AOL Continuous Unauthorized Billing the business that doesnt give a dam Nationwide Internet

Upon moving into a new apartment, I was waiting for a CD to load the SBC Yahoo! ISP software when I loaded AOL for instant access. Once I received the CD in the mail and loaded it, I calle AOL to cancel my membership.

I spoke to Customer Service the first time for 40 minutes or more convincing him that I did not want the service and told him that if he was not going to close it that I would call back so someone else would. He finally agreed and said the account would be closed at the end of the cycle and I would not be charged for anything.

To my surprise, 3 months later, i received a charge for $28.90 in my checking account. Since I was not working at the time and had only enough in my checking account for monthly expenses, this charge went through, bouncing 4 other checks, which costed me over $200.00. I called AOL back and the lady informed me that since she saw my call for canellation and no usage on the account, she would submit a credit that would apply to my checking account in 5-10 business days. Well, 4 weeks later i did not see anything.

This led me to my next call for AOL Customer Service to tell me that my credit request was denied due to too many credits on the account. After asking what that was they explained that when I originally called, the man I spoke to gave me 2 free months of AOL so this credit was denied by Corporate. When asking how to get ahold of corporate, I was told I don't. I asked to speak to a supervisor and after 5 minutes of arguing that I knew there was a supervisor available somewhere, I was put on hold for 10 minutes and a supervisor came online. She told me that the credit would not go through, regardless and then told me that there was excessive usage on the account, when there was ZERO usage. She gave me an address to write a letter to corporate but told me not to expect any type of response.

Since this is only $28.90 and it really does not make a big difference in my money at this point, I decided to write a letter anyway but said that I was going to let anyone and everyone know of the experience that I could. Since then I have done 3 reports on the company at school (none of which leave a good name for AOL) causing at least a dozen of my friends to cancel their service. Now, I found this web site and will find others in the future.

If you are happy with AOL, great but just watch out if you try to cancel after any time period, cuz they will keep charging you!!!!

Jim
Griffith, Indiana
U.S.A.