I actually work in customer service (outsourced, but in the US), and our systems can and do occasionally “go down”, in that the database with which we access accounts occasionally stops working properly. It’s rare, but that’s probably the “system” that they’re referring to (our computers are up and running). On one occasion, though, I did take calls during a 20 minute period in which the system was literally down – our power was out and the backup had to be started! (It was pretty dark in the building, but there was some ambient light from the windows and they switched calls to mostly go to a different center.)
We do have a subscription program, as well, and I’ve taken cancel calls during downtime – our policy is that the representative writes down the account number and, just in case, contact information (name, address, phone) so that, should all attempts to access an account fail, we can contact the customer. After all, it’s our fault that the sytem is down, not theirs – why should they have to keep calling back? (Same deal when the power went out, I had to try to write in near darkness, but I only took 2 or 3 calls, so it was OK.)
Of course, there are lazy or badly trained reps once in awhile who tell people to call back. If they get caught, they get marked down on QA as a substandard call, which affects raises, their seniority in shift bidding, and can eventually cause them to be fired.
I had AOL when I first got my computer, many years ago.
At first, I was happy with it…and kept upgrading when they would change versions. Eventually, I installed one of their upgrades and it screwed up something on my computer. I knew what it was, I knew how to fix it, but I couldn’t remember where the box was to change the setting back. It was a simple setting that had been changed. I tried uninstalling and rerinstalling the software. No go…I called AOL. I explained to the tech what my problem was. I cannot remember now, but I want to say it was as simple as a font issue. Now that I look into my settings, it was. For some reason the system had checked all of the boxes to override fonts and colors on web pages, so everything looked bland. The AOL guy was convinced that I didn’t know what I was talking about. He said maybe it was just the page I was viewing. I explained to him, in the smallest words I could find, that it was MY webpage, and I knew what the fonts and settings should be. I told him I knew it was a box that had just been checked when it shouldn’t. All I needed was for him to tell me where to find it.
Twenty minutes later, I was no closer to having him understand what my problem was. I was frustrated, irritated with his lack of basic web knowledge. He was doing tech support for an INTERNET company, for heaven’s sake. I told him to cancel my membership, as I would be uninstalling AOL that afternoon.
He was happy to oblige.
They never, ever called me again. I occasionally get the CDs, who doesn’t?
I think I just spoke to the nicest person AOL has employed: Debbie in Oklahoma City.
After reading all these message, I decided I should just cancel my AOL since I have broadband anyway. I’m paying the $9.95 a month to keep all my AOL stuff. The only reason I really keep it is so I can check my BB e-mail at work (which I have forwarded to my aol e-mail acct). I figured I could just use Yahoo to do that so why bother spending the $$?
So I called to cancel. She didn’t try to talk me out of it and I pretty much told her off the bat why I wanted to cancel. Holy cow, this was the friendliest woman ever. I don’t like that AOL doesn’t allow you to forward e-mail or choose a reply-to address (at least, I haven’t found how to do this). She gave me a direct line to her call center with no wait time and her e-mail address so I could reach her if I got billed.
Bless her heart, I almost want to keep AOL just so I don’t disappoint her!
OMIGOD … Tiburon, I’m SO glad you posted that. I was started to feel rejected! We had AOL for five years and when I cancelled, they were polite but didn’t offer free months, other billing options … nothing! I half-expected the rep to say, “Don’t let the modem hit your ass on the way out!” LOL
I was also a “volunteer” for AOL and had my account comp’ed for a couple years. That was a complete hellish experience that NO ONE should ever have to live though.
a) 13 months chatting in “Online Help” area - We were given 100+ macros of common issues and had hot keys to answer them. Your line keeps dropping? [control + A12] “AOL is doing it’s best to make sure ALL our customers get the service YOU deserve! Trying clearing your cache to get the fastest, most reliable online experience!” Even I said WTF? Changed to a different area after AOL “supervisor” didn’t understand why I wanted to log out early because of a thunderstorm. I told her to go to keyword WEATHER and look up my zip code. She “wrote me up” … I transferred …
b) 10 months teaching graphics classes online - What started out as a GREAT gig … teaching online graphics in a chat room (again using macros) to 7-12 people … turned into HELL.
