Bet you didn't know this

If you owe eBay $1.70 they will put your account on hold until you pay them if you wait long enough to pay them.

Screw AOL

I've been very pleased by the recent news story about AOL and their questionable billing practices. The news story reminded me of my infuriating incident of AOL dishonesty. It happened well over five years when we switched from AOL to Roadrunner in my abode. When I tried to cancel the account the scam they used was to offer me a free month. I said sure since there was going to be a few days of down time before the Roadrunner was installed and this would allow me to have internet the while time during the changeover. I thought that was mighty nice of AOL.

You know how every website subscription you've ever had works. When the subscription run expires, you can't get in anymore until you pay up, much like my eBay account right now. I figured that I would use the AOL account for a month and once it expired I would use the Roadrunner connection exclusively. AOL had other plans. What they did was as soon as I tried to log on after the expiration date, partly my fault since I was paying attention to the date, they immediately charged $30 to my credit card. I called and said I thought I had cancelled the account. They, literally, laughed and said, "why did you use it?" I'm serious, one woman actually giggled at me on the phone. This is the closest I have ever come to a heart attack. I was seeing red and almost yelling into the phone. I demanded they refund the money, they said no. I demanded to talk to someone else they said it would do no good. I don't remember ever being more angry at any time in my life.

What really made me furious was that I had been a customer of theirs for several years. Somewhere around four or five. I split the account with Chris during that time and I must have paid them almost $1000 over that period. What kind of company does all it can to screw over someone who has paid them that much money? So yeah, the hell with them. I hate to see people lose jobs but part of me desires to see that company go tits up. I bet that if they do go bankrupt they do it at the beginning of a month so they can charge their loyal customers for a full month they won't get.