I think I might have another Vincent Ferrari-like scenario on my hands.
For the past year, my mom has been in and out of physical rehab facilities and nursing homes. It’s now very unlikely she’ll ever return home.
The problem? She’s a paying AOL subscriber. I can’t remember her password. How can I cancel her account?
First step is to call AOL customer service and explain the situation. Not all customer service reps are terminally stupid. It might be easier to do than you think.
I wish you luck my friend. My father passed away this year and I had to sell the house, shut off all the utilities, close accounts etc. It was far easier to get control of bank accounts than to turn off the DirectTV.
Couldn’t you just tell them that if they refuse to cancel, then you will refuse to pay any bills? (Or is that just asking for trouble?)
When my mother died I tried to cancel. They did cancel it, but they kept sending me bills, a collection agency kept sending me bills, and now, two years later they still want her back. Just call and tell them you don’t want it.
Start your call by saying, “For quality assurance purposes, this phone call may be recorded. If your customer service sucks, be prepared to hear your voice on television.”
Okay … I tried this. I hope it works. I managed to log onto her account, where I was able to find a form to downgrade her service to the unpaid version. I changed the preferences, saved, and am keeping my fingers crossed that it works …
Just to make sure, repeat the process in writing. When I quit AOL years ago, I did it over the phone, and they kept billing my credit card. I called again to gripe, and THEN they told me I had to do it in writing. Why didn’t they tell me? “Well, it’s right there in your contract.” :smack:
Was the account in her name or yours? If it was in hers and they didn’t put any claims against her estate within a certain amount of times there’s nothing they can do.
One more thought - if you’re having trouble with AOL’s customer service (which I expect you will, alas.) call the credit card issuer that was used to pay for the account, and tell them that the person who’s card it is can’t use the service, now, and you want to refuse all further charges from AOL.
My banker suggested that it was easier to close the bank account and then open a new one with a different account number.
I had a ton of trouble with my father’s account; he was in a nursing home, confined to bed, and couldn’t have a computer. AOL not only tried to keep his account open, they tried to convince me to change to their service. It took me at least a week to close that account. I hope you have better luck.
Tell them she moved, and then give the creditors the address of the cemetery and grave plot number.
When I did tech support for MSN, we had a policy regarding this kind of customer. If they said they were recording you the call was over. Immediately. I imagine the same goes for AOL.
Why? If you* are recording the call for your own purposes why would you have a problem with them doing the same?
*I mean you the company as a whole, not you the body manning the phones.
You are free to hang up on any company when they inform you they are recording your call.
I tried this a couple of times. (A different merchant, unrelated to AOL) I was told it can’t be done. It might be possible with some bank cards, but not in my experience.
There are still cases where it might require several days between someone using a credit card, and the card company becoming aware of that. In the case of hard goods, the customer would be long gone before the merchant became aware that the charge had been blocked.
Do you have power of attorney for your mom?
When I worked in tech support/customer service if the account holder was incapacitated or deceased if you had either the death notice or an active POA then we’d ask you to fax it through and then it’d be closed as soon as we received it. Usually it was about a 2 business day turnaround time.
I never did question the policy but customers don’t record you for quality assurance purposes- in the example I replied to, Cervaise is suggesting using the recording’s embarrassment potential as leverage against the company. The company won’t willingly put itself in that situation.
Also, recordings of employees actually are used for what the automated voice says: quality control. Out of all the rude, ignorant, racist rednecks I ever talked to, not one of them ever had a recording used against them, nor would they have unless they made actual threats against the company. 99.9 percent of the recordings were used for one purpose and one purpose only: to give the employees shit for mis-handling the calls. There was a department at MSN that did this all day long. Much more effective than your local news.
Just log onto your mom’s account and open up a chat…with your account. Type something mildly inflammatory from you mom to you…a mild death threat will work…and then have your account report your mom’s for making threats. By the next morning your mom’s account will be shut down, and she will be banned for life. Problem solved.