AOL Needs To Be Run Out Of Business

Photos

AOL Needs To Be Run Out Of Bussiness

see larger image

uploaded by outragousart

Last week a robbery happened. It was a very clever crime, committed by a very devious and vile organized crime group. I didn’t discover the crime until three days later. It was too late to undo the damage.

Who committed this crime?

AOL and Time Warner.

They stole money from me, and I don’t even have AOL. If you have AOL, or if you have ever had AOL, pay attention. You could be next.

I had AOL dial-up service early last year. I called AOL (in the past this was the only way to cancel service). After quite a lengthy word battle with the service rep, who could not comprehend the concept that I did not want AOL, my service was cancelled. I went online and cancelled also, just to be sure. Problem solved (or so I thought).

Last week AOL billed my checking account for $32.90 (their outrageous monthly fee for poor quality service). Since I am disabled and not working, this caused two checks to bounce. My bank notified me about the overdraft and told me AOL had billed my account. The battle had begun.

I called AOL to get the problem fixed. After a 10 minute wait, a polite young lady informed me that they had billed me for my AOL service. I told her that I had cancelled my service last July, and needed to have the $32,90 credited back to my account along with the $66.00 to cover the overdraft charges. She said they could not refund the money because I had AOL service and had to pay for it. After another futile five minutes I asked to speak to her supervisor. He happened to be a Pakistani man named Mark Anderson. Anderson, I thought, was an odd name for anyone from Pakistan. He rudely informed me that my account was still in effect. I asked why I had not been billed for six months, and he tells me that my free AOL that came on my Dell computer was activated because the free period was up. After 15 minutes of vigorous discussion he says he will credit my account for $32.90, but he was unable to pay the overdraft charges AOL had caused. He informs me that it “impossible” for him to pay for the overdraft because that was the banks fault…..What??? The banks fault?

I spent over two hours talking to two more service reps and two more managers. Again, the managers were Pakistanis. One was named Jim Anderson, the other was Bill Anderson. There must be some sort of Anderson revolution going on there.

After doing some research I found some interesting facts about AOL and Time Warner.

1.) I was not the only one who got screwed by AOL. They lost two million customers last year alone.

2.) AOL had entered into a settlement agreement with the state Attorney General of New York for the same type of business practices. You can read about it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/24/technology/24cnd-online.html

3.) AOL had entered into a settlement agreement with the state Attorney General of Florida for the same type of business practices. You can read about it here:

http://myfloridalegal.com/newsrel.nsf/newsreleases/7784A3DA8241EDEB8525724200511B75

4.) AOL had entered into a settlement agreement with the state Attorney General of California, joined by the other 48 states and the District of Columbia for the same type of business practices. You can read about it here:

http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/2007-07-11_BrownResolvesConfusingAOLCancellationPolicy7-11.pdf

AOL and Time Warner have been lying and stealing from their customers since their inception. If you have AOL, cancel NOW! Please cancel before you get screwed! You can cancel AOL by going online at cancel.aol.com, or call 1-888-265-8008.

I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint with the State Attorney General of Alabama. I will write again to keep you informed on how the complaints are going.

If every single person who uses AOL would cancel TODAY, we could put AOL out of business. Now, wouldn’t that be nice!

AOL sucks!

*****Update January 31, 2008*****

Today AOL called. I was told that the $32.90 I was billed for August 2007, after I cancelled in July 2007, would be refunded if I would settle and clear up the complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I informed the gentleman that they bounced two checks costing me $66.00 that they still refused to cover. He said that the refunding of August 2007 payment would be all they could do......

I guess we decided to split it down the middle. The January 2008 billing that started all of this has shown back up in my account. AOL says it will credit another $32.90 for the August 2007 bill, the one after the July cancellation. I guess AOL has refunded all of the money they took unethically. I am still out $66.00.... a lesson to everyone out there on AOL paid service, there is a risk for using AOL.