AOL and it's wonderful ways

Lawsuit Accuses AOL of Illegal Billing

Thanks to Bon and Mal at Of Mice and Puzzles, I was apprised of this loveliness. Of course I still must subscribe to AOL as a internet provider but hopefully within the next month, that will all change. But I wonder just how many of these gems will come out of the woodwork now that journalers are crying foul and speaking up over the Ads placed on their very precious journals without the customers consent. Of course to some, we who have left are being petty and childish and then there are others who are just undecided and then still others who just don't care. For myself, well, I happen to care.

As one of many who pay for AOL's service, I would like to believe that I pay for what I ask for and that is it, not for any extra. It's like paying at the cash register and the cashier throwing in one of those little gadgets that they display at the register and myself not having a choice as to whether or not I wish to purchase it. Frustrating thought for myself and others who work hard for our money and try to be as frugal as possible simply just to survive. We dig deep in our pockets every month to have the luxury of the internet, and to exploit our personal journals for other money mongering companies to display their ads and in some cases things that I don't support without my knowledge, and/or approval well, geez, I should have a say in that very decision, at least one would think. But that is not the case. As a good friend of ours once said in passing, "Don't s*** where you eat!"

There is a paragraph or two in this article that I would like to highlight due to the hypocrisy of it all.

1. "The important thing is that we deny the allegations now as we've done several times, and we will defend this case as we have other cases accordingly," he said, noting that AOL "takes extraordinary efforts to resolve any issues the members raise."

Um, how extraordinary are their efforts in solving this really big problem in J-land? Or do they even care? As one who still goes back to my AOL journal at least once a week now just to see if they are really listening, well I don't get the feeling that they go to EXTRAORDINARY efforts to resolve a damn thing. They are simply ignoring this 'small' group and alienating each and every one of us.

2. "We have safeguards in place now that prevent unauthorized charges, and we have credit and refund policies that do justice to the consumer," he said.

A specific journaler comes to mind with this statement. Armand at Un-Common Sense. Now, here is a guy who's entire journal was lost, taken from him and he was falsely accused of a TOS violation. It took him weeks to rectify this problem and he lost YEARS of posts, ones in which he put a lot of himself into. In the end, he never was able to recover all of his posts and was forced to do a google search and pull what he could find in the cache and repost. They deleted his whole journal and in the end, gave him 18 months of free service. Wooohooo!!! Bring out the champagne glasses and the party hats. 18 whole months of free service. I'm sorry but that does not come nearly close enough to replacing all of one mans musings, rantings, photos, and life. And it certainly doesn't 'do justice to the consumer'.

3. To maintain its customer base, according to the lawsuit, AOL has instructed customer-service contractors such as ICT to prevent AOL subscribers from canceling their accounts "at all costs" and to resist giving refunds. Customers who complain are offered at least one month of free AOL Internet service instead of refunds or credits, while "unsatisfied customers who insist on canceling or terminating their AOL memberships are obstructed and delayed from doing so," the lawsuit claims.

I guess that Patrick and I best watch our backs. We are planning on a switch to our local server and switching to MSN or some other provider. Nothing like locking up honest, paying, and loyal customers who wish to move on to greener pastures and throwing away the key!

4. AOL long was seen as a drag on Time Warner due to the steady decline of the dial-up Internet access business. But in recent months AOL successfully has been revamping its business model, moving away from the subscription business and selling more online advertising.

Well, I wasn't aware that us dial-up folks were fodder for the ad industry, were you? If only we could've been aware of this small but important tid-bit maybe our decision would've been different on this computer deal that they were advertising. Get the computer for $299 if you use the service for one year. Well, that in itself made our decision but what a horses*** way to snafu a possibly loyal user of your service.

AOL can shove it where the sun don't shine.....