On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 11:33:53 -0500, Tim Patton wrote:

I've read all of the postings on this subject and like so many of you I have
no idea why anyone would use AOL as an ISP. That aside let me tell you this
story about how brain dead AOL is.

My wife's cousin died. He used AOL. He did because he was computer
illiterate. So be it. Anyhow, in November he died unexpectedly at 62. So
my wife and I proceed to shut down his accounts, one of them being AOL.
Each time we called to get the account shut down we ended up speaking to at
least six people, and twice we ended up with the same person who took the
call.

I wonder what will happen when the next AOL automatic draft bounces with
an "Account closed" message?

AOL was my first ISP (I didn't know any better then). When I quit AOL,
I expected to see the games that I'd heard about, like "losing your
paperwork" to get in one more bill. I was a bit surprised to get only an
email message begging me to reconsider. You obviously need to write to
them. At worst, you may need to have the estate's attorney write to them;
a registered letter on a law firm's letterhead should get bucked
up to people who are permitted to know what they're doing. Remember, the
people who answer the listed phones at mass marketers are, effectively,
idiots. They may be normal people outside the call center, but they are
operating under policies that make bots of them.