Mine is. We loaded Compuserve 2000, did not like it, went back to Compuserve 4.whatever. But the billing automatically changed to $9.95 a month plus whatever, amounting to $300 for the past month. We never told them to change the billing and service!We usually pay $24.95.(too much, you say, not my idea)
Compuserve was my wife’s choice initially, she needed their forums.
sunbear,
Have you tried talking to a manager in billing? I know it’s a pain in the ass, but if you don’t get anywhere with the person that answers your call, don’t give up, request firmly that you want to talk to a manager.
If they refuse to reverse those charges, promptly write a letter to your credit card company disputing those charges. I know it’s also a pain in the ass, but include a CC to CompuServe.
If that doesn’t get your charges reversed, it’s time to contact the Internet Chamber of Commerce, the local BBB and the national BBB, they do have a web site.
Seeing as AOL owns CompuServe, I don’t doubt you are in a battle of wills…I like my AOL but know they have created havoc in a lot of peoples lives with regards to billing.
Good luck to you.
BTW, I use Earthlink as my ISP (CompuServe is an online content provider, different than an ISP)
I connect to AOL via TCP/IP and only pay AOL $9.95 a month. My client provides me with free internet access so my internet bill is only $9.95 plus $24.95 for my domain account.
If you are looking for an ISP here’s a link for you:
http://webisplist.internetlist.com/
I don’t get it.
I live in Assboink, Iowa (not to be confused with Assboink, Idaho) and there’s no place in this burg where I can buy replacement bags for my vacuum cleaner, but I have an ISP (from a little town 5 miles down the road with a population of 500) – costs $19.95 a month, unlimited access, nothing extra on my phone bill. $19.95, period.
So how come I get a cheap ISP and but can’t get vacuum cleaner bags?
AOL and CServe use mostly the same protocols for handling disputes. If you request to speak to a supervisor, supposedly, they have to connect you right away. If they won’t, ask them for their supervisor’s email address…they’re supposed to give that out, too.
I dumped my ISP in favor of WorldSpy. It’s free, has a local access number here in BFE, and (best of all) NO FREAKIN ADS!!!
Plus, the service has yet to disconnect me for being “idle”…including that one time when I fell asleep for a few hours without signing off.
-David
oooooh, oooooh (exquisitely pained squealing): first of all, thank you for starting this topic and letting me rant, and endless, grovelling, pathetic gratitude to Technichick for the link…
I hate, hate, hate, HATE AOL. I’ve stayed with them out of pure supineness and laziness but they are evil, soulless, mindless and incompetent spawn of diseased goat-boinking, bathwater drinking, booger eating descendents of generations of ill-advised inbreeding.
But hope is on the way. (The idiotic inbreeders just “pinged” again: you’ve been idle; they will dump me off without notice within 2 minutes now…))
Rushing, but determined to free myself from these degenerate androids,
Veb
I’m with you, Veb, but it looks like we may not have much choice, if the AOL/Time-Warner merger is any sign of things to come. . .
Veb,
I have kept my AOL account mainly for chat. I have a lot of friends on AOL that I go out and hang with once in a while so I wont give it up.
Also, AOL gives me a sense of anonymity when it comes to signing up for things on the internet…one of the nice things is, you can see your email b4 it’s downloaded to your computer, even though a lot of what I get on AOL is spam it’s easier to delete then get on to the email that counts.
BUT, AOL sucks for getting on the internet. As a web designer part-time, I can not waste my time on 404 pages or the simple hanging that happens when trying to access a web site via AOL.
Hope the link helps you find a good ISP that you are happy with.
Me, I am sticking with Earthlink for the time being, not only because I get it free but I have great luck with connections, despite my phone lines (US Worst sucks my left butt cheek) The only thing I don’t like about them is the CEO’s reported beliefs, he is apparently a Scientologist…sorry to my Scientologist SDers but it’s a philosophy that I don’t care about.
Compuserve backed down after phonecalls and an overnight letter. my wife uses their e mail and we can’t just drop them alltogether. So I plan to sign up with a local provider for $14.95 unlimited. I don’t need any of the e mail, I use hotmail, yahoo and work e mails.
I’m on my 3rd free month of AOL. A few days before the billings cycle ends, I call them and tell them that I’m “temporarily light” and need to cancel the service “for a little while”. Twice they’ve extended the free trial an extra month.
I don’t expect them to do it again so I’ll have to move on to another free trial from someone else.
Compuserve informs us that they have dropped us, and we are welcome to rejoin. They inform we are disconnected as of 1/10. We are still connected, however. No final word on the $300 bill.
Now I have Earthlink installed. The only hitch is, it put some stupid toolbar on my desktop. Now, I hope Compuserve is even able to turn their service off.