A little LOL for Saturday morning - AOL

[Curt Harms]

I wasn't sure whether to LOL or shake my head at the following. I received the following email a couple days ago.

This is xxxx from AOL Senior Technical Support and this is a follow-up in reference to a problem report filed on your behalf concerning problems with AOL.

I would like to apologize for the inconvenience this issue might have caused, but let me assure you that I have been assigned to your Case Number xxxxx.

I tried reaching out to you the phone xxxxxx but was unsuccessful. It is important that we can speak to you as additional troubleshooting / details on your computer might be required.

I would appreciate it if you could reply to this e-mail with the status of your problem (Resolved / Unresolved) and with the best date, time and alternative phone number where I can get in touch with you. I will make a follow up call later today. This ticket will be automatically closed if we do not hear back from you.

Both SWMBO and I had verizon email address from when Verizon ran their own email. Not long after they bought AOL and Yahoo they transferred Verizon email to AOL. We didn't change because we were able to keep xxxx@verizon.net email addresses and those weren't used by spammers to any major extent. We use Thunderbird so have local addresses and messages. She was unable to get into her email account - she could log into AOL - so called AOL support. That was a waste of time. She then paid for an extra super duper support plan. That didn't help either. We spent time with a "Senior Tech Support" person, gave them remote access to a not-used-for-anything-important Windows install. He remoted in, executed some commands and declared that he was unable to help further. We set her up with a better email provider.

When did this happen? LAST NOVEMBER! Only 10 months to follow up on a support request? I'm in awe

[Kev Williams]

Many (many) years ago AOL came up with an alternative long-distance phone company called Talk.com. As cell phones tech was improving, I decided to change over and attempted (ahem) to cancel our Talk.com service. Someone there came up with a novel approach to keep that from happening.

Part 1, make sure the customer waits on hold for a minimum of 45 minutes.

Part 2, when someone finally answers, and you explain --I'd like to cancel my service--...
"I'm sorry, but you can't cancel right now!"
-- umm, and why not?
"Because you're in the middle of a billing cycle."
--ok, so what day is the end of my billing cycle?
"your cycle ends on the 20th."

The 20th comes around, the wife calls, waits on hold about an hour...
--I'd like to cancel our long distance service--
"I'm sorry, but you can't cancel right now!"
--Why not, today is the 20th!
"Yes, which means you just started a new billing cycle!"
ARRGGHH!! A 'transfer to the supervisor' never happened.

I eventually printed a letter in 2" high RED BOLD LETTERS demanding they cancel or I was going to sue their ass off!

The AOHELL name is well-earned....

[Jim Koepke]

Only 10 months to follow up on a support request?

Good help is hard to find.

It always gets me POed when sitting on hold a voice tells me to please stay on the line because of how important my call is to them. If their customers' calls were so important to them they would have more monkeys in the cube farm answering the phones. This is the first thing tech reps are told when they do finally answer my call.

jtk

[Bill Dufour]

Unemployment contacted me after only 3.5 months to say I can start collecting for the last week in May.
Bill D

[Jim Koepke]

Unemployment contacted me after only 3.5 months to say I can start collecting for the last week in May.
Bill D

My recollection is my last Unemployment claim was back in the 1970s.

After a few weeks a job was found and started. The paperwork was sent in to notify them of my change in status. A few weeks later someone from the CA Department of Unemployment called and told me they needed me to come in for an interview. Even after explaining that my new employment situation and how it isn't a good idea to take time off from a new job they insisted that this could affect my status. After about the third time of explaining that someone had hired me they still insisted on a need for me to come in. Explaining that my status was now having a job and not needing further benefits what will happen if I'm a no show? Their reply was, "you never know."

Fortunately my employment was continuous for the next 35 to 40 years even though it was with different employers.

Some bureaucracies only change to become more inept.

jtk