AOL threatens former users with mystery bills
The Wall Street Journal reports that AOL is secretly “upgrading” old customers, then sending the “debt” to collection agencies.
About a month ago, we started getting bizarre phone calls from a collections agency … “concerning unpaid charges of $103.60.”
When I asked what I was being charged for, I was told it was four months’ worth of something called “upgraded service” for AOL in late 2008.
I pointed out that we had never requested or agreed to any upgrade, nor used any AOL service other than email. Please send a printed bill to my home address so I can formally dispute it, I requested.
“I am sorry, sir, but we cannot do that.”
The victim is the Journal’s own Jason Zweig, whose account was originally given tor him free of charge as a Time-Warner employee. He describes it as blackmail: “How can you charge me for something I didn’t order and certainly didn’t want, about which I was never informed, and for which I have received no bill of any kind?”
It’s in the EULA, of course! Anyone who has ever had an AOL account — even if you just used email or AIM — needs to keep an eye on its decline into apparent shiftiness. Does it have your credit card information? Your bank details?
Photo: Rogue Sun Media
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