Zombie AOL Account Plague Spreads To Wall Street Journal Columnist
Our reader Jennifer isn't the only former Time Warner employee whose AOL account has risen from the dead, prompting collection notices and confusion. Wall Street Journal investing columnist Jason Zweig, a former Time Warner employee, found himself in precisely the same situation, and wrote about his epic customer service adventure.
At this point, I decided to call AOL myself. After spending 10 minutes on hold, I reached a human being. She asked for the answer to the security question on the account–which we had set up nine years ago and neither my wife nor I remembered anymore. That was a dead end, so I asked her to send a printed bill to my home address. But she wasn't authorized, either.
By the time Caller No. 5 rolled around, I was out of patience.
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?
Replied Caller No. 5: "You did agree to it, sir. You agreed to it when you opened the account."
Really? I said incredulously. Can you document that?"Yes, of course, sir," he answered. I could almost hear his nose growing as he hesitated. "It was on … it was on … page C of your original account agreement."
As if this weren't preposterous enough, Caller No. 5 then offered me free AOL access "for the rest of your life" if I would just pay the $103.60.
If it was a free benefit when I was an employee and it's now free forever to anyone who wants it, I asked, then why exactly do I owe $103.60?
"For the upgrade you requested, sir."
I didn't request any upgrade.
"Yes, you did, sir, on page D."
Wasn't that page C a minute ago?
"Yes, sir, quite right, page C."
Are you confused yet? So was Zweig. He gave up on trying to kill the zombie account, and instead barricaded his property—that is to say, put a fraud alert on his credit report.
You've Got Blackmail: The AOL Account That Wouldn't Die [The Wallet]
(Photo: kalleboo)
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Comments:
how is it AOL is even in business?
why haven't their servers been carpet bombed yet?
@KingPsyz here for HappyFunKingPsyz©:
In truth, the writing is on the wall for companies like AOL and NetZero. AIM is still relatively popular, if not as much as it was 10 years ago, but I'm afraid NetZero doesn't have much of a leg to stand on anymore once the last few stragglers finally join the rest of the world and embrace broadband.
Isn't this some sort of cross state mail fraud?
I think I hear the saliva glands of lawyers starting to work up a lather...
@WraithSama: Ya I havent used dial up since high school like 9th and 10th grade... ive been out of high school for 2 or so years now...
Its sad that people are still using it. I mean, you can get a two year agreement or one year agreement with verizon DSL and get a DSL Modem free to keep, and pay exactly what you are paying for crappy dial up but have respectable speeds and not have to clog up your phone wile your on the net... or even worry about taking up your internet minutes (as I remember AOL had plans where you would have limited speeds on the net, which was already to slow). its really foolish not to get DSL and keep paying AOL. You save money, save time, and save the frustration of dealing with the jerkoffs at AOL. On top of that, the internet has changed since 2000 (when dialup was acceptable), there are more and more implementation of flash in webpages which demand a decent computer and broadband, and of course larger and larger downloads for updates to keep safe on the net. People who use dialup are not likely to update their machines due to large update sizes...
The choice is clear, your a fool to keep using this outdated service...
@KingPsyz here for HappyFunKingPsyz©: AOL realized that on-line services like theirs were doomed to the trash heap of 1990's technology a while ago. They've spent the last decade buying into other technologies like advertising (hence the AOL/Time Warner deal). They now own a number of advertising companies so you can do one-stop advertising campaigns that cover print media, web, mobile devices, etc. They claim to run the largest advertising network in the US and one of the largest in the UK. See [www.platform-a.com] for all the gory details.
This is just the opportunity that the people at Prodigy have been looking for to jump back into the game.
As a former AOL CS rep..... I'm really getting a kick out of this.
As a former AOL CS Rep.... I'm really getting a kick out of this.
@RB_Bhoy: unfortunately they would only be able to say it once. Then they would be fired. It's not the CSR's fault it's the idiots who don't give them any power's fault.
Shouldn't a reporter from WSJ be calling AOL Corporate for comment and to investigate these issues?
I mean, it just seems like that would be the next step...
@SegamanXero: ...or you have no other choice. I live in a major metro area (Boston) and haver had DSL or faster since the late '90's and would never go back to dialup.
