YEARN TO BE FREE
(Updates: See below at end of the post).
After almost a dozen years as a paying subscriber of AOL, I'm now a free user of AOL's core services.
Following yesterday's official Time Warner announcement of the long-awaited move to go from paid to a free, advertising based online service, I wanted to see how long it would take me to switch my account to free.
First I went online, to see if AOL had implemented an easy way for paying subscribers with their own broadband access (cable or DSL), to transition to a free account.
No immediate joy to be had.
This was going to be a series of steps. I started hesitantly on my journey to save $14.95 a month.
1. First you had to click on an "AOL is changing..." link on aol.com.
2. Then you see a link at the end of that page that addresses existing AOL users (all 18 million of them).
That page then leads to a page explaining the big announcement, but no immediate link or number to transition from paid to free.
3. Instead the user then has to click on a "Frequently Asked Questions about new AOL" link.
This link then gets you to a page with a dozen questions.
4. One then clicks on question number 7: "When can I get AOL for free?" Here's the answer to this burning question:
"If you already have an alternative way to connect to the Internet, either by dial-up or broadband, you can move to the free AOL plan and continue to access your AOL e-mail, software, and security features. To change your current AOL plan, simply call Member Services at 1-800-984-6207."
After following this long chain of links, AOL wants the subscriber to call an 800 number.
An online company that doesn't allow you to do the switch online!
I guess I wasn't surprised, given the company's long, controversial history of not allowing subscribers to cancel online as well.
But this toll-free call was likely to be different, I thought, as I started to dial the number.
Will I be talking to someone in the same AOL customer service department that was likely to see large, wholesale layoffs a short while after the company transitions from subscription to a free, ad based model?
If so, the employee morale and willingness to help a customer who wants to transition to a free account should be great.
This wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.
My mind immediately went to the recent incident when a user that wanted to cancel had to face an aggressive telephone rep from the "customer retention" department who was trained to "save" the account.
5. "It's going to be that kind of a process", I thought, as I finally dialed the number. After a few rings, the phone was answered by an automated, perky female voice that cheerfully that most of us are all too familiar with from dealing with BIG media/cable/telco company "Customer Support" lines.
I sighed...so that's how it was going to start...
What a great opportunity missed to instill good feelings amongst existing members and "welcome" back new members interested in the new, FREE AOL.
Instead the recording goes on to tell me, and I'm paraphrasing a bit here, that due to the response to the company's recent announcement, they may take a little while to get to little old me.
6. The VOICE then asks you to "SPEAK" your home phone number and screen name, which I dutifully gave her.
7. The system then offers you TWO choices: press #1 to sign up as a new subscriber, or press #2 to sign up for AOL Broadband.
No #3 for "existing subscribers who'd like to transition their account from free to paid"
8. At this point, I was stuck in a loop. Just two choices to choose from, neither of which I wanted.
I then had to do what one does with these infernal voice recognition "HELP" systems that are designed really NOT to help.
I had to figure out the keyword that would get me transfer me to a human being.
So I cycled through the usual choice of words that went through my head, starting with "HELP", "OPERATOR", "CUSTOMER SERVICE" etc.
The system paused and then asked if I wanted to speak to a "Consultant".
Of course, that's exactly the person I wanted to speak with...now, why didn't I figure that out?
9. The system than put me on music hold while I waited for a human picked me up. It promised me a wait of no more than two and a half minutes. How optimistically precise, I thought.
10. A tad over 7 minutes later, a human being picks up the phone.
A distinctly Indian accent, which I was able to understand (but then, I was born there). At least I wasn't going to have to deal with the regular AOL customer service people who were facing an uncertain employment future.
The gentleman politely asked how he could help me.
I said in as firm a voice I could muster that I was a long-time paying subscriber, who wanted to take advantage of the offer for a "FREE" AOL.
He calmly assured me that he could help, but first would I be interested in an offer to pay $4.95 a month to get "Customer Service" AND 10 hours of dial-up when needed?
"No, thank you", I replied, telling him also that I had a meeting in ten minutes (I did) and needed to get this transition to a free account done as quickly as possible.
No problem, he replied, as he continued to read from a script. He assured me he had all my customer information in front of him, and it would take a few entries to make the change.
A few moments later, he informed me that my free AOL services were activated. They took effect immediately, and they did not include dial-up and customer service.
The script then informed me that I was agreeing to waive pre-paid dial-up charges that I'd already paid in for the month, and that I remained responsible for any other charges.
He also informed me that I could get additional support help.aol.com.
He then asked me if he could help me with anything else.
"No", I said.
The rep then asked me while parting if I was interested in a video lesson from video professor, and a "free" video camera. If so, he could helpfully connect me with a representative who could help me.
That was the second attempt to sell me an additional service.
Again, I politely declined, and hung up the call.
The whole thing had taken almost 40 minutes, 16 of which were spent on the phone.
It'd probably be a long longer for most mainstream folks, who may not be as determined in their quest to follow the trail of links, and solve the guessing puzzles through the voice recognition system gauntlet to get to a human operator.
