Aol...wtf??

J

Jahya

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Ha! Listen to this, a co-worker had Aol because she got it for free with her new computer. After about three months she decided that even for free it was not worth it so she calls to cancel (this is back in November) and they tell her she can use the account until the end of November with no charge, but if she logs on within 90 days the account will automatically reactivate. OK, fair enough. The same day she canceled with Aol she started service with Earthlink. All is well.... right?!

Well sure, until he early February when she receives a bill for November, December and January. She calls to dispute this and they tell her she is still technically using the service. Completely baffled, she doesn't argue thinking one of her kids must have done it. After talking with the kids, she determines that most likely they are telling the truth about not using it, why would they, they have Earthlink which is much faster anyway (or at least as much faster as dial up can be).

So she calls Aol back and tells them she wants a detailed login record so she can either A) dispute the charges or B) bust out one of the kids for lying. They refuse and tell her if she does not pay, her service will be canceled. Hmmmm.... Anyway, seeing as this is what she wanted to begin with she says that would be wonderful and tells them to shove their bill straight up their @ss.

I guess this got someone's attention because she got a call from a "Receiveables Supervisor". Again she demands a detailed login record or some sort of proof that this account was in use. She tells them if they can prove it, she will pay it. Again they refuse. So, she calls back and demands a different supervisor. After going round and round with him for a bit, he finally tells her this:

Since she used the same email address when she signed up for Earthlink (ex: jumpinjesus@aol.com & jumpinjesus@earthlink.com) they can charge her for up to one year because Aol owns that "address" for one year from the date of cancellation. What?!?! How the fawk can Aol own "jumpinjesus@<any domain>.com"??? The answer is simple, they cannot. But according to this cheesediick they can, they do and will charge you for it, EVEN IF someone other than you signs up a service under "jumpinjesus@<any domain>.com".

This guy has to be lying. There's no other explanation for such ignorance. If this is true, this would make it basically OK for Aol to screw any person who has ever been dumb enough to use Aol to begin with because Joe Schmo in BFE just happened to pick the same email as you previously had with Aol??? No, it must be a lie because this guy was too retarded to get the info she requested or something. If this were the case, they would have to be setting themselves up for a huge lawsuit. They cannot control what email anyone uses with another domain.

I don't know what their deal is, my g/f had Aol when I met her and she tried to cancel, they kept billing her for several months and she kept calling telling them she wasn't using it. I finally called them and demanded the logon records and when the rep pulled them up, he said he could see the account was not logged on for several months and eliminated the bill.... so is this some sort of IGNORANT new policy? Does this explain why Aol is now losing their customer base? Who knows....

O yeah, and did anyone else see where Aol-Time Warner is thinking about dropping AOL from the corporate name because is is dragging down the overall company growth?

"Investors and some executives have been advocating for months to drop "AOL" from the group's name as the America Online division, once viewed as the crown jewel, has dragged down overall growth."

Full article here.

And that my friends is my rant for the day....errr morning at least.

edit: d@mn this is a long post....sorry
 
a great story.

this story is so out there, it's one of those stories I tend to believe is exagerated, or one sided.

if it's not, and of this is truely the full story, wow
 
Originally posted by dealer
a great story.

this story is so out there, it's one of those stories I tend to believe is exagerated, or one sided.

if it's not, and of this is truely the full story, wow

This "story" does seem very unreal, and I hope it is, but in my post, I only typed what I was told this morning along with some of the history of it as related to me over the past 10 days or so that she has been dealing with this since she got "the bill". This has been an ongoing issue for my co-worker and all along I have just told her "that's Aol for ya" but when she came in this morning and told me about this whole email thing I almost fell outta my chair from the massive force of my jaw hitting the floor in disbelief. If this story is exagerated in any way or one sided, it's not by my doing. I offered to call in for her and pretend to be her husband or something because I do want to hear someone at Aol tell me this first hand because I can't beleive for even a second that this can be possible or anywhere even close to legal....but I've seen/heard stranger things.

