I made the mistake of signing up for AOL's "free 45-day trial" in January, because I thought we could use it while on vacation. It's now July, and they still haven't complied with my several written and telephoned requests - all done as per their instructions - to terminate the account. AOL is evil, pure evil!
Stephen Klein, Chief Executive Officer
Ned Carlson, Managing Director, Dawntreader Ventures
Daniel I. De Wolf, Founding Member and President, Dawntreader Ventures
Timothy Kay, Founder
David B. Kirk, Chief Scientist, NVIDIA
By all means, if you haven't already, do what tanknetter says and call your credit card company.
When I was new on the internet, I used an AOL "free" introduction card to get connected for 30 days. The card wouldn't work; apparently they left off one bit of code. I immeditely removed the card, and notified AOL.
However, the "free" month got billed to my credit card even though I had never used it.
They promised to reverse the billing. But for several months a new bill appeared. AND a late payment fee was accessed each month by my credit card.
AOL kept assuring me that they would take immediate action to end the billing hassle. NOTHING WAS DONE BY THEM.
I finally straightened it out by calling my credit card company, but my experience with AOL means I won't touch their products.
AOL is the "thing that wouldn't die".
"I made the mistake of signing up for AOL's 'free 45-day trial' in January, because I thought we could use it while on vacation. It's now July, and they still haven't complied with my several written and telephoned requests - all done as per their instructions - to terminate the account. AOL is evil, pure evil!"
Years ago I worked in the billing dept. for AOL (a call center--one of AOL's seven centers in the country at that time). I was shocked to learn the tactics they used on people...ignoring their requests to cancel. In my department we were SUPPOSED to transfer a cancellation request to the SALES dept. (where often they said they would cancel an account but really wouldn't). After I learned about this, I stopped transferring calls to Sales and would just cancel the account myself for the customer.
I can't tell you how many upset customers we talked to at that billing center. Like I said, I was shocked to hear their stories.
Your best route is to find a sympathetic customer service rep and ask them to please just cancel the account for you. (If they are playing AOL'S game, they will claim that they cannot cancel the account themselves.)