So, there're still a fair number of friction points to try "retain" paying customers as passively as they can.
Two attempts to up-sell me to additional revenue producing services.
That's why they were making millions of customers call a toll-free number rather than facilitating a simple online transfer from paid to free.
What a lost opportunity to get existing and/or new users excited about the new, ad-supported AOL.
Instead, it was more of the same old attempts at telemarketing.
Old habits die hard, I guess.
I'm now a free AOL user, waiting like millions of other users to see if the new AOL is any different from the old AOL.
Not holding my breath though.
Overall, I'd give AOL a "B-" in this one person's anecdotal journey from paid to free.
It would have been an A- if the initial, automated telephone response had mentioned key word "free aol services for existing members" as the third option.
Or an A if they'd allowed members to do it all online.
An A+ if they'd given concrete examples of how the new, free AOL was going to be exciting and really different from the old AOL.
I must say that I was surprised to be able to actually make the transition from paid to free on the day of the official announcement.
And I'd expect the process to get simpler and hopefully easier over time.
I was expecting to give them a C going into the whole thing though, so they did better than expected.
Curious to hear if your experience is any different.
DISCLOSURE: I remain a long-time, increasingly frustrated Time Warner shareholder.
Update #3 AUG 4, 2006
Reader Dave comments to the above post:
"It's easy online
Get on your AOL account
Enter AOL Keyword "change plan"
on click on the free plan on the next screen and you are done
Update #2: August 4, 2006
I have a new post here on AOL's new transition.
Update #1: August 3, 2006
AOL did announce one differentiating feature for it's new, free AOL a day later today, offering members 5GB of free online storage.
The lack of a "Wow" feature was something I highlighted in yesterday's official announcement of the new, free AOL. With this announcement, AOL trumps Google with it's pioneering 2GB Gmail offering, by offering a broader, online storage solution, ahead of it's long-rumored "GDrive".
The offering is a result of it's year-old acquisition of XDrive.
Online storage is a topic I've been very focused on in the past. See earlier posts here, here, here, and here).
Hey, listen, I've had a really interesting experience! Was on the customer service line for almost an hour, trying as you, to change plan and keep my aol screen name. They had no record of my billing account which is a credit card, even tho' I've been paying it for over 7 years! I said my son installed it years ago and he's 20 now! They put me on hold for 2 minutes, which is how long they told me it would take....came back, had disconnected my service, I lost my address book info and they would not allow me to use my screen name, because a nonadult had set up the account. Even though I was there, with my credit card and authorizing it, because I said he typed in the info, they disconnected, immediately my service.
SO, if you want OUT of AOL, first copy your address book and then tell them your 12 year old son installed the program! Instant disconnect. As you can see, however, I was able to open an aol account with a slight change. Won't use it after this, just wanted to see if it would work.
Best wishes,
B
Posted by: becky | Saturday, August 26, 2006 at 01:57 PM
Dear Michael,
Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you!
I read your initial post, dialed the 800 number and got the whole thing done in under 10 minutes. Since they had just deducted my monthly fee yesterday I asked them to refund it, and they agreed. I would have forfeited the paid time I had until 09/25.
Regards,
Joyce
Posted by: Joyce | Sunday, August 27, 2006 at 12:18 AM
AOL Support? Isn't that an oxymoron? Here's all you get from AOL Support: "Clear your cache and reboot your computer." I once got that line and replied, "I already did that. I also slaughtered a chicken and did a voodoo dance around my monitor. Now can I talk to someone who knows what he's doing?"
Posted by: Tracey | Sunday, August 27, 2006 at 08:24 PM
Well I finally got around to calling AOL to change plan. I had intended to go to the "free plan" but after reading on here that they would offer a $4.95 per month plan with 10 hours free dialup when you said you were going to go FREE -- I decided to go that route. I live in the country and sometimes my highspeed connect doesn't work [it uses a radio receiver and tower thing] so I felt it was worth the $4.95 to be able to dial up to get internet service. To offset monthly cost, I do Opinion Place surveys about twice a month and get credits of about $6 per month, so it will end up being free with the dial up and the terrific tech support [yeah right].
Deb
Posted by: Debi | Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at 06:52 PM
WWell I just finished with an interesting situation with AOL from going to their free service. About two years ago I too experienced the crunch of paying for my cable internet service and my AOL service. So I called to cancel the membership and they convinced me to go with their $14.95 unlimited plan since I still needed a dial up service once in awhile. To my demised I locked myself into the deal for 2 years and it finally ran out in June of this past year. So last week I decided to find out when the contract was to end and used their online billing help to find out when my agreement ended and they verified that it ended in June and I had the option to go to the $9.95 a month plan but no one had mentioned the free plan, not the online help or the phone call I made later.
