Restoring a deleted file ?

Hi Guys

Im in a bit of a sticky situation. I cancelld my AOL Broadband back in March by chatting to an online representative. They alledged that all was ok and my contract was terminated. I told him/her i had a screen print as proof of our conversation which i did. Ive just checked my Statement and they have been debiting my account ever since. !!!!

AOHell another 30 mins on the phone this morning and they seem reluctant to help without this screen print. I havent logged on to AOL since 4/4/04 but they dont seem to take that into consideration !!!!!

The question is - is there any way of restoring my deleted screen print please ? Does system restore, restore documents aswell as system files ?

Your help would be very much appreciated

Thanks in anticipation

Richard Drury Lincs UK

 

Start messing around with deleted files, there is no guarantee especially if deleted months ago.

http://www.webattack.com/freeware/system/fwdatarecovery.html

 

thankyou Ray - unfortunately it looks like AOL have won again .

Very irritating.

 

Do you have a Consumer's Affair on the television?

AOL has always been infamous for this ploy. They would always "forget" to quit billing those who ceased service. We are talking about serious operating money. They would actually be fraudently taking people's money for several months, make money on it, then just return it if caught.

The US government made them stop this practice.

They may be doing the same thing in the UK. If the television asked for others if they were subject to this scam, the government may go after them if shown a pattern...and you'll get your money back!

 

Ray is right, AOL has a habit of this "failure to stop billing ". Get a hold of a human, and keep insisting to talk to a supervisor, politely, but firmly, until you get to someone who can help. Don't waste time looking for the file- you haven't logged on since April, and they also have a record of your arrangement, and the date, IF you can get someone to bother to find it.

I know someone who shut off his AOL account, received confirmation, and then moved, and AOL kept debiting a closed checking account so both the bank and AOL wanted money, and even turned over the account to an aggressive collection agency, that called him at work in his new city, and threatened his credit. He called it "extortion ".

Best of luck, let us know how it goes!
Johanna

 

RichD--Yes, do what Johanna suggests, but if you get too much resistance seek a compromise, like paying only half. I know that still sounds like a rip-off, but better than nothing. That is the way AOL operates.

 

Hi again folks and just wanted to say thanks for the extra replies and help. It would seem i didnt go through the correct channels to cancel my Broadband with AOL. This is despite numerous calls asking about my transfer over to Zen and the procedure. It would seem that i had to inform one person to sort the transfer and another for the billing. Quite honestly its just a lucrative "loophole" that AOL are exploiting in my humble opinion. I feel like i have been a victim of an over complicated administration system by AOL. Nobody is really that bothered whether a customer who is leaving continues to be billed. The trouble is i discussed it all with an online "help" ( and i use the word help in its loosest possible term ) representative when i wanted to stop my AOL service. Unfortunately because i deleted the screen print i made of our conversation i have no proof. It now turns out that the online "help" staff have no means of cancelling BB service and i should never of been told that. I really feel like the stress will be more costly to me than the 80 GBP i would stand to be credited. I take responsibility for the fact that i didnt check my statement properly. Although i have called myself beginnerish ( i am compared to most of you guys ), i often set up friends/famliy`s computers for them. AOL can be assured that i wont be installing any of their software again for anyone. They may be a big player right now but word spreads fast on the internet. Once you move to another ISP you never look back, i`ll make sure i spread the word.

Thanks again folks

 

oh whilst looking for data recovery programs i came across this one. I searched my drive but unfortunately the data had been lost as you suspected.

Looks like a very useful program though so i thought a link may help someone else in return for your help to me .

 

RichD--Thanks for the link.
When you really delete a file (not just put it in the Recycle Bin) the HardDrive still has the file, but the space is now marked as available for writing new information. Eventually that will happen. If you use an Undelete program, the sooner the better, since the "deleted" information may not yet be overwritten. One problem is that most people do not yet have an Undelete program on the hard drive, so in the process of downloading an Undelete program they just increase the likelihood that they are overwriting the sought after deleted file.
A solution is to download to a floppy an Undelete program that fits on a floppy and run the program from the floppy. There are not many of those that fit on a floppy. One is Restoration
http://www.webattack.com/get/restoration.html

 

In Retail, the rule of thumb is that a happy customer tells three other people, an unhappy one tells eleven. I hope I have warned HUNDREDS against AOL. It's not nicknamed A-O-Hell for nothing!

When the world was first getting online, they had the idea of making things as "simple as possible" for the consumer, which was an effective marketing strategy. Now the world has advanced to where AOL offers no advantages, even to a new user.

In addition to the above type of extortion, the lousy customer service, the lack of assurance that AOL will allow you to read your own email, or surf at your own discretion, AOL is known for sheer bloat. Glad you are telling everyone you know about AOL- if enough people do, eventually they will fade away...

Johanna

 

I always tell those who are new to computers and want to use AOL because they get that 2-6 months free, that it operates just like the outfit in the movie "The Truman Story ". The idea is to keep the fellow inside and away from the real world. Unfortunately, most of the newbies I know don't listen and have gone ahead and blindly installed AOL.

 

Rich D

A little hint. ( from lessons learned by Yours Truely )

Next time make A PAPER PRINTOUT they are extremely hard to beat or argue with.

Do not depend on a HardDrive file alone. They are TOO EASILY lost.

BillyBob

 

WelshJim - thanks for your link too, i will download that and have it to hand for future use.

It would appear that the reputation of AOL is on a downward slope judging by what i have heard over the last few months. Like you guys say its the newbies that install it ( it was my first ISP and i stuck with them from day one on 56k dialup ). Loyalty counts for nothing. I too was blinded by their pretty web browser and free CD in the beginning. There wasnt THAT many ISP`s to choose from when i started so i thought bigger = better.

Lessons learned.

Thanks again, look forward to learning more from this BB