MSN - attempted to cancel free service trial - one year later Visa card was billed - finally was able to get account cancelled

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on January 29, 2003:

From: Email User RE: MSN - attempted to cancel free service trial - one year later Visa card was billed - finally was able to get account cancelled Thank you for publishing Jere Tanaka's e-mail on his double billing by MSN. His letter gave the hard-to-find phone number for Microsoft's Customer Care Center, and that led directly to resolving a problem I had that was similar to the one that Tanaka experienced. Here's the story. We got one year's free MSN with the purchase of a laptop, but after trying it decided we did not like using MSN. We were never able to talk to anyone, but my wife and I sent numerous e-mails to MSN and were convinced we had canceled the net service.

Then one year later my Visa card was billed for a month's service by MSN, so obviously our service had not been canceled. I tried finding a customer service website, or some phone listing, and struck out. I also tried the msn.com home page, and found nothing there either. I was not able to access msn.com help, as I did not have a "passport" number that would permit me to open help. Using the 1-800-386-5550 number Tanaka provided, I was able to reach the Customer Care Center. That number could not handle an account cancellation, but they transferred me to an office that could do so. Just as Tanaka discovered, there are real people at Microsoft and they are quite decent to deal with once you find them. A service rep named Carol was able to take care of the entire problem for me efficiently and in a friendly manner, and also commented that she would report my difficulty in finding a phone number to her supervisor -- potentially making things easier for other people who wish to disengage with Microsoft. Hal Markowitz