Friday, October 01, 2004

Look out for AOL!

Several months ago, I received a joint AOL-Delta Skymiles offer in the mail. Install AOL and get a gazillion miles (or something like that) when you finished the trial period and started paying for it. Given our successes at using miles to obtain otherwise relatively expensive plane tickets, it seemed like an acceptable deal. Plus, I'd get to play with the latest version of AOL.

Little did I know that the latest version of AOL is as big of a steaming pile of shit as AOL ever was (no offense to anyone who uses AOL, but what triple-digit IQ person who has even passing familiarity with Internet could find what AOL offers even mildly compelling?). So, a few months ago, I decided to walk away from the crap that is AOL.

Cancelling online is made impossible. So I called, I waited, I eventually got to talk to someone. This hard-sell AOL rep offered to extend my free trial period and added that he would provide me with an e-mail showing some of the exciting things I can find on AOL during my extended trial.

Free? Well, okay.

The catch? "If you don't want to continue your service at the end of your free trial, all you have to do is call us by October 2nd."

So I marked my calendar, and, this evening when I got home, I called them. *groan* The bastards kept me on the phone for a long time. If I were in a worse mood, I'd have lost it.

Instead, I stayed polite, repeatedly rebuffing their oh-so-wonderful offers. Finally, this borderline sociopath whose talents have been channeled to AOL's purposes offered to extend my trial period for two more months.

Um, no. "Well, all you'd have to do is call us by... ." No, no, no!

These people are so slimy that they're using the dirty trick of hoping I'll miss the date, so they can charge my credit card. Scumbags!

As I recall, the founder of AOL was a big supporter of conservative political causes. And AOL is using dirty tricks on people like me? Do we see a connection here? :)

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