that's how long it took me to notice that AOL has been charging me for an account i do not actually have. 22 months. i feel like a total idiot.
every time i saw the charge on my credit card i mistakenly thought it was for something that i had legitimately signed up for. the charge shows up as TWX*AOL. since i have never had an AOL account (and never would have --i HATE AOL and always have) i just thought it was something else. it is not uncommon at all to charge at one place only to have the name of the charge show up as something else altogether. parent companies, acronyms, and such.
so tonight in our dissecting of the bill we noticed it and could not for the life of us figure out what that $21.95 charge was for. spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out what it could be. this? no. that? no. the other? no. what the hell? so jeff called the number that was listed on the bill. sure enough . . . AOL. now we've progressed to "what the f***k?"
they are sending me some paperwork to fill out in order to get a refund. nearly $500 over the last two years. see, i'm an idiot for not catching it sooner. but it wasn't like i was expecting it, either.
also called the credit card company to report the fraud. at first, they told me they'd have to shut down the card number and send us new ones. which brings up an interesting point, WE JUST GOT NEW CARD NUMBERS! the charge shows up on the old number and somehow transfered to the new card number without any input from me. the woman on the phone said, "some recurring charges just transfer over." really? because when the new cards came i actually had to change all of my other accounts to reflect the new card number or the charges would have been bounced. so how does that work exactly? "oh, i should say, AOL charges do that." um yeah. i'm thinking maybe that's a problem. especially considering the fraud that AOL is pulling on people. oh, i'm not alone.
in my efforts to find out what the charge was i put "twx aol service" into google. guess what came up first in the list? "TWX*AOL fraud charges." whoops! i guess it's a chronic issue over there at AOL.
so here's my warning: beware the AOL! and if you see a charge on your card that looks funky (mind you i didn't think it was funky all those months) check into it.
(i'm beginning to think that comcast is the one who signed us up for an account. the charges start appearing about the same time as our cable modem. will have to look into that . . . . )
3 comments:
I totally had a weird charge a couple years ago that kept reoccurring ... same thing but with another company and it was fraud. They did in fact refund ALL the money. It started after I ordered something from Joanne's online! I was so royally pissed and EMBARRASSED> I consider myself somewhat savvy on the computer imagine people that are not at all!
Good catch and way to have the guts to demand a refund!
Hi! We miss you guys (yes, I know I haven't called...time change sucks)! I have been reading your blog daily for about two weeks now! I showed Bob Nate's birthday pictures! On Bob's first day of preschool he asked if Nate was going to be there...I cried! Anyway, we recently had several charges disputed on our credit card...things we thought we had cancelled and were small enough in cost that they didn't get picked up. We did end up getting it all back in credit. And one thought on using less...I use our bread bags for dirty diapers...and I use the plastic bags that I due end up with from time to time for trash bags in the other rooms of the house...those are a few of my little thoughts...oh, and I am starting to compost...not sure if you have a good spot for that or not...
holy cow- UNbelieveable.
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