AOL - charging after cancellation

coral_a

Hi Everyone,
This is my first post but I really need some help.
My gran had a dial up account with AOL in 2002, which was payed from my mothers debit card each month. my gran died in 2006 and my mother contacted them and cancelled the account - and a letter of cancellation was issued.
my grandad took over the phone line in his name but with NO internet service as he had never used it and did not intend to.
anyway in March 2008 AOL took payment off my mothers debit card for broadband services (my gran never had broadband). The bank challenged broadband on behalf of my mother and AOL claimed it was a mistake and and repaid the money.
as it was a payment for broadband and not dial up (which was the service my gran used) everyone just assumed it was a mistake and has money had been refunded no harm done.
however my grandad received a letter from a debt collection agency for monies owed for his broadband account??!! he has never used the internet and has NEVER had an account. they claim it was re-activated in February 2008 (and also miraculously changed to broadband) however as my grandad does not have access to a computer this is not the case.
He contacted the CAB and they contacted Telo and a reply has now come back claiming AOL are in the right and grandad has to pay (he is in his 80s and is so upset by all of this).
has anyone else had anything like this happen to them? or any idea what we can do?
any help would be really appreciated the CAB havent been able to help and the onbundsman found in favour of AOL!
thanks

bebewoo

Which supplier did your Grandad take over the phoneline from?
Because if he reinstated the AOL account it probably came with broadband as AFAIK they only do phone and broadband bundles. But the whole package should have been in his monthly bill anyway. But if he took over the phone from BT (for example) then he should have received a welcome letter from AOL when the broadband was setup in March 2008.
AOL are really useless at billing, when I was a customer they managed to mangle my account up lots of times (at one point they managed to set me up with three different billing accounts for one phone line!), so it's most likely that they are in the wrong. You really need to ring up AOL to find out what is going on, but make sure you ring their sales department (UK based) not technical support (India based).

coral_a

thanks for your reply..
he is with BT.. have spoken to AOL on many occassions and they just say the account was set up by my grandad.. although he has never received any letters from them other than the debt collection letter. they say they have emailed him.. but as he does not have a computer or an email address we dont really know how this is possible.
Thanks

gazfocus

Additionally, if AOL have been providing your grandad with broadband, they will have had to supply a broadband modem. If they haven't, all this can be used to challenge them.

coral_a

Thanks
yeah I did think about the Modem aspect I will certainly be including that in the lovely letters I am about to write

Electron_2

When I was with AOL they would telephone/pester me every now and again to get me to upgrade my internet account and get free calls with their call plan for extra £££s.

Since Aol would know your Grans/Grandads phone number perhaps Aol telesale staff then duped him to reconnect to Aol.

Just thought I'd add my thoughts.

I think writing to Aol ( perhaps even using recorded delivery) is the way to go if you're getting nowhere with Aol's call centre. Good luck.