Vincent Ferrari

From AOL Wiki

Vincent Ferrari is a New York blogger who became famous in 2006 for his dealings with AOL and its customer service. Specifically, Retention.

AOL controversy

On June 13, 2006, Ferrari posted Cancelling AOL, an audio file of himself speaking with an AOL representative named "John" and trying to cancel his AOL account. The AOL representative had resisted Ferrari's request by attempting to keep the discussion focused on Ferrari's reasons for wanting to cancel.

In the call, when Ferrari says he doesn't use the account anymore and that his father does not even have the software installed on his computer anymore, the AOL representative cites the number of hours allegedly used in the past month and insists on a detailed discussion of Ferrari's reasons for wanting to cancel. When the 30-year old Ferrari tries to pass over such matters and force the issue of canceling the account (repeatedly saying "cancel the account" and "I don't know how to make it any clearer") the AOL representative asks to speak with Ferrari's father. Ferrari and the AOL representative become more and more confrontational as the call goes on.

The audio file became popular on the Internet and many commenters cited similar experiences with AOL and other companies. The conversation was aired on CNBC. When CNBC reporters tried to have an account on AOL canceled, they were hung up on immediately and it ultimately took more than 45 minutes to cancel the account.

AOL later fired the representative and issued an apology.