I just found a entry on my debit card for $25.95, I checked and they have been billing me for two seperate accounts for over six months. I have not added it all up yet but its going to be around $500 dollars. The charge only occurs once a month and is very cryptic so its gone unoticed.
I tried going to their web site to find their number but seems they have made it as hard as they can to get to it, I finally gave up and found it through google were someone else had been stolen from by AOL LLC.
Then when I tried to call them all I got was an automated system that ran me around in circles, finally I took a chance and said 'operator' and it routed me through another interigation for information I did not have since I never signed up. Finally I kept screaming operator... Operator until it put me through. So they directed me to their fraud department which is closed of course as well as not open on the weekendds so you can see how important it is to them that they are taking your money without consent.
So now I have to wait the weekend out to call them and by the time I get off work monday they will be closed (I am on the west coast, there is a 3 hour time difference and they close at 7pm, how convienent).
I never signed up which is worse than the other stories I have heard were people have been bombarded with free AOL disks and signed up or their kids signed up having it billed to their telephone bills only to catch it months later.
AOL is playing on human nature which is to say that people procrastinate and forget.in this day and age with technology advanced as it is you would think that they could tell that after six months and their has been no activety AKA no one has used the service, they would have some kind of notification to tell that the person is not using the service and obviousely has forgotten (if they ever knew) that they had to call to cancel or be they would be billed.
They offer a free trial but demand credit card information so you have plenty of time to forget that if you stop using it you better call them or they will start billing you for it and if you use your cards for most purchases you'll no doubtablly miss the entries for the AOL billing.
Better yet if you don't provide billing information they are more than happy to bill the phone number account so anyone could bnypass it and you could get stuck with the bill. This usually happens when kids get a hold of these free disks that seem to continue to come non stop.
This is a scam in the truest of senses, first they offer the free trial requesting card information and if not bill the phone number and explain its just in case you decide to keep the service so you promise yourself you'll remember 6 months down the road to cancel. They know you will forget in in the best case scenario they will get $26 out of you before you catch it, worst case is like me, I never signed up a family member used my billing information and to make it worse they created two accounts so I got charged double.
This is crazy since my high speed cable is only $10 more and very few people use dial-up anymore. I don't even have a phone line account but the charges are right there on my account and up to date. I really feel powerless against these guys, they make it impossible to protect yourself against them. They claim you should have read the fine print... If you don't notify us you will be billed regardless if you use it or not. You never get a statement in the mail or anything so they could get away with charging you for years if you did not find the fraudulent charges.
I work hard and honest for my money, AOL should do the same and treat there customers with respect and not victimize them and play on their weeknesses such as precastination and forgetfullness.
Sucker Matthew
Matthew
Escondido, California
U.S.A.
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