INS Charges

What is the name of your state?Oklahoma.
I opened an account with AOL with an offer for 6 month free trial.. A couple of weeks ago I received several notices from my bank about insufficient funds and returned checks. In all I received 90 dollars in INS charges and 60 dollars in returned check charges..
I went to the bank to find out what was going on and there were 2 automatic withdrawals from AOL. One for 178 dollars and one for a monthly charge of 29.95. By the way, no my free trial period was not up this was all erronous charges the sole fault of aol.
I called AOL, They admitted there mistake apologized and promptly promised to return the withdrawn funds, which has not yet been credited to my bank account. When I informed them that I thought they should pay back all the charges assessed to my account and the overdrawn charges they would not. What really made me mad was that the sum of all the checksthat i received INS and return charges on, did not total the sum they withdrew, and there is proof positive that these checks would not have bounced if they had not withdrawn the funds.
Little back ground for any of the cutsie messages about always having to know what is in my bank.. ummm that is what check book registers are for.. all the checks that came back insufficient funds and returned were small checks... 10 dollars here 20 there.. they did not amount to what aol took out and they were all written over the end of the week and weekend so they all hit the bank at the same time..
Is AOL responsible for paying me back for the charges. ?

[Ladynred]

Maybe, maybe not, but its unlikely you'll get them to pay those fees w/o a lawyer and probably a lawsuit. The one thing you must do is stop using the phone to argue with them. Put your complaints on paper and MAIL them, and I'd mail them so that you get a delivery receipt so they can't say they never got your letter. You need to establish a paper trail, otherwise they will simply deny everything.

AOL is known for this type of so-called 'erroneous' billings on 'free trials' and its something they were slapped for by the FTC not too long ago. However, they seem to be back to their old tricks.

[teflon_jones]

i'm sorry to say, but without a lawyer, you're out of luck. you can try contacting the better business bureau, but i doubt that will help. i would file a case in small claims court against them, if you have the motivation.

or, simply call your bank and ask them to remove the charges. i've occassionally made accounting mistakes and my bank has always been happy to remove the charges when i complain. a popular tactic i use if they resist: "well, i have a credit union membership that wouldn't charge me for this, and i've been considering closing my account with you and using them." but most of the time they just agree to remove the charges.

[cmorris]

For future reference: Do not allow a company to make withdrawals on your account. If there is a billing error, many times you don't catch it until it's too late.

If you must/want to do so, put it on a cc (low balance, high limit) and PIF EVERY month to avoid interest. This could help you avoid NSF fees in case of a "mistake." And it can sometimes be easier to dispute with a cc.

Good luck to you!