iBloggedThis » AOL fires customer rep from “nightmare” phone call

AOL fires customer rep from “nightmare” phone call

June 15, 2006 on 6:27 pm | In aol, update |

The AOL customer representative from the other side of “The nightmare of canceling AOL” phone call conversation, has been fired by the company. The phone call, which was released to the public, received a lot of attention in the blogosphere community, and even made front page at the newly launched Netscape Beta site.

AOL spokesperson Nicholas Graham issued the following statement:

“At AOL, we have zero-tolerance for customer care incidents like this - which is deeply regrettable and also absolutely inexcusable. The employee in question violated our customer service guidelines and practices, and everything that AOL believes to be important in customer care - chief among them being respect for the member, and swiftly honoring their requests. This matter was dealt with immediately and appropriately, and the employee cited here is no longer with the Company.”

Source BoingBoing

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I found an article that points out how the Reps get a large bonus if they can keep people from cancelling (except in New York):
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5842727.html

“Under the agreement, AOL will no longer require its customer service representatives to meet a minimum quota for customer retention in order to receive a bonus. Previously, AOL would distribute bonuses in the “tens of thousands of dollars” if representatives were able to retain half the customers who called to cancel their service, according to the attorney general.”

Comment by Megan — June 15, 2006 #
[...] UPDATE: The AOL Rep on the phone call has been fired! [...]

Pingback by iBloggedThis » The nightmare of cancelling AOL — June 15, 2006 #
[...] The nightmare of cancelling AOL is a recording of a phone conversation with an Aol customer and a customer service rep of AOL. The user was simply trying to cancel his AOL account. According to ibloggedthis who was doubting the authenticity of this call the AOL customer representative in the recording has been fired. [...]

Pingback by Rose DesRochers » Blog Archive » The nightmare of cancelling AOL : Customer service hell — June 16, 2006 #
[...] The nightmare of cancelling AOL is a recording of a phone conversation with an Aol customer and a customer service rep of AOL. The user was simply trying to cancel his AOL account. According to ibloggedthis who was doubting the authenticity of this call the AOL customer representative in the recording has been fired. [...]

Pingback by Rose DesRochers » Blog Archive » The nightmare of cancelling AOL : Customer service hell — June 16, 2006 #
Do you still doubt the authenticity of this call? LOL

Comment by Rose — June 16, 2006 #
Do you still doubt the authenticity of this call? LOL

Comment by Rose — June 16, 2006 #
[...] According to iBloggedThis.com, the AOL employee featured in the audio clip I posted yesterday has been fired from the company. [...]

Pingback by panda place » Update on yesterday’s AOL post… — June 16, 2006 #
As someone who worked at AOL for 6 months in the “Retention” department (or “Saves” as the company calls it) I can tell you the call is 100% legitimate. From the information confirmation to the “Why are you leaving us?” to the verbatim script at the end that was a textbook call. It was also the perfect way to cancel the account, don’t give these people the chance to breath and try to find a way to keep your account open.

Now for the rep being fired, I can tell you the only things he got in trouble for were 1) being taped and 2) getting snippy at the very end. Otherwise that was a pretty nice call compared to some of my better work (and I made VERY good money while I was there thanks to the incentive plans!)

Comment by Torch — June 21, 2006 #
The call that was aired over the tv was tame compared to the harrassment I recieved over the phone from an AOL rep.

I called to discuss the procedure of close our acount with a rep,
I was treated so rudely I just eventually hung up. The jerk on the other end of the line was a motor mouth of insults.

I am now convincing everyone I know to avoid AOL like the plague.
We are now just waiting out our contract before bolting from them like lightening

Whoever is teaching them about customer service is going to be surprised as this obnoxious behavior backfires on AOL and they go down the tubes! It coesn’t take much poor publicity make this happen……and I for one, am going to be sure everyone knows of their tacktics!

Comment by Linda Hildebrandt — June 22, 2006 #
[...] Two down! Who’s are we going to be getting fired next? [...]

Pingback by iBloggedThis » Sleeping Comcast tech fired — June 25, 2006 #
I worked at AOL for 2 years at Sitel in Augusta Georiga. It was an awful experience. If you don’t retain customers, you’re fired. If you don’t try to sell them shit at the end of the call, you’re fired. There’s a mandatory step-by-step procedure that they made us follow when someone wanted to cancel their account. Everything from offering them credit to simply putting them on a “penalty hold”. Canceling AOL was bad for the call center because it reflected badly in the numbers to AOL - thus as an outsourced call center we had to do everything possible to keep the person. I had my supervisor reach over my phone and hit the end button just so it wouldn’t be “on our team record”. Happens every day.

Comment by Jon — June 25, 2006 #
I am so happy to read all this about AOL. I have called to cancel my AOL account 3 times. I ended up FINALLY agreeing to keep my e-mail address & lose all the other stuff - firewall, etc. However, I did get 2 different letters in the mail for the 1st two calls telling me that I have agreed to continue service even though I explicitly stated I was cancelling my account. I was so pissed off & really didn’t want to go through the hassle again - not to mention the fact that I can’t ever seem to remember where the hell I found the number to call in the first place. The tactics that they use to prevent people from cancelling their accounts is absolutely deplorable.

