AOL Blocks Christian E-Mail

Business Reform Magazine ^ | July 26, 2004 | Marilyn Barnewell

[drjimmy]

Has anyone else had trouble with them continuing to bill your credit card after you cancelled?
We did the free trial period last year and then cancelled. But somehow our credit card kept getting billed. We finally got it stopped, and have since learned that this is a common AOL scam. The Federal Trade Commission finally put the screws to them about this tactic, but I'm sure it still goes on. It's comical that the online provider does not have a way for you to cancel online, but of course they know if it was that easy, too many people would do it.

[12 Gauge Mossberg]

Has anyone else had trouble with them continuing to bill your credit card after you cancelled?

I heard horror stories, yes, about AOL maxing out people's credit cards long after they unsubscribed.

[GrandMoM]

BTTT

[malakhi]

Has anyone else had trouble with them continuing to bill your credit card after you cancelled?

FOUR YEARS after I cancelled my account with them, they started billing me again. When I called, they claimed I had reactivated my account. Only when they checked my usage records, and saw that I hadn't logged on for a single second did they agree to credit me for the error.

[miele man]

Thank you for the advice. I sent the original article with the article's link to six Christians, four of whom use aol. All four of the AOL users' messages bounced back to me within seconds. I copied the articles along with the header information showing that it bounced back and why and then sent them again to the four AOL users. It took four tries and several wording changes to make it through the AOL filters. I changed the spelling of Mrs. Barnewell's name, deleted the word "Christian" and left out the link. Only then would AOL's filters permit the article to pass through to the intended recipients. I sent copies of the messages to myself so I would have a record as well.

I do have to ask though, is AOL blocking all Christian emails or just Mrs. Barnewell's article which directly attack AOL? Guess I need to do further experimenting. Even if only one Christian message is being blocked, then this is totally unacceptable.

[SunnySide]

Let me first say that I do not like America Online. I have had (well-documented) experiences with that company sufficient to justify my dislike.



I agree be careful, AOL is a DNC channel. They monitored republicans online activity and their tech service guy even brought up politics in a very snarly tone towards me. How creepy is that! I immediately canceled their service. This was during the 2000 Presidential election / Florida fiasco

[Taquito]

Please understand that AOL is internet with training wheels. It is understanable that you might use it when you first get internet until you get your feet wet and start to understand how the internet works because face it, it is easy to set up and use by novice computer users.

Here is the but.

But if you have been on the internet for any more than a year and are still using AOl and thier patched-together,system crashing software, you might be tottering on the edge of being an idiot. There are tons of providers that are cheaper,faster, and that use much better software(You don't even need any software for broadband in most cases, just a browser)....find one and discover what the real internet looks like.

This has been a public service message from people against continued use of AOL.

[hardhead]

With regard to my newsletter, the only other things that they have blocked are news articles critical to homosexuals and some pro-2nd Amendment news. From what I understand (from a friend) there are two things that their blocking system looks for: Subject and the link itself. If the link is to something against their leftist/socialist philosophy, it most often is blocked.

[TXnMA]

Has anyone else had trouble with them continuing to bill your credit card after you cancelled?

Count me in. Long after I got my own domain and dropped "The Internet on Training Wheels", (AKA "A-Oh-Hell") they continued to bill my card.

Never did get any refund from AOL; had to cut them off via the card company...

[Tribune7]

Yup. I signed up for some trial offer, didn't like & had a heck of time getting rid of them. IIRC, I ended up having to make a complaint with through my credit card company. I remember the service rep. being real help in expediating the complaint & not being a bit surprised it was AOL.

[aberaussie]

Never did get any refund from AOL; had to cut them off via the card company...

Must be how they stay in business...I think I will cancel the credit card it was on. They refunded me for two months and then had the nerve to offer me another free month for my trouble.

[RockinRight]

Has anyone else had trouble with them continuing to bill your credit card after you cancelled?

YES! Those sons-of-bitches did it for 4 months...

[ApplegateRanch]

It's comical that the online provider does not have a way for you to cancel online,

I cancelled AOHell years ago.

Online.

Accidentally.

I had had the temerity to ask online "Customer Service" how to cancel when my current billing cycle ended, and was auto-cancelled immediately.

No refund for unused, 3+ weeks worth of pre-paid time, either.

The immediate 'drop' of my connection, and inability to log back on ("No such user ID/password") was my only "answer".

[gcruse]

Complaints about AOL abound - yet people still subscribe to them.

Then they must like the filtering.  Only a idiot pays for his own mistreatment.

[kt56]

Then they must like the filtering. Only a idiot pays for his own mistreatment

What U said!!!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

The problem is for people who travel AOL is often the only game in town. My parents are currently touring the country. I got them off of AOL and on to Juno which they like very much. The problem is that regularly they are in places where there is no local Juno number. As they need to be on line for business reason this can be a problem.

[MissAmericanPie]

I dropped AOL long ago, before 9-11. After 9-11 I found that a Saudi royal is THE major stock holder of AOL, Time, Warner, through a City Bank cover.

[Richard Kimball]

Yes. I cancelled my subscription, and they stopped billing for a couple of months, then started again. I called and complained, and finally got them to stop. This was four or five years ago, when the IS providers in small town where I live were AOL and MSN. I have no idea how they're still in business, considering the amount of money they've lost over the last few years.

[fatrat]

there are other companies out there that have local numbers in more many more cities than aol and they are much cheaper. i use one called www.copper.net when i travel. it is excellent and only cost 99.00 per year.

[Salvation]

They wouldn't be discrimating about religion now, would they? <sarcasm