AOL Declared War On SuperCitizen

[Pekka]

AOL sucks, what else is new.

Situation: A person (my mom) has AOL internet services. It has monthly fee, even though she has not been able to connect to AOL for.. months. Then, after some time her laptop came crashing down as well and doesn't work now. Months and months. When I was up there beginning of the summer, the laptop wasn't working. Hell, AOL services must of been up for like a year or more without my mom being able to connect to it, and now it's even more impossible.

So, she calls the AOL guys and says, she would like to cancel the AOL thing for now because she can't use it anyway, and she does not want to pay te monthly bills for it. Actually she called their long time ago the first time. The problem is, that AOL was service was subscribed by another person, the person who was doing my moms job before her, and now that she got there, she has gotten the service and paid the bills. Now, she doesn't know this mans name, address or phone number or anything. All she know is, that she's got his laptop now for work, and AOL internet. So, the billing address is my moms home however.

So they refuse to cancel the service, that is to my mom and who pays for it. My mom asked if they would give the address or number of the person who subscribed ot it first, so she can call that person and say to cancel it. They refused to do that. They don't give any info on the clients. So, what happened is that AOL keeps on charging my mom for it, even though she don't want it anymore, and she can't even have it because she doesn't have a working computer for AGES nwo. But AOL insists my mom PAYS the bill. Because she receieves AOL service. Which she can't even use. They won't send the bills to the original subscriber somehow. THe bills go to my mom. She explained this. They refuse to a) stop the service and b)give the info on the person so she could have it cancelled or c)redirect these bills to that person and d)notify this person about this situation.

So it's a deadlock and my mom just keeps getting bills and because all the balls of the family was blessed to me, she pays them.

Now we all know this is BS. We all know, that AOL is being really bad and evil now and this can't be legal. I don't want thme to only stop sending my mom bills, I want them to refund my mom for making her pay for at least a year for services she can't have and services she don't even want. What can I do? Should I call them? I can make the phonecall, and let them have it, but instruct me please.

[Pekka]

I want to knwo the measures I can take on her behalf. She agrees to the measures I take, and I take them on her behalf and with her blessing. I want to know everything I can do to these blood sucking bastards, cripple them and throw every stick into their machinery. I want refunds, for my mom, I want god damn reclamation for the racket they've been trying to do. This is criminal. They must pay.

[Verto]

Can't she just not pay it?

[Solomwi]

Ask them why they've been sending bills to, and accepting payment from, an address other than the account owner of record's address. I'm no law-talking guy, but I have to think a certain amount of the solution lies in that little fact.

[Kropotkin]

Well, not that I know much about legal stuff. But wouldn't it seem reasonable that if you get some proof that she has tried to cancel the deal, she can just tell them to **** off and stick their bills up their....

[Pekka]

Solomwi, The current account is my moms account, it has her name and everything. The difference is, she didn't open that service in the beginning. When she came there, they set it up for her and all the accounts, so she can have the logins etc e-mail with her name, naturally. She is also they payer, and her address is the billing address. But somehow she can't close the service now. And yes, she has to pay for the bills. Well according to AOL.

" But wouldn't it seem reasonable that if you get some proof that she has tried to cancel the deal, she can just tell them to **** off and stick their bills up their...."

Yes, but they refuse to do it. I would tell them to get ****ed if it was me. But now that's not enough. I want them to REFUND those bills she's been paying for the longest time, for service she can't have. She even told, that she can't even use the computer, and way before that she couldn't connect to the service so it wasn't working anyway for a long long time.

[Pekka]

You see, I don't only want it to be closed down. Becuase this has been going on for such a long time, I already consider it criminal activity. They knwo perfectly well at AOL what the situation is, because my mom has explained it to them several times. I don't want to call to their technical support and lash out to some teenager making few bucks, I want this to go up and I want them to not only pay for their super service, I want some reclamation and show of good faith from them. This crap has been going on for too long.

[Verto]

Email the higherups. Inform them of the situation, and that you do not feel you need to make further payments, and possibly that you feel you deserve reimbursement for making payments for service you do not want, and have tried to cancel repeatedly.

[Pekka]

Yes. That I will do. I was thinking of calling them straight up though. Well maybe I will just e-mail them first, and then if there's no response, I will call them up. And it's a big deal too, because my mom is making such a lousy salary anyway, like 1600 a month when she should be making over double that, plus she pays the taxes of the salary she should be getting. I'm just pretty tired of seeing her getting screwed over like this all the time. She knows her rights and all that, but she's just too nice to take it up to the man but settles to her destiny. But I'm goign to take over few matters now and give her a christmas present, to settle the score with these few fockers.

So in a situation like this, and believe me the AOL KNOWS the situation and STILL has refused to do anything about it, so I just don't feel it's enough they 'ok we cancel it, sorry sir, it's been some kind of mix up'. They need to pay for their rotten deeds. I'm just asking what's the usual procedure in your country to do this.

IN our country we go to the local consumer official, and they're pretty good, they totally ***** slap anyone who is trying to screw over customers or even if they are vague in their advertisement on purpose, and everyone is afraid of them so they usually just submit right when they call them up and want to cooperate and refund and do what it takes ot make it disappear. But this is different case, so I was just wondering the procedures. Well I figure the first step is now to e-mail some higher ups. Does anyone know any higher ups in AOL, or do I just have to go to their website and wing it?

[Geronimo]

For some reason I always imagined that america online was a US service only. Does AOL sell internet service all over the world?

[Pekka]

No this is in the US. my mom lives in the US.

[Solomwi]

Originally posted by Pekka
Solomwi, The current account is my moms account, it has her name and everything. The difference is, she didn't open that service in the beginning. When she came there, they set it up for her and all the accounts, so she can have the logins etc e-mail with her name, naturally. She is also they payer, and her address is the billing address. But somehow she can't close the service now. And yes, she has to pay for the bills. Well according to AOL.

That's what I'm saying, though. If the account-holder of record is your mother, they have no standing to refuse a request for termination simply because she's not the original account-holder. The fact that they recognize her name and address when it's time to send the bill means they need to also recognize it when she opts to alter the service. Last time I checked, there were no two year (or however long) contracts with AOL.

[Pekka]

" If the account-holder of record is your mother, they have no standing to refuse a request for termination simply because she's not the original account-holder."

well.. YES!

It's totally BS and everyone knows it. I bet even they know it.

[Provost Harrison]

Well if they do not accept her cancellation, then likewise, any debt incurred is not hers?

[Verto]

Win one for the Gipper, Pekka!