So I found out the $9.95 per month plan was the same as my current $14.95 a month plan. At this point pretty frustrated that AOL didn’t change the plan for me automatically since they no longer offered the plan I was on. Then I started to read more into AOL and all the problems they had been having and I noticed the free plan had been offered recently (I usually delete AOL junk mail, so I probably missed the letter from them on it). I went ahead and switched to the free service Online. I checked to make sure I was on the free plan for about 2 days after that and went ahead and deleted their software which I had been using for years and went with the HTML mail pages. Then 8 days later I check my bank account and they processed a $9.95 charge to my account. I immediately called them to find out why I had been switched back to the $9.95 a month plan. They stated that I logged back into my account the day following my change and switched it back to a paying account. I explained to them that I intentionally checked my account for 2 days afterwards and it was still set as a free account. I was then told that someone could have had access to my account and changed it for me. Since I am the only user to my accounts, I was shocked that someone would intentionally hack into my primary account and change my billing plan for me.
They explained that they would change my account back to the free plan but it would take 1 to 2 billing cycle till I knew if I was going to get the $9.95 refunded back into my account. I asked why I couldn’t find out now that I was getting a refund and they lady explained that she was only a consultant for AOL and an AOL department had to review the circumstances. I told her that I would like to talk to an AOL employee and get the approval right away. She explained to me that she was an AOL employee and at that time it was apparent that she didn’t understand the difference between a consultant and an employee. So I did the normal situation and asked for the supervisor which assured me that since I was a long standing customer since 1998, that they would approve the refund and I would see it in my account in 3-5 business days. So hopefully by next Friday (9/22/06)I hope that I won’t have to call back AOL but I know that I will.
Posted by: Andrew | Friday, September 15, 2006 at 12:43 PM
Like you, I'm now a free AOL user, waiting like millions of other users to see if the new AOL is any different from the old AOL. So far I have discovered the following:
The fact that there is no tech support turns out to be a more serious problem than I had imagined. Almost immediately after I changed to a free account glitches started showing up in my email.
First, the automatic spell checker no longer works. I have to click on Spell Check the old way. Second, the quote system when replying to an email no longer works. If I highlight a phrase from the email to which I am replying, the phrase does NOT show up in the reply. No amount of tinkering with email settings preferences did any good.
Questions:
1. Do you think the whole system is gradually going to deteriorate so that we will be driven to go back to paying?
2. Has this happened to anybody else?
Posted by: Ellen | Sunday, September 17, 2006 at 12:30 PM
I was wondering after reading all this if it may be the cause of the bad drag AOL has had the last week. For no reason I would be working or in a meeting and poof I was being booted. ( not as if this didn't seem as any routine for AOL) but sure has been more frequent. Now my understanding of the new free AOL is it should all be the same except we would no longer be able to get any tech support. is this the only thing we would have to go without HA HA HA? Does it also mean the so called live help? Would The AOL pictures and AOL by phone ( which I pay for separate from my regular service or added to I should say I do know I pay $4.99 extra for this a month)Just wondered if I would be given that up to change over to the free account. It would really be nice to have them list things like . Changing over to free AOL will mean you will no longer receive ect... And list what all we would have to give up to do this. I'm still not sure as to that and I have to agree with the long drawn out process it takes to even get to the consultant. Half the time now that I do know that is the key word I still get the normal..... humm I'm sorry I am having a problem understanding you let me repeat the options bla bla bla . After the third time maybe I do finally get let me connect you to a consultant that can better assist you. Only then to have to once again go through all the bla bla bla. I have received so much bad advice that has caused me to lose my information and even had to take my computer back to factory settings 3 times in this last year based on their instructions to do it. Still to this day I receive about 20 to 30 returned emails that I had never sent out in the first place. Guess I shouldn't complain compared to the 50 to a 100 I was receiving grrrrrr. Oh but they want me to think it was Norton not catching things and my having a virus NOT!!!!! I just gave up and was happy to only have to worry about deleting 20 a day not bad lol. Had one consultant the last one I had talked to about this issue tell me Oh that is just spoofing . I asked him why didn't any one else in the last month and many calls no to tell me this. He said not many were even aware of this fact and out of the two years he had worked for AOL he had only come across this issue one time before. The odd thing after I had tried all the many things I had been told to do including taking my system back to factory settings 3 times. Even asking if my master screen name could be changed to stop this and was told they would not be able to do that. This guy told me to just change my security settings to hi and if that didn't work then he thought it best I ask to have my master screen name changed but in doing so I would lose every picture I have stored on AOL you've got pictures. Being I have so many I could not risk that loss and so I just smile daily as I delete all the mail returns from people I don't even know who they are and that I had never even mailed any thing to period. Hum I wonder if I were to switch to the free AOL if this would take care of this problem for good :)
Posted by: masoncwgrl | Monday, January 22, 2007 at 05:51 AM
Dear Sirs at AOL,
I would like to switch my plan from what ever it is today, I believe it is the $29.95 plan, to the $9.95 plan but I also need the unlimited use on line. So far this is the fourth time I have tried to switch on line and I would appreciate a real person to talk to on the phone. But of course no phone number included in any of the paper work I have received from your office head quarters. What can I do if anything at all. I am sure that there is no trouble collecting the payment at this time.
Sincerely,
Susan Graves-Ohri
[email protected]
Posted by: Susan Graves-Ohri | Monday, April 09, 2007 at 09:14 PM