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The information in this series has been sent to us by an anonymous source that had worked for AOL. We don't know his name, what position he occupied, or what he is doing now, which is the way he wants it. In his own words:
"This past December, they made us sign a 40 page small print contract that we would never say anything about aol that was derogatory..this is only in effect while we ere there, but it could have included while we aren't also, since we weren't allowed to see the rest of it after we signed it and they took it away..."
We offer no validation for any of the information contained in any of these pieces, but leave it up to the individual reader to make of it what he/she will. Keep in mind the experiences of some AOL members, whose stories are listed elsewhere on our site, would seem to verify the shady practices listed here.
To make it easier to read, we've placed the information under these topic headers on separate pages, so be sure to check out all of them for the whole picture of AOL's inside practices. To return to the main interview page, simply click on the appropriate link on the left-hand navigation bar.
AOL Overbilling: The Secret Reasons Why
Note: My questions/comments are those displayed in red, while the sources text is black, and AOL internal memos/letters are in purple typeface.
I've seen people discuss the AOL SAVES department, the anti-cancellation queue. It might be nice for you to know, that these people can get paid serious amounts of cash for Saves...it's done by mixing the average save percentage of calls per day (minimum 45%) times the associate's retention rate over 3 months later......payouts range, depending on your daily average, from 2$ to 12$ per save. Monthly commissions can range from a mere $300 to over $3000, with $2000 not being infrequent. The saves people play a lot of games, sometimes refuse to cancel accounts though they tell people they have, and also can code in transfers to billing. The saves queue is allowed a lot of leeway with what they tell the member, even flirting and using sexual suggestions to make the kill. If you want to cancel, best way is through tech...they hate the saves people, and are required by internal rules to immediately cancel and not screw around.
There is one woman, where I worked, who made $40,000 a year working 20 hours a week...Saves base pay is $7 per hour, so you can imagine what that meant she was doing to make people stay..
When I left, nationwide, about half of the phone numbers had a reported problem stopping people from getting on. Last October (1998) AOL had made a pledge to invest in adding 60,000 modems per month....which they mentioned in September this year they were actually going to make good on...up til then, they had been adding only 20,000 of that number despite almost doubling the number of users during that time.
When you call into Tech support, you will undoubtedly be asked to switch to AOL’s long
distance plan...Oklahoma city, Tucson and Albuquerque all play into the Talk.Com long
distance scam. It's expected that at least 1 of 5 calls will transfer to the l-d, and you
don't maintain a good percentage you will be fired. The minimum for Billing is thirty five
percent...but since most people don't want it or else have already heard it since they've
been calling in repeated times, they tend to drop before the 45 second spiel at the other
side is finished all the way through..and you get blamed for it. Hence, a number of people,
for fear of losing their stock options (granted due to performance) or fear of being fired,
are encouraged by their coaches to lie or bend the spiel, even to the point of blind
transferring people over. Each successful transfer nets the Tech $1.25 per, so the incentive plays a big part in people's everyday pay.
"Wow...I wonder how many of them didn't agree to stay, and were just billed over and over again. The stories I've heard of that happening have increased in the last few months."
Yes, well...about a year ago, a guy named took over Member Services....and he started making things so evil. He used to work for IBM, and during his weird first speeches, he used to hold his fist at a 45 degree angle and pound his podium with it, just like Mussolini used to, making vaguer comments, about AOL being the best...like a high school pep rally. There are some tech teams now that have to get pre-approved permission to use the bathroom, plus are restricted to certain times for it too. It's crazy..and that's when most of the really bad funny business started...he was used to the games he played for IBM, and played them with AOL..
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