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- biggdunc, on 10/12/2007, -6/+49here is yet another customer attempting to cancel... video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIVZ9b0RgmY - ohLook, on 10/12/2007, -2/+45My grandpa is still being billed for AOL. He's been dead for four years and none of my family has good enough authority (including his wife) for AOL to close and cancel the account.
It's sad. - doomgoat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36i almost shat myself with laughter when i met this person who when exposed to firefox he said:
"This thing is a piece of crap, AOL is so much better. It has free spamblocker" - hooksie, on 10/12/2007, -4/+37They honestly care about money.
- i440, on 10/12/2007, -7/+36Ah, the honesty and care of an American business.
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28"...the responsibility to pay AND the right to cancel are granted to the heirs."
Wrong. Debt is not inherited. When the person dies, debts are paid out of the estate. If the balance is positive, the heirs get their money. If it's negative, the debtors are SOL and the heirs get nothing. You cannot incur a debt on a third party without their consent. - EggzDiggs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25"Plus, there's this: A few days ago, Gauthier obtained a letter from AOL that was sent to her mother in Florida. The letter was addressed to Melvin Berkowitz:
'Dear Mr. Berkowitz," it said. "We hope you'll come back to AOL.' "
As if that PR dept doesn't have enough to worry about. Now they have zombie users even without the adware. - fatdog789, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26*cough cough*
Call a lawyer. Have lawyer call AOL. done.
Seriously, if you guys are still paying AOL, you're being taken for a ride. For any bills/contracts/etc that continue after death, the responsibility to pay AND the right to cancel are granted to the heirs. In this case, your grandmother or your gramp's children. At the very worst, the executor of his estate has the authority to cancel the contract. AOL can't claim otherwise; the law is very specific about this situation. Just mention "lawyer" and "cancel" and those two keywords should take care of the mess for you.
There's also the option of calling your credit card company and disputing the charges. You only need to prove that you've *attempted* to cancel; if AOL doesn't accept the cancellation, you can reverse the charges and the CC will glady take up your case and deal with AOL for you.
If this your story is true (and I highly doubt that it is), then you have grounds to sue for quite a bit of money. - FinishdLawSkool, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20MasterChi:
Please provide a source for what you are saying because from everything I have heard you are wrong.
Certain things from AOL will be free but AOL has absolutely no intention of stopping their current billing practices against consumers. - Arkz, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22AOL SUCKS! WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE LEARN!
We all know what their like, just dont join in the first place! - i440, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Why not just refuse to pay the bill?
What are they going to do? Sue the dead man? - jackcall, on 10/12/2007, -10/+25OK so I'm wildly off-topic here, but fat people shouldn't shave their heads, and if they do, they shouldn't grow a goatee.
A bit more on-topic, AOL fired an employee for doing what they trained him to do? I smell a lawsuit coming their way. - FinishdLawSkool, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14verucasalt:
Did you not understand why MasterChi got dugg down??
AOL is not going to stop charging people for their services. Whoever is being charged by AOL now will continue to be charged by AOL. - pacman122, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I would like to nominate this guy for Technician of the year
- FinishdLawSkool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I want AOL to be sued into obscurity but until then, here are some numbers I found via Google that can be called to cancel AOL because you need to rid yourself of this nasty parasite:
1-800‑827‑6364 Don't press or say anything (from: http://gethuman.com/us/index.html#internet)
1-877-773-4462 (from: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_cancel_my_america_online_aol_account.html)
1- 888-265-8008 (from above mentioned site) - rhamej, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I have this friend, she is so brainwashed by AOL, that she currently pays for Cable Internet and AOL for broadband. Which totals up to $80.00 a month. She is absolutely lost with out her AOL browser. I have tried many times to get her to use IE or FF, but she just refuses because she just doesn't want to learn it. One of her arguments is that she is afraid she will lose all here AOL email. Pretty sad actually.
- G33k0ft3chz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Yet another person brainwashed by Aol,but anyway did they even have a brain if they used AOL?
- FinishdLawSkool, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9perfectsquare:
What credit cards expire after 3 years? - Wavey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7When my dad died, I had my lawyer send a notice to AOL to cancel my dad's subscription. That was the very first thing I did; I didn't even bother trying to cancel it without the lawyer's help.
Luckily, I had no problem. They cancelled it right away. But then they sent a letter to my dad's address, saying something to the effect of, "We are sorry you are leaving us, and hope you will consider resubscribing in the future." I wrote back to AOL, with a copy of this letter attached, and told them that if I happen to channel a message from my dad, frustrated that the Great Beyond doesn't have crappy dial-up service to the Internet, I'll be sure to let them know. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8That's the original one that started this all.
