Readers agreed that it's always been hard to cancel an AOL account, but some of those responding to my recent story had some good advice for how to go about making sure your cancellation sticks. Unfortunately, it may not help the surprising number of people I heard from who have been charged for AOL accounts they never even had.
One reader passed on some advice from a friend who works for AOL. "Get the name of the person you are speaking with and their shift code," the reader wrote. "The name will nine times out of ten be made up, but the shift code is the key. When you call back to tell them that, yes, you did indeed cancel it last month, you mention the shift code and that tells them you really did. They will credit the month and then they are forced to offer you free months access. You must decline this. When you think, well, maybe a couple more months is okay, they dump you back into the system and you will have to go through it all again. Of course, you may get a newbie at their call center who actually cancels your order and processes it; the standard is to cancel the order but not finish the processing. That way it is in the system if you call back, but if you do not follow up, they rely on the majority of people who do not look at the itemized bills and just make their credit card payments. AOL's business model is based on one thing -- people use their credit cards a lot -- and people are generally lazy. They have automatic bill payment set up for their credit card(s) and rarely look at the charges. Now, I know YOU look at every line item you get, but you are sadly in the very small minority of people in this nation."
Of course, one good piece of advice is to never accept an AOL "free trial" offer in the first place, since those can be hard to drop before the monthly charges begin. "Just be aware that when you call to cancel the free trial, there will be no record of your call," wrote another reader. "In June, I signed up for their free trial period, which was 60 days or 1,100 hours of free service," a reader wrote. "I called about two weeks later to cancel the service, expecting not to be charged. Well, the next month they had debited my bank account for the $23.90 monthly charge. I called AOL the next to day to dispute the charge, saying that I had already called and canceled, but they gave me the 'we have no record of you canceling that account' line. So, I talked with customer service to cancel again and get reimbursed for the money they had taken from me illegally. The women I was talking to said she couldn't help me and told me she would transfer me to their supervisor. The supervisor told me the same thing because there was no record of me canceling the account in their system. So now I'm disputing the charges through my bank."
Trying to get your credit card company to reverse the charges doesn't always, though. "I was unable to cancel AOL via mail-phone-email, and after three months of trying, I called my credit card company to see if I could stop the charge and get credit for the unwanted service," wrote one reader. "Nope, said Visa, they have been unable to recover from AOL, and thus won't allow me to stop or challenge the charges. So I reported the card as compromised -- it was -- and I was issued a new number. AOL attempted to bill me, ignoring my replies. I ignored them, and they eventually went away. Never again, AOL. Never again."
Another tactic some readers reported success with is threatening to bring in the lawyers. "AOL has been sued over this issue before," wrote one reader. "I made certain that the rep I spoke to when I canceled knew that I knew that fact. I also implied that he might find himself answering subpoenas and giving depositions should any more AOL charges show up on my statement. No problem - that was the last I heard from AOL."
What I found particularly interesting were the stories from readers who had to try to cancel accounts they had never opened. "I received a couple of letters from AOL dunning me for an account that I had never had," wrote one reader. "The letters informed me that my account would be closed and possible collection activity pursued if I did not update the credit card information they had on file. I operate my own servers and pay a huge monthly amount for business class service through Cox cable, and I have for years. When I called AOL, I was informed that I could close the account, and no amount of arguing that I did not have, want, or need an AOL account seemed to sink in. He said I would need to contact the AOL fraud department, and, no, he couldn't transfer my call. So, when I called the fraud department, I informed the rep that since AOL deemed it necessary to record my call, I would also be recording the call. I was told AOL would not continue to help me if I insisted on recording the call, even though here in Texas I have the right to record the call even without even informing him. The end result was I received a cancellation confirmation number, and have yet to receive any more collection letters. What I found most interesting was AOL's insistence that they could record me but I wasn't free to make my own recording."
Not all attempts to cancel accounts the user didn't initiate end that well. "More than two years ago my house was broken into and my checkbook was stolen," wrote another reader. "At that time, one of the thieves or their cronies signed up for AOL through my checking account. I went through a variety of things, including changing my checking account number, and nothing has worked. AOL will not cancel the account without my screen name information. It states that it cannot find my checking account number or confirm the account in any way. However, after my last conversation with them, they sent me a letter stating that I have continued my account. This is insane. They have my name and address, and can send me a letter but cannot cancel my account. At this point, all my bank says is that I should close ALL my accounts and open them up under new numbers. So I need to get another bank, and I am afraid AOL will put something on my until-now excellent credit report. I don't know what to do.
Not surprisingly, AOL's high-handed behavior leaves unintentional customers wondering just what recourse they have. A reader who does have an AOL dial-up account recently discovered that for the last three years AOL has also been debiting his bank for a non-existent broadband account. "I contacted AOL and verified that they had been debiting my checking account for both services," the reader wrote. "My calculations add up to almost $1,500 in services that I never received, and to add further headache they continued to deduct for both services for three additional months until I worked something out with my bank. My complaints to AOL fell on deaf ears, and adding further to my frustrations was the inability to talk to anyone that would give me any satisfaction or would offer a compromise. AOL won't communicate with me directly, but I did receive a copy of a letter they sent to the Better Business Bureau after I filed a complaint claiming they had credited my account $90 'in good faith.' I decided to try and take legal action but have been dead-ended by not being to obtain my account records from AOL - they said they had been purged. Yeah, right. I considered small claims court but because of venue and jurisdiction from state to state and the complexities of Internet law it is way too overwhelming and complex for this mere dial-up user. I filed a complaint with the FTC and they said I had a valid complaint, but what they will do with it is anyone's guess. I am still searching for some legal entity that will listen because from my research I know AOL is shafting their customers globally and are somehow being allowed to do it."
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