AOL, America Online Rip-off Atlanta Internet
I would also like to report an AOL rip-off when trying to cancel, and my experience regarding the rebuttal from an AOL employee on how to cancel.
I was an AOL customer since 1997, but after trying out the DSL service, only to find it didn't work half the time, then signing up for the broadband service through Time-Warner Roadrunner,and still having difficulty signing on, each passing the buck as to whose fault it was, it was finally determined that AOL was the culprit after a Time-Warner tech came to the house and ran all kinds of tests, so I switched billing to Roadrunner entirely in April, 2003, fully realizing they also own Roadrunner, but at least I had reliable service.
There have been no further problems getting online. I had also been having problems on my credit card with "mystery charge of the month", with unauthorized charges for either magazine subscriptions or other services, charged by AOL affiliates, but they had always been credited. But, I was fed up with dealing with it almost every month and cancelled the credit card.
I got notification from AOL that they needed to update their records because of the cancelled credit card, at which time I notified them I would no longer subscribe to them and why. They offered 3 months worth of freebie coupons to remain with them, so - much to my own stupidity - I relinquished the new credit card number, and found - again, mystery charges of the month, along with being billed $21.95 for one month, even after freebie coupons were redeemed. I had no intentions of renewing after that 90 day time frame, so I informed them in writing on May 25th that I was cancelling, and faxed the information, along with a confirmation kept of the fax received. I crossed every T and dotted every I per their instructions, but I received a postcard addressed to "To Whom It May Concern" that they had no record of my account, and to please call them.
I called them, and said, how can you have no record of an account that was active since 1997? I was informed that I had not manually signed the request, so therefore it was not valid.
I said, oh yes I did, I have it in front of me. The reply, verbatim, was: "We do not accept initials as part of a signature." I said, excuse me? I have been signing my name with initials professionally on checks & legal documents most of my adult life, they have always been accepted as a valid signature, and AOL is telling me that after all these years my signature is not valid? The reply, verbatim: "We must have your full first name."
I at that time, said, OK, I've heard horror stories from other people trying to cancel, and now I have my own experience. I was then then given a spiel that they would extend the account for another billing period, free of charge, as a "grace period" to allow me to consider the error of my ways and renew at that time. I said, I don't think so. I want a confirmation number, I want it now. I have thought the matter through, up to and including uninstalling AOL on both of my computers, deleting all screen names except the primary account, so I think the decision is final.
The man rattled off a confirmation number, very very loudly and rudely,I asked him to wait a minute while I grabbed a pen to write it down, and was told I should have been prepared to write it down, he would not repeat it, and it would be confirmed in 7-10 days in writing. I replied, I will be watching the credit card closely, and if any charges or additional "mystery charges of the month" were found, we would do battle again. Then the man got quite rude, but asked if I would participate in a phone survey on how he did, etc.
My reply to that was, "NO" is a complete sentence. No surveys, nothing, but if you must have a reply to the survey, take a magic marker and write across the survey, IDIOTS! He slammed the phone.
So, I will be watching closely.
Diana
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on AOL
1 Updates & Rebuttals
B.b.
Great Falls,Virginia,
U.S.A.
customers that we cancelled the accounts, we were told to leave them active so they were still active
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, July 10, 2003
I worked at AOL....
To all who are having problems with AOL. This is my opinion: When I worked at AOL from 93-95, my supervisor would walk around the sales floor and tell us to post-date cancellations without telling the AOL customers. We would tell the customers that we cancelled the accounts, but we were told to leave them active so they were still active with a month credit and a postdated cancellation on the system. My opinion is that this gave AOL the member numbers they needed, while leaving the accounts opened for fraud or whatever! That was when they were trying to reach the 1 million member mark and Steve Case had thrown a big party in DC for all the employees telling us that we would get a leather coat if we reached the mark. Additionally in my opinion, there were many more things that AOL was doing. Heard about AOHell program? Also, members would sign-up with their checking accounts and some after 18+ months realized that their account had been debited $9.95 or $11.95 ($9.95 +2.00 for checking accts.) every month without signing a written authorization for checking accounts debits. AOL would often credit back all of the charges. When I first started, we were able to read the passwords of members when they called. Then they changed the sign-on procedures and the amounts to be credited back for fewer months in 1995 I believe. Then AOL went to Germany and did the same thing! That is just the tip of the iceberg. AOL has been doing this for years and I would like your information to go public, too. I have my own story which is about to come out because AOL will not change. It will be about what they did to me and members at the time. I would like current cases showing they have not changed their tactics so we can protect innocent consumers and current and future stock holders.