athelind: (Default)
athelind ([personal profile] athelind) wrote2009-07-05 09:43 am
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The Computer Is Your Friend: The only way AOL can still make money

AOL threatens former users with mystery bills



The link is to the BoingBoingGadgets article, but the original story is from the Wall Street Journal.

Apparently, AOL is "upgrading" customer accounts, then sending the bills off to collection agencies -- without actively notifying the customers in question.

This, it seems, includes people who have signed up for nothing more than AIM service.

Hooray. =P

[identity profile] porsupah.livejournal.com 2009-07-05 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd be amazed (and disappointed) if this were actually legal - yes, they may claim the right to charge you any amount whenever they feel like it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't fall foul of legislation against unrequested services.

How much fun it'd be to see this come to court, and have the genius who authorized such malfeasance appear in public!