Fucking Robbing AOHell Bastards!

The BBQ Pit
1

OK, so when I moved to this apartment in January, I needed to get online. However, to contact the ISP I’d used before moved to the dorms (mmm, free high speed internet), I needed to get online. So, despite all the awful things I’d heard about AOL over the years, I picked up a free trial disk from my work. It didn’t totally suck, but I contacted my old ISP (SurfBest, if you want to know) and signed on with them, 'cause they’re a lot cheaper than AOL and I can use my own browser window and all that lovely stuff.

Fast-forward to today. I’m checking my checking account online, making sure I have enough money to get groceries (mmm, pickled ginger), and I scroll down a bit and really look at some of the charges for the first time. I find that last month, there were not just one, but TWO charges of $23.90 to my account, from “POS PURCHASE AOL*ONLINE.” I’m not sure who I’m more angry at - myself, for thinking that if I just uninstalled the software and didn’t connect, they woudn’t charge me, or the fucking bastards at AOL for charging me for their fucking crap-ass internet service that I’m not even fucking USING! Grrr.

So, tommorow (well, actually, later today) I get to call the bank (provided I get up before they close) and whine to them about this, and/or call up AOL and (if I get a Real Person) whine to THEM about this. Stupid fucking AOL. It’s not like I have $47.80 just laying around to give to them - I can think of quite a few things I’d rather spend the money on. But nooooo, they just automatically take - STEAL, one might say - out of my account. And conceal it so well that I didn’t notice for weeks! Stupid fucking bastards. I hope they they go bankrupt in SUCH a scandal, that decades later, people will referr to a corrupt company as an “AOL.” Oh, and that the balls/boobs of the people in charge, would shrivel up and drop off. (And yes, I know that the proper female corresponding bodypart would be ovaries, but some women might not mind their ovaries shrivelling up, while boobs would be more of a concern. And it makes it make more sense. So there.)

…Yeah, I think that’s it. You may tear this post apart now. Keeping in mind that it’s 6:30AM and my eyes aren’t quite focusing at their best after (yet another) night in front of the computer, so I might have misspelled some stuff or something.

2

DISCLAIMER: Any Pit thread that rags on AOL is OK by me. Pig squicking bastards. I hope they die a fiery painful death.

Anyway, you are totally responsible for that first charge. Your bad. But what the hell was the second one for?

3

Hehe, we all know what POS stands for.

4

I keep getting those stupid AOHell trial disks in the mail.

They get used as mini-frisbees.

5

Yep, Point Of Sale, everyone knows that.

6

Damned if I know. I think they charged me for two months of service, or whatever. One of them was early March, and the other was late March. And it went unnoticed 'cause it was Point of Sale, and I just saw that and thought “oh, another thing I bought in the mall/groceries/whatever.” But ISP’s do that, too. Or the bank uses that coding for it. Whatever.

7

The only person you can be mad at is yourself. While I also hate AOL, they did nothing wrong.

When you signed up, you probably clicked a box that said “I agree” or something to that effect. Did you read the agreement before you agreed? If not, welcome to the real world, you’re screwed. That agreement told you when and how they would charge you and what you needed to do to stop service.

AOL isn’t a mindreading company. Ya screwed up.

They just automatically debited your account since you TOLD THEM TO! Yes, when you signed up you told them to debit your account for the monthly fee of $23.90. And they concealed it?? You knew good and well when they were going to charge you. Oh wait, you didn’t read the agreement before agreeing, right? Maybe the second charge is a prepayment of next month. Only way to know is to READ THE FUCKING AGREEMENT BEFORE YOU AGREE TO IT!

You have been or are in college. I am assuming you are 18 years old or older. GROW UP!! Your mommy isn’t here to wipe your ass. Be responsible. Sure, you might be able to get back the second charge but the first one is most probably for services rendered. Just because you didn’t use the service, it was still rendered.

8

:stuck_out_tongue:

9

I agree with Fin_man.

It’s not their fault you didn’t call up, discontinue service and (this is the important part) get a confirmation number.

Also, why didn’t you see it untill the second month? You should check your account at least once a month. If not online, then when you get your paper statement.

10

Haha sucker!

11

Just about EVERY online subscription serverice, ISP, webhosting, games requires feedback to terminate an account. The automatic assumption is that you will pay for the next block of service without any input to the contrary–it says so in the user agreement.

Read those things.

12

Well, in the OP’s defense, even going through the hoops to cancel AOL might not have done it.

Several years ago, I signed up for the first "free"month. Of course, when I did that, I had to give them a way for them to draw blood… er, I mean, money, from me should I wish to continue their fine service. As I didn’t have a credit card at the time, I, too, allowed them to potentially access my checking account. I used their service (should I put that in quotes, too?) for about twenty days, and then I went through the overly difficult procedure to cancel the account. I got my confirmation email, and assumed I was done with it.

Not so. A few months later a check bounced. I was, understandably, confused. I hied my ass on down to the bank, and tried to figure out what happened. It turned out that AOL had waited about two months, and then decided that I didn’t REALLY want to cancel, and had thoughtfully started billing me again. By the time my checks had started bouncing, they’d sent in two month’s charges.

Even though the clerk was able to reverse the charges (eventually), it cost me fifteen bucks to put a bank stop on further charges.

Um, fuck you, AOL.

13

Yeah, technically AOL has them over a barrel which just ever so conveniently happens to be right where they want them (or us, if they can get in our purse) but they’re still scumbags that hide behind fine print. May their naughty bits shrivel!

14

Holy shit, I hate AOL and all those free CDs they send me, which go straight in the trash. Yesterday I got one in the mail, and instead of being in a cardboard sleve/envelope, it was in a metal box. Can you imagine how much money they waste on producing the plastic CDs and the metal box packaging? Not to mention that the majority of this non-biodegradeable shit ends up in landfills. So 1,000 years from now, people will unearth these intact plastic discs and metal boxes from AOL.

What a waste. What a pain in the ass.

15

But the OP even says:

Obviously, he just disconnected and assumed that they wouldn’t charge him anymore - which isn’t AOL’s MO. I have issues with AOL and their service, but they aren’t psychic. They require their customers to call them and disconnect the service - and when he signed on the first time, he became their customer.

This isn’t a matter of him calling up to cancel the service, and AOL not doing so. This is a matter of him not taking the time to make the phone call in the first place.

Ava

16

Eh. No, I didn’t call to cancel, yes, I realize now that I should have, yes, perhaps I was a tad too dramatic about the whole thing in the OP. And no, I probably won’t do anything about it (although I’ll get around to calling/e-mailing AOL sooner or later to cancel service), 'cause the money’s already gone and I’m really not missing it all that much and let’s just chalk this up to another Learning Experience.

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Oh, and I’m a she.

18

My apologies:). I took a chance and went with ‘he’, but it did cross my mind that I couldn’t tell from your post.

And I’ve done it before, too. In fact, I forgot to cancel AOL when we hooked up cable internet here, so I’ve been paying for it for two months. I do use it on a very intermittent basis, though - usually in my room because the cable modem is hooked up to the desktop, so I go online when I feel like laying in bed on AOL. But I agree that AOL does suck.

Ava

19

www.nomoreaolcds.com

20

The last couple AOL CDs I’ve gotten in the mail (yeah, like I’m going to switch from DSL to AOL) have been in DVD cases. I guess they figured they weren’t wasting enough materials putting them in cardboard slips, so they’ve upped the ante.

Bastards.