trl junkie

Member
Feb 25, 2001
49
0
This is a letter I wrote to AOL--BEWARE THESE CROOKS!
I started doing online banking recently. To my utter shock and surprise, I saw AOL was charging me $21.95 to $23.95 every month. Of course, as I do not have AOL, or use AOL, I got very upset. Back in January 2000, I got one of the free cds to “test run” AOL. I used it for a couple of weeks, and then called and cancelled, as I was unhappy with the service, and multiple pop ups and spamming. I have NEVER used AOL since. I called last night, and after staying on hold for 45 minutes, got through to a representative, Paul Henry. He explained to me that yes, indeed, I had a initial trial period, and had cancelled it well before any charges should have appeared. What I cannot understand, is he told me my account was activated in June/July 2000. How my “account “ was activated 5 months after I cancelled a FREE TRIAL offer, is beyond me. I do not like AOL, and would NEVER use your service, as your trial run proved most unsatisfactory. AOL owes me in full, from June 2000, to August 2001, the charges placed on my check card, to the amount of approximatly $308. I sure as hell have not “activated my account” in June, or EVER!. I am thoroughly outraged, at this fraudulent billing, and I will expect a check from AOL within 10 business days, for the full amount billed to my check cards account, or I will file a lawsuit, and report you to the Federal Committee for Internet Fraud. Rest assured, I will not take this fraudulent activity, and if AOL is not 100% cooperative in a HASTY refund, and canceling this repeated, totally fraudulent billing, I will utilize our Corporate lawyers, and sue AOL for this fraudulent billing. I am very aware of the new laws that have been enacted and are in effect to protect consumers from exactly this type of fraudulent billing practices. I am utterly sickened by this whole situation, and if I get ANYTHING other than COMPLETE , TOTAL cooperation from AOL, I will make it a quest to absolutely do anything in my power to bring this to the Consumer Action team on every news agency, and Government entity that is responsible for enforcing these regulations. I will expect a QUICK response to this, and a check for the ENTIRE amount you have FRAUDULENTLY charged my account for. I am outraged! I will list ALL my ways of getting in touch with me, so you have no excuse not to provide a hasty response.

:p As of today, I have only received 1/3 of the amount owed--I am starting a lawsuit to prove a point!
 

Boit

Sponsoring Member
Sep 5, 2000
116
0
AOL is also one my black balled companies to avoid. At the risk of being deleted or having this thread closed, I'll another company at the top of my list. AT&T. Without going into a lengthy diatribe about them, I will only say that I do my best to avoid doing any business with a company that is in partnership with AT&T.
 

Layton

~SPONSOR~
Aug 2, 2000
898
0
Lets see if I have this right. 20+ dollars was going out of your checking account each month for over a year and you just now realized it? :confused:

You've just shot your own lawsuit right in the foot with that one. The first thing they are going to say is that you should have complained right away not over a year later.:p
 

NVR FNSH

~SPONSOR~
Oct 31, 2000
1,235
0
Layton,
I must disagree. Remember the smoker in LA who got that huge award - he didn't know smoking was bad for him until '95. I'm not sure if I'd want to have a jury of my peers deciding my fate. Guess it depends if I'm the plaintiff or the defendant....

Brian
 

fmfkx125372

Member
Feb 1, 2001
227
0
I agree with Layton. How can you possibly be missing 23 bucks each month and not know.:think

I can maybe see a month, but it compounds each month, I know for sure I would definately have seen that 50 some bucks was missing and started my investigating then. But, it is going to be a tough battle. I do think they were wrong for doing it in the first place, just should have spoken up a little sooner...
 

trl junkie

Member
Feb 25, 2001
49
0
Ok, I can certainly understand several of you not being able to understand checking my bank account frequently. I have an 11 month darling little girl, another one on the way (I dont know if boy or gal yet) due in Feb. as a result, my wife is a stay at home mom. I am gone to work from 5am to usually 7:45 to 8pm. I also have a few enormous projects going on in the middle east, which requires a lot of travel (I am flying to Kuwait Thurs night). I do a lot of DOD work all over the world. Therefore, the wife does the bill paying, and banking and whatnot. She has seen the bill, but because of my line of work, thought it was associated with my job (I am Director of Operations in a Computer network and Electrical Corp.) So, it might not of gotten caught for a while longer, but I was showing my wife how to do online banking, and I spotted it then:scream: Layton, just curious, how do you come to the conclusion that my case is a "shot in my foot"? Let me enlighten the unknowing:No law exists that says you MUST examine every charge on your various accounts on your banks statements every month, however it is absolutely against the law to fraudently charge someones bank account without their expressed permission, especially with no proof of account activity EVER they admitted wrongdoing, as they pretty much expedited the first refund (which I found out is the max possible initially on these type of problems ;they have since contacted my Attorneys, and are claiming to be crediting my account the balance owed me, ASAP. Honestly 20$ or so missing is not that much for me to notice, but I can remember the days of balancing my checkbook to the penny when I was a student and living off Ramen Noodles:eek:
 

Layton

~SPONSOR~
Aug 2, 2000
898
0
trl junkie

After reading your reply I can certainly understand how your wife could think that the AOL bill was a legitimate charge. I also agree that AOL has no right to sign you up for their service without your permission. Still the problem is, you didn’t report the charges for over a year. IMO, if you were to go to court the time frame will work against you.

