AOL won't let customers cancel account!

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

Count us in on the hard to cancel AOL ranks! I had a terrible time getting them to close my account. I don't know how I did it but finally after 3 phone calls I was able to find a rep who was willing to listen to me and not try and strong arm me into keeping the service. And also, she sent me a letter stating that the account was closed. That was a nice piece of evidence to have in my hands.

 

[Maleficent13]

Holy crap that was the funniest thing I've read in a long time!!!

I have never had, nor would ever have, AOL.

 

[thinkerbell]

We are in the middle of AOHELL (as Webmaster Alex put it) with my father. He bought a laptop in Dec. and it had one of those free 6 month trial things for AOL on it like all new computers do. I told him under NO circumstances should he do that, but my sister told him it would be okay. It is now charging his checking account so he must have given them his bank card number. He never really used the account.
Fast forward to now, dad broke his hip and is in a nursing home, memory and all not what it was. I spent 30 min. the other day with AOL trying to cancel his account. They had to talk to him, and I uderstand that, but he couldn't remember any of the passwords or ANYTHING connected to his account. He swears that he didn't give them a bank number, but he had to have for them to be able to charge him. I explained to them his lack of mental capabilities at this time and wasn't there something they could do under these circumstances--he could give them his name, his address, social, etc. but not the info they wanted. I asked if he gave them permission, could I go to his house and call them back and try to get the info they needed off of his computer. They said, "Sure, if he can verify the account." I said,"Great!! How do we do that." "We need that 4 digit number that he can't remember!!!!!!!"

I have now turned this over to my sister who told him it was okay to do.

 

[RitaZ.]

Very funny! Is your dad home?

 

[CheshireVal]

I have a friend that received free AOL for almost 2 years because every time he'd try to cancel, they'd give him another few free months. It got to be ridiculous!

I did that, too. When I bought my first computer (back in '98) it came with free AOL. I didn't really know any better, so I signed up. Then, every time I tried to cancel, they'd give me free months. I ended up using it for about 8-9 months for free before they eventually let me cancel without any more free offers.

 

[azgal81]

I cancelled my AOL around six months ago I was using one of the free trials with my new computer I got. I cancelled before my free six months was up the guy wanted me to keep it free until then but I told him to just cancel it now. I then deleted it from my computer. I didn't have any problems I was prepared for a battle but he didn't give me one. I thought it was actually quite simple!

 

[hellokitty86]

I wonder why almost everybody has these problems!!!

My experience had to be about 6-7 years ago, I was still living at home and sometimes when our cable internet wasn't working I'd use an AOL free trial cd for acouple days until it someone could come out from the cable company and fix it. When I didn't need it anymore, I called and canceled. Well like most of you, they kept billing us, but it was in my mother's name..

I just remember having the meanest woman talking to me on the phone, and finally she said, "I recommend you never get AOL ever again." ??? What?? My mother had a fit when she heard that, but anyways, they kept charging us after that, but since they didn't bill monthly we forgot about it, and then the billl would show up, 2-3 months later!! Finally they stopped sending them to us..

 

[Chattyaholic]

Sure hope we don't have those awful problems when we cancel our MSN service. We're getting high speed wireless internet installed soon (can't wait!!) so I will be cancelling MSN then.

 

[MommyPoppins]

I never had that problem before. I have canceled and started up many times. In fact I went a whole year WITHOUT paying because when my free time ran out and I called to cancel they would beg me to stay and give me more free months. Not too bright.

 

[Free4Life11]

AOL is sneaky.

You know what they did with me? They called my parents home and my 16-year-old sister answered. The rep asked if this was my wife. My sister said no, I am his sister, he does not live here. "Well honey, I got such a good deal for him trust me he'll love it. I got all his billing information so I'm just going to sign him up and you let him know, ok?" She said no I'm pretty sure he doesnt' need service. "Ok honey, bye." Fast forward a week later...I see a $1 charge on my credit card. Call and "sir, according to our records you resigned up for service [I had cancelled a free trial 8 months earlier." "No mam. I don't need internet service. I get FREE super hi speed through the university. Why would I pay for AOL? And plus I was at WORK at the time I supposedly signed up so there is no way no how I could have signed up for AOL." I got the charge dropped but I was furious.

 

[irishbosoxfan]

I went thru the same thing just a couple of months ago---We had AOL and it kept skipping the local number and dialing the long distance to connect---I had free long distance and it never showed up on my phone bill---Well one day I got a letter from my phone company telling me that they were shutting off my long distance because of it so after calling the PC and agreeing to drop AOL I called AOL to cancel-----I called 2 days before the new bill was to go out and they still told me I had to pay for the next month after arguing about why that was necessary they said because the cancellation wouldn't make it thru their system until after the new billing period started-I told them that was their problem not mine and I shouldn't be required to pay for something I couldn't use--She then told me "Oh you be able to access your email acct for 30 days from today---I don't want to access the email I just want it gone--"It will be gone but we give you free access to your email for 30 days"--Well if you're giving me free access then why do I have to pay?---"Well it isn't "free" it's available to AOL suscribers"---But if I cancel the acct I no longer suscribe meaning I don't want the email access and I don't want to have to pay--"It's a mandatory charge I can't change anything all I can do is put it in the system"

Then I'm on the phone for another 10/15 minutes trying to get me to sign up for the broadband even after I explained about 4 times I cannot have AOL anywhere near my phone line in order to keep my long distance and DH already signed up for Roadrunner and it was being installed later that day

They ended up withdrawing 3 more months worth of payments from my acct(4 months total) before I finally got them to stop and only sent back one and DH said "Bump it let them have it so long as we don't have to deal with them anymore"

 

[saschuster]

Wow! I had my AOL account for almost 10 years and I had hubbys name on it so I made him call because I knew they would talk me into staying. I actually didn't want to leave AOL but it was cheaper to get the DSL and I like it better now. T