The entire month of December, AOL advertised “Why not take an online class for your New Years Resolution?!” … so when I logged on to do my Wednesday class, instead of 12 people … there were 76. I FUCKING KID YOU NOT. You can’t control 76 people in a chat room … let alone TEACH THEM. I was getting 40+ e-mails a day from students asking questions … ugh!
I told AOL that [one class a week + 7 days of e-mail responses] did NOT equal a free $25 a month account. I asked them to a) cut the classes back down to at a maxium 20 people per night … or b) pay me. Naturally, they refused BOTH and offered to put an extra “attendant” (read volunteer) in the room.
The next week, this poor person spent the entire hour-long class threatening TOS violations at the now 80+ people in the room. I gave up and quit … and LITERALLY within 48 hours, my cc was billed for that month’s service fee.
Hey Tiburon I think that was very cool and brave of you to say those nice things lol
I myself have been a member of aol for 8 yrs and I still love the service… Should I have kept that tidbit a secret? email forwarding and reply to? still checking
Update
I called them today to ask about limited service and they gave me more free time til May!
May!
I’ve been on free since October!
weird…
Jeremy is nice, too.
thanks for the welcome there is some seriously bad experiences in here. I can certainly see why this would prompt you guys to call to cancel aol. I guess I have been lucky…
I just called and cancelled my account that I opened up at the end of last year when I moved and was between cable providers. The guy on the phone put up a big fight, but only lasted about 5 minutes. I told him that my job was paying for my cable internet service (a lie) and he pretty much lost all of his steam.
A CSR at MSN pulled a similar stunt on me except we waited for 45 minutes and then she cancelled my account, refunded me 4 months of service fees (unused), and some other golden egg.
I called back one month later to find out that I was still an MSN subscriber! No record of my call. I’m not as gullible anymore!
I saved this thread in my favorites because I knew I would switch to DSL soon. My CSR was Martha and she was super nice and did as I asked with only a bit of telling me about ‘other services’ and special deals.
10 Minutes on hold
2 minutes to verify my info
2 minutes to cancel
4 minutes to hear her ‘offers’.
The one spooky thing is apparently for a period of time after your account is closed if you try to sign-on they automatically re-activate your account. UNINSTALLING NOW…
Just curious, but how do the people paying the performance benefits know if I give a compliment? I would imagine it being next to impossible to monitor every phone call for compliments.
And it reminds me of the method I use to get through SBC’s automated phone menus - I mash the keypad and I’m promptly connected to a Customer Service Representative.
Though, this doesn’t come close to your level of genius.
I did that recently. Sniffs_Markers was trying to subscribe to a DSL service offered by the phone company. Never got a human being just got an aumotmated menu that went nowhere. Her greatest success was getting a recording that said “we do not know if DSL is available in your location”.
So I gave it a try. Likewise, I was stymied by the DSL service phone menu. Okay, it’s part of the phone company… another hopeless automated menu. But this time I started randonly hitting button after button – like a chimp trying to play Bach “boop boop beep boop boop…!”
That worked. They figured I was an incopetant fool and forwarded me to a human who provided me with the extension of a DSL employee.
That doesn’t always work though. Sometimes you get “sorry, that is not a recognized option” and they hang up on you.
I used to work in a call center for American Airlines (the AAdvantage program, for those of you who use air miles). We ran 4 separate programs/systems on our computers simultaneously. Any of these systems could go out for the entire call center, but our computers still worked on the other systems. Unfortunately, the system that went down most often was the one necessary for getting the customer’s initial information and doing 75% of what we needed to do to solve customers’ problems. Yes, it could be down for hours at a time. No, it did not mean our computers themselves were down, just the system we were trying to use.
Also, the reason the call center person doesn’t like you staying on is that their phone call times are averaged, and their performance is marked down for having excessively long call times (the implication is that, if they’re spending too much time on each customer, then other customers are waiting longer and getting pissed).
On the other hand, when my computers were down, it would have been just as well to wait with someone- beats explaining to tons and tons of angry people that I can’t help them because the stupid system is down. I didn’t like it any better than they did.