Your first post didn’t fill in all of the circumstances which is why I replied the way I did. :confused: All I saw was someone who didn’t appear to do much bookkeeping.

Good luck!:)
 

cr514

Member
Aug 22, 2001
17
0
AOL IS A RIPOFF, JUST TRY TO CANCEL IT. IT TAKES AN ACT OF CONGRESS TO GET RID OFF THE CRAP UNFORTUNATLLY I LIVE IN A RURAL AREA AND I HAVE TWO CHOICES AOL AND THE LOCAL PHONE CO. AOL AS HARD AS IT MAY BE TO BELEIVE IS MY BEST CHOICE. I WISH THE OTHER PROVIDERS WOULD OFFER ACCESS NO'S FOR MY AREA
 

berm buster

~SPONSOR~
Apr 17, 2001
52
0
AOL is a JOKE!!

I totally agree with the rest of the replys, AOL Sucks!!!
The reason they give away those free CD's is, that no one in their right
mind would ever PAY for that garbage. They make it easy to get on line,
but you just TRY to get a customer rep. to get your account deactivated.

It almost takes an act of Congress, just to get someone to talk to.
They "hook" everyone w/ the FREE trial CD, just try us and see what you think.
I tried your free trial period, you SUCK, now get me off the account NOW!!
I just love the way that they "reactivated" your account 5 months after
you stopped it. Man, thats sneaky. Go get em'!!
Best of luck to you.
 

Maru16

Member
Mar 29, 2001
267
0
TRL junkie - i'll fully back you up on this one.
I don't have AOL, but my friend does, and it truly sucks!
What Strick said "internet with training wheels". He was 100% on target.
 

Jaybird

Apprentice Goon
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Mar 16, 2001
6,452
0
Charlestown, IN
The REAL reason they give away free CDs is so you will try it and then forget about it. That is exactly what happened here. You must CANCEL or face charges the second your free time has expired. One must read the fine print of those agreements instead of just clicking OK and going on. It is a classic scheme.
 

J_dem_Bones

Member
Jun 23, 2001
197
0
Originally posted by Tennessee Thumper
Anyone have any experience (good or bad)with Earth Link or MSN?I've got to dump this AOL garbage.
I used MSN before I got my cable connection. In my area they were the easiest to get on with and I only got kicked off a few times in a year. I personally was happy with there service. I first tried AOL(CRAP & is not the real Internet, there own Network, another topic in it self), and then Earthlink. I personally like MSN but my Dad still uses Earthlink.
I did have one little problem canceling. When I did cancel my service, they didnt deactivate. SO I got charged a month after I canceled. I called them as soon as I saw the issue and they immediatly credited my account! NO ISSUES or questions. That was it.
 

Vic

***** freak.
LIFETIME SPONSOR
May 5, 2000
4,008
0

Dr.billZ

Member
May 15, 2000
194
0
I use AOhelL and don't care for it much. I HAVE to use it because it has the ONLY mail program that you can DIRECTLY copy and paste 400 e-mail addresses in and use them.

My dislikes of AOhelL:
1)You must be online to view your e-mails.
2)E-mails don't keep the original message in them if you get a reply back from someone.
3)Mail program is clumsy.
3a) You can't use Outlook for your e-mail program.
4)If just ONE of your 400 e-mail addresses are no longer an AOL member, your message WILL NOT GO OUT!! And there is no GOOD way to FIND that address to delete it....you must MANUALLY LOOK FOR IT !!
5)I used to get dropped all the time....... until I got DSL.
6)Your system resources must be above 80% or the program will lock up or be extremely slow.
7)They use CNN as a major newsource....... YUCK !!!

My only like of AOL:
Online help is very good. Make that extremely good.
 

JuliusPleaser

Too much of a good thing.
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Nov 22, 2000
4,392
0
I went from cable to AOL last year. I didn't have a cable option when I moved into my apartment, so AOL was it for me. It's not so bad here. The phone lines are relatively new in this neighborhood, so speed isn't bad. In the last year, I've only been kicked offline once or twice.

I had AOL 4 years ago, and it was horrible. That was in a much older neighborhood though.
 

125 rider

Sponsoring Member
Oct 1, 2000
408
1
I have had AOL since 97 and about 6 months ago ordered AOL DSL. The DSL portion is nothing less than sad. Speeds are not up to snuff, quality of service sucks. Every 10 tries ill be lucky if i get online once. Once you get online successfully sometimes its not that horrible. It seems they give just enough service to keep you paying the 43 or so dollars a month.
 

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