I was tasked with helping change some settings in my mom's AOL email account and something caught my eye. "Billing Information". I didn't think AOL still charged for anything nowadays, that it was just a free email service like Yahoo. Apparently, without my parents realizing it, AOL has been charging them for dial-up internet since 1997. I remember when I lived at home and we canceled it in 2000. As it turns out, they've been charged over $1,800 since then for the service they haven't used, haven't even known existed. There hasn't been an AOL product installed on their computer in probably a decade.When I called up to cancel it, I was congratulated on being such a loyal member and offered a variety of packages to upgrade to (mind you, this was all after I explained to them why I was calling). Shocked that they'd continue to try to sell me their product, I went on a rampage through customer service personnel. In their undying generosity, they've offered to reimburse my parents $14.95 for the previous month, though they can see that we haven't used it for the past six at least. After reading up on their many customer service complaints, including several lawsuits for failing to end customer's accounts after they called to cancel the service, I'm a little worried.
I even found this webpage with hundreds of people telling how AOL managed to deceive them and take their money.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/aol_cancel.html
Anyone else hear of something like this happening? Hell, I'm tempted to call the local news.
Well they offered a service which your parents requested but which they never used. You would think they would have noticed the billing inquiries on either their credit report or at the very least on their credit card statements. AOL does offer free email accounts but they still also offer their dial up service which obviously would never be free... It doesn't really seem like AOL at all deceived your parents, just that they found the consumers they were looking for: the ones that just completely forgot they were still paying for the service.
I'd say it's definitely an uncool and intentional policy on AOL's part, but also falls under "Acceptable business practices" . as bizzarorollins said, deceit is not involved, and in an ideal world, no one, person or company, would take advantage of anyone else. we all know we don't have an ideal world, to say the least.
having said that though, publicity (the local press as you mentioned) might be something to try, not sure what their level of interest would be, but there's only one way to find that out.
They called and were under the impression that the service has been canceled ten years ago. Now, how they missed the monthly charges on the credit card bills, I'm not sure. That's something they should have been more aware of, I admit.
But when I contact a company to end their service, whatever it may be, I should never have to end the phone conversation with a doubt in my mind as to whether my subscription has actually ended or if I'll continue to be charged, despite not using it.
Somehow, AOL managed to put up such a wall that hundreds, thousands of customers simply couldn't cancel their service. That's what I'm more mad about than my parents' own problems (because they honestly should have realized it somewhere along the way). It ended up being easier to change their credit card information and go through credit problems than it was just to stop paying for their internet service. Crazy.
agreed crazy and uncool. not to mention that at some point I believe AOL did switch over to being free (or maybe that's only for non dial up? idk my father still uses AOL, and it's free for him) so customers like your parents were being doubly screwed. explains how AOL was able to switch to not charging though.
Yeah, I was looking things up and I think it was 2006 when they switched, since people were leaving and using other internet providers and free email services like Yahoo. Nowadays, you can create a free email account through AOL. But there are still packages that allow you to purchase their dial-up service as well.
To be honest, I didn't even know they still provided that. So that was the first surprise.
sorry your parents got fleeced, . hopefully someone can learn from this and realize someone they know is still paying as well, and stop it.
why the heck would they not have checked their credit card during this time period? I am probably going to sound like an ass but if they didnt check their credit card to find out they were still being charged for years then they dont deserve their money back.
killmak: why the heck would they not have checked their credit card during this time period? I am probably going to sound like an ass but if they didnt check their credit card to find out they were still being charged for years then they dont deserve their money back.
Sadly, this. Ignorance is the problem here, not AOL. I won't say AOL is anything but an evil, evil company, but people are responsible for their own finances.
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I'm not trying to cover for them mindlessly paying the credit card bill without making sure they knew what every charge was. It was on my mother's card, yet my father handles the bills, so he probably just didn't bother asking her what it was. It comes up as something like "**AOL************SERVICE*****". Seems strange and vague enough to slip through the cracks. Now, to "slip through the cracks" every month for ten years is ridiculous. Believe me, I'm annoyed by the fact that they didn't notice it on their own.
jboehmer17: I'm not trying to cover for them mindlessly paying the credit card bill without making sure they knew what every charge was. It was on my mother's card, yet my father handles the bills, so he probably just didn't bother asking her what it was. It comes up as something like "**AOL************SERVICE*****". Seems strange and vague enough to slip through the cracks. Now, to "slip through the cracks" every month for ten years is ridiculous. Believe me, I'm annoyed by the fact that they didn't notice it on their own.
"Honey, did you cancel The AOL Internet?" "I thought so." "Well there is something on our credit card for 'AOL service'. Maybe you should call them?"
"Honey, did you cancel The AOL Internet?"
"I thought so."
"Well there is something on our credit card for 'AOL service'. Maybe you should call them?"
Not really that hard.
Yeah, I think I would honestly notice a charge that is listed as AOL on my credit card, when I had no AOL services due to cancellation. I highly doubt anything can be done since its not like AOL was using the charge title of like "paypal" or "utility payment" as a way of listing it. It's pretty self explanatory.
+1 to this. Granted, AOL is likely in the top 3 for most difficult service to cancel, but even if they DIDN'T cancel it when they originally requested it 10 YEARS ago, to have such a poor handle on ones finances for a decade leaves no blame left for AOL. I mean, I'm sloppy with the checkbook these days, but I always check the monthly statements for oddities, and have a relatively accurate running total in my head to compare to. For 10 years to pass and not once look at a statement...that's...well, not as surprising in this day and age with so many people being even more reckless with their finances than that.
Still, AOL IS a bitch to get away from, as seen in this one news story about it:
I'm at work so I can't hear the audio, but I'm nearly certain this is the video where the guy recorded his call and pretty much was forced to just repeat over and over to AOL 'Cancel my account.....cancel my account.....cancel.....etc'. Ridiculous.
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GreenManGaming
Ha Ha I am still payiing for Dial-up for my dad who is 87 and only knows how to use AOL. Don't think trying to teach him how to jump online with explorer with click. I also noticed that they charge me .30 for jumping on my AOL via my wireless. They really suck. As you can tell I have no choice in the matter and so stuck since 1995. damn
I'm kinda suprised by everyones opinion on this. i mean of course they should have spotted this. No one, not even the OP is arguing that, but no one has a problem with aol not canceling the service when they were told to? Maybe i'm reading this wrong but i thought the OP is saying that his parents called and said "we want to cancel" and then aol saying "ok we've canceled your subscription" and then not canceling and charging them for ten years. How is there no blame left for aol?