After reading other people’s testimony (which were very similar to my own experiences) I am going to go on ahead and print out my address book & change my account to yahoo or something. To AOL - I was a longtime member (since around 1994) and you have treated me badly (during my attempts to cancel) If you don’t want to lose customers, instead of making them go through a freaking olympic triathalon of bullshit to cancel- why don’t you just give us a real reason to stay? I mean I am so pissed off from the way that I have been bullied, lied to, held on hold for 100 years, etc. that I would never go back to AOL even if you gave me a free car wash every day for the rest of my life.

I will be smiling the day that I hear that AOL has gone belly up. They deserve it. I wouldn’t be saying that if I wasn’t so ticked off that I have to go through another freaking 45 minute call and harrass the asshole on the other end of the phone just to get the damned thing cancelled. And just for shits and giggles I will be recording my conversation & I will let him know not to mess with me - because I will post it on the internet, I will turn it into my bank as proof of cancelation & I will go after them for money taken out of my account past that date.

Comment by Danielle — June 26, 2006 #
I am appalled to see that this has happened to so many other people. Today it has happened to me. Nothing there has changed…I just received a $30.90 charge to my credit card. I cancelled in August 2006!! and I never even had the service!!! I ordered and then changed my mind and called and cancelled and 4 months later, I still have to deal with this. This is terrible!! How do you get your money back?

Comment by Ellen — November 28, 2006 #
i have the same problem with aol with canceling my account some years ago and they did the same thing and during this process i some how made the lady on the phone cry and i was just trying to cancel my account

Comment by DAN — March 11, 2007 #
I’m still looking for the number to cancel my voicemail service which used to work well and now sucks….WHAT IS THE NUMBER? I hate them…

Comment by david moulton — June 6, 2007 #
You want to hear about trouble with AOL? Well….I’m just too tired to get into it, but let me tell you: the trouble this guy had with the rep was nothing compared with what I went through. My case was insult after insult. And do you know what this guys final insult was? I was also the reason this guy couldn’t pay his bills. Hummmmm…I guess it wasn’t the fact that he mentioned it was bitches like me who MADE him go through 4 jobs prior to this job. I just don’t get it. Since when does every other customer gets treated poorly by employees, simply because of the lack of respect of a few, bad ones? I have worked with the public, and I have seen my fellow employees do the very same thing to unsuspecting customers. They did not deserve that kind of attitude just because some Joe Nasty was a bitch earlier. Just remember folks - we’re all customers EVENTUALLY.

Comment by Aeni Hale — June 8, 2007 #
I am being told by my ONLY phone company Windstream that I cannot use their unlimited long distance for computer connection (although they keep telling me I will have broadband any second). I have 3 days to contact AOL and try to get either a local dial up # (4 little backwoods towns do not have “local” AOL) OR CANCEL AOL for$9.95 mo which I just re-upped from my checking account and GO WITH WINDSTREAM for $12.95 mo although I am already paying Windstream for unlimited long-distance which they say I can no longer use for my computer!!! Darn if I can’t find a contact phone # for AOL. THIS IS AN ISSUE FOR THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION HERE IN NC. IT IS ALSO AN ISSUE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION IN FLORIDA WHERE WE RESIDE. THIS WHOLE IDEA OF CORPORATIONS HOLDING THE PEOPLE HOSTAGE TO THEIR ANTI-TRUST HUGE CEO SALARIES IS INSANE. THESE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PUBLIC Utilities. Enough is enough. Get the Corporatists out of running the Government. Call your Congress person, particularly your House of Representatives at 202-224-3121 and demand they support HR 333 for Impeachment of the CEO and Vice of the US (they would have been fired from any Corporation long ago) and HR 1234 to break up Anti-Trust Monopolies over the PUBLIC DOMAIN - like the phone and internet and television dominating the PUBLIC airways! Go see “SICKO” to get the same take on the Health Care Industry in America.

TAKE BACK AMERICA. It’S THE PATRIOTIC THING TO DO. WHO IS BENEFITTING FROM ALL THIS CORRUPTION BUT A FEW HUNDRED SCOUNDRELS COMPARED TO THE MILLIONS OF US OUT HERE. THE PEOPLE, UNITED, CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED….THAT GOES FOR THE EMPLOYEES AS WELL AS THE GENERAL PUBLIC. TAKE BACK AMERICA. It’S THE PATRIOTIC THING TO DO.

Personally, I think WINDSTREAM should fight AOL and AOL should fight WINDSTREAM. The American thing to do is let CORPORATIONS COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER TO PROVIDE THE CUSTOMER WITH THE BEST GOODS AND SERVICES. THIS WHOLE SYSTEM IS BROKEN. TAKE BACK AMERICA. IT’S THE PATRIOTIC THING TO DO. LOVE, DEB CLEAN AIR,CLEAN WATER, CLEAN GOVERNMENT….without DeLay

Comment by Deb Arnason — July 9, 2007 #
I have worked many years in the outsourcing and call centre industry. The sad reality is when you work on the phones in a high volume centre you begin to hate humanity. Generally employees in these situations are underpaid and overworked. Many view these types of jobs as the western Sweat shop. I worked for XM radio’s retention department which was outsourced through a compnay known as Sitel It was horrible and the same things would happen there .. reps were underpaid and did not care at all about the customer my self included. Inorder to make any kind of money you had to maintain a save rate of at least 40 %.. often reps would just keep the acconts active anyway just to get there bonus checks. Turn over was 75% it was rare to find a tenured agent on the floor as no one stays long in thiose types of jobs

Comment by larry — December 12, 2007 #

AOL fires customer rep from “nightmare” phone call

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