Ohio Charges AOL, Compuserve With Deception

Polyploid Pimp writes "The Buckeye State has filed a complaint against AOL and its CompuServe subsidiary. Ohio claims that AOL is deceiving consumers with the ever familiar "Free Trial" cds, as both ISPs charged consumer's credit cards/bank accounts after cancelling the "free" service. The state is seeking $25,000 for each alleged violation plus refunds for the consumers. Check it out at The Register and the official press release."

Comments

I've had no problems

[Shiifty]

I used the "3 month AOL free trial" 3 times while I was in school, signing up with a different credit card each time. I canceled on time and I never had a charge on any of them, and in fact, they sent me gifts like a free CD wallet.

I imagine there are hundreds of thousands of people that have used this free offer, and with only 250 complaints over the past two years (probably many more that haven't filed complaints), I'd say thats in the 'whoops, we screwed up' category. I doubt it was intentional, and some are probably because of the person's fault (like a friend of mine who got charged for the month because she canceled late).

It's about time this happened.

[oDDmON oUT]

Charging users credit cards for "free" accounts is simply an extension of previous business practices, designed to raise a revolving, interest free, source of cash and is nothing new for AOL as far as I'm concerned.

In 1997 I fell prey to using AOL. Then I found Netcom and the internet, so I cancelled my AOL account.

Imagine my surprise when the credit card statement came in and another AOL charge was on my account. I immediately called them, asked why I was being charged after cancellation. The telephone droid assured me that there must have been a mix up, that I was no longer an AOL subscriber and that I would be credited on my next statement.

Which I was, but I was also charged again. So I called again, and again the next month, and the month after that, and...

Finally I wised up and called the credit card company, stated my case and the monthly round robin ceased.

My $19.95 was nothing in the great scheme of things. However, multiplied by X number of thousands of accounts cancelled in any given month, that $19.95 could balloon into a floating, interest free chunk of capital of immense proportions, available to use for 30 days. Even if not used, the interest off of such amounts wouldn't be trivial either.

What amazes me is that it's taken as long as it has for officialdom to do anything about the pratice.