Trying to cancel AOL? FORGET IT!

[crazytimes]

This past summer while living at home I signed up for a free AOL trial. My parents have Earthlink and living out in the country, it is SO slow! It usually only goes 26K even though we have a 56K modem.

Anyways I signed up for the free trial and discovered that AOL was no faster. Plus their software was a pain in the you know where! I don't need all that fluffy crap and AOL garbage and the program took forever to load and ALWAYS updated it itself when I closed it!

I called to cancel and they give you all this runaround and the guy basically says, I am going to extend your free trial another month. I figure that's fine, maybe I'll play around with it. Of course I never did and naturally forgot to cancel, so I get charged $23.90.

I was pissed and then called tonight to cancel and AGAIN he gives me this whole runaround. I finally said "Look! CANCEL MY ACCOUNT. I don't want to do keywords, I don't want all these features, just cancel my account!" And the guy has to gall to say "Ok, I am going to give you 30 free days to, so just call again by November 4th!" But the way he worded it he tried to pretend like he was cancelling it even though he wasn't.

This is ridiculous. If I want to cancel my account LET ME. AOL just practically forces you to extend your account with the hopes that you will forget to call them back, just like I did!

[stumblori]

Hi Crazytimes,

Sorry to hear about the trouble you're having with AOL! I've cancelled them a couple of times without problems - try to tell them that you're moving, and even if they ask if you want to put a hold on your account until you're done moving, tell them no. I hope this helps!

[crazytimes]

Yeah I called back and was very firm and said no multiple times. Finally she said, "you sound very resolute on cancelling," but she almost tried to act like I hadn't taken the time to explore the features and that I don't know all that AOL has to offer. I explained that I had and I DO NOT WANT all that AOL has to offer LOL! Thankfully I am done with them for good now.

[PiercedGecko]

I ABSOLUTELY hate that company. I used to use it during the summer at home for the free hours, because once back at college I had free internet. I remember one time I called to cancel and they talked me into giving me another free month, then I could cancel. I figured what the heck and went with it, after making sure I got the customer service rep's name. Wouldn't you know they charged my credit card for the month and when I called to complain, they claimed they did not know the rep and had never heard of him. Needless to say I did not get that money back. They are an annoying company, with overly desperate and terrible customer service.

[Pipanella]

Our oldest daughter got over two years of free service with AOL, simply by calling to cancel, and they kept giving her more free months. She has no clue how she was able to have it totally free for that long, but she did. She hated the AOL interface, but when it's free...

She finally told them to cancel it for good when they gave up their phone line at home and went all-cellular.

[crazytimes]

The problem with AOL is...I don't WANT all their extra features! ALL I WANT IS ACCESS TO THE INTERNET! I do not want AOL Music, AOL Entertainment, AOL VIdeo, AOL Games, AOL Chat.

Even on my computer which is fairly new, the AOL program always ran horribly slow and everytime I closed it, it would "update" which seemed to take forever!

My parents have Earthlink and it IS kind of pricey $21.95 a month ($10.95 for the first 6 months) but their service is excellent. I am at college but I actully have an Earthlink e-mail address which I access through Outlook. Also I LOVE the Earthlink toolbar which has pop-up blocking and scam-blocking. Their customer service is great and I think they are an all around good company.

[Shainie]

I recently got a postcard from AOL saying that although I tried to cancel my account, it's still active because they need more information. Well, I cancelled about 6 months ago, and I don't see a charge anywhere on my credit card or bank account! And the 2 times I've cancelled with them, I gave them EXACTLY the information they needed.

They're scammers, they just want to charge you an extra month that you don't want.

[TuttleMom]

I used to work at the AOL call center in Oklahoma City in the "SAVES" department. Their primary goal is to KEEP customers from canceling and they are paid a bonus for every account who calls to cancel that they "SAVE". There are lots of slick marketing tricks they will use to keep your account open, including up to 2 free months at a time (max the agent is supposedly authorized. However you have to call in a couple of days BEFORE the scheduled billing date to go through it all again. Sometimes they disconnect or even tell you it is cancelled, yet it isn't.

If you want to cancel, insist. Get a confirmation number and the AOL employee's name (they usually give only a first name). You can also demand it be cancelled IMMEDIATELY and if you're online, you'll hear a "GOODBYE" as it signs you off forever. You notice this huge internet company has NO online method for cancelling.

[crazytimes]

Originally Posted by TuttleMom

I used to work at the AOL call center in Oklahoma City in the "SAVES" department. Their primary goal is to KEEP customers from canceling and they are paid a bonus for every account who calls to cancel that they "SAVE". There are lots of slick marketing tricks they will use to keep your account open, including up to 2 free months at a time (max the agent is supposedly authorized. However you have to call in a couple of days BEFORE the scheduled billing date to go through it all again. Sometimes they disconnect or even tell you it is cancelled, yet it isn't.

If you want to cancel, insist. Get a confirmation number and the AOL employee's name (they usually give only a first name). You can also demand it be cancelled IMMEDIATELY and if you're online, you'll hear a "GOODBYE" as it signs you off forever. You notice this huge internet company has NO online method for cancelling.

Thanks for the info. I too found it interesting that there was no way to cancel online. Pretty shady stuff if you ask me.

[STINKYDOG]

ive had trouble with them same but worse,i called to cancel within the correct time period to avoid having to pay a cancelation fee,they gave me the runaround and made me pay a fee larger than what it would cost for 1 months service.

[charles ingalls]

i call them america offline

[Zpat]

Wow! I never had AOL but thanks for sharing. I will make a mental note not to deal with them.

[gina.alessia]

i had the free trial and it sucks. Although some friends recomended to use their v8.0 software instead of 9 i canceled before the trial to end. Just tell them their internet connection suck and they'll cancel your acct in no time

[charles ingalls]

they were my first internet service
years aog they were good.. and now
thanks but no thanks