AOL - unwanted telemarketing calls from AOL - called to cancel AOL - 30 minute cancellation process

# 9 for October 31, 2003

Complaints.com received the following consumer follow-up message on November 3, 2003:

From:

RE: AOL - follow up comments

Follow up to AOL experience

Fred Hambrecht Sr

http://Gilbertnews.net

after posting my complaint about AOL, I was deluged with e-mail that in essence said "Hey! Me to"

As the editor of a small on-line newspaper, I have started a series of articles. The first of which appears below as a follow-up.

"Let the stuttering Chinese guy explain it to you"

Before the days of politically correct speech, Saturday Night Live had an on-going skit that dealt with all complaints by having a stuttering Chinese guy who spoke little English "explain it to you". Have you called an 800 number with a complaint, or warranty question? Have you tried to cancel an order or service? Most likely you were given the SNL treatment. Rather than speaking with a concerned employee of the company you called, chances are you were connected to a "call center" in India, The Philippines, or some other exotic location, where the labor is dirt cheap. I propose a new acronym FHLEM (Foreign Hourly Laborer Exasperating Me). My first encounter with FHLEM occurred the other day when I attempted to cancel my America On Line account. I followed the directions on the screen and called the 800 number as directed. I reached a FHLEM in India. I expressed my desire to cancel my service. This was just the start of a long and fruitless journey! She proceeded to ask me why I was terminating my AOL account. I explained the reason was twofold, first I was upset at the telemarketers calling me "as a valued AOL customer" (exempt from the no call list because of a prior business relationship) and second I now was hooked up on BroadBand service from Pond Branch Telephone. Alas, she had heard these flimsy excuses before and was more than willing to deal with them. I actually timed the phone call, and at the end of seventeen minutes and endless offers of free months of service, being the old curmudgeon I am, replied "Look cancel the service! This conversation is ended"

I won't bore you with the details of how I told her I would no longer continue with AOL if they gave me free service for life. This month the Credit card statement arrives, and once again I am billed for AOL! I called a known USA number for AOL and asked, nay demanded, to speak to a supervisor. She told me the account had not been cancelled because "I had not completed the cancellation process." Apparently the Chinese guy has

to fully explain it to you in a thirty-minute process. Once I explained that I was the publisher of the Gilbert News, located twenty minutes away from the capital, and sans satisfaction, I would be at the desk of the States Attorney General with my complaint within the hour. She relented and gave me a cancellation number. No need to tell her I have exactly nine

hundred seventy three subscribers at last count! This encounter along with a call I received from a New York Newspaper has piqued my interest in FHLEM and I will be doing a series of stories on the loss of American jobs to cheaper labor markets that handle your complaints. My second call of the day to get technical support for a network router ended up in the Philippines, but that's for another day.

Complaints.com received the following on October 30, 2003:

From:

RE: AOL - unwanted telemarketing calls from AOL - called to cancel AOL - 30 minute cancellation process America On-line

1. Because of a number of telemarketing calls offering products to a "valued AOL customer", I called and cancelled my AOL account.

2. The 800 number given on the screen routed me to a center in India that takes care of cancellations.

3. Rather than accept the cancellation, I was treated to a long questionnaire of why I was canceling.

4. After 17 minutes with the lady in India explaining things to me in barely understandable English, I lost it! I told her "cancel my account, this conversation is ended".

5. I was billed again this month, when I phoned I was told the cancellation did not occur "because you hung up before the process was complete".

6. "The process", in my opinion is designed to drive you to the point of frustration, so you will indeed hang up and they can continue billing.

Somehow I was reminded of the old Saturday Night Live skit where the stuttering Chinese guy "explained it to you".

7. How can a company get away with a 30 minute cancellation process?

8. Am I simply a curmudgeon, or are others suffering this same fate?

Fred Hambrecht

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