Trouble at the coaster factory...
Posted on 07/11/2007 11:23:39 AM PDT by Rb ver. 2.0
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Averting a looming court battle over how it has been handling the exodus from its Internet dial-up service, AOL has agreed to make it easier for its remaining customers to leave as part of a $3 million settlement with 48 states, including North Carolina, and the District of Columbia.
The resolution announced Wednesday was driven by a deluge of complaints from AOL customers who said they tried to close their accounts, only to be thwarted in their attempts or discover they were still being billed for services that they thought had been canceled.
The outcry triggered a multistate investigation that would have culminated in a lawsuit if AOL hadn’t agreed to ante up and to change its ways, said David Tiede, a deputy attorney general in California.
California was among the states that played a leading role in the settlement. New York and Florida were the only states that didn’t participate in the inquiry.
AOL, the Internet division of Time Warner Inc., didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement. The Dulles, Va.-based company said the investigation involved a tiny fraction of the cancellation requests that it has fielded through the years.
“AOL is pleased with this settlement, as it codifies a number of changes that were already made by AOL to improve our service to our members,” the company said in a statement.
As part of the settlement, AOL agreed to set up an online channel to process customer cancellations. Although it has long been one of the Internet’s best-known companies, AOL had previously required customers to make their cancellation requests by fax, mail or telephone.
Subscribers who phoned AOL to cancel their service sometimes were greeted by aggressive customer service representatives who were paid bonuses of up to $3,000 if they found a way to retain the business, according to the multistate settlement. Customers complained that AOL’s incentive system created an obstructive culture that made service cancellations difficult.
The settlement requires AOL to issue refunds to consumers who can show they were still charged monthly fees after trying to cancel their services. AOL’s fees currently range from $9.95 to $25.90 per month. Tiede said the multistate investigation didn’t estimate how much money AOL might have to refund.
In North Carolina, Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office received 137 complaints from consumers about unauthorized charges.
The $3 million settlement will be divided among the 48 states and the District of Columbia to cover the costs of their inquiry into AOL’s practices and finance other consumer protection efforts.
AOL ended March with 12 million U.S. subscribers, down from 21 million less than two years ago.
Customers have been defecting with greater frequency since last August, when AOL began giving away e-mail accounts and software that was previously available only to subscribers. The decision, prompted by free services from Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp., removed one of the main reasons many customers had been clinging to their AOL accounts, even if they lived in households with high-speed Internet access.
In a prepared statement, California Attorney General Jerry Brown predicted Wednesday’s multistate agreement “will minimize the potential for consumer confusion during the transition to free e-mail accounts.”
This isn’t the first time AOL run into legal trouble for frustrating customers who wanted to dump the Internet access service.
In 2005, AOL paid $1.25 million in penalties and costs to resolve a similar complaint in New York. In 2003, the company agreed to improve the way it dealt with customer cancellation requests as part of a Federal Trade Commission inquiry into allegations about unfair billing practices.
Oddly, I was just retelling my 1-hour-on-the-phone-trying-to-cancel-AOL story over lunch.
It was years ago. I signed up in a week moment. Honest.
There could very well be people still on AOL who tried to cancel 10 years ago! LOL!
There's the best part of the whole article. They can't die fast enough for me.
I had a similar issue, I finally told them I was cancelling my card that it was on, so they shut up and cut me loose.
AOL = Internet for Dumbies
Trouble at the coaster factory...
Lord above, does AOL ever suck. My parents in Missouri City still have it, and I refuse to help them with any support issue that’s AOL-related.
I will handle every other request they have, including driving across town and back for printer ink, and dismantling their desk to see what happened to their microphone that fell behind it . . . but if AOL is in the description of the problem they’re having, they get to spend umpteen hours on the phone with an AOL rep.
I have made it clear that as soon as they get a real ISP, I will help in every possible way.
2 Years ago - when I fired AO-Hell - I filed an AG complaint here in Texas. I raised numerous complaints.
They never responded.
I should look into whether or not I’m entitled to some of this settlement.
Scum. AOL is pure scum.
There is nothing wrong with AOL that switchign to ATT Yahoo DSL can not fix.
Many of the cell phone companies have learned this AOL tactic and are continuing this practice as I write.
There needs to be be MAJOR punishment for companies that do this.
Yeah, that $3 million is really going to hurt Time-Warner.
“It was years ago. I signed up in a week moment. Honest.”
The last time I had a week moment, it lasted a month.
We have a new winner of teh needs to get a life award.
I’ve got a couple of kids like that, everything is conditional.
“AOL is pure scum.”
Most big business is that way too.
Any company that asks and gets your SOCIAL SECURITY number has an incentive to screw you. They can make your CREDIT life a living hell that takes you ten times more time to straighten out.
Don’t give any of them you social security number unless you want this treatment.
If they treat you right, then you pay your bill, simple - yes? If they abuse you you stop paying.
Your link is busted.
Here’s one that might be good for some yuks:
http://users.bestweb.net/~wes/forwards/movies/index.html
Select “AOL Sucks” (requires Quicktime).
Heh...actually it was for a week. We took the free offer to take the laptop to the beach and then tried to cancel...
That’s the one and only condition I place on them.
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