Complain about a product or service

AOL - "Free" Hours

Jennifer of Shiloh, GA June 14, 2006

An audit of our checking account showed that AOL has withdrawn from our checking account twice a month 30.92. Who can we contact to prevent this from happening, again?

Pamela of Horn Lake, MS June 1, 2006

Had a free trial membership from aol. i canceled it before the free trial period ended. Now, 6 months later i received a phone call from a rep. from aol, stacy, which advised me that i had a 123.50 balance due which had been turned over to collections. I advised her that i had cancelled the membership before the trial period had ended. she said that there was no record of me canceling my membership. Now i have a bill of 123.50 that i do not owe but will go on my credit report. They keep giving me the run around everytime i try to call and resolve this. To my suprise after i recieved that call i looked up on my computer and found out that aol has a history of frauding and double billing their customers! How can they get away with this?

This debt has been turned over to a collection agency. I am in the process of trying to establish good credit and this makes me mad due to the fact that i do not owe this bill.

William of Lexington, KY May 17, 2006

On 1/16/06 I picked up one of AOL's free cds for a 90-day risk-free trial. I cancelled my account on 3/15/06, well within the trial period. However, AOL billed me for 25.90 on 3/8/06 on my check card.

When I received the confirmation that my account was cancelled I though I would receive a refund but I never did so I called them to find out why not. The AOL phone representative said I only had a 50 day free trial and not a 90 day free trial. The packaging the CD came in was for 90 free days - not one word about 50 days - a bold face lie!

I cancelled my check card in case they try to pull any stunts of billing me for anything else.

Lycia of Phoenix, AZ May 15, 2006

AOL refuses to acknowledge cancellation of my membership within the free trial period and continues to charge my account without my authorization. 

I have been billed for over 300 in unauthorized charges.

Patricia of Spanaway, WA May 8, 2006

I was billed 30.90 on my Qwest account for AOL. This AOL account was supposed to be a free 6-month subscription that came with a new Toshiba computer. I haven't even had my computer for 5 months yet.

I already have high speed internet with Qwest for less than the 30.94 billed my phone bill.

I tried to resolve this issue on the phone, per AOL policy, but no resolution was ever made.

Jennifer of Port Huron, MI April 23, 2006

I called AOL in Feb to cancel my free trial that I had gotten with my new computer. I was supposed to have a 6-month trial.  I got the service in Nov and they tried to bill me in Feb.  

When I called I told the rep to cancel the acct that I didn't want it anymore. Then this morning I woke up to call my cable company to make a payment to them and my credit card was denied due to insuficiant funds. When I called the card company they told me that AOL took the money.

AOL stated that the rep I talked to put 2 months free on my acct and did not cancel it. They stated they would cancel the acct today but would not give me the money back that they took.

Ruth of Lasvegas, NV April 16, 2006

I thought I had a free trial of 90 days to use the service then decide if I wanted it. Within one week of my service I had an email from billing that stated "Please be advised that your monthly billing charges will be submitted to your bank 10 days following the issuance of this notification".

I received this on the 14th of April and called on the 16th to cancel my service.  I spoke to Scott who informed me that they had already billed my account and that they would issue a refund 90 days from today. I explained to him that because they billed me early my account was overdrawn. His only response was "that's not good". When I told him that was totally not ethical and legal he hung up on me.

I tried to email the "billing mgr", but naturally they don't accept email.

Sheryl of Murfreesboro, TN April 14, 2006

I signed up for the free trial not realizing I didn't need it for AIM (AOL instant messenger.) I called to cancel the trial when I saw 23.90 deducted from my bank account. I got a long spiel about the benefits and when I was adamant about closing it they gave me a reduced rate of &4.95. I took it just to be done with them. Well, shortly after I saw the credit for the 23.90 and right behind it was a debit for 23.90 not once but twice. I called AOL again and they assured me they would get it taken care of.

Sure enough there was a credit for 47.80 within a few days. Shortly after that there was another debit for 23.90. More than a little tired of this battle I called again to get it corrected. This time they told me I had set up 2 accounts instead of one when I signed up. Okay...then cancel both. Not so easy. They changed the one to 4.95 and now told me I have to wait until the full 90 day trial is up before they will credit me the 23.90.

I explained that had not been the case in the past and was told the previous AOL employees I spoke with were misinformed. Okay, so who's the idiot here? Bottom line is AOL is a rip-off who will not correct their mistakes and the consumer is the one who has to pay for it. AOL is not America On Line....it's Alot Of Lies.

Michelle of Avon Lake, OH April 13, 2006

We used their "free disc". Now they say we owe them 89.81. I tell them we did npt order it- we used the free service and when we were done we were DONE! When I called to get information I always spoke to someone I of course I couldn't understand maybe that's because they were in ANTIGUA! I would ask to speak to a supervisor and they would transfer me to who knows where and it would ring and ring.... finbally, one night some woman called from AOl and my husband spoke to her-she was yelling at him to pay the bill or we would be sorry.

 My husband told her maybe we should get a lawyer and she said are you threatening me My husband replied no but are you? We can not get a straight answer. We did not sign up, join or anything..we did't even have access after January.

Jessica of Yucaipa, CA April 10, 2006

Was offered 3 free months of aol and after the 3rd month i cancelled however aol had been charging our visa account for another aol account. we complained told them we are disputing that account, they railroaded us, we have months of charges on our visa plus late fees. Aol promised to give us the best experience and treat us right, this was not the case, we asked for proof that this other account was authorized by us, nothing!

We have written letter after letter and nothing! Aol has ruined our visa account with no explanation.We are now lost and do not know where to go from here. The fraud department said they would put 3 months back on our visa account that was a lie. Nothing has been done.

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