AOL 1, Rhapsody 0.
Posted in Ramblings, Uncategorized on March 26th, 2006 by Peter Wooley – Be the first to commentWell, I was awake, just about to head off to bed, when I had an idea. I talk poorly about AOL and Real’s Rhapsody service all the time. I really feel they are bad products, but the one thing I’d never done is actually sign up for them. My experience with AOL was many years ago, and the last time I used Rhapsody was before iTunes ever got ported to Windows (if such a time ever existed).So, I decided I would sign up for the free trials of their software, and then immediately attempt to cancel my account- without using the software (I’m wasn’t concerned with the software, just the consumer experience).I decided to dump AOL first. I fired up Firefox, went to aol.com, logged into my account and looked for the cancel system. I guess I’ve been blessed with companies that are nice to those wanting to leave. Blizzard, for example, lets you cancel your World of Warcraft account straight from your account page – never touching a phone. AOL, however, was not that nice.First off, I couldn’t find anything pertaining to closing my account, just upgrading. Then, once I did a search through support, it was buried in an article. I finally found the toll-free phone number to call, but I wanted to do it online, preferably with no human contact, so I kept looking. I ended up finding a Live Chat system (which I swear was with an intelligent computer, not person) that pointed me in the direction of the phone line. So, I finally gave the phone line a call.I was held on the line for a couple minutes will I was warned not to use Norton because it “broke” AOL. Finally, I got to an automated system for finding out who I was and what I wanted. I must say, the voice activation system worked pretty well (all but once when I said “cancellation” and it heard “password”). It then brought up my information with my secret question and forwarded me to a guy to help me leave. When I told him I had just signed up for the service to see how the cancellation process would go, he couldn’t believe it. He literally was quiet for 10 seconds. I ended up saying, “Hello?” and he finally came back. He was confused, so I played along. He told me I should at least try it and that he could lower the price if I told him some stuff about my internet connection. I explained that I got my phone from AT&T, but my cable from Comcast and he said I could have AOL for Broadband for just $9.99 (shocking!). I said that we should keep it how it is and I would just try it out and call back later (I was tired, and he didn’t want me to quit without trying it – and I am sure he would get some commission off of it if I stayed). So, he kept my plan the same but then- he told me I had to speak with an Independent company to make sure that he didn’t lie and keep me on the plan, even if I wanted to cancel. It was while I was being transfered, I decided I would just quit then. So, a woman answered and she asked me if I did in fact want to stay on, so I decided to see if she could cancel it without me having to call back. She said yes! I told her that I just changed my mind, and the AOL guy didn’t lie or anything, and she seemed pleased by that. However, she wanted to know why I was canceling. I was imagining her 10 second silence too, but I went ahead and explained I just wanted to see how canceling went. She kind of laughed as she said, “Uhh, okay…” Then she canceled it, thanked me and I was off.Overall, it was odd, and I felt a little pressure from the fact that I had to do it over the phone, but the experience was pleasent enough that I feel I could tell people that AOL doesn’t
