Ok i just heard of this. Someone recorded a conversation With an Aol rep. They were trying to cancel thier AOL account.

Listen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_knvtpENoQ

Interview here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaaAYVUWP0I

JB

LOL. Nothing else to say.

He's a cell-phone salesman, so it has that karmic thing going for it as well.

The AOL tape is nothing...let me tell you what Bergman di...ugh...lgfkdfgkdlgklkf

oh my goodness.

GEEES HES SO STUPID!

On a related sidenote...

It's probably fake, but still funny... at least in my opinion.

WARNING Explicit Language.

That's terrible, so funny, and yet so sad-ish as I've met some people like that before...

my friend has a blow horn that he uses on telemarketers. its hilarious

I should dig up the transcript from when I tried to cancel my old AOL service...

Yeah, the goal of those people is to *SHOCK* get you NOT to cancel!
What a crazy business idea!

But, yeah, it *is* annoying. I went thru the same stuff when I canceled mine about 7 years ago.

It's more fun to just say over and over again. "Okay, is it canceled yet?"

Cancellation consisted of 45 minutes on the phone explaining exactly what "Just CANCEL THE FUCKING SERVICE" meant (in about a dozen different contexts) Apparently, AOL rips the 'ca' section out of the dictionary they give their reps.

I like to call AOL 'AWOL' since all of their redeeming features are habitually Absent Without Official Leave (I forget who started that, but it was one of my friends...)

3 months after I cancelled:
AWOL Rep: Hello, is Rick Anderson There?*
Me: This is AOL isn't It? what do you want?
AWOL Rep: yes... we're calling about your former account...
Me: I'm not interested.
AWOL Rep: Can I ask why you stopped using our service?
Me: Your internet service is SHIT, with SHIT coverage area. Your Shoftware is SHIT, stuffed with extra SHIT, and your customer service is SHIT. In fact, YOU are SHIT, sir.
***AWOL Rep pulls some closing line out of their field manual, instructing me to call back and let them know if I ever want to continue my service with them, which I hang up in the middle of***

Footnote:
*My name is not Rick Anderson - that's the phony name I put on my AOL account, and that nobody ever uses... for anything.

I had an AOL account that I was given FOR FREE to use for as long as I liked cos I worked for AOL UK once a long time ago (yes, I am ashamed to admit it) of course I dont have it now, but even then, I never used it, and I worked for AOL.

I used to get told off for telling customers possible solutions to their problems (and I NEVER reccomended changing ISP) because I was not readig the prompts from my screen.

OK, AOL are really famous, but a friend of mine who worked for NTL UK (my current isp) told me he got the same deal, heh ISP's in general suck in the UK, I once phoned up NTL cos they had accused me of having blaster (I sent a large email attachment to like 4 people) OK, I do sometimes use wrongdoze, but at the time I was using Linux, heh heh, when I told the guy this, he told me to download the blaster cleaner and run it, or he was not turning my Internet back on (I ended up saying ok, i did it :P)

ISP's suck cos they employ monkeys to answer the phones. And lets face it, more and more computer illiterate people are not only using the Internet, but indeed working in the telephone tech support teams and just reading prompts from a screen. I don't like AOl, but ripping on them only sucks, we need to rise up and challenge ALL ISPS :>

ntl suck, not only are the vast mojoraty of their phone people monkeys(i say that, i have not met a good one but i hope they have some) but it once took me two hours just to get to one, they have over streached their service area so much that it is shoddy warever you have it, i use them (don't ask me why i don't know) and my internet goes down mostly 3 times a day bilnks a good 10 and once whent down every 10 minets for the intire day.

plus their waiting musac is awfull...

It's not only ISP's Yoda. I nearly exploded when I called in for Macintosh technical support once. (I was a new Mac user, fresh over from the bug-laden, virus-riddled crapfest that is the PC world.)

At the PAID TECHNICAL SUPPORT line (Applecare) I got some chick that was looking at the same Apple.com screens I was reading for support. When I asked her what the hell she was doing, I got the amazing response: "I'm a PC user at home."

What. The. FUCK. Did. You. Just. Say? I paid three hundred bucks for Applecare on my laptop so I could get unlimited phone support for a year, and you want me to talk to some asshat that knows less about the frocking computer than *I* do?

Seven minutes later I was on the phone with my credit card company to deny those charges. I found the answer to my question in "Mac OS:X For Dummies."

Now, I love my Macs, and I love the folks in the store, who have helped me out of some real binds (like when my external hard drive crashed with my 110-minute season highlights project on it, FOUR DAYS before I was supposed to give the kids their DVDs of the championship season), but I wouldn't use Applecare on a bet.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, the first three times I called, I was hung up on by the damn computer. The fourth time I was placed on hold at 4:57pm. FIFTY MINUTES LATER I hung up and called back to discover that their service hours end at 5pm. THAT one got a nasty letter written to Apple. If I wasn't so in love with the OS and the hardware I'd have boxed the entire computer up and marched straight back to the store with it.

Apple ROCKS. AppleCARE sucks ass.

~D.
"Nigel the Indecently Dressed"

Nigel, ALL support for EVERYTHING is like that. I dont know why, but it is.