I received two months free internet access trial offer from AOL and signed-on August 2004. to September 30. I called AOL Customer Service to cancel before Sept 30, but was asked to continue the free trial until November 30.
November 20 I called AOL Customer Service to cancel the free trial again, and was offered to continue the free trial again until December 30 2004. But I insisted on the cancellation, finally the cancellation was confirmed with Cancellation Confirmation.# ….
Today I received my creditcard statement showing AOL charged $70 on Dec 2 , .
I called AOL billing requesting a refund, but the AOL Billing insisted that the charge could not be reversed because I signed up for broadband service ( which I have not) hence they would charge for dial up exceeding 5 hours.
Out of these four months of free trial I hardly used the AOL service. This is totally a rip off. They have your credit card and they charge what ever amount and when ever they want.
Juno charges $ 10 a month for unlimited dialup usage.
Netzero charges also same for unlimited usage.
Just imagine – if AOL charges $70 during free trial itself, how much it may charge after the free trial is over.
Please share the AOL experiences if you have one, in comments section.
Please don’t go near AOL - giving your credit card number is like giving your wallet in their hand. Once you give your wallet you don’t have any control over.
If you want to learn more about AOL rip off reports use the key words: ‘AOL rip off ‘ ‘AOL free trial trap’ ‘AOL con artists’ in any of the search engines.
Updated: March 2005. After disputing the AOL charge with the credit card company, finally I got the $70/- charge reversed.