Like I said at the end of my previous post, errrr well towards the end anyway, my g/f had some issues with billing, but when I called and the guy realized he was talking to someone "reasonably" educated in the world of technology (unlike my g/f who can't even program a VCR or figure out how to work my receiver) it was all taken care of right then. So my one direct experience with Aol wasn't that bad, other than the fact I was calling in regards to a bogus bill. Note they had no problems looking up the login info then for me, but my g/f got the same BS runaround about not being able to get that info for her.

Either way I still contend that Aol is a tool of evil forces in the world and must be stopped! ;) :D
 
And that's why they're called "A$$holes Online". :D

I'm speechless. They own jumpinjesus@<any domain>.com? I his wet dreams!

That would be like owning the house on say XXXX Park St. in city A just because you happen to own the house on XXXX Park St. in city B. What a moron. *sigh*
 
You're so easy to use no wonder we're number 1

My mother does book work for this guy, we'll call him Jeff. She notices on his credit card bill an AOL charge. He doesn't go online, older fella ya know. Well long story short, his recently deceased wife had setup and used the account. He doesn't know the username/password but is being billed. AOL TOLD HIM THAT HE HAS TO MAIL A NOTORIZED DEATH CERTIFICATE TO CANCEL. Is that not the most uncaring despicable cancel process in the history of corporate america. He is only paying 4.95 a month for the garbage.

If you are on AOL please call 1-888-265-8008 or else your family might have to go through a terrible injustice if you have an unfortunate end. Think of the kids people, think of the kids....
 
Mail those free AOL cd's right back to them. Heck, if you're bored, pick up a few hundred free discs at Wal*Mart and start shipping...
 
Originally posted by j79zlr
You're so easy to use no wonder we're number 1

My mother does book work for this guy, we'll call him Jeff. She notices on his credit card bill an AOL charge. He doesn't go online, older fella ya know. Well long story short, his recently deceased wife had setup and used the account. He doesn't know the username/password but is being billed. AOL TOLD HIM THAT HE HAS TO MAIL A NOTORIZED DEATH CERTIFICATE TO CANCEL. Is that not the most uncaring despicable cancel process in the history of corporate america. He is only paying 4.95 a month for the garbage.

If you are on AOL please call 1-888-265-8008 or else your family might have to go through a terrible injustice if you have an unfortunate end. Think of the kids people, think of the kids....

Not to be a dick, as I completely agree with you folks in regards to AOL, but the mailing of the Death Certificate is extremely cold, yet necessary.

I used to work for an (unnamed) company who also was on a customer account-type basis. We had quite a few people going to the extremes and saying that "so and so" had passed away, so please waive all past charges and wipe the account. You'd be shocked at how often these were just sketchy people trying to get out of their responsibilities.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm sounding like an ass, but I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents on the Death Certificate thing... Aol still eats old balls.
 
I see your point Herkalees, but shouldn'y AOL be able to find this out on their own? Aren't there any public records?
 
To a point I see what you are saying, but he wasn't asking for reimbursement on past charges, just to cancel the service
 
Ugh. I've got a really high level of disgust for AOL.
 
I believe that earthlink offers some kind of email forwarding and thats why her aol acount was still being accessed and since u have to tell your new ISP that u want that done its pretty much her fault and she owes the money. she should have just copied her address book and been done with it. BTW we have AOL, MSN, Earth Link and Mindspring (bought out by earth link) at my house for some reason. damn wemon have to have the cutesy aol crap I guess and SN
 
Originally posted by Krux
I believe that earthlink offers some kind of email forwarding and thats why her aol acount was still being accessed and since u have to tell your new ISP that u want that done its pretty much her fault and she owes the money. she should have just copied her address book and been done with it. BTW we have AOL, MSN, Earth Link and Mindspring (bought out by earth link) at my house for some reason. damn wemon have to have the cutesy aol crap I guess and SN

I asked her about the email forwarding and she says she did not request it, nor did Earthlink offer it to her and to the best of her knowledge, she is not receiving forwarded emails from her AOL account....

I guess it doesn't really matter anymore, she said she's tired of dealing with it and will send them $1 a month for the next 90 or so months provided they stop billing her immediately. They agreed to this.
 

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