Local AOL Customers Get Action 9's Help In Billing Dispute

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- Imagine if you signed up for Internet service and found out America Online was 'logging' into your checking account too often. Well, it happened to some Central Florida customers and it didn't stop until Action 9 got involved.

Some consumers in Central Florida signed up with AOL $24 a month, but, as Action 9 found out, once the company had access to their bank accounts, the billing seemed out of control. Some people lost hundreds of dollars.

Email isn't all America Online delivered to Michelle Finney.

"I was devastated," she says.

And stunned, after she discovered AOL pulled $760 out of her checking account for just a month of service, Internet access that was supposed to cost just $24.

Despite all her calls to protest, "You got rage, because nobody will listen to you and be able to do anything about it," she explains.

It turns out, the number AOL gave Finney to dial-in cost $3 a minute. After getting hit for $760 dollars, the company turned around and took out another $140 dollars.

"It made it so I had no money whatsoever for like a month and a half," she says.

Nationwide, AOL generates a lot of complaints to the Better Business Bureau about billing, access number problems and unauthorized charges.

Abbie Davis of Daytona Beach complained when the company kept taking money out of her checking account for services she didn't have. It got so bad, she had to close out her bank account and open a new one. Davis claimed her unauthorized charges exceeded $200.

Many consumers who took their complaints to the Better Business Bureau were able to get answers and refunds. Action 9 contacted AOL for both Michelle Finney and Abbie Davis.

Abbie got several months of free service and Michelle got a full $900 refund.

"If it hadn't been for you people, I would not have my money," Michelle told Action 9.

Just last fall, AOL reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to stop taking money from customers' accounts after they cancelled the service.