Disgruntled customers and non-customers alike have bemoaned the entity that is America On Line (AOL) for many years, and for good reason. The company practices devious strategies to solicited and retain customers, all in the attempt to strap you with a lackluster service that is difficult to terminate – and you will want to terminate it. AOL hate sites [2] [3] [4] populate the net, customer accounts are stolen and sold by its employees, the BBB receives thousands of complaints, and a recent report, as I saw on the Today Show this morning, adds more evidence that the company is to be avoided and called out when they misbehave.Vincent Ferrari called AOL customer service to cancel his account and the CSR was so rude and obtuse that it makes one question our chances of survival as a species if genes like this remain in the human pool. Read the full story and hear the call at the Consumerist. [More info here]
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One poster to the linked article reports, “I'm fairly well-informed that an AOL CSR is supposed to take eight full minutes to try to get you to keep your account on a cancel call, or it counts against their metrics.” I have heard similar information and if true this supports the notion of a company policy, propped up by a point system, which facilitates such abuse. Apparently AOL issued a letter of apology and fired the maladroit meathead who harassed the caller. It’s a good start.
Recently an AOL icon appeared on my desktop. Keep in mind that I build my own machine so none of the bundled crap came installed on the HD. I never install this useless stuff but somehow it piggybacked with something else. It took many posts on an XP forum and the help of a windows expert to get the icon to partially disappear as none of the usual methods worked. The link no longer works and the AOL text is gone but the blank icon still pollutes my desktop. Invasive. It is highly recommended that you never sign up for AOL.