- Modulo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6This is a little bit off topic, tenuously relevant at best, but amusing. Have you ever noticed that when someone uses that lifeline on Who Wants to be a Millionaire that the AOL audience gets the answer wrong about three times as often as the studio audience? One could argue that this is saying that they get the answer wrong three times more often than an average group of people but this isn't the case, they get the answer wrong three times as often as a group of people who were willing to be the studio audience for Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and quite frankly, I find that terrifying.
- Dradis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7MasterChi and verucasalt:
If you had read the article, you would know that, "Most of AOL's $1 billion in profits continues to come from subscriptions to dial-up service, a market it still dominates." Why on Earth would it purposely make free its largest source of revenue? What you are both saying makes absolutely no sense. - j0keR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Maybe you quit when there were still plenty of subscribers? I've cancelled the accounts of family members before, and I'd say it usually does take about as long as this guy's call. I probably cancelled two accounts in the last year or two.
Big company? AOL is not a big company. They WERE a big company. They are now a failing company that stays in business by hoping that their customers don't realize they're getting ripped off, and then giving them hell when they do. If you really don't believe it, try signing up and cancelling at the end of the month. Seriously. - levyjl1988, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12AOL Sucks.
- icepick314, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7geez...in order to cancel your AOHell dial-up, you would need to record your conversations for your record...
Vincent Ferrari was smart to record the entire conversation...making AOHell look really bad nationally...
more and more people need to cancel the account and bring down AOHell down....and don't forget to record the phone call... - deut, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7@Urusai
wrong! Debt has to be settled during the period of probate. (At least in the UK, don't know about the USA) - FinishdLawSkool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Not surprising that they are letting go the people who would have answered all of the calls to cancel accounts...
- denjin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Just so you others know...
If you have a card setup to have recurring bills taken out of it, they can bill you even if you cancel the card, change the number, or get a new one. It's not an AOL thing, it's a stupid thing credit card companies do. Even AMEX allows this, it has happened to me. - nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5And who, pray tell, said only AOL does this?
- rypaintD, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6AOL will not be providing free dial-up services. It will just be providing free services to broadband customers.
- kfsutops, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This is the same dude that has been floating around the internet for a couple of weeks.
Nothing new to see here. Move on. - JamesMecham, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5For legal reason I can not name the organisation I used to work for in the UK, where a bill of £1,200 was billed 7 months after the poor guy past away. The wife of the deceased husband closed the account, and paid off the remaining bill along with a goodwill gesture.
Well 7 months down the line the wife received a letter informing here she had an outstanding bill of £1,200. The agent who called the customer, said... I quote, well somebody has been using the Internet connection because it has been used for the last 7 months and you have not paid your bill. I could not believe I was hearing this call, they wife explained to the agent that her beloved husband died of a stroke 7 months prier and the Internet connection was cancelled by herself. Because I was overhearing this call I checked the customer’s details.
The billing agent who took the call did not cancel the account and left it live. (Running in other words) he then proceeded to ask for proof of the death of here husband and if she should fax his death certificate into the billing department and he will pass this onto his manager to look into. Well another 3 months down the line they decided to reimbursed the customer and compensated her for their incompetence.
This is a true documented fact, by me from memory and notes taken at the time of the call. I was disgusted and ashamed of the organisation I was working for could take such actions as these. - Kking199, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4My father-in-law passed away in March. He was a gadget/technology guy. They've been using DSL for years. My mother-in-law was going through the credit card statements and found that they were getting billed twice a month from AOL. Now understand that my mother-in-law is the opposite of her husband, she does not really like or understand tech at all. She is asking me about the AOL charges, as far as we know my father-in-law never used AOL, there was no reason for him too (there was no email activity, but we never asked for activity records from AOL). So she calls to cancel both accounts. They cancel one claiming it was "unauthorized"?!?! But they won't cancel the other one. They wanted proof. She called several times but I don't think she ever sent them anything, then about a month ago she gets a letter saying the account has been canceled.
So my in-laws were getting double billed on AFAIK on an unused account. Now I'll admit it was their fault for being double billed. I suspect my father-in-law had the AOL account for dial-up back up. But we don't know.
IMO opinion this type of behavior, refusing to accept a cancellation request, should be illegal from any company. It is pathetic and sad. It obviously speaks volumes about the integrity of AOL and in particular their top management.
