thehig
07-31-2001, 01:07 PM
Went on a trip and needed a temporary ISP for on the road. So I thought what the heck I will use one of those ubiquitous AOL free trials and cancel when I get back.
So I did. Cancelled the account yesterday. You have to call and explain yourself to them before they will cancel the account. I got this very surly lady. She informed me that I had not fully explored AOL and all its benefits. I told her I had seen enough and was not interested in continuing the services. She then began to try to sell me on staying. "Did I know that AOL was the only ISP that offered direct connections from my machine to their servers?" I said that makes sense. She continued "This will stop people from being able to hack into your computer." I asked how and she rambled on about how secure their connections are and that you can't be hacked using AOL. I started to laugh and she got really angry (probably should not have laughed but you have to admit it is a bit funny). I told her that if you don't open attachments, use a anti-virus, and a firewall you are as secure on any services as you can be. She said you do not have enough money to buy a firewall. They cost tens of thousands of dollars. Again I laughed. I said Zonealarm is free. She Zonealarm doesn't do anything at all its a hoax.
At this point she told me I should use AOL a bit longer then call her back later if I wanted to cancel. I told her to cancel the account right this second. Her final threat was that I am only allowed one free trial per lifetime. NO PROBLEM!
I can not believe the things she told me to scare me into staying with AOL.
Amazing!
So I did. Cancelled the account yesterday. You have to call and explain yourself to them before they will cancel the account. I got this very surly lady. She informed me that I had not fully explored AOL and all its benefits. I told her I had seen enough and was not interested in continuing the services. She then began to try to sell me on staying. "Did I know that AOL was the only ISP that offered direct connections from my machine to their servers?" I said that makes sense. She continued "This will stop people from being able to hack into your computer." I asked how and she rambled on about how secure their connections are and that you can't be hacked using AOL. I started to laugh and she got really angry (probably should not have laughed but you have to admit it is a bit funny). I told her that if you don't open attachments, use a anti-virus, and a firewall you are as secure on any services as you can be. She said you do not have enough money to buy a firewall. They cost tens of thousands of dollars. Again I laughed. I said Zonealarm is free. She Zonealarm doesn't do anything at all its a hoax.
At this point she told me I should use AOL a bit longer then call her back later if I wanted to cancel. I told her to cancel the account right this second. Her final threat was that I am only allowed one free trial per lifetime. NO PROBLEM!
I can not believe the things she told me to scare me into staying with AOL.
Amazing!