SiteHow to Pull Writing Rank
Here’ s the story: My husband’s aunt (his mom’s sister) died in May. While we were in San Antonio for the funeral and taking care of the estate, Eric’s mom, Judy, called AOL to have her sister, Barbara’s, account canceled, explaining that Barbara had passed away. AOL promised to do it and also said they would send Judy a form to fill out.
In June, another bill came from AOL. Judy called and they promised to cancel the account and also said they would send Judy a form to fill out.
In July, another bill came from AOL. Judy called and they promised to cancel the account and also said they would send Judy a form to fill out.
Yesterday, the executor of the estate called Judy to let her know that AOL had sent a notice that the account was going into collections. Judy called AOL once again, went through a ridiculously long voice-activated “help” system, finally got connected with a clueless person, and was accidentally disconnected. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
I decided to use my writerly powers to help Judy out. A fellow writer helped me hunt down the e-mail address for the head PR guy at AOL (it’s not published on the site). I sent him and another PR person an e-mail that started, “Hello! I’m a freelance writer based in Concord, NH, with credits in such magazines as Wired News, Family Circle, Entrepreneur’s Business Start-Ups, Redbook, and USA Weekend” and ended with, “It’s bad enough that they refuse to cancel the service of a dead woman, making the death of a close relative even more painful — but now that a collections agency is getting involved, the executor will not be able to settle Barbara’s estate. […] As a PR person, I know that you understand the value of keeping customers happy, and certainly the value of not actually hurting customers by drawing out the awful experience of the death of a loved one. Is there any way you can help us with this?” In the middle, I mentioned Vincent Ferrari, the guy who brought bad press down upon the heads of AOL when he recorded his attempt at canceling his AOL service and posted the file online.
Little did I know that at the same time, Eric (who is also a freelance writer) also sent an e-mail to the head PR honcho.
Within about 15 minutes, I had a call from one of AOL’s PR people apologizing and saying that he’d like to personally take care of the problem. Judy spoke with him, and he cancelled the account and promised that if there is any additional billing activity on that account, the information will go to him so that he can take care of it. Later that evening, we got calls from two more apologetic people at AOL. We also got e-mails from both of the PR people I e-mailed — the one from the head PR rep said that it was 6 pm, and he would not be leaving his office until the matter was settled.
So, I’m proud that I was able to use my writing powers for good and not evil. (And of course, I have no way of knowing if they reacted so quickly because Eric and I are journalists, or because they are kind people who were truly shocked at the events, since they probably don’t hear directly from customers very often.) But what about all the people who have trouble with businesses and don’t have writer friends? I wrote back to the PR person to thank him, and mentioned that (1) AOL, having such a huge customer base, probably has customers die on them fairly often, and (2) if they were to set up a special easy-cancellation system for such situations, they’d probably get a lot of great press.
Have you ever “pulled rank” on a business as a writer? Tell us about it in the comments! [LF]
9 Responses to “How to Pull Writing Rank”
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DianaBurrell
Said this on September 14th, 2006 at 12:31pm:Linda, I’m glad you’ve been able to resolve this. How stressful for your MIL and the rest of the family. I tell my friends and family when they have complaints to go straight to the company’s PR department. Good PR people don’t like unhappy customers, whether their journalists or not.
And yes, I have pulled rank. It’s not something I’m proud of, and I’ve only done it a few times but, like you, it was when I had no other straws to pull. I did it with Toshiba and IBM, where the problems were resolved to my satisfaction. Cuisinart and Chuck E Cheese never responded. Tough luck for them, because I talk people out of buying Cuisinart food processors all the time. (Check out my rants on eGullet.org.) And I won’t step into Chuck E Cheese ever again. Not that this is something over which I tear my hair out.
DianaBurrell
Said this on September 14th, 2006 at 12:32pm:Yikes — that should be “whether THEY’RE journalists or not.” Not enough coffee today!
lori
Said this on September 14th, 2006 at 4:51pm:I’ve never pulled rank — probably for the lack of it — but you did a great job!
What’s really ridiculous about all of this is that sometime in August, AOL’s service became FREE. So they were going to put a deceased customer’s estate in limbo over what — $70? — for a service that they now feel the entire world should access for free. I blogged about the difficult process of getting my account changed to a free one, and I had the same trouble with the crazy automated phone system.
It’s really a shame that a well-established company can’t handle basic customer service and billing requests. Nice job handling the situation.
Marie Braden
Said this on September 15th, 2006 at 12:07am:It’s a shame that the form didn’t arrive; while I realize there are MANY high-priority things going on, from the time I’ve spent in call centers, a timeframe IS given during which correspondence from the company should be received. If it’s not, then a follow-up call (not waiting till the next billing cycle) would seem to be in order.
And it isn’t just to aggravate the grieving that companies require documentation when informed someone is deceased. It would be downright easy (for example, in a nasty divorce case) for someone with the decedent’s information to cancel accounts, credit cards, whatever, if documentation wasn’t required. In the call center where I worked (admittedly, this was credit cards, so it’s only a SIMILAR situation), we could have gotten in a great deal of trouble for cancelling an account as “deceased” without that documentation.
So, while I think it’s cool that you got your situation handled by “pulling rank”, I also don’t see the corporation as necessarily being as at fault as it might at first seem.
W. Eric Martin
Said this on September 15th, 2006 at 9:03am:Marie Braden wrote: “So, while I think it’s cool that you got your situation handled by ‘pulling rank,’ I also don’t see the corporation as necessarily being as at fault as it might at first seem.”
AOL promised to send out a form three times, and my parents didn’t receive one. I understand that companies can’t drop customers simply because a random person calls to say that the customer is dead, but AOL didn’t deliver on its promises. We had to go through the awkward voicemail system repeatedly, wasting lots of our time, because AOL failed to do what it promised. We did our part again and again, which makes the fault entirely AOL’s.
AOL has a history of making cancellation extremely difficult. Representatives do everything they can to prevent customers from quitting, which includes being so frustrating on the phone that you hang up before getting what you want. This is yet another example of its misbehavior.
DianaBurrell
Said this on September 15th, 2006 at 9:13am:Lori, thanks for the heads up on free AOL. I’m abashed to admit I’ve been paying nearly $7 a month for service I don’t use (we have cable modem), so I made the switch to free AOL online. The good news is that it was easy to do — it looks like AOL took the complaints to heart. Of course, I’ll reserve kudos until I see my next billing statement.
Marie Braden
Said this on September 15th, 2006 at 11:55am:I know they were supposed to send the form–and I addressed that with my first paragraph. Yes, it has traditionally been very difficult to cancel AOL service, which is why I said I was glad it had all gotten resolved, but I still think that timely followup might have helped the situation. At the same time (as I stated), I DO understand that during a period of grieving, a followup call when the timeframe for the form had elapsed (and when I called with a false account, I was told 48 hours by fax or 7 business days, just because i was curious if there WAS a given timeframe) might have nullified the situation. What can I say? I’m an optimist!
Lila Bard
Said this on September 15th, 2006 at 6:44pm:Sounds like you’re an AOL employee.
Marie Braden
Said this on September 15th, 2006 at 8:26pm:Nope. Just worked in multiple call centers. It’s a thankless job, and sucks,but it pays the bills.
Full disclosure: I’m currently employed by LipService, SLUG Magazine, and West Telemarketing–inbound-only.