Complaint Review: America OnLine - aol

In february 2004, I called aol to cancel my account. The agent asked why i was cancelling and i said that i had another internet service and did not need to continue aol. He then tried to get me to stay with aol offering 3 free months. I refused his several offers and requested cancellation.

he said i could continue using the service after cancellation until the end of the billing cycle and if i wanted to continue the service just sign on and my account would be resumed. i again refused aol service. I never used the service again.

I did not pay attention to my card statement because I had stopped using it and cut it up since last christmas. In july i found out that aol continued to bill me. i called aol again, the agent told me that I had agreed to take 3 free months. I denied his statement and informed him that aol had put my card over the limit and i had incurred over-the-limit charges as a direct result of their charges. I got no appology or sympathy just insistence that i agreed to stay with aol. after arguing with aol for 10 minutes i became frustrated and hung up.

August 28th I called aol again, found out from the agent that aol was trying to get over $100. from me for a service that I did not use. I threatening media and lawyer involvement. the agent then apologized, cancelled the account and tried to get me off the phone.

I insisted on a reference number for the call and was offered a confirmation letter in the mail. I got the cancellation confirmation number after threatening to have a lawyer deal with aol. Before I could discuss aol ceasing attempts to collect for services they were supposed to cancel since february, the agent switched me to a recorded disclaimer.

I called back and got another agent {anita} according to her she was at an aol location in india. Anita went back to february and stated that I had been offered 1 free month which I accepted. once again, I vehemently denied this. I informed her i was offered more that one month free which i did not accept. she put me on hold and came back after 3 minutes stating that I was actually offered 2 free months february and march. I asked her how it was that aol could offer february free when I had already paid for february.

I stated that aol was ripping me off and I would involve the attorney general's office with a complaint of fraud. Anita then offered me $47.80 and a promise that aol would not apply further charges to my account. I asked what about those 6 months of charges previously applied. she said that was why she was giving me $47.80 and no more aol charges, she requested my credit card update to refund the money. I told her it was the same card they had on file; it is over the limit and was no good.

after playing semantics with anita I eventually made sure that she understood that i meant that I was arguing prior charges and had no intentions of paying their bill past the january 26th amount which was february's bill. She agreed that i would not be charged and the next and only contact would be a letter confirming the conversation. She refused to give a cancellation/confirmation number insisting that the forthcoming letter was sufficient. after appoximately 5 minutes she agreed to give me a reference number which turned out to be the same cancellation number i was given before with a 0 in front of it.

Anita had the unmitigated gaul to end this hellish ordeal by attempting to introduce me to another gimic offering me a way to receive $50 bonus for god knows what. Before she end her sentence i stated emphatically "I am not interested" and hung up the phone.

Joanne
yonkers, New York
U.S.A.