An incredible video from CNBC shows an AOL customer trying to cancel his account, but a phone rep won't let him do it.

What customer Vincent Ferrari got when he tried to cancel his account was a lot of frustration.

It took him 15 minutes waiting on the phone just to reach a real, live person.


And, what happened next was recorded by Ferrari on audio and lasted about four minutes:

CLOCK READOUT - 00:00

AOL REPRESENTATIVE: Hi this is John at AOL... how may I help you today?

VINCENT FERRARI: I wanted to cancel my account.

AOL: Sorry to hear that. Let's pull your account up here real quick. Can I have your name please?

VINCENT: Vincent Ferrari.

CLOCK READOUT - 00:30

AOL: You've had this account for a long time.

VINCENT: Yup.

AOL: Use this quite a bit. What was the cause of wanting to turn this off today?

VINCENT: I just don't use it anymore.

AOL: Do you have a high speed connection, like the DSL or cable?

VINCENT: Yup.

AOL: How long have you had that...

VINCENT: Years...

AOL: ...the high speed?

VINCENT: ...years.

AOL: Well, actually I'm showing a lot of usage on this account.

VINCENT: Yeah, a long time, a long time ago, not recently...

CLOCK READOUT - 01:47

AOL: Okay, I mean is there a problem with the software itself?

VINCENT: No. I just don't use it, I don't need it, I don't want it. I just don't need it anymore.

AOL: Okay. So when you use this... I mean, use the computer, I'm saying, is that for business or for... for school?

VINCENT: Dude, what difference does it make. I don't want the AOL account anymore. Can we please cancel it?

CLOCK READOUT - 02:21

AOL: Last year was 545, last month was 545 hours of usage...

VINCENT: I don't know how to make this any clearer, so I'm just gonna say it one last time. Cancel the account.

AOL: Well explain to me what's, why...

VINCENT: I'm not explaining anything to you. Cancel the account.

AOL: Well, what's the matter man? We're just, I'm just trying to help here.

VINCENT: You're not helping me. You're helping me...

AOL: I am trying to help.

VINCENT: Helping... listen, I called to cancel the account. Helping me would be canceling the account. Please help me and cancel the account.

AOL: No, it wouldn't actually...

VINCENT: Cancel my account...

AOL: Turning off your account...

VINCENT: ...cancel the account...

AOL: ...would be the worst thing that...

VINCENT: ...cancel the account.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:02

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: Well, I'm sorry, I don't know what anybody's done to you Vincent because all I'm...

VINCENT: Will you please cancel the account.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:32

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.

VINCENT: Wonderful, Okay.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:39

"I've never ever experienced anything like that," Ferrari told CNBC.

He recounts how the AOL representative - as a last resort even asked if his dad was home.

"I think I could've put up with everything, but at the point when he asked to speak to my father, I came very close to losing it at that point," said the 30-year-old Ferrari.

Ferrari then posted the call online, and the response was tremendous.

AOL sent him an apology and said the customer service rep was no longer with the company.

 

that's BAD! my goodness no wonder they fired him...

 

I'm not surprised. I went to cancel for my brother (I pretended to be him) and they tried to extend me 3 more months free and kept trying to talk me out of it by doing the 3 month thing. I was peeved by then and told guy to shut down now.

Guy I work with got cable and he is going to ditch AOL. I sent him link to article. He said if they give him grief he'll call his CC company and stop payment.

I call them AOH#LL

 

If he was actually fired, it was because of, listen man, i was only trying to help. Or he was fired just cause someone actually recorded the conversation other then aol. But its a requirement for the people who do the account canceling to keep the subscribing member on the phone as long as possible to get them to change their minds. I have a friend who worked for AOL and worked that specific job. Theyve been known to offer multiple free months of service just to keep a person subscribed to aol. As for 4 minutes, he is lucky it only took that long.


And aol has sucked since it came out, and this has nothing to do with customer service, and anyone i know who still uses aol still gets a crappy connection even for dialup.

 

I think he was fired for what he said about "one day when you calm down" and "may I speak to your father" rather than trying to keep them signed up.

 

or, he still works there, lol who knows thats the beauty of not giving last names

 

yeah, AOL might have even promoted him for his persistance. Bue when he said "may I speak to your father" he had to have been seriously messing around. Maybe he hates his job and just had enough and did it as a joke to see what would happen.

I would be furious if someone did that to me. Like throw the phone in the air and hit it with a baseball bat into the neighbor's pond furious.