1 vote
AOL
August 4, 2009
Several years ago, I signed up for a free 30 day trial of internet service through AOL. After setting up my account, I quickly realized the service was not for me and called the company to cancel. The woman who answered the phone tried to convince me otherwise and told me why the service was so good and I told her to please cancel my account. Again, she tried to convince me to stay. This process continued for about a half-hour, but I finally convinced the woman to cancel my account. She assured me that my subscription would be terminated and that my credit card would never be billed.
A few months later, I noticed a monthly charge of $50.00 on my credit card statement. Sure enough, it was from America Online. I immediately called the company. I explained my situation to the man who answered the phone and I politely asked him to reverse the fees. He responded, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience sir, but since you did not cancel your account within 30 days of activation, I cannot do that." Since I knew I had canceled my account, I was furious.
I asked the representative to look up how many times I had used the account and on what dates. He sluggishly told me I had used it once, the day I signed up for the free trial. After much deliberation, I was able to get the fees reversed. However, when I told him to cancel my account, he tried to make me stay. The same conversation as before had begun. It was like I hit the reset button and was talking to a re-booted robot. He went through all the same questions of why I wanted to cancel as before. I couldn't believe it! By this point, I was extremely annoyed. Only after getting very upset and demanding was I able to convince him to cancel my account. Irately, I hung up the phone; the phone call was over an hour long.
I couldn't believe that such a large and well-known company was getting away with conducting business in this manner. They must have been making thousands from customers who gave up on getting their money back. Anyway, I hope that this review will do something to convince people to steer clear of those AOL free trial CDs in the mail. Once they get you signed up, in my experience it's almost impossible to get them to let you leave. - Guest
August 4, 2009
Several years ago, I signed up for a free 30 day trial of internet service through AOL. After setting up my account, I quickly realized the service was not for me and called the company to cancel. The woman who answered the phone tried to convince me otherwise and told me why the service was so good and I told her to please cancel my account. Again, she tried to convince me to stay. This process continued for about a half-hour, but I finally convinced the woman to cancel my account. She assured me that my subscription would be terminated and that my credit card would never be billed.A few months later, I noticed a monthly charge of $50.00 on my credit card statement. Sure enough, it was from America Online. I immediately called the company. I explained my situation to the man who answered the phone and I politely asked him to reverse the fees. He responded, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience sir, but since you did not cancel your account within 30 days of activation, I cannot do that." Since I knew I had canceled my account, I was furious.
I asked the representative to look up how many times I had used the account and on what dates. He sluggishly told me I had used it once, the day I signed up for the free trial. After much deliberation, I was able to get the fees reversed. However, when I told him to cancel my account, he tried to make me stay. The same conversation as before had begun. It was like I hit the reset button and was talking to a re-booted robot. He went through all the same questions of why I wanted to cancel as before. I couldn't believe it! By this point, I was extremely annoyed. Only after getting very upset and demanding was I able to convince him to cancel my account. Irately, I hung up the phone; the phone call was over an hour long.
I couldn't believe that such a large and well-known company was getting away with conducting business in this manner. They must have been making thousands from customers who gave up on getting their money back. Anyway, I hope that this review will do something to convince people to steer clear of those AOL free trial CDs in the mail. Once they get you signed up, in my experience it's almost impossible to get them to let you leave. - Guest
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