RSSAOL Paying $3 Million for Not Canceling Accounts
By Nate Mook | Published July 11, 2007, 7:30 PM
AOL has settled with 48 states and the District of Columbia over an investigation stemming from its previous cancellation policies in which some customers were unable to close their AOL accounts, or found themselves being billed for services after thinking they had canceled.
AOL will pay $3 million and has agreed to continue maintaining its online cancelation feature that went live last August; previously, customers had to call in to cancel, and AOL employees were encouraged to convince them otherwise. The company admitted no wrong-doing as part of the settlement.
California led the multi-state investigation, which would have led to a lawsuit had AOL not agreed to settle. New York and Florida were the only states not to participate in the action. In 2005, AOL paid $1.3 million to settle a similar complaint in New York.
But AOL customers won't see any of the settlement money; the $3 million will be split among the 48 states and District of Columbia to cover the cost of the inquiry and other consumer protection efforts. AOL will, however, refund any customers that it charged after they attempted to cancel their accounts.
For its part, AOL says it already revamped its cancellation policies in 2005 and 2006 after a deluge of high profile complaints. In one case, a customer recorded an AOL representative who simply refused to cancel his account. Employees were reportedly paid bonuses up to $3,000 if they convinced a customer to keep the AOL service.
AOL is the devil:
Anti-Christ
Old Nick ... or Old Ned
Lucifer
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|Love to see if I get anything. They disputed the fact I'd canceled. charged me $40 which wasn't in the bank and I lost another $30 on an overdraft fee. Now of course because I was an a** since they were an a** I got all the money back including the $30, but they didn't admit to anything. They simply did it to make me happy.
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|Cancel a major auto billing account, report your debit card lost/stolen, get new number, no more billing after canceling.
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|Let's not even get started with the people that CompUSA hires just to advertise AOL service to people all day, I've actually witnessed it drive away business. A lot of people just like lie to them to shut them up, works most of the time, but it's just...so demeaning.
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|What a crappy punishment! Our justice system sucks sometimes.
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|Just a slap on the wrist for AOL. We all lose.
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|Indeed. They attempted this dirty trick on me. And actually, three million dollars isn't even a slap on the wrist for such concerted and nefarious business practices.
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|I had the same issue trying to cancel my account it was a joke, I was hung up on 4 times, and was put on hold for hours in total.
I am a B2B dealer for Sprint-Nextel, we pay our retention team "bonus points" to convince people to stay. We also give them ability's to change to special plans, and discounts. Still if you are trying to cancel 1 line out of 30, we will wave the ETF. If you have 2 phones, we wont beat you up. They get so many points from fixing messed up accounts, and making people want to stay. Why would you want to waste your time with a customer that really wants to leave. There are so many the just want there plans fixed, or a rebate credit they didn't get.
AOl Should have remained more focused on creating new products, and fixing stupid little issues that make people who want to cancel.
I still remember the days of aol 2.6 . And I still have an account kinda, My parents, who are too old to care about a quality product.
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|The travesty is how many long years aol has gotten away with that.... sprint likewise.
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|Haven't anyone ever heard of putting a stop order on their bank account for this? :) When I had moved from one local ISP to another I put a stop order on the old one so they couldn't continue to withdrawal any more money.
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|Ironic. I went through that hell several years back when trying to cancel. Not only did AOL swindle a few extra dollars from me, my own state will pocket that money with one hand while holding out the other at tax time.
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|I think its funny when the states who sued, on behalf of the customer gets the money. I mean we were the ones being screwed over, so the states will split the money? So it doesn't look like they were doing it for us, it looks like they did it for themselves, the government.
I guess its good they do that for us so they can help the consumer? Now what about microsoft, they can do whatever they want, be found guilty and they march on nothing changed, who paid for that, we did not microsoft.
They are still sucking billions out of our pockets.
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|Yeah, I recall hearing several phone conversations recorded between their service line and customers who wanted to cancel, and one time some guy was explaining for 25 minutes to the service rep that he just wanted to drop his AOL subscription, but it just seemed to go through one ear and out the other. "Look, I just wanna cancel my contract with AOL" "We at AOL have a passion for our clients, and will do almost anything in our power to keep you with us."
