Approximately one year ago I signed up with AOL to receive their 500 free hours trial membership for unlimited internet access. After realizing I was not satisfied with the service (and well before the free hours were used up), I called their support center to cancel my account. I spoke to a representative who walked me through and confirmed to me that my account was now closed. That was the last encounter I had with AOL until a check I wrote came back 'insufficient funds' almost a year later.
I looked through my bank statement and discovered a charge for monthly service that came back to an AOL account which caused my check to bounce. When I called AOL to enquire why they were billing me, I was informed that they had been billing me for the last several months (almost a year), and I had not known it.
Evidently, since they had my Visa card number they could automatically deduct a monthly payment without providing a receipt or confirmation of some kind.
I called them again and asked them to refund my money on the basis that I had not used their services during the period in which I was billed, (as I believed my account was closed). They conveniently showed on their customer history database that my account was indeed (NOT) closed. Yet they also showed that I had not logged in since the date I called the rep to cancel.
The rep had not done her job properly, yet because it was not logged into their data base as a cancelled account they will not refund my money.
The total charges were in excess of $200.00, yet legal action against their corporate lawyers would surely cost me more than that.
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