How the Web Flips 'Caveat Emptor'
July 14, 2006 -- -- Vincent Ferrari was an America Online loyalist. For years it was his only portal to the Internet. AOL even helped him meet his wife.
"I had been an AOL customer for a long time," Ferrari said. "[But] I figured there were better ways to spend 15 bucks a month, so I decided to cancel the account."
AOL has been hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of customers, and Ferrari, an avid blogger with his own website, says he heard a common refrain while on-line.
"There has always been this rumor that AOL was really hard to cancel," Ferrari said. "So one way or another I figured I'd prove either it was or it wasn't and I'd end up with something interesting to put up on my site."
Vincent turned on his recorder and then placed the call. The exchange went something like this:
AOL REPRESENTATIVE: Hi this is John at AOL... how may I help you today?
VINCENT FERRARI: I wanted to cancel my account.
A good way to start, but the recording went on:
AOL: What was the cause of wanting to turn this off today?
FERRARI: I just don't use it anymore.
AOL: Well, actually I'm showing a lot of usage on this account.
FERRARI: Yeah, a long time, a long time ago, not recently...
AOL: Okay, I mean is there a problem with the software itself?
FERRARI: No. I just don't use it, I don't need it, I don't want it. I just don't need it anymore.
After an extended exchange, Ferrari tried to made it simple.
VINCENT: Cancel my account...
AOL: Turning off your account...
VINCENT: ...cancel the account...
AOL: ...would be the worst thing that...
VINCENT: ...cancel the account.
AOL: Okay, cause I'm just trying to figure out...
VINCENT: Cancel the account. I don't know how to make this any clearer for you. Cancel the account. When I say cancel the account, I don't mean help me figure out how to keep it, I mean cancel the account.
AOL: Alright, some day when you calmed down you're gonna realize that all I was trying to do was help you... and it was actually in your best interest to listen to me.
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