AOL.com & Talk Talk Rip Off?

shapecontractor

I have had AOL email address since 1993. Originally I believe it was a dial up service and so chargeable on a monthly basis. I have used Virgin broadband since 2003 which I use to access my AOL email. I recently realised that the AOL charge per month had gone up to a whopping £26 a month and then after some digging discovered that an AOL email address is Free!

Bottom line is I cancelled the AOL account yesterday but have retained the email address. When I asked for a refund I was declined with no real reason given. I argued that I was never made aware I could retain the email address for free and that Talk Talk should have at least made me aware. They charge a monthly fee for extras that I have never used. Is there a case to take to OFCOM to ask for a refund of charges?

Any help appreciated. Thanks Jim

Kite2010

So you've been paying since 2003 for AOL broadband over the phone (just to have an email address?) and also for Virgin broadband?

You might get lucky with AOL giving you a goodwill gesture, but how would they know you had a broadband connection over cable?

macman

Surely over 9 years you could have migrated your AOL email contacts over to VM (or more sensibly to GMail, which would give you an ISP-independent address)?
No chance whatsoever of a refund, as you've had the service available, whether you chose to use it or not.

zee_2

you should buy a domain from 123reg.co.uk approx.£7 for 2 years ,and use free email for domain to transfer all email to free google , no matter if you change isp you will still have all your email and only 1 item to chamge.
ex. [isp]email address >678.co.uk [domain]> 67895@gmail.com[google free]
have done it for years you can have quite a few email prefix for domain and change/clear one if too much spam in inbox.

robbin1

I have a similar situation. My boyfriend had AOL dial-up in the early 2000s, moved to Virgin Broadband years ago and accessed his AOL e-mail via the internet. When I went through his bank accounts yesterday (he suffers dyslexia and looks only at the final balance) I found he was paying AOL Broadband £31.99 a month, increased from about £19.99 a month 3 years ago - but he doesn't have one of their broadband boxes and has never signed up for their broadband service. Any advice on what he should do now? He is sure he cancelled his AOL account years ago when he got Virgin, but has no proof.

He's cancelled the direct debit now....first thing he did after I'd practically hit him over the head with a sledgehammer for not checking his statements!

BigAl78

I'm in the same boat. It may be that some people who responded unsympathetically to this thread have not properly understood that AOL made email accounts free of charge in 2006 but kept it very quiet. They just migrated all their email customers onto a monthly charge for broadband without ever actually providing the broadband service (at least not for me, I've never asked for and never had AOL broadband). This was well publicised in the USA, I'm not allowed to publish links but Google 'AOL email scam' and you'll find several stories .
Originally I was paying around £10 per month for the non-existent broadband service, rising to over £30 a month recently. Obviously I've now cancelled, but they have taken over £1,500 from me for a service I never received. Of course it's my own fault for not being more vigilant, but wouldn't you say that the company bears some responsibility? At the very least, if a company stops charging for something and wants to substitute something else in it's place then surely they should ask the customer's permission?
Here's my plan: first I'll request a refund from AOL (TalkTalk) on a goodwill basis. If that doesn't work I'll be in touch with BBC Watchdog - this could be a good story for them. At the same time I'll try the small claims court - may work.

barb1a

I'm with you on this one, let's get in touch with BBC Watchdog!!

I joined AOL many years ago, maybe in the 1990's when it was a dial-up service over a BT line. Then I went over to Virgin Media in 2003 and no longer had a BT line (AOL NEEDS a BT line). I contacted AOL on at least 2 occasions, once at the time I changed to Virgin Media and then around Jan 2009 (possibly more) to try and get my costs reduced. I only needed to retain my email addresses as I DIDN'T HAVE a BT line therefore couldn't use their dail-up service but I was fobbed off, with what I know now, were lies - that I had to keep paying for it.

I had a head and neck injury in 2002, so I'm not that good at dealing with this sort of problem. So my son recently came over and asked why I was paying AOL £30 per month, as well as paying Virgin Cable for my Internet. I told him what had happened.

He contacted AOL on my behalf, to ask what the product, I was paying the £30 per month for, was precisely. They said it was for my broadband. He said that I didn't have a BT line so how could they be providing me a broadband service.

He asked for a refund of the money I had paid (for a service that I never could receive, as I had no BT line!) They said they had struck a deal with OFGEM and that they only had to refund me £180. He was told emails were free and that I could still use them even if my broadband was cancelled. When he enquired from AOL how long emails had been free, there was some hoo-ing and haa-ing and they said April 2012 (MORE LIES! see below).

When I checked up on this, imagine my suprise to see that AOL email had become free in August of 2006. Not only that but OFGEM regulates the electricity and gas markets!!! (not telecomms)

So, over the years I too have paid at least £1,500 for a service that I couldn't possibly receive, as I had no BT line! Basically they have stolen my money. Furthermore they TRICKED me into accepting £180 refund - pure wickedness!!

macman

They didn't 'steal' your money-you failed to cancel the service, or notice you were still paying. It was available if you chose to use it.
Switching to VM does not automatically cease your AOL service, since it does not run on a BT line-the 2 can co-exist in the same property.
The fact that you had a head injury may be the reason you failed to notice £30 per month going out of your account, but that is not VM's fault.
Why pay to retain an email address that you can change to be ISP-independent in about 30 minutes?

barb1a

Firstly, when I first had Virgin Media installed, I did try to cancel the AOL service and I told them I no longer had a BT line. So they knew from the onset that the 2 services did not co-exist at the same property. On that first occasion they told me that I had to still pay for the service (even though I didn't get it) in order to keep my email addresses, so at that point I had little option (if what the call centre said was true). They could not give me any reduction of payment.

Secondly, the AOL service I had agreed to was a dial-up service which was all they offered back in those days. When AOL eventually did offer a broadband service, it was as well as offering a dial-up service, so there were now 2 price tariffs and you had to apply (set up a new contract/agreement) to be on AOL Broadband. I never did this, as I neither wanted or needed AOL Broadband. So, bear in mind that, when my son enquired about what product I was being charged £30 each month for, remember they said it was for 'AOL Broadband' why should I cancel a service that I never signed up for?

Thirdly, I've since learn't that in August 2006, AOL announced that they would give away email accounts and software previously available only to its paying customers provided the customer accessed AOL or AOL.com through a non-AOL-owned access method. Bear this in mind when you consider that in 2009, over 2 years after AOL went FREE, I rang AOL to re-affirm that I only had Virgin Media and no BT line and only wanted to keep my email addresses, so I neither wanted or needed the AOL dial-up service. Why was I told I still had to pay in order to keep my email addresses ?

Finally, you may understand all of the intricacies of the internet but I, my friend, don't. I am in my late 50's and suffering the affects of a brain injury. If you are to understand anything about brain injury, understand this - change isn't good! Also, new knowledge is difficult to grasp and simple tasks that most people take for granted are difficult to us. So it was better I stuck to my known email addresses. I DID know I was still paying, all the time I knew I was still paying.

　

macman

Change: that was indeed my whole point-if you switch to an ISP-independent email service suc as GMail you will never again have to worry about losing your email address-you wil have it for life (or as long as Google stays in business).
If you have difficulty setting this up then there is always lots of good advice available on the forum to assist you.

sniggings

you could always try your bank or card, which ever you used to pay and ask them to do a chargeback...doubt it will work but you never know, also maybe the direct debit guarantee is an other option.