Complaint Review: America OnLine - Ogden Utah

The following is a letter that I was prompted to write to America Online which I sent both by snail mail and submitted on their customer service web site. By the way the email address "[email protected]" is bogus...it came back to me "undeliverable - unknown address" AND it takes an act of congress, a letter from your mother and a prayer to God Almighty just to get ther PUBLIC mailing address.

The letter below should explain everything and by the way...A CAVEAT to anyone reading this - if you currently use or are thinking of using AOL...think again, for your own good. Nobody needs this kind of frustration. Enjoy!

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Refund my $23.90???

Good morning AOL,

I have several comments to make regarding the customer service that AOL provides. My number one request is that when a customer calls to CANCEL an account that they be allowed to do just that. Don't bother asking why, don't bother offering a month free...don't bother! Just cancel it.

Let me tell you my nightmare with AOL and it will justify the reason why I will NEVER use AOL again...nor anyone I know for that matter.

This began a few months ago when my son clicked on a pop up ad telling him that he would win a cd player for checking out this site. By him clicking ok it prompted an agreement between myself and a travel club to charge me $134.95 if I didn't cancel the free trial membership within 30-days. Seeing as how I didn't know about this trial membership until I noticed the $134.95 charge on my bank statement and went through hell by the way just to discover how, why, when and where it occurred, I finally got my money back, realized that it was a pop-up from AOL that caused it in the first place and then decided to CANCEL AOL. Of course the rep that I spoke to in August suggested that I upgrade to 9.0 and try it out free for the month of September. I barely used it in September and I did not upgrade. On September 29, I called to make sure the account was cancelled.

Today, October 16, I phoned again and met Jamile, Sheryl, Dawn and Kelvy! Very nice people but all have the incompetence of a twig and unable to help me in a satisfactory manor. Jamile routed my call to Sheryl who "lost my call" during the transfer so I called back and retold my tale to Dawn who transferred me to Kelvy who, again "lost me in the transfer" to someone who could help me get my money back for the month of October (which before Kelvy "tranferred" me he told me a very solemn "Good Luck" - Yeah, right).

I feel I should get a refund for October since #1. I was informed my account was suspended on September 29 (the same day I called but no one informed me of a block or suspension on that day) because of a violation of TOS rules in a kids chat room which as I said before, was not brought to my attention on 9/29 when I called to confirm my cancellation as of October 1. #2. I uninstalled AOL from my computer and I KNOW that you can verify that I have not used your service in October just by the admission of 4 of your customer service reps that my account was blocked/suspended...therefore, how can I use a blocked account? I assumed that the account was CANCELLED...which is what I requested in the first place.

Regardless of whether or not AOL does the right thing and refunds my $23.90, and regardless of the cancellation number that I finally received from Kelvy (before he hung up on me-God bless his heart) I will cancel the credit card that I was using to pay AOL simply because I DO NOT TRUST AOL.

Also, I suggest you change your name to AOHELL, giving the fact that I have been put through hell just to initiate a simple cancellation and refund...I believe it is a much more appropriate moniker for your company.

And Also, when Kelvy lost me "during the call transfer" I heard a message that said something to the effect of "...848-8990, thank you for calling CompuServe" Did he in fact, try to transfer me to another internet company? Like I said, TERRIBLE customer service...granted they were all nice and I began to wonder if I would meet the entire AOL customer service team by the end of the day and probably would have had I called back, but my heart was just not in it...I don't need nor do I as a customer who has paid for this service for years deserve that kind of harassment and irritation...so, keep the $23.90 if AOL needs it that badly...whatever!...but just know that I, and every one I know or meet throughout my lifetime...will NOT use AOL. As a matter of fact, I will begin a "DITCH AOL" campaign from this day on. I'll get my twenty-three dollars and ninety cents worth over and over again by convincing every one I know or cross paths with to cancel your service...and with the bad reputation AOL has, that won't be too hard to do.

As for the situation where the account was blocked (and again I think a phone call would be in order to the main account holder when something like this happens, just as a courtesy - because like I said, I thought the account was CANCELLED so why should I have gone back online and then realized the thing was blocked - and had I gone back on line I would have assumed it was indeed cancelled because you obviously cannot get on a blocked/cancelled account). Anyway, I'm terribly sorry for the situation...I understand one of my boys was commiting the horrible sin of "scrolling" in a kids only chat room. I will see that he is flogged for commiting such a terrible offense against the TOS rules. Should I also send you his right arm to appease the TOS gods?

My "old" screen name with AOL was ************

my birth place (and I should know this since I repeated it today at least 4-times) is *************...my name is ***** * ***** and I live at **********************...my tely is ***-***-**** and my rank and serial numbers are none of your business, thank you very much!

In closing, try not to make it such an ordeal for customers to cancel...it really shouldn't be that frustrating and you do in fact gather a lot of rather pissed off and unhappy EX-customers who will in turn, hurt your business. Whatever happened to "the customer is always right", and "do whatever it takes to make the customer happy" ?!?!?! Instead, AOL does whatever it can to make the customer frustrated, pissed off, unhappy and revengeful. I just don't get it...is that perhaps how AOL got to be "the #1 internet service", by totally disregarding customer service and making the customer so frustrated that they just give up and keep paying? AOL needs some serious policy changes before some serious law suits hit the preverbial "fan".

PS: I will submit this complaint at "ripoffreport.com" and the BBB and any other organization I can find that posts complaints where a large number of people can see and decide for themselves what a bad choice AOL really is. Please feel free to forward this letter as high up the AOL totem pole as you can...apparently the big wigs need to hear DIS-satisfaction on a regular basis in order for change to occur. And suggest to them to log on to the BBB site and Ripoffreport.com and read the complaints posted against AOL...if they give a d**n, they will understand how desperate AOL is in need of policy/customer service overhaul. If not, then I sincerely hope to see AOL disappear...and a "good riddance" to bad business! I know I won't lose any sleep over it.

Regards,

Laura

Millbrook, Alabama
U.S.A.

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