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Our big brother Consumerist scored a major find today — a mole sent a copy of AOL's manual (cover designed by Fox News) for "customer service" reps fighting to keep people from unsubscribing.

If you caught the Vincent Ferrari story that shot around the web before landing Vincent and Consumerist editor Ben Popken on Nightline (watch the video for a recap), you heard AOL say that the employee who wouldn't let Vincent cancel was violating AOL policy and has been fired. So, uh, why does it look like he was strictly following the manual?

What that means to techies is AOL's long-rumored and recently confirmed switch to free access service couldn't come any sooner. Not because that'll stop AOL from trying the same retention scheme on its exiting customers, but because we'll get to see if they can even give this shit away.

AOL Retention Manual Revealed [Consumerist]