Imagine a world without salesmen! This is an Utopian ideal if there ever was one. Gentleman, I'm afraid 'sales' is deeply rooted in our capitalistic society and that 'sales job' will be around for as long as mankind. Once you get to know us, salesmen are real swell guys, honest.
I know, it really is amazing. It's ok to ask once, "What's the problem?", but then if the customer says, in essence, it's none of their business, they should be courteous and professional and do as the customer requests. Maybe my reasons are private, maybe I have cancer, maybe I've decided to go live out in the woods w/the bears, maybe I just think their business sucks and don't feel like arguing w/them about it. Plus you know the whole reason they're asking you is so they can try to talk you into keeping the service. Which is exactly what they are trained to do, despite any claims by AOL about how "shocked" they are at this kind of behavior. Yeah, right. H
They do so because we allow them to. There is a certain segment of society that can be manipulated with just a little pressure and resistance. Maybe you offer an additional month free of something. Or, maybe you sound sincere and offer to apologize for a bad something or other. They do whatever they can do to get another month or so of fees at the least. Women seem to get caught into this type of game the easiest. AOL has a reduced fee service in which you can maintain an e-mail address and limited connection status and not completely cancel the account. It's that small revenue generation that they get that makes it such a nice setup. Limited use and servicing for a steady stream of cash. AOL rakes in millions this way. They were scripting this guy into that questioin, IMHO. All the guy had to do was to continue to say no! No matter how many additional questions, services and offers that came about, he just should have kept saying NO! Another non-story made into a mountain. I think it's our culture. The guy got his 15 minutes, and CNBC, CNN and whoever else got their dig in ~ Next!
cm, I'm a bit confused by your response. You say "we allow them to." Suggesting complacency. Ok, fair enough. So then when a guy goes out of his way to record a transaction and actually do something about it, you ridicule him for getting his "15 mins". So what do you want? You can't eat your cake and have it. And he did just keep saying "NO!" He literally repeats at one point, in sing-song, "Cancel my account. Cancel my account. Cancel my account." That's the mantra of this phone call. That is NO. Weren't you listening? H
DO NOT use a debit card for things like this. I just found out that my bank (Wachovia) will not let ME stop auto charges ($45/mo for Mytrack) on a debit card....you have to cancel the card! Unreal. Use a credit card.