AOL Settlement: Practices to Be Changed and $3,000,000 to Be Paid

The West Virginia Attorney General's Office has announced that AOL would have to start changing their ways in regards to cancellation requests from customers. It appears that when a customer would call in to cancel their account with AOL, they would be put through a grueling "save" process that often made it nearly impossible to close one's account.

AOL's customer service representatives were often offered attractive monetary incentives to implement high-pressure techniques to perform a "customer save." To make matters worse, there has been a problem with AOL reactivating customer accounts without their knowledge and then proceeding to charge fees to the customer. This situation would often occur when a former AOL customer's computer still had software in its hard drive. If the old username and password were entered in at any time it would signal for the account to be started again and begin the billing process.

The settlement from AOL was entered into by West Virginia, 47 other states, and the District of Columbia. One aspect of the agreement is that the customer-retention process will be severely limited and AOL will make it easier for customers to cancel an unwanted account. To close an account now, a customer will merely need to log on at http://cancel.aol.com and complete the simple online process.

AOL will now have to implement recording and verification of telephone cancellations. Their reactivation policies will be revised and plainly disclosed to consumers, according to the terms of the settlement. Apparently, there has been some confusion in the past regarding AOL's billing practices; especially when a customer was having their online services placed on their phone bill. Now, AOL will have to revise their disclosure practices in regards to this type of billing. "Spin off" accounts are also to be revamped by requiring a recorded phone conversation and complete disclosure of fees.

Lastly, customers who have complained of unauthorized charges will be refunded. AOL will agree to cooperate with states to make this happen in a broad process. $3,000,000 will be reimbursed to the states involved in this settlement. The states involved in this settlement include:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, the Commonwealths of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

SOURCE:

WV Attorney General Press Release. URL: (http://www.wvago.gov/press.cfm?ID=357&fx=more)