[Brytani]

If they do bill you, immediately write a letter to their billing dispute address and send it registered, return, receipt requested. Site your two other letters (dates sent etc) and tell them to immediately remove the charge and close the account. Next move, send a complaint to the FCC.

Years back, DH and I did an AOL free trial and cancelled within the allowed time. Not only did AOL refuse to close the account, they billed us for the service and when we disputed the charges and refused to pay, they sent the "bill" to a collection agency who put it on our credit report.

Talk about a REAL pain in the rear end getting that taken off and fixed.

Learned my lesson quick on billing problems, I don't play games. Our credit is way to important to let some company ruin it.

[mountaineer]

Thanks to all of you for your advice in dealing with AOL's refusal to close our "free trial" account. I plan to call them again (this time, I'll try not to slam down the receiver when they start to annoy me!) and will call my credit card company to warn them that an unauthorized charge may be coming. If all that fails, I'll do some of the other things you all recommended.

The thing is, we just signed up with AOL so we could use a borrowed laptop on our Miami vacation. We have no problem with the internet provider at our home, except that - because it's part of state govt., which employs my husband - there's no out-of-state number to dialup when traveling.

It's really disgusting, and what's funny is that when you call AOL, they seem so shocked that anyone would want to terminate service with them.