Out of solidarity, my brothers and sisters. Since I now hate them, I call on you to join me. Dump their lame arses.
The Deal: A while ago, I got a call from American Express inquiring about some unusual charges. They were unusual because they were small and outrageously random in parts of the world I've never been. I had my card number stolen and sold through some dirtbag online hack/broker.
Amex is great at this - normally. It's probably the reason I use them almost exclusively. It wasn't the first time I was data violated, so I figured it was over with.
The good news with Amex is that they "take care of it" and cancel the account, get rid of the charges, etc. The bad news is, for some inexplicable reason, even when an account has been cancelled due to fraud, that doesn't mean the account stops accepting recurring charges. Duh!
A few months later, I was reading one of my statements where I noticed (2) identical charges on the same day to AOL for $25.90 each. I stopped dealing with AOL in 1987 when they refused to stop sending me CDs in the mail. I was a bit surprised they were still in business, truth be told. Anyone that annoying eventually goes away, normally.
Anyway, I called Amex, and said "hey, these aren't my charges." They figured out that the charges were placed on the cancelled account (then spent ten minutes trying to explain why that could happen, which I still don't understand for the life of me). They got AOL on the line and we had a nice chat. I explained that the charges were fraudulent, AMEX explained that the card account was cancelled prior to them placing the fraudulent orders, and we all wasted time. No problem. All is well.
$50.80 and I spent an hour. Today, I received a collection letter from Allied Interstate (nice!) for $50.80 for AOL. Back on the phone with Amex, they told me the account was cleared, so AOL was coming after me directly. I hate them now.
Amex got AOL back on the phone. They acknowledged the fraud report and the conversation of months ago. The woman then said, in very sloppy English, "I'm making no changes to any account and noting to remove you from any collection list." Huh? No changes? I want changes. After 10 minutes of Abbott & Costello routines I gave up. I'm willing to bet this is not over.
A business KNOWS they have received fraudulent charges - so they now can't claim moronic ignorance - and then they STILL attempt to extort money from me. Perpetrators? Maybe. They certainly are just as guilty now as the original thief in my book. Is that service or what? Is that the marketing strategy of a legitimate business? Screw the victim to make $50 bucks? They better hope their supply of Eastern European ID thieves add fake orders to AOL faster than legitimate people dump their sorry ass.
Who does business in the real world like that? Dumb companies and criminals, that's who.
AOL sux. Check out my man Vinny Ferrari trying to canx his account-- it's hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaaAYVUWP0I
Posted by: David Vellante | July 02, 2009 at 08:56 AM