America Online Consumer Reviews - Page 7

I recently notice I was getting a monthly charge from AOL-TWX on my visa account. I would not have signed up for AOL, since I already have broadband, and AOL is just a content filter/formatter. To make a long story short, I never signed up, never got any mail from them indicating I had signed up or was getting billed, and my VISA just started getting charged. My VISA is paid electronically, so I did not notice for a number of months. AOL agreed to remove some of the charges, but not all, even though they agreed I had NEVER used the account I was being billed for. NOT ONCE! Never use AOL. Just use broadband or another service....

EDMONTON, KENTUCKY -- I signed up for 3 free months of AOL service and after 2 months they wanted to bill me well then they said they fixed the problem and said I would not be billed anything until December 21. (This was on October 22.) Then I called and canceled my service with them on November 3. The day I canceled they charged my bank account for the service and caused an overdraft.

I called them up to straighten the mess up and after being told that it was my fault and being told to shut up for nearly an hour. They claimed my bank would not be charged and they would put the money back and that would take care of the overdraft charge, but it didn't. My bank says AOL should pay the overdraft charge also. Here's what I say to anyone on AOL never give them any type of account number and never believe them when they say anything at all!

CALIFORNIA -- I had been a loyal AOL customer for about 5 years. But I decided to cancel my account because I got cable internet and didn't need to go through them anymore. The AOL customer service said that he'll let me have 3 months free and I could cancel the service right before the 3 month period ended. I agreed because he kept haggling me. When I went back on, a pop-up appeared that said that I was being charged hourly. This was odd, because I used to have unlimited usage with a flat fee and I didn't tell them to change my billing plan.

I called AOL and they assured me that my AOL was free and that any charges accumulated would be cleared. They also said that they'll extend my free service for one more month. When the bill came, I was charged $298.41. They said that they were surcharges. I asked why I had not been informed of these surcharges when I called before, and he said that I wouldn't be charged next month.

I asked to speak to his supervisor and he said to reverse the current charges and that I would only be charged the unlimited usage fee. I complained that AOL said it was free and he said if they find it is true, I won't be charges. The next month, I was charged $484.13. I told my bank to reverse the charges, but when the bank did, AOL took me to collections for the total of $820.26 for just 2 months of service! So I took it to the BBB and they took care of it. It took me about a year to clear the charges and to get me out of collections. DON'T GO WITH AOL.

I signed up for a free 90-day trial of AOL 9.0 on 6/11/04. I was told by "michael" that if I cancel or change my plan by 9/11/04, that I would not be charged. (I remember this specifically because of the significance of the date - September 11th.) I just checked my checking account and saw that I was charged 23.90 on 8/16. I called the customer service (in India) line yesterday and got a consultant who refused to let me talk to a supervisor because they were all in a meeting. (Although it's 3 am India time.)

I am very upset about this situation. I don't really care about the money. It's just the principle of being charged for something I have not used nor will use. The customer service rep yesterday said that the charge was for usage of AOL from 8/11 to 9/11. I have not nor will I use AOL during that time. I also never received notification of the impending charges to my account. If I had not checked my checking account, I would have never found out about it. I find their billing practice to be borderline fraudulent and definitely unethical.

After reading comments, I thought I would share, that I've been trying for 14 months to cancel service with this company--up to and including filing with the BBB. That was a fun experience--in which they wrote a letter like they were trying to resolve, provided a free periodthen changed my rate plan. I called again, and again... and of course it takes forever on the phone. Again with the here's a free period, here's this bonus... and like all of you, took the free period to finally get off the phone. I will again this week begin my journey to cancel a program/online service that I do not use, do not want... and further doesn't even work right on the latest of computers.

If this is not resolved, and they refuse to cancel my account again, I will take every possible piece of correspondence retained from these thieves and proceed to the attorney general's office and somewhere somehow get it resolved. No one should have to fight that hard to just say "no thank you" to a product that one is not satisfied with. Perhaps if enough of us file complaints with the BBB and the Attorney Generals offices locally to us, maybe, just maybe they'll get a hint.

WASHINGTON -- AOL professes to be interested in "spam" problems, etc. and yet this evening, around dinner time, I received my first phone call from a telemarketer trying to sell me on AOL Broadband. Almost every time I have logged onto AOL, I have been "spammed" with a message about converting to Broadband, but I have never indicated an interest.

Since AOL seems to be at the forefront of getting rid of spam, etc., it never occurred to me that they would enlist/employ the world of telemarketing to sell this product. I'm very seriously thinking about switching internet/email carriers at this point and I have been an AOL customer for at least 8 years. Shame on you AOL.

KIRKLAND, WASHINGTON -- I tried out a trial diskette mailed to my home which claimed it was "free" - however, it required I give them a credit card number. I canceled the service prior to the free period end date. My credit card is being charged monthly for a service I canceled and do not use. The service representatives are unhelpful and are in fact rude. The representatives have refused to process a refund. I have signed up to join a class action lawsuit. I have filed a dispute action with my credit card company. If further charges appear on my charge card, I will cancel the credit card account so they will no longer have that number.

AOL is quite simply guilty of theft and possibly fraud. I will investigate filing a complaint with my Attorney General in my state. My credit card company tells me that the Attorney Generals' offices are overflowing with complaints against AOL. The last time the Attorney Generals' finally met with AOL (I believe in 1997), some action was taken. Hopefully, if enough complaints are filed again, again some action will be taken. One can only hope.

I use AOL Instant Messenger to talk with family that lives overseas. Family that I normally wouldn't be able to talk to. A few weeks ago, I began getting messages from people such as "hottiegirl21203" (who also have warning levels of 60% or more) advertising what I assume are porno sites. Small children use this computer. What happens if they click the link? When I e-mailed AOL on this subject, they said simply "there is nothing we can do about it". The least they could do is put a form on their website where you can turn in people such as this!