AOHELL: I'm not the only one

Apparently, AOL harasses every single customer who attempts to discontinue their service. Here's their business practices at work:

First, they put you on hold for fifteen minutes while they pretend to speak with a manager. Then they come back and offer you three months for free. If you say no they tell you to call back at the end of the month since you have already paid for it and they will not refund on a pro-rated basis. If you say no I want it cancelled now then they verbally harass you and ask if you're using another service provider.

If you say yes then they don't credit your account but rather set up a convoluted process wherein you have to access your account and enter the member rewards center. If you fail to do this then they charge you for the months you were supposed to get for free.

If you call back and complain they offer you five months for free and then even if you enter the member rewards center they only credit you one month before charging your card again.

I hesitated to discuss this, but a friend of mine ranted about how he was very annoyed with AOL's customer service and business practices this morning so I realized I wasn't the only one being jerked around by AOL. Maybe if there are enough people who have had this experience then there's some consumer fraud class action opportunity.