Complaint / Review
America Online, AOL
AOL America Online, ripoff and runaround when trying to rectify fraudulent billing Jacksonville Florida

I called AOL on 4/26/04 to cancel and like everyone else got the whole rehearsed speech on NOT canceling. Well, "Doug" said he would give me 2 months free membership and then $14.95 per month if I did not cancel before 7/25/04.

So, two months go by and I call back again to cancel and they tell me ok you will receive a confirmation of your cancelation in the the mail.

I received the confirmation in the mail dated 7/30/04 stating that they received and honored my request to cancel my AOL membership on 7/26/04.

I thought great, now it's finally over! Well, I then received my American Express bill and found that AOL charged me $35! I called Amex and they researched it. It seems that they did not cancel the account because someone on my account signed in after I canceled. Well, the letter I received DID NOT state that if someone signs into the account it is reactivated. It states that it was CANCELED!!!

Anyway, I have been trying to rectify this since then (about 7 months). When I called the collection agency (yes, they sent it to them to collect their $35) they told me I had to call AOL to take care of it.

Here's where the runaround starts. The first call I made to AOL, "Sheree" told me I could fax the letter I have to "Executive Escalation" that states I canceled on 7/26 or I could call another number to rectify it. So, I called the other number and "Esco" was nice at first, but then when he realized that I meant business he got very nasty with me.

He said, "Oh, it's only $35". And I said, "Yeah, but I do not owe you $35 and I am not paying it." He then proceeded to tell me that there was nothing else he could do to help me further and that I had to call the collection agency - it's out of AOL's hands once it gets to them. I told him that the collection agency told me to call AOL and that it is just a vicious circle. He told me I would have to pay the $35 in order to get out of the "vicious circle" and then hung up on me. Literally, he HUNG UP in my ear!

So, I see the scam that AOL has going on here. You charge people small amounts of $ and think they'll pay it because it's not a lot of money, but meanwhile they do this to thousands of people and it adds up to big $ on their bottom line.

I would advise everyone to cancel AOL and use the free email on the Internet or any other email for that matter!

Trish
Belleville, New Jersey
U.S.A.