AO Hell horror stories

[Kidhuman]

Okay lemme start off by saying I hate AOL. Today I go to my bank and find out AOL took 250 dollars out of my account, therefore causing my rent check to bounce. I called them up to find out what was going on. To my dismay, when I called to cancel in OCtober, they ended up giving me 3 free months til Jan. As it turned out, the rep put me on a limited plan for 15 hours a month and to be chgarged 3 dollars an hour over the limit without me confirming it. So when I mmoved, I had to wait for my DSL service to be reconnected so I said, hey I got some free AOL I can use in the meantime. And unbeknownst to me it wasnt free. So today, I called up and chewed them out and am having the whole 250 dollars refunded to me.


Got anymore stories?

[Beast]

Ouch. Holy hell in a handbasket. Glad to hear that they're going to refund you the money for this. Cause damn, to have them take 250 smackers like that. Just yow. I'll stick with Prodigy, AOL can go to hell and die.

MTFBWY and HH!!

Jar Jar Binks

[El Chuxter]

A while before we were married, my wife called to cancel AOL. The convo went something like this:

"May I ask why you're cancelling?"
"I'd prefer not to get hundreds of e-mail about live ****ing."
[Slight pause] "Well, are you aware that we offer parental controls?"
"I'm almost thirty. I shouldn't have to limit what I can do online just to block junk mail."

She's told that it will be cancelled as of the end of the month and to continue using it through the last day of the month. She also cancelled the credit card her AOL was on around this time, since what should've been the final payment had already been taken out.

Several months later, we get a letter that looks like junk mail but open anyway. It says she's overdue for a payment (apparently something like what happened to you happened here, but when there was no credit card the next month, they cancelled the service but still billed for that month, which was overdue), and it's going to be handed over to collections, put on her credit report, etc, if it's not paid immediately. She called and chewed them out, but could not get anything better than "I'm sorry, but you must have misunderstood what you were told." We ended up just paying the $15 or whatever it was because it wasn't worth the hassle, but reported them to the BBB, for what good that does.

They're just ridiculous. Unethical. There's a reason they lose customers and money. I hope they get brought up in a serious class action suit for the way they do business.

[Kidhuman]

They're just ridiculous. Unethical. There's a reason they lose customers and money. I hope they get brought up in a serious class action suit for the way they do business.

I'd get in on it. And there are completely unethical and horrible business. HOw can they charge all that money for crap service?

[scruffziller]

Yea I used to work for a telelmarketing firm that sold AOL service. People say what they say because their job is to try to get you to keep the service the best they can, so it is reverse telemarketing. Becuse it is their job on the line they are not thinking about what is common sense to do from what you are telling them. It is the big company talking, not the employee. So the best way to help yourself(as well as the employee under the thumb) is to take the avenues that they will listen to, like getting irate. In fact I would say that gives the employee some relief becaue it makes their job easier. Most of the people there will want to just be obliged to cancel the service because it is easier than trying to resell it.

[mabudonicus]

Yeah, what he said... while I was telemarket-working for Comcast I would have told people to demand a supervisor (get irate) if they didn't like dealing with me, cos the "sales rep" has almost no power.... you're supposed to try to get people to accept the situation, not do what they ask.
it sucks, but it must work often enough, since I recall many folks getting furious and hanging up on me and the company's still doing well.... if a company is big enough it doesn't matter what consumers think (PS I know that shouldn't be true, but it is)

[sith_killer_99]

Well, it has been some time since I have posted my horror story about AOL.

My wife was also billed erroneously. We cancelled our subscription in May 2001 and were billed one year later for 1 month of service, which also caused one of her checks to bounce!

Things like this make me nervous about giving out bank account information to legitimate businesses. If AOL can steal (and that's exactly what it was...don't kid yourself) from our very bank accounts and hurt our credit why can't we press charges?

[Mandalorian Candidat]

I've had the usual goofy stuff from AOL, like having them charge me when they shouldn't have and trying to give me freebies when it turns out you have to sign up for some loony long distance phone plan.

I've only put up with the minor discomfort because I've been using them for well over 12 months for free. Every time I call to cancel they give me two more free months. Then when they do pull the plug I get another CD in the mail for an extra 45 days and the ride starts all over again. No way I'd pay full price for their services. Who the heck cares about keywords and lame-o user polls?

[Kidhuman]

Things like this make me nervous about giving out bank account information to legitimate businesses. If AOL can steal (and that's exactly what it was...don't kid yourself) from our very bank accounts and hurt our credit why can't we press charges?

That is exactly true. They steal your money. AOL is the biggest rip off since Pyramid Schemes. They just want your money and do not care how they get it. It just occured to me why they charge so much in the first place, its tocover their rumps for giving out so many free months to people.

As for pressing charges, that might be something worth looking into, file a class action suit like Chuxy mentioned.

[QLD]

I dropped AOL in 96/97 after they billed me for two months on my credit card. And when I contacted them about it, they refused to refund my money, or credit me. So I said screw you, and never looked back.