Years ago, we subscribed to AOL when it was fairly new. In AOL's early years, your monthly subscription fee included "X" number of hours/minutes, then you were billed by the minute if you went over the amount in your subsciption. It was a challenge to stay within the alloted minutes/hours per month with kids. At any rate, when we subscribed, we set up the monthly payment of something like $25.a month (don't recall how many minutes/hours per month were included in that. Then, when we got Buckeye Express cable internet, we no longer needed AOL for dial up. My kids (who'd grown older & wiser) kept telling me to just dump AOL completely, that it was crap & I didn't need it, but for some reason I kept hanging onto it, but was able to cut the monthly payment to $14.95 (not using as dial up). I thought I did a half way ok thing. Anyway, years passed, & I never much gave it any thought, but kept hearing that AOL was free, etc. I assumed that because they kept taking our money each month, I mis-understood it being 'free'. Not too smart of me, I know.
However, even though AOL has been free for some time now, they still auto deduct $14.95 a month. I have tried to look for "Billing" on AOL, but it's gone, there's no contact information. My son told me I'm wasting my time & that nobody can 'quit' AOL. He proceeded to google search the AOL Retention Manual a lot of links came up, a couple as follows:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/america-online/
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002439.html
I have been browsing these sites, searching in vain for a solution. Our's is auto deduct out of our checking account, so it's not a matter of simply (?) canceling a credit card. I've learned that banks rarely will just stop honoring auto deducts simply because you ask them to - they say it's the customer's responsibility to contact the vendor (AOL). The problem is, I can't find any contact information for AOL, and I'm getting the impression that it's phones are based in India or something even if I did fine a phone number, I"d have to deal with broken English who will jabberwocky hard sell as per the 'AOL Retention Manual' - which is basically a script for AOL Employees to keep you from canceling.
Apparently, this has been on the news, AOL has been hugely fined, it's been reported, investigated, etc. and yet - it's near impossible to get them to stop auto deducting $14.95 a month from our account. Maybe not that much money per month - but I'm paying for nothing, & when you factor in paying this the rest of the life of our bank account, it does add up. Does anybody have any experience or knowledge on how to make AOL stop auto deducting & let me just cancel it?
Here's the way I had to do it:
Called the service/help number)back then, still talked to an american), had to get the individual's name and a rederence number-then sent that info to AOL headquarters registered mail. Stopped it for a while, then it started up again. I cancelled my bank account, as well as my credit card. A few months later, got a letter from the banl telling me I owed them money. I informed them I no longer had an account with them, they said, "Oh, yes, if anything hits that account again, it's reactivated." I went into the bank, spoke to the female manager, and told her in no uncertain terms I wanted this stopped, the account closed permanently, and I would owe nothing -otherwise, she would hear from my lawyer. That finally ended it. For the love of God-no one -EVER start an AOL account. You'll be sorry. I have no idea how they remain #1.
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BRING THE TROOPS HOME-NOW!
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"They keep talking about drafting a constitution for Iraq.Why don't we give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, and we're not using it any more".
Cancel Your Paid Member Account or Convert it to a Free Member Account
If you would like to cancel your paid member account or convert it to a free member account, we are happy to help you with that. By choosing to convert to a free account you will still be able to use the AOL service for free.
To cancel your paid member account or convert it to a free member account:
1. Go to AOL
Sounds like the same old same old. I had to cancel my checking account to get it to stop.
Check this out: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=aol+billing+practices&btnG=Search
With AOL, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.
Actually, you can, but it does take persistance. I quit two years ago but it took awhile. I believe it took about three phone calls and 3-4 emails to their customer service people. Follow the steps Krazykat provided, it should work eventually. It shouldn't be this hard and the hoops you have to jump through should be unlawful.
I had the same problem, but lucky for me, it was being billed through the phone company and a very nice customer service rep put a block on any charges through my phone.
I can't even find a phone number or mailing address to call aol - anybody have them?? I do not want to have to close our bank account - geez, we've had the same bank account for almost 20 years, I LIKE the bank we are with. And I did ask my bank a couple of years ago if they could just not honor a different charge that kept appearing on our statement each month (a life insurance policy that we never opened - long story short, lots of effort & time & faxes, they could not show proof we opened this policy, & refunded us about $1,400. - the accumulation of auto deducted monthly payments. YES, it went on a LONG ass time because there was no indication what the charge was for,and my bank said it was bank fees & I just accepted that, till I noticed duplicate bank fees that WERE bank fees. I never claimed to be banking smart.)
Anyway, at $14.95 a month, this is over $174. per year that AOL is auto deducting a year.
We signed up for AOL when at home computers were still fairly new, and AOL was about all there was to choose from. There was also Compuserve or something available. We were much dumber about computers back then as well - most people were dumb about computers back then. There simply weren't the options available, and at that time AOL was a bargain compared to the alternatives. My son has saved a lot of the original AOL softwear, just to keep it (??) - he hates AOL. He has one of the original versions - we would NEVER use it, it's worthless, but AOL has changed a lot for the worse in the last 10 years. My point is that we didn't just sign on with AOL in the last few years - our account goes back over 15 years.
Try this number:1-888-265-8008
I"m sorry krazykat - in my state of upset, I didn't even catch that you posted the address & phone number. (blinded by aol rage). I appreciate your help, so much.
Corrupt outfit stay in business, abd even more important-how does it remain the #1 ISP?? It's totally beyond me.
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BRING THE TROOPS HOME-NOW!
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"They keep talking about drafting a constitution for Iraq.Why don't we give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, and we're not using it any more".
Starling...Please see my previous reply post. I provide a phone number and mailing address.
I sure hope this helps as I can remember when I canceled my AOHell account. The operator would not take no for an answer and kept saying that they would give me the next 6 month for free and if I still did not like it after that then I could cancel.
Only after repeatly demanding that I did not want another 6 month for free and several emails/phone calls later and a threat that my attorneys would be contacting them was I able to ecscape the talon grasp of AOHell.
Good Luck. let us know how it turns out.