I bought my computer in Nov. 2002 which included America Online FREE for one year.
In Jan my checking acct. Was debited $335.61 by AOL. It came to my attention when my checking acct. Bounced. Then my statement came and I saw what had happened.
After calling AOL, which took 20 minuts of waiting to reach someone, they told me that someone went into my computer and changed my service from free to $4.97 a month with the first three hours included, then $2.50 an hour after that. That is why such a high dollar amount was charged. We thought our service was free and did not care how long we were online.
I told them that I did not know that happened. This was my first experience with being online. And if that did happen, which they did not show me anything to prove it did happen, than it was a mistake and could they please fix it.
I had contacted them on different occations on the phone, each time a 20 minute wait to talk to a person. I was made fun of by one representative when he told me that they e - mailed me to tell me they were debiting my account for the services. He said I opened the e mail. He asked me if I could read, when I told him I had no clue of how to use e mail. How rude! I think that I may have opened it and didn't know what it was telling me, so I closed it. Then I tried to find it later and couldn't locate it.
They sent me a post card telling me they could not locate or verify any related accounts for me on AOL and I would have to send them some information for verification purposes. I did that in a letter along with a copy of the bank statement showing the debit and a copy of the Gateway purchase statement. I mailed it certified mail so I would know they received it.
They have not contacted me again in any way. How can any reputable company not fix an error in their billing department. I did not owe them any money. The service was free till Nov. 2003. Why didn't they e-mail me and tell me that my service was free and why was I changing it? I know why, because this is how they rip people off!
Why would anyone change their free service to a pay service on purpose? No one would. I believe they have done this to other people and they should not get away with it any more.
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