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AOL final billing problem

Hey,

Just thought I would post my experience in case anyone else was going through the same thing.

I recently changed my Broadband and telephone line from AOL Broadband and Talk to Sky. I was out of contract by at least two years. AOL were instructed of the request by Sky, giving the required notice.

My billing date of some years standing (I had been with AOL for around a decade) was the 23rd of each month. My services were switched over on the 22nd of August.

I had expected a final bill to be produced on the 23rd with whatever call charges I had pending. Instead, for no reason, and without prior warning, AOL changed the august billing date to the 21st, which meant they took a full month advance charges (£31.55) from my bank account. They also took this amount earlier than usual.

As I paid via DD and not via debit card, I made an indemnity claim as I had been charged for services I was not receiving, and furthermore, AOL knew I would not be receiving those services.

Without informing me in any way, they eventually produced a final bill on 22nd September with my call charges AND a £10 charge for cancelling the dd instruction (£11.60). Three days later, they sent by post a final demand letter with a threat of debt collection.

Calls to customer service (which I am charged for under SKY) have not resolved this. I am following their own procedure and complaining in writing. I will update this thread with what happens.

Note: AOL do not automatically refund credits, so if I hadn't made an indemnity claim I'd now be trying to get back my £30 overcharge instead. I think the billing date was changed to enable an overcharge, and because I didn't allow it I am now being punished with the "DD Rejection Charge" which they have added.

Thanks for reading.
 
Check the contract and pay close attention to the notification period, which is usually something like 30 days (normal for the industry) and, depending upon your timing, could easily result in a customer paying for almost a month of service that they won't actually receive.

If this is not the case and you have genuinely been incorrectly charged then the best course of action is to follow our official complaints procedure. I'd also consider paying off the bill now, since it isn't huge, and challenging it through this process as the damage that debt collectors can do to your credit rating simply isn't worth the risk.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/official_isp_complaints_handlers.php

If AOL's official complaint procedure fails to work then after 8 weeks you can take it to an ADR, which will cost the ISP a lot more than what they're charging you. You can speed this up by requesting a DEADLOCK letter from the ISP before 8 weeks has elapsed, although this is only sent if the ISP agrees that they cannot resolve the issue.
 
Check the contract and pay close attention to the notification period, which is usually something like 30 days (normal for the industry) and, depending upon your timing, could easily result in a customer paying for almost a month of service that they won't actually receive.


Hi Mark, and thank you for replying. The correct amount of notice was given, as evidenced by the extra advance line rental and BB charges being credited back on the final bill. My issue now is that they have charged me for making an indemnity claim when their final bill shows I was incorrectly billed for services.

I'll go through their complaints process first. I can't imagine that it will end up with the Ombudsman, but then, stranger things have happened.

It just looks to me like they were hoping I either wouldn't notice or wouldn't care. (found this page earlier: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2010/10/millions-of-outstanding-credit-unclaimed-by-consumers/ )But, I'm disabled and can't afford to be charged £30 for the fun of it. The indemnity claim had to be made because their DD (even if it had been right, it was days early) made my bank account go into an unauthorised overdraft.

Cheers,

Pip
 
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I'd still pay the outstanding balance now and tackle/claw it back through the complaints process, which might take time but it will eventually reach a conclusion and that's likely to be in your favour.
 
It's been some time, but I thought I would update and add the conclusion to this issue for the benefit of anyone else.

After my last post I wrote a concise letter of complaint to AOL head office stating the issues as I have stated them here.

They tried (unsuccessfully) several times to find out my new telephone number, and I had to respond many times by email that I wished to be contacted by letter.

A couple of weeks later they wrote to tell me my account had a zero balance, which it did. I received a letter from an agency just shortly after this, but assume it was pulled back since I have never heard anything else.

I'll never go near them again.

So, if this is happening to you, write a letter. Insist that they write you back.

And, again, thank you Mark for taking the time out to reply to my posts on this.

Pip
 
No problem pipster and if you haven't already then don't forget to give AOL a review by following this link:

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/reviewAdd.html?id=172

Suggest keeping it short though (note the system tends to log you out after about 30 mins so it helps to pre-write the review itself).
 
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