<b>Never</b> do business with AOL's Talk America (Talk.com). About 3 years ago in the Springtime, I signed up for their local phone service at a 10% savings. I specifically asked if I had to place my LD service with them. I was told a definite "No." I had asked because I was using a flat-rate LD service which was terrific. It was not a dialaround type service. In the fall, I went to add a second phone line to the house. I called Talk.com to set it up. In the conversation it was revealed to me that they don't separate Local Phone Service from LD <b>and they never have</b>. I protested that they had done this for me previously. They checked the records and it showed that they were my LD carrier on the original line. Here's what happened. Over the summertime, my flat-rate phone company went out of business, but they kept charging my credit card for the flat-rate fee. The Talk.com plan included about 500 minutes with Local Calling and then a per-minute rate for and LD over 500 minutes. When my flat-rate went out of business, my LD automatically defaulted to Talk.com I guess. To me it was seamless. I didn't sign up my new line with Talk.com. I went back to BellSouth. Then I received an LD bill for a 3-month period of time from Talk.com for some $300. I argued with them about it and they finally relented and gave me a $300 credit on November 1, 1998. When I got my credit from them, I cancelled my original service with Talk.com and went back to BellSouth. In Nov of 2000, they sent me a bill for $107 of LD charges for Oct-Nov 1998-- the two months after the original dispute arose before I had cancelled my account with them. I ignored it figuring it to be a billing error. <b>Their service is terrible!</b> In March of 2001, they sent my account to a collection agency. They told me how to challenge the charges. I did. I never heard word one from Talk.com. Now the collection agency is after me again and I've settled with them. Now Talk.com says that they should not have ever given me the credit and they even suggested that they might rescind it. Then they offered to re-rate my bill so that I would owe them more money. How kind! <b>Talk.com is a terrible company; I should have known since they are owned by AOL</b>. Their customer service is abysmal. I would call on this matter and would be put on hold for 20 minutes... then disconnected. I'd leave a message with a service rep; the manager was supposed to call me back within 1 week (howz that for service) and s/he would never call! I wrote letters to the appropriate people; they would never respond. I'd try to call and was instructed that thus and such person does not take incoming phone calls. That I can understand!! This now seems like a lost cause. If I couldn't make any headway with them when I owed them money, I'll never get anywhere with them now that they've gotten their money. Never do business with AOL. They are dishonest and unethical. Their customer service sucks. They are unreasonable-- still charging me for a service that their reimbursement to me "confesses" was an inappropriate charge in the first place. If anyone has any ideas about how to squeeze any money out of these jerks... I'm open!