Threatening with a lawyer is a good idea, also I would suggest calling your credit card company, asking them refuse the charges and explaining that this company will not cancel your account. It's amazing how responsive folks will be when a large Credit Card company calls. - dizzledaking, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4sajuke...
WTF are you trying to say? Did you even pass high school? Good lord that's an unreadable comment! - zoom1928, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow, some terrible advice in this thread. Never ever do a chargeback or just cancel the credit card. That doesn't get rid of the bill. Then AOL will sell the debt to a collection agency that will harass you for years.
I've never had AOL, but one month four years ago they billed my credit card $800 for 30 months of service plus fees. I did a chargeback, and I'm still getting hateful and threatening phone calls from the collection agency they hired. I canceled the card after the collection agency charged my card almost $1,900. Both amounts were put on my credit report, and I was turned down for a home loan because of that. I was almost fired from my job because they kept calling me at work. They'd threaten the receptionist and later threatened the owner of my company with a lawsuit. You don't want to screw with people that have no morals and don't give a damn about breaking the law. Don't screw with AOL like that. You have to fix the problem(the bill) with AOL. Fixing the symptom(the creditcard) doesn't make them go away. - ThugEsquire, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4How many times do you need to call it AOHell for us to get the point?
The correct answer is zero. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Just so you others know...
If you have a card setup to have recurring bills taken out of it, they can bill you even if you cancel the card, change the number, or get a new one. It's not an AOL thing, it's a stupid thing credit card companies do. Even AMEX allows this, it has happened to me."
Thats why you call the credit card company and tell them to stop payments to AOL or whoever. If they fail to stop payments, then it's as simple as telling the credit card company you're gonna cancel the account with them. I dont know what you're talking about with saying they keep charging on a cancelled card, thats not even possible. - affiliate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Gym membership, every tried to get out of that. I tried to get out from this huge fitness change, they said I had to physically go to the office and do it in person, in the branch I joined. When I get there, they make me wait for customer service rep, who entices me to stay, it took me saying i want to cancel 10 times repeatedly to get it cancelled.
- Theod48, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4trying to cancel an aol account is like getting a root canal.
- khyberkitsune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Umm, dead wrong, pal. Whoever is the excutor of the estate after a person's death has EVERY LEGAL AUTHORITY to cancel anything. Go read a law book sometime.
- noGoodNamesLeft, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Yeah, I heard that a gang of those zombie users broke into one of AOL's call centres. Apparently they were after the customer service employees' "BRAAAAIIINS", but it turned out they didn't have any and the zombies went home hungry.
- Bonzodog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think a once and for all take down campaign by all us geeks is in order...lets make AOL history. completely.
- acceptab1euname, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Possibly you should start up a "OMG AOHELL SUX!!!1" message board somewhere? Preferably somewhere far from here.
- noGoodNamesLeft, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3AOL *always* seem to have had a "can't cancel" reputation (even accounting for their size) going back to the late 1990s (and possibly further). In fact, I'd started to forget about it and even vaguely considered them when my father was asking my advice on getting broadband.
Needless to say, looking into it I realised they still did this and quickly changed my mind.
To be fair, their larger UK rivals also have poor customer satisfaction ratings, but it's still AOL that seems to have the cancellation problem. - noGoodNamesLeft, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4And then finding out two months later that the problem is still there...
- roxy1357, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3i dont understand why anyone still uses AOL...i really dont.
- bairy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's one of their tactics John "oh just have another month free". You can bet your ass they'll be a catch in there somewhere and they'll get their 'free' time back.
- Tweekster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Seriously, this is such an overrated story. It happens it isnt a big deal.
Just dont pay the bill, they will cancel it for you. You cant ruin a dead persons credit, they wont ever bother going to court for a couple hundred dollars.
or how about this, call AOL up and pretend to be your grandfather, yes that is right, LIE, it wont hurt anyone. - 700c26, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It's really not all that uncommon to happen when people die. Utilities, banks, and credit cards all have security measures in place to avoid other people messing with your account. My mom had a problem trying to disconnect the telephone after my grand father passed away, and the telephone customer service reps were useless. She eventually had to go to the phone company and show them her power of attorney document to get the thing disconnected.
- Neosithlord, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You know I started my account years ago because I took my laptop to work and decided to do the trial to get online.Yes I'm a retard for doing so. I never knew it would be such a pain to cancel it. I let my credit card expire for 3 months recently and was still charged the low fee of like 5-6 dollors a month only because I could down grade my acount online. So yes, you can let the card go. They still charge your ass for it. I guess it's back to the phone calls to cancel that damn account.
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