Should be self explanatory: complaint sent to AOL today. If you dont already know...I have legendery status when it comes to complaining to organisations - Catters, this one is for you my son but dont go showing the office...its for my weblog invited people only:
Dear AOL
My recent experience of trying to connect to AOL from Bahrain was very frustrating indeed and I therefore write to complain.
I moved to Bahrain for work from the UK recently and on the day I arrived in Bahrain I asked the hotel if I could connect to the web from my room and they said that I could. They gave me a number and told me to put this in as the dial up. I questioned this and said that surely i needed to dial up to my service provider AOL. They do not know AOL here and therefore were unwilling/unable to help me.
I connected my laptop and initially I thought 'this is brilliant' as I set up another AOL dial up location and everything seemed to be working fine. Ultimately the dial up didn't work and I then discovered that there is no middle east support for AOL.
My only option was to call the UK from a hotel room (very expensive) and to navigate my way through to a cs rep. I explained my problem to the first chap and, if I recall correctly he talked me through a process which installed some new numbers. The unfortunate situation I was in meant that then I had to end the call and try to dial up because there was only one telephone line in my room.
The dial up failed. I call back and the next chap talked me through deleting something which removed all the listed AOL access numbers......then we put in new ones and the call was ended so I could try to dial up. Failed again. Called again, and this time the chap was astounded that I was told to delete those files by the previous cs rep and that now did not have the numbers I would need. We manually entered new numbers and changed some advacned settings. Phone down, dial up, not working. On the next call I was informed that AOL 9.0 has the incorrect numbers on it for dial up from Bahrain! We therefore installed AOL 7.0 and then utilised the numbers on 7.0 Phone down. Dial up.....doesn't work.
Called again and spoke with a chap who in the end was asking me to put the phone down and phone the access numbers to check for a sound like a fax. I was taken aback at this request. I am a relatively advanced user of IT and was already aware that the numbers were able to dial up but that after step 4 of the AOL connection process it failed ie: AOL was connecting to the network and then it would fail. How then could phoning the numbers help me? I knew this was a crock of crap and told the guy that it was nonsense. Clearly he just wanted to get rid of me because he knew that for me to dial the numbers and listen (like there was any point) I wouldnt have to end the call with him and then he would have to deal with the problem.
Every time I called AOL I had to explain the whole situation again to a new person because your cs reps do not give out direct dials or extension numbers nor are they able to call out. This clearly extended the time and the frustration factor of the whole sitaution.
I was in no uncertain terms given incorrect advice (incompetence) on no less than 3 occasions. AOL 9.0 doesn't not have the correct numbers on it and yet it was not until I spoke with the 4th AOL cs rep that this was explained!
Given that your inflexible cs call centers are unable to give dd's, ext's or call back even in extreme situations (you cannot argue that this was one) the whole process was entirely frustrating and drawn out.
In addition, the first time i called I was informed that there were no free access numbers for AOL from bahrain. Basically I would therefore have to pay something like $6 an hour to dial up in addition to the 15.99 you fleece me for for a month of dial up 56k connection. Given the problems with dial up one of the cs reps advised me that AOL bahrain access numbers were not working and that it would take circa 48 hours to get someone to sort it. There was an interim plan though to my delight. It involved me dialing up to the uk network (at the cost of an international phone call). Now this was never going to be acceptable long term, but I wanted to get on the net there and then and therefore this was something I was happy to take a view on. Suffice it to say it didn't work.
Going back about 6 months when I was living in the UK I realised the 15.99 you fleece me for for a month for a 56k dial up connection was unjustifiable (to me). Where I lived in the UK broadband was not available so I had no choice but to have a 56k dial up but I did have a choice whether it was worth it to me - to have internet access at home or not, that was the question. At 15.99 a month, not worth it - I can live without it. Was does grate is that the price of dial up has gone up as you clearly want to encourage customers onto the ever reducing costed broadband service (broadband was available through other service providers such as triccoli for 10.99 a month at the time.
For a long time I was on a 15.99 price plan which allowed unlimited access 24/7. I realised that this was extortionate and called to cancel AOL at which point someone enquired why I was getting rid of AOL. I explained that I could not get broadband where I lived and that therefore the cost for a poor dial up service was too much. It transpires that there was a 10.00 a month package with restricted access to after 6pm and before 8am or 9am weekdays and all weekends. My use of AOL (as your records will show) was, at the time, rarely during the day on weekdays. I would have thought that you should look after customers by advising them that they are not utilising the service efficiently...ie assessing my account and establishing that the 10.00 package would serve me better and save me money. Of course, you are in business to make money but your attitude is short term. I call to cancel at which point I am told I have been wasting money for 2 years @ 6 per month. You kept my custom because it was then a justifiable cost but if you think that I was happy with the service you would be sadly mistaken.
The hotel advised me that the itemised calls for that evening when I spent circa 2 hours on international calls to AOL in the uk was circa 35 Bahraini Dinars or 56.00 sterling.
In order for you retain my custom you will need to:
inform me what steps you are taking to correct the incompetent advice being given by your technical cs reps
confirm that you have reprimanded the individual who asked me to phone the dial up numbers and listen for a fax noise!
confirm that the Bahrain access number situation has been resolved
credit the full cost of the calls to my AOL account effectively reimbursing me
make a gesture payment of goodwill for the poor service I have received again by crediting my AOL account
confirm that you are going to make provisions for certain AOL technical cs reps to be allowed to call customers back, provide dd's and ext numbers in extreme circumstances
I have not spent time on typing out this complaint because I now want to engage in discussion and debate with you regarding the situation. It is quite simple; confirm all of the points above and I will continue to utislise your services. Notwithstanding my gripes the AOL product remains very good. If you are unable to do this please DO NOT REPLY.
You now have until the 29th July 2005 to reply positively and during the interim I will not utilise AOL services at all..not even remotely.
In the event I do not hear from you I will understand that one or more of the points I have asked for confirmation on have caused you a problem and will therefore close my account.
However, I will not go quietly. I will send a copy of this e-mail to every reputable pc and computer magazine in the uk. Naturally I would hope that one might publish and then I could enjoy you seeking to mitigate damage to the AOL brand.
I look forward to hearing from you as much as I do to not hearing from you. If you do reply and do not confirm the points I have asked for clarification on then I will cancel the account and seek to publish this account.
Yours sincerely
Duncan Quig
