After eight months of calling and writing, Reader Brice finally annoyed E*Trade enough to close his account. At least that’s what the letter from E*Trade said; in reality, Brice never received a check for his balance, and although he couldn’t access his $3,195, his account is still earning interest.
Poland Springs Demonstrates A Method For Making Loyal Customers Hate You
By March 10, 2008
New reader Lynne (Hi, Lynne!) shares with us a letter that she recently sent to Poland Springs after they refused to stop delivering and billing her for water she did not want. Originally, she simply wanted to place her account on hold while she moved to a new home. Poland Springs complete inability to follow her simple requests turned a loyal customer into a former one.
Canceling Your MySpace Account Is F$%!@&*# Impossible
By January 15, 2008
Reader Julian can’t figure out how to cancel his MySpace account.
Canceling Napster Takes 30 Minutes On The Phone
By December 31, 2007
Eliot Van Buskirk over at Wired found that he was no longer in need of his Rhapsody, Napster and Yahoo! Music subscriptions now that the RIAA is starting to warm up to the idea of DRM-free music.
Not Canceling The Account Costs AOL $3 Million
By July 12, 2007
AOL has avoided what was certain to be an entertaining court battle by settling with 48 states and the District of Colombia over allegations that it made it, uh, difficult to cancel for the many customers who were fleeing to broadband.
Recording Of Capitol One Going Off On Customer
By June 14, 2007
Great job, Crapitol One! You just lost a(nother) customer! — BEN POPKEN
Ex-AOL Employee Releases "F*** AOL" Rap Song
By February 14, 2007
A former AOL employee laid down a diss rap on America Online and wants you all to hear it. Because it’s mad funny. It uses a sample of Vincent Ferrari saying “cancel the account.”
AOL Sells Ogden Call Center To Wipe Hands Clean
By October 31, 2006
Previously, we reported AOL is selling its Ogden call center to Teleperformance. But here’s the twist: AOL will still use it as a call center, but as a client of Teleperformance.
Tip: Cancel Your Account To Get A Human
By September 28, 2006
Courtesy of Bart, comes some excellent advice when trying to reach a human to resolve your problem: just threaten to cancel. They’ll be happy to resolve your complaints then!
Parsing AOL Cancel Semantics
By September 7, 2006
“Okay, I’m canceling billing on your account as of today.”
EXCLUSIVE: Old AOL Cancel Script vs. New
By September 7, 2006
Here’s the essential differences between AOL’s cancel script, the sheet pasted over every AOL cancel reps cubicle to tell them how to handle your cancellation request, from two years ago and today’s. Inside, full images of both.
AOL Vows To Never Let Anyone Cancel
By September 6, 2006
Now cancelling your AOL account seems to work like a charm. In fact, it’s really only put on the dry docks.
We (Maybe) Called The Guy Who Didn’t Want to Cancel Vincent’s Account
By August 4, 2006
We think we just called up John, the AOL rep fired after giving Vincent Ferrari a hard time when he tried to cancel, a rough time that was company policy. John ain’t saying much and didn’t want to talk to us. He wouldn’t even verify his identity, but the pauses are a dead giveaway.
AOL Goes Free
By August 2, 2006
Confirming rumors that it itself spread, America Online formally announced plans to give away email and other previously subscriber-only service for free at AOL.com.
