Compuserve Ripoff hung up on me when I tried to cancel Jacksonville Nationwide

I cancelled my Compuserve account on May 22. I even got a cancellation number. I was charged again a few days later but I thought maybe I cancelled to close to the end of the billing cycle, so I let it go and paid it. Checking my credit card bill online this morning, I saw that I was charged for June. There was no excuse for them to charge me again a full month after cancellation so I called them up.

After going through the hassel of verifying my mailing address I'm finally transferred to someone in billing. He tells me somehow my account wasn't cancelled and then asks me what was my problem with Compuserve. I mention the pop-ups and advertising (actually my dislike for CS runs deeper than that but I didn't have all day). He sympathizes with me and says he's set me up with a new and improved service and I won't be charged for the first month. I explained I do not want to come back to CS, just cancel my account and refund my money for June.

He gives me a new cancellation number but says he can't refund my money because the account was active. No way am I paying for a month of access that I never used, so I politely insist on the refund. I'm put on hold and soon I hear a dial tone and realize I've been disconnected.

Strange, I thought, but could've been a mistake. I've hung up accidentally on my fair share of customers when I was a secretary. So I give them the benefit of the doubt and call back. I speak to Nancy and explain to her I was in the process of cancelling my account when I was disconnected. Nancy apologizes on behalf of CS and tells me should it happen again, call back and choose certain options which will get me back to the billing dept. Then I'm transferred back to billing and go through the address verification again. I explain again that I want my account cancelled and money refunded for June. I'm put on hold and disconnected again.

I should've learned my lesson, but I decided to give it one more try. I call again, choose the options that Nancy told me and am connected with billing. Donald wants me to confirm my mailing address first but I tell him I have a cancellation number--just look it up and tell me why my account wasn't cancelled (isn't that what those numbers are for?). He agrees, I give him the number. He puts me on hold while he looks up my account and...you guessed it, I'm disconnected again. (I should mention that at no time did I get an attitude with all the CSRs I spoke to, and they were quite civil with me as well. So there was no good reason for them to hang up on me. But I'm not upset with them. I realize they are only following orders from higher up.)

My final call was to American Express. I explained the situation, she took the cancellation number that I received in May, and made a note on my account. The charge for June was taken off, and any further charges from Compuserve will be rejected.

If anyone is considering signing up with Compuserve, my advice is don't do it. Once they've got you, they will never want to let you go.

Sarah
Southwest, Georgia
U.S.A.