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|I never had AOL (well I think waaaaay back we did for a little bit, when there weren't many choices and the WWW was young) but I heard an effective way to end your contract was not to ask them to cancel it, but for YOU to TELL them you're cancelling. Example:
X: "I am cancelling my service."
Rep: "You don't want to do that."
X: "Effective after this month's bill, I am no longer paying any AOL bills. I have already instructed my credit card company not to accept any charges from AOL past that date. I suggest you make the necessary adjustments to avoid problems on your end should you fail to properly close my account. Goodbye."
Supposedly this worked, although I imagine one would want to tape that for legal purposes just in case.
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|Yup they want the BONUS they are not paid much.
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|Pretty damn close to what I went through. My wife tried 2-3 times to cancel way back in the day. I ended up having to call them up myself. The call went something like this:
rep: Hello, AOL. How can I help you?
Me: I am canceling my account. I do not want another 30, 60, or 360 days. I do not want a new version. I do not want to listen to the benefits of staying with AOL. I want you to take down my name, phone number and account number and then I want you to tell me that my service is canceled. I do *not* want to hear anything else. My name is xxxxxx x xxxxx, my phone number is nnn nnn nnnn, and my acount number is nnnnnnnnn. Please respond once my account has been canceled.
rep: Thank you, Sir. I have canceled your AOL account.
{click}
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|rep: Hello, AOL. How can I help you?
Me: I am canceling my account. I do not want another 30, 60, or 360 days. I do not want a new version. I do not want to listen to the benefits of staying with AOL. I want you to take down my name, phone number and account number and then I want you to tell me that my service is canceled. I do *not* want to hear "anything else. My name is xxxxxx x xxxxx, my phone number is nnn nnn nnnn, and my acount number is nnnnnnnnn. Please respond once my account has been canceled.
rep: Thank you, Sir. I have canceled your AOL account.
{click}"
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And that's the way to cancel an account with AOL or Sprint or whomever. Those whose accounts were not cancelled could have been more firm in their request along with putting a stop pay for any further transactions regarding AOL. I don't have one ounce of sympathy for those who didn't use such an approach as described above.
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|Believe me when I say I was far more than firm, but still found my credit card was being charge. AOL actually had the nerve to say I had never called to cancel. My very firmly stated instructions were simply ignored. Luckily, I always pick up pen and paper during customer service calls and had made enough notes to prove my side was the one telling the truth.
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|Difference: Sprint usually comes with a contract, early termination fees, etc.
AOL does not
Of course. No-one in their right minds should expect anything but the most annoying, frustrating, and mind-numbing run-arounds when trying to do something as simple as canceling a non-contracted service...
/sarcasm
One should not be required to be a jackass in order to cancel non-contracted, services, no matter how long it's been this way. That type of predatory behavior should never be acceptable.
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|I am pretty sure taping conversations in some states between 2 indivisuals without warrant is illegal still. Unless the law has changed.
Also I believe the other party would have to know you are taping them in order for the recording to be admisible in court.
On A side note: I once had a call from my cell phone provider letting me know right away that the conversation was being "monitored for quality assurance" or some sh!t like that (which basically means "hey yeah where recording your sorry ass") i turned right back around and said "I would also like to inform you that this call IS being monitored for quality assurance" , the rep said and I quote "I'm sorry sir I can not allow you to record this call" and then hung up !
So if you can in a situation/state where you have warrant to record your calls make sure you let em know your doin it!
It also helps if you use A secure business line to do it on that ONLY takes calls from merchants.
Keep your family calls 100% seperate.
You know common sense stuff.
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|What about people who were mislead to think they were canceled and were not.
Oh wait, AOL wouldn't mislead anyone. Silly me.
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|only if you dont notify them that you're recording the conversation.
"this conversation may be recorded for quality assurance purposes"
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|recording a conversation is not legal proof in a lot of states. both parties must agree on it, butttt on the other hand, if their recording it, so can you.
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|shouldn't they have to pay everyone back as well the customers. I am sure
they made well over $50 million from this tactic so 3 million is peanuts.
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