March 14th I signed up for a free trial period of 2 months with AOL. I was not pleased with their services for multiple reasons, so I canceled on the 13th of May. I got a cancellation number and was under the naive impression that that would be enough to end the relationship.
I was very much surprised to see an amount of $ 23.90 taken from my account June 17. I called AOL again on June 23 and spoke with Jenny. She confirmed that her collegue had given me the cancellation number, but that he apparently hadn't followed up on that, so the account wasn't canceled. She said she would report it to the supervisor and I would be credited within 7-10 business days. I also had to cancel again with someone from the cancellation department, which I did. This person (Yvette) told me she would cancel again under the same number and that I would receive a confirmation letter by mail. So far I haven't been credited and I haven't seen a cancelation letter.
I contacted my bank (of America) about this fraudulous behaviour and told them that I was dealing with AOL about this matter. I told them I wanted to make sure that the same thing wouldn't happen again next month. They told me since I had once provided AOL with my debit card information, it was all my responsibility. The only way to prevent AOL from taking money out of my account again, would be to pay the bank $ 20 dollars! After expressing my surprise and dissatisfaction with the response, I was told that that was the Californian Law.
Coming from Europe I must say that consumers seem to have very little rights here in the USA. Back home, my bank would have credited me immediately after a complaint within 30 days and it wouln't cost me a thing to block a company to take money out of my account! Fortunately there are sites like this in the USA and I will check them out first, before I do business with any other company here!
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