So I need some advice from you guys. Here's the deal. When my husband and I moved in to this apartment (back in the end of May) we tried to get hi-speed internet from Verizon (we live in a really small town north of Modesto and your only choices are Comcast and Verizon). Anyway, Verizon told us that they weren't out at our complex yet (it's rather new) so we decided to do a free trial offer from AOL. That was a huge mistake. We only used the AOL for about 3 days b/c we went with Comcast instead. Now, my husband called to cancel it back in June. First off let me say that the disk said it was on a risk free basis, if you didn't like it you could call and cancel within the first 3 months and they would refund your money. Well, he called and told them to cancel it and that we wanted our $25 back - they said no. They told him that we didn't have free trial basis and so on (he spoke to a supervisor). Ok fine. He told them he no longer wanted the service. Oh, she also made up some shit about us having used the service in July and blah blah blah. We didn't even have AOL on the computer anymore.
Fast forward to yesterday.....I get this bill in the mail from AOL saything that I owe them $103! WTF! He called them up again yesterday and asked what we were getting billed for. They said that we never cancelled the service. DH tried to explain to the guy that he had called and told the woman to cancel it. The a**hole wouldn't budge. He said that we could write a letter of dispute. I'm going to write it but I'm thinking that it's not even going to do any good, they seem like money hungry devils and I'm so pissed.
Oh I have heard AOL is the devil when it comes to cancelling. I am assuming that they don't have your CC on file otherwise you could file a dispute with the CC and they usually handle and win for you. That said I would write the letter and maybe make them prove that you were using it in July if it was not even on your computer. I'm not really 100% sure what grounds you have and they have but maybe try googling for a credit board they usually talk about stuff like this.
ugh. i hate aol. you shouldn't be billed and punished for some woman's sheer buttheaded stupidity in not cancelling your account when you explicitly asked for it.
this happened to my father 3-5 years ago (sorry so vague). all i remember was that he got PISSED and made such a huge stink that they refunded him.
things might've changed since then, but recouping your $ may be possible!
so sorry you are dealing with this! i swear they train their employees like the capital one commercial. it took me awhile to cancel my account. every time i would call, they gave me a million different reasons why i couldn't/shouldn't cancel. i finally said that i already got another service provider, and i must have gotten a more understanding rep. i would call and basically say you tried cancelling repeatedly and were mislead about cancelling your account/etc. tell them you aren't hanging up until the bill AND your account are cancelled!
Aurora wrote: Oh I have heard AOL is the devil when it comes to cancelling. I am assuming that they don't have your CC on file otherwise you could file a dispute with the CC and they usually handle and win for you. That said I would write the letter and maybe make them prove that you were using it in July if it was not even on your computer. I'm not really 100% sure what grounds you have and they have but maybe try googling for a credit board they usually talk about stuff like this.
No, they don't have my CC number anymore. I got a new ATM check card (my original form of payment) so they never got the new number. My husband actually tried to argue out the point of it not being his fault about the woman not canelling and the fact that we only used their service for a total of about 3 days. He also told the guy to feel free and check that we haven't used it. The guy's response? Well, you have to pay for the service whether you used it or not.
Have you checked to see how the Better Business Bureau deals with AOL?
We've been in the middle of a battle royale w/ Sprint PCS. The BBB has a group completely devoted to disputes w/ Sprint. I honestly didn't think the BBB was all that useful any longer, but I was surprised how quickly Sprint started listening to us once we filed a complaint. We also filed complaints w/ the Federal Utilities Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.
I just now filed a complaint with the BBB. Thank you for the help, girls. Now let's just keep our fingers crossed. I am not paying those bogus charges.
I HATE AOL!!! I deal with these same situations on a regular basis at the bank I work at. They are awful. Keep calling back, hopefully you will get a person who will take care of it. It will take some time but worth it.
When I cancelled them I seriously was on the phone for 30 mins saying, no thank you, please cancel my service, no thank you I want to cancel, that is all I said for the entire time until she finally got the hint. Did I mention I hate AOL. Good Luck.
I had a similar event happen when my cc company enrolled me in their account protection plan after i specifically said no on the phone.
I insisted that they look up the call...since they were all recorded for quality assurance! I said, you find that phone call and you will see that I absolutely said NO! Tell them to find the call placed in July and there will be proof that you cancelled your account and that their employee failed to get the account cancelled!
Once I said that, they were like, yes mam...I am sure you did, and apologized for their employees mistake.
Nobody should ever get involved with AOL. I think it was nearly 5 years ago I tried cancelling because Verizon was way cheaper and we didn't use the stupid AOL extras. Well, they wouldn't let me cancel and made me listen to some speach about this long distance service. I said I didn't want long distance service but they said that's too bad, your getting it! So after spending over 1/2 hour on the phone, my AOL was not cancelled and they signed me up for long distance even with my refusal. So we end up calling our phone provider Verizon and they themselves took care of everything!
Okay, as someone that worked in exec management in the comm biz for many years, don't threaten the FCC. The FCC is a joke and complaints to them will not really get you anywhere, however, if you threaten the state PUC (public utilities commission), you will get somewhere quickly. PUC complaints lead to audits, which leads to problems... HTH!