AOL can't get its billing act together: Customers are still complaining of double billing and over-billing.
You would think a high-tech Internet service provider like AOL would be able to get the little things - like account billing - right. Despite being a deep-pocketed, multi-media, premier Internet service provider, (with years of complaints and lawsuits behind them), AOL still stumbles over simple math... like one customer means one bill.
Joe Greco of Encinitas, California recently discovered that AOL and Compuserve were both billing him for the same service - for over two years! It started when Greco agreed to bundle his services with Compuserve, a subsidiary of AOL. What was supposed to save him money actually ended up costing him much more. He says the double billing went on for so long because of the way they did it: "It was sneaky because they didn't bill me at the same time, so I had to look at all my credit card bills very carefully."
Joe contacted Compuserve, and instead of an apology, he got a pass-the-buck act. "I called Compuserve, and they said call AOL. After going back and forth and getting a big rigmarole, they finally said they'd stop charging me twice.
"So then I asked about getting my money back. I said, 'How about paying for all the times you double billed me?' AOL said they'd give me a month free."
How generous!
Greco got in touch with his credit card company to see what it can do, but he's not hopeful. "I think they'll go to AOL and question them, and AOL will say it's resolved... but that won't help with two years of back pay."
Maybe Joe should move to Ohio
In June of 2005, AOL settled a class-action case launched against them by the Attorney General of Ohio. In that case, AOL agreed to pay back customers who kept getting billed for cancelled services.
It's an unfortunate reality: Some large companies need large, costly class action lawsuits to get their attention. Some companies learn from them, some don't. Time will tell how expensive the lesson will be for AOL.
Telephone cramming is fraud. Another way it scams the consumer is by placing unauthorized charges on a consumer's local telephone bill by a "third party billing" company. Cramming charges normally appear hidden on local phone bills and can show up on your statement in very general terms, such as service fee, service charge or monthly fee.
These or other unauthorized charges can be crammed onto a consumer's telephone bill without the consumer even knowing the companies that are involved in fraud; a phone company might use a name of a holding company or another corporation you aren't familiar with. Companies can be sneaky and devious, so read your bills carefully and question any dubious amount, no matter how small. Even a few dollars a month mounts up over a few years.
Joe Greco's bundled account with Compuserve came to $29.95 per month and AOL was billing him $23.90 per month for at least two years. Do the math.