple of months to be sure it really does get cancelled. AOL has been known to lose your cancellation info and keep billing.
Posted by: AmesJay at March 29, 2006 04:41 PMWise council--it reminds me of the debacle Reba got into with Fashion Bug. They might have difficulty selling their crappy clothes, but they make up for it by nice fat deceptive credit card charges.
Posted by: Terry Ogelsby at March 29, 2006 04:48 PMTerry,
Did you look at the DSL option AOL is supposed to be offering in conjunction with BellSouth? Does it compare OK pricewise with the DSL you wound up with, or is it even available in B'ham?
Posted by: Stan at March 30, 2006 02:46 PMYes, but due to the fact that Trussville has telephone service through CenturyTel, there's no way I could sign up for anything other than CenturyTel DSL.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 30, 2006 02:52 PMTerry,
Thanks--I had forgotten about TrussVegas having its own phone system. I asked about AOL because that is a decision I am going to have to make in June when my year is up (I purchased a year of AOL at one time to save $4.00 a month.) If the AOL DSL is OK I may go with that as it will be pretty much the same cost as their dial-up then. Not "wild" about keeping AOL but I'd get to keep my email addresses.
Posted by: Stan at March 30, 2006 04:43 PMI think it would be fine--my experience with their dial-up service was good enough, although I did tire of all the AOL pop-ups. They were at least conscientious about making sure no one else's pop-ups popped up.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at March 30, 2006 04:56 PMMy aol will run out in a month and I currently have broadband at Comcast? Will my mail be automatically forwarded to comcast or do I need to do something beforehand>
Posted by: Annette at May 19, 2006 04:18 PMHey, Annette! Thanks for stopping by. As far as I know, AOL has no policy for forwarding emails to anywhere else after you stop using their service. I believe they offer people the ability to keep using their AOL email address for free even if they no longer have AOL internet service, but I don't know how long it lasts. I assume you can keep right on using their mail if you want, but I would check and make sure you can use it with no fees and for how long.
If you want to switch to your new Comcast address, the best thing to do is send out a mass email to everyone in your address book and let them know of your new address.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at May 19, 2006 04:42 PM