AOL Bills After Cancellation

AOL Legal Department

22000 AOL Way

Dulles, VA 20166

January 4, 2006

Reference: Email User and all subaccounts under Angela Harris (nee).

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to formally dispute the charges America Online (AOL) is seeking to collect. Charges total $71.70 for 3 months of service. Furthermore, this letter expressed my complete dissatisfaction with AOL and serves as official notice to cease and desist calling my residence to collect the amount disputed.

On August 2, 2005, I called AOL’s Member Services department to cancel the account. I spoke to a man who told me he would process my cancellation and because I had been a member for 8 years, he would give me free access to my former account in order to obtain the address book and last-minute mail. I was even gracious enough to answer his survey as to why I was leaving.

On November 24, 2005, my husband (who pays the bills) informed me that he was still seeing a charge from AOL on our credit card. I told him not to pay it, and I called AOL again on November 28, 2005, to find out why I was still being charged. For TWO HOURS I was transferred from cancellation department to billing department and back in order to get it cancelled. Finally, I was given a cancellation number and the same “deal” as originally promised for a temporary free account access. The woman who processed my name/address change and the cancellation disconnected me as soon as she couldn’t convince me to keep AOL service, and failed to forward my request for a refund. I called back (again), and the next woman I reached told me to call billing. With the next call, I finally reached a man in billing who tried to be helpful, but said that AOL’s policy is not to refund an account with activity, even though a request for cancellation was made. I argued that

1. If the activity observed had been an unauthorized access, their policy would be nonsense. Perhaps I cancelled the account because I wanted to passively deactivate the subaccounts.

2. Any activity after cancellation was made based on the understanding that it was use of the temporary “gift” of service.

3. Any time the account holder instructs the service provider to close an account, they must do so and discontinue service charges.

I am the account holder who instructed AOL to close the main account and all subaccounts. The lack of cancellation can be explained in one of two ways: either your employee was negligent and remiss in his duties, or it is AOL’s policy to ignore cancellation requests as a regular mode of operation to scam members after they have chosen to cancel! If AOL had done its part, no one would have been able to use the cancelled account!

Therefore, I am refusing to pay for September, October, and November bills. By the way, AOL does have record that the main account was never accessed between the cancellation call and November 29, 2005, which lends credence to my story.

As of the beginning of January 2006, AOL has been calling my residence daily (almost on the hour) starting at 8:00 a.m. My husband works swing shift, so the calls are disrupting his sleep. Most times, the call is recorded, telling us to either hold or to call back “regarding an important business matter”. My husband held for one of the first calls on January 1. He identified himself as the bill payer and argued for nearly an hour with an extremely rude woman who badgered him and refused to hear out his position. The conversation kept returning to “AOL’s policy” not to refund. He answered a subsequent call on January 3 after being irritated repeatedly by the harassing, hourly, automated call. At that time he told the caller to cease and desist calling, and that future correspondence need be done in writing through US Mail. We have received multiple calls since then; my husband is enraged and rather fatigued. In addition, the stress from having a disrupted household and threat of collection is not good for my pregnancy. We are a young couple who pays our bills, pays our taxes, and aims to do what is right. Now we fear our good credit will be ruined by this situation. Does AOL wish to be responsible for a stroke and a miscarriage?!?

Bottom line, you run a slipshod operation that will continue to lose its market share because of horrible customer service and self-serving, inflexible policies. You would rather fight one long-term customer for 72 dollars when you’re in the wrong than gracefully let me leave your service with no hard feelings. Thanks to the reliable service provided by my credit card company, I no longer require a refund. So, I want this debt removed from your records with written notification of the removal in the full amount by February 28, 2006.

With grand regret,

cc: BankOne Cardmember Services

Jonathan Miller – AOL Chairman & CEO

Randall Boe – AOL Exec. VP & General Counsel

NJ Division of Consumer Affairs

Consumers Union

Goldenberg, Mackler, Sayegh & Mintz, et al.

Comment On This

I had the same problem with AOL. I signed up for a trial for my Mom in 2001. I canceled (or so I thought) and specifically asked the rep "There are no charges on my credit card, are there??" "No", she said. Sure enough, AOL charged the credit card which I never even used. It was tied to my former address. I never received the bill. I never used the card. 2 years later, I finance a new truck, and just happen to ask the guy about my credit. He says, "Oh, it was good. You just had 1 small thing on there." "WHAT???", I asked. I mean, I always pay all my bills. I looked at my report and saw this $285 charge from Capital One (which is another company that is known for screwing people over....how do I know?...because I am a loan officer and see peoples' credit reports and hear their horror stories). So, I called Capital One and discovered what happened. Apparently AOL did in fact charge me and that $24 charge became an almost $300 charge after 2yrs in fees!! Capital One told me that if AOL would credit that $24 charge, that C. One would remove the other charges. After about 5 calls over a few mths time, I finally spoke to a long time AOL rep who claimed he reversed the charges. I called Cap. One 2 weeks later. They said no credit was shown. I have disputed this with credit bureaus, called, and so forth. Apparently, AOL needed that money really bad. It's funny how AOL gets away with all the unfair charges, yet if I unfairly charged someone or fraudulently charged someone, you better believe my butt would be punished and have to pay back. I think this proves just how much MONEY gives power. Something is wrong here. AOL has already been sued for unfairly charging people. The payout meant nothing to the AOL big wigs. If they want the money....let them have it! One day, karma will bite all of them. When you are greedy and selfish, you eventually lose...whether it's monetary, death, love, or some other bad occurance.