My sister-in-law lives in rural central Maine and has no other option than a dialup service. No broadband, no DSL, not enough need to pay for a satellite dish-based service. Until there are better options, she either has dialup or doesn't have internet access.
this is why my tax dollars should be spent hooking up a T1 line to every hamlet, village, town, city, juncture, collective, and berg in the nation. so AOL can wither and die.
@twophrasebark: After reading other stories like this one recently, I'm not sure calling AOL corporate would get him anywhere (and I don't know what is and isn't "ok" for a WSJ blog post), it would seem something of journalistic integrity to at least post AOL's response (or lack thereof) to your request for more info before blogging that.
@Death to Frying Things:
That's a fair point, there are some rural people who don't have other choices when satellite isn't a feasible option (which is a relatively unreliable option to begin with).
However, I suspect that the number of people who fit this description are few enough, and spread out enough, that it won't remain a viable avenue to sustain a tenable business model, now or at some point in the near future. The business model itself is obsolete and it's only a matter of time before dial-up disappears altogether.
This explains how the business press was so ill prepared to protect us from "the crisis". To me at least it is obvious that the calls are not from any company that is representing AOL. They are simply an attempt from an overseas scammer to collect money from someone to busy to fight off phone calls. I don't even have the time to highlight all the red flags in this story. A variation of this scam has been going around (by postal mail) for years. Obviously there are email scams that have been going around since the start of the web. Why would the WSJ reporter think that just because someone calls and says they represent AOL and that he had an AOL account (millions did, right) that they actually do owe any money???
Yeah, but how smart was AOL to buy Time Warner just when they did? That has to be the buy of the century.
@twophrasebark: I doubt he'd have any luck calling corporate. I wrote an article for a guy who never paid me for it and later found it on AOL's real estate channel. I notified their legal channel that I own the rights to the content (after he didn't pay me, I even published it in an article directory under my name to prove that I had rights to it as far back as the publication date). One of their lawyers sent me a DMCA complaint form, which I sent back promptly (same day). I never heard from her again, despite repeated complaints of copyright infringement.
This sounds widespread. Can we say Class Action Lawsuit?
This is completely fraud and a complete waste of peoples time and resources to try to fix something that you didn't even ask for, many years later.
I despise AOL so much I wouldn't be sad to hear the place collapsed. (With minor injuries of course)
They lie on the phone and don't do as asked. Back in the day they absolutely would refuse to cancel your account, what a joke!
You're joking right? It was the other way around and has often been touted as the worst acquisition in the history of acquisitions. With the exception of Carl Pavano for the Yankees.@frank64:
@bkdlays: Criminal charges would be better. "Fraud" is a criminal charge. != Class Action Lawsuit. I'd prefer the former since the only ones who get rich off Class Actions are the lawyers.
@GreatWhiteNorth: This seems like a collections scam, not an AOL thing. They could've gotten the Time-Warner employee lists via a security breach and they're just making up the whole thing. Look at the answers they're giving "I'm not authorized" to send written confirmation of a debt? If you pay up you can get a free lifetime subscription to AOL? This isn't a legitimate collection operation at all.
@chatterboxwriting: Some suggestions if something similar happens in the future: If the copyright is worth enough to file a DMCA claim with their legal department, it's probably worth having a lawyer to send the second notice.
Structure your contract so that it gives an appropriate (unlimited?) license for publication in various media, rather than transferring copyright. And that the license doesn't take effect until after payment has been received (With a grace period for A/P processing, perhaps).
@FLConsumer: Especially since this sounds so scammy, it may not even be related to Time-Warner at all, except possibly for a data breach.
I knew I, and many of my colleagues, made the right decision!
In 1999, or there about, AOL bought my then employer, Netscape. When the word came down from AOL we were offered "free" AOL accounts. We were expected to use AOL email to conduct company business.
So, off we go to the special URL to sign up for our new "free" AOL accounts. What do we find? AOL asks for a credit card number. -- WTFlip do they need a credit card number for when it's "free", I'm an employee, it's for company business? -- Very few completed the signup process. We continued to use our Netscape.com email addresses.
There was some pushback from AOL, but they were not successful in the face of rational argument.
Hearing stories like this makes me ever thankful that I never gave up that credit card number.
once JUST once, i wish a CSR would just say "yeah this is messed up" instead of playing stupid.