AOL In Dock Over Illegal Billing

[Corals]

AOL in dock over illegal billing
Dec 04 2005 03:00:13:900PM

Belleville, Illinois - A lawsuit seeking to potentially cover hundreds of thousands of AOL subscribers accuses the Time Warner unit of illegally billing customers by creating secondary accounts for them without their consent.

The lawsuit, filed last month in St Clair County Circuit Court on behalf of 10 AOL customers in six states, claims the company confused and deceived customers about the charges, stalled them from cancelling unauthorised accounts and refused to return questioned fees.

"AOL exploits its subscribers' confidential billing information to unlawfully generate additional revenue by charging subscribers for additional membership accounts that they neither order nor request," the lawsuit alleges, calling the scheme "common, uniform and continuing".

The lawsuit, seeking class-action status, mirrors more than a dozen other actions that have been pending in state and federal courts throughout the country, said Stuart Talley, a Sacramento, California, attorney representing the plaintiffs in the Illinois lawsuit. All of the federal cases were consolidated in California two years ago, Talley said.

Dulles, Virginia-based AOL declined to comment immediately. Co-defendant ICT Group, the outsourcing company AOL retained to respond to customer complaints and billing matters, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Different screen names

Plaintiffs include an Illinoisan, two Californians, three Tennesseans, a West Virginian, two Alabamans and a New Yorker.

No hearing date has been set on the Illinois case, which accuses AOL of violating Illinois' Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.

The latest lawsuit alleges that AOL misrepresented that subscribers may add up to seven different screen names to a membership account for free.

But AOL "in many instances" spun off those screen names into additional membership accounts without the subscribers' knowledge, then charged and collected a separate monthly fee for each account.

The company requires members to pay charges and fees by credit card, electronic withdrawals from their bank accounts or by adding to their telephone bills, giving subscribers no opportunity to review a bill before making a payment, the lawsuit claims.

Prevent cancellations at all costs

To maintain its customer base, according to the lawsuit, AOL has instructed customer-service contractors such as ICT to prevent AOL subscribers from cancelling their accounts "at all costs" and to resist giving refunds. Read More
http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/defa...8-1783_1845116
............................

That is disgusting. I'm not with AOL but that has just highlighted something I've noticed recently but have not bothered to check. My provider has been sending me two emails under separate email addresses to inform me that my account will be debited for the month's charges. I think I'll check to make sure they have not been debiting my account twice. You never know.

[charliekilothree]

I have AOL (bring your own access) and it's charged to my Visa card monthly. I can always review the charges before I pay the bill. When it comes time to cancel my membership, I'll be sure to get a confirmation number from them to avoid continued charges. You do have some recourse using a credit card as long as you take action in a timely manner. They have been sneaky for years now. Maybe they will be forced to get their act together after this lawsuit.

[saraphen]

Originally Posted by Corals

"AOL exploits its subscribers' confidential billing information to unlawfully generate additional revenue by charging subscribers for additional membership accounts that they neither order nor request," the lawsuit alleges, calling the scheme "common, uniform and continuing".

If they are doing that, it sounds downright criminal.

[charliekilothree]

Proposed deal would see the company offer $25 million in cash and account credits.

America Online has reached a proposed class action settlement with plaintiffs in Illinois state court that could see the company pay out cash compensation to consumers of up to $25 million, the parties involved announced Friday.

As in other suits that were earlier settled, the new settlement covers plaintiffs' claims that AOL wrongfully billed consumers for online services and products without first receiving consumers' consent or authorization. It also covers claims that AOL and its customer representatives wrongfully billed consumers for accounts, services, and goods after the consumers had tried to cancel the account or service or endeavored to return the unordered product. The unwanted services include AOL Credit Alert and merchandise such as AOL Desk Planners, according to the proposed settlement.

ICT Group, a provider of outsourced customer management services, was also named as a defendant in the class action lawsuit alongside AOL.

"The settlement announced today consolidates and resolves a series of cases that have been pending for several years," Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesperson, says via e-mail. "AOL denies the allegations contained in the original lawsuit, and we've defended the cases accordingly," he says. ICT has also denied any wrongdoing, according to court documents.

The proposed settlement has yet to receive court approval. Judge Michael O'Malley is due to hold a hearing in the Circuit Court, Twentieth Judicial Circuit, St. Clair County, Illinois, on February 22 to determine approval of the settlement.


Customer Compensation
Under the proposed settlement, there will be three tiers of settlement compensation depending on whether consumers are able to submit documentation showing that they incurred unauthorized charges and whether they complained to AOL at the time the charges were levied. Cash payments or AOL account credits range between $25 and $80 per consumer. Plaintiffs can alternatively opt for free AOL accounts for periods of three to six months depending on the tier of compensation. AOL also agreed to forgive any amounts owed for unauthorized charges.

"AOL goes to great lengths to provide high-quality, best-in-class customer service--taking extraordinary efforts to prevent, address, and resolve billing issues," Graham says. "Consistent with that approach, the settlement allows any consumer with an outstanding issue the opportunity to obtain a potential full refund."

Should the settlement be approved by the court, AOL has agreed to maintain procedures to ensure that it first obtains AOL members' authorization before disclosing their account information to third parties and before placing any charges against members' accounts. AOL must also "clearly and conspicuously disclose all material payment terms and offers made," according to the proposed settlement.

The Internet service provider also agreed to donate to one or more charitable organizations AOL services with a retail value of $1 million. Additionally, AOL is to pay some legal and administrative costs.


http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124257,00.asp




They don't owe me any money yet. I hope they learn a lesson from this.

[virgogirl]

Good they are busted! i just had a dispute with them over the phone, Aol claimed i owed them money When I Dont! I didnt think they were that good anyway they were trying to get into my account after i would pay them, I stopped all that!

[sumthingbetter4u]

my boyfriend says he's getting billed for 2 different acoount one he had years ago and the new one i've seen his bill he has 2 different 23.90 charges when you try to cancel with aol and tell them you can't pay the bill they just give you a few months credit he thought he was getting over by reporting the card stolen than getting a new card and new aol screen name but aol get put the old account onto the new card


and they will keep hitting you account when it's over drafted where as most companys will hit you twice than send you a letter or something and if they hit you every week for that 23.90 and give you a overdraft fee does'nt that mean there getting more moey on top of the 23.90 you owe since you have to pay all the bank fees

[MilitantWombMan]

aol=@$$holes online

[HoOdPrInCe]

Originally Posted by MilitantWombMan

aol=@$$holes online

LMFAOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[MadameX]

Originally Posted by MilitantWombMan

aol=@$$holes online

:LolLolLol