Customer Disservice from AOL

From Mike Landman … by way of the always interesting Consumerist blog … we learn how not to deliver customer service from AOL.

All someone wanted to do was cancel his AOL account but the AOL Customer Disservice Rep road-blocked him all the way turning a simple request into an excruciating exercise. Lucky for us, this conversation was taped and we all get to learn from this worst practice.

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Click here to listen.

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It’s interesting to note that last year AOL received over 3.0 million subscriber cancellation requests and in the first three months of 2006, AOL lost another 835,000 subscribers. Which leads me to believe one out of every three calls to AOL Customer Service must involve a cancellation request. (Ouch.) So yeah , AOL Customer Service Reps must be tired of answering cancellation calls. But … that doesn’t mean they should do their best Gerry Spence impersonation and make a case to dissuade a customer from cancelling.

It’s also interesting to note that at its peak, AOL had 35 million subscribers … but today, has around 18.6 million subscribers. (Double Ouch.)

Comments

[Matt Steele in the Hour of Chaos]

I read that the customer service rep was fired. It is nice for AOL that they have a scapegoat. It seems that this guy was doing what he was trained, and paid, to do. For AOL to act like this was an abhorrent act that they did not condone nor encourage is both disingenuous and repugnant.

[Christopher grove]

What are the AOL brand values again?
I honestly can't remember, but I'm sure that the lousy service is completely contrary to the brand promise.
So not only is it another example of how not to do customer service, but it's also an example of how to damage a brand.
I can never understand why so many companies forget that the public face of the company (ie the people who come into contact with the customers) is one of the areas where you can reinforce or destroy a brand. How hard is it to work out the importance of the people who come into contact with your customers, the people who buy your products? I'm sorry to rant, but it gets to me (both as a customer and as somebody who's worked in a call centre).

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

To Christopher's point ... AOL lost its relevance years ago. Brands are not meant to live forever and AOL is slouching towards its death.

[Christopher grove]

True, it lost its relevance, so why don't they try and get it back?
OK, that's not an easy thing to do; but it can be done.

[Craig Hubley]

The customer service rep should sue, since he was clearly following procedure. That would be even more fun for AOL since its customer service rep training would all go on trial!

They are the worst of the worst, obviously, but hardly unique in the "online service" world where abusive customer relations are common and even basic services (like having emailboxes available as zip files or having email forwarded) may be denied as a way to keep unwilling customers trapped with their current service provider.

[Craig Hubley]

The customer service rep should sue, since he was clearly following procedure. That would be even more fun for AOL since its customer service rep training would all go on trial!

They are the worst of the worst, obviously, but hardly unique in the "online service" world where abusive customer relations are common and even basic services (like having emailboxes available as zip files or having email forwarded) may be denied as a way to keep unwilling customers trapped with their current service provider.

[Craig Hubley]

The customer service rep should sue, since he was clearly following procedure. That would be even more fun for AOL since its customer service rep training would all go on trial!

They are the worst of the worst, obviously, but hardly unique in the "online service" world where abusive customer relations are common and even basic services (like having emailboxes available as zip files or having email forwarded) may be denied as a way to keep unwilling customers trapped with their current service provider.

[Mike Hiller]

I had a very similar response when cancelling AOL years ago. I spent 30 minutes with te rep trying to keep me and finally told them cancel it and that's it, and hung up.

Immediately after, I called my credit card company and told them that any further charges from AOL were not authorized as I'd cancelled the account, and faxed over a letter to that effect.

To my disbelief, they STILL tried to bill me and never cancelled the account! After a couple of threatening letters that they'd cancel if I didn't pay up, they finally dropped me from their roles. Only after having my credit card company notify them that I had specifically denied any further charges because of my cancellation, did they stop harassing me to pay the $9.95 they felt I owed them for the month after I cancelled.

Talk about customer service......

[Alison]

I switched to a Free Aol account this month (after paying for it for over ten years). I've tried to create a screen name for one of my children for the past three days, but the page says 'We're sorry. This service is unavailable at this time.' and then offers a way to change my password. I tried using AOL Help pages, but any link I click on from the main page directs me to a page that says 'Error 502 - Bad Gateway'. I waited and tried everyday (there are no problems with my computer) - and finally called AOL customer service. They refused to help me unless I signed up for a 'paying' account again - and repeatedly suggested that I use AOL help pages (I tried to!!!!!). I refuse to be bullied and I think that the problems I am now having with AOL are deliberate. I plan on contacting the office of the State's Attorney - and if there are enough people dealing with the same issues, then AOL will have to explain itself - yet again.

[Mark]

I worked for AOL from 2000-2003, this was at the height of membership. In the beginning things were pretty cool. You felt good about the job you were doing and that you were really helping as well as educating people about various AOL and PC related issues. That all changed when AOL decided to venture into broadband. Intially AOL wanted to control the whole game. They would provide the high speed connection through the AOL software. It was good idea if your propose was to keep members from venturing outside the AOL environment and not using other broswers. That's when the Sh*T hit the fan. Our call volume tripled and member dissatisfaction skyrocketed. Alot of the problems members faced had nothing to do with AOL persay, but rather with its inability to coordinate DSL and CABLE connectivity problems with the 3rd party providers that were vying for the same customers as AOL. Those of us that were techs vehemently voiced our concerns to the higher ups but nothhing ever happened. It was like having a front row seat to a train wreck. I got out of there before I lost my sanity.

AOL is no longer relevant the genie is out of the bottle. People are learning the basics of the internet. They don't need AOL to hold their hands.