They Call AOL for Refunds--and Get Phone Trouble
NEW YORK — Phone delays, along with conflicting information, bedeviled America Online customers seeking refunds Thursday--the same problem that made the company promise to reimburse them for troubles getting on line.
A day after AOL reached a multi-state agreement to give millions of dollars worth of credits and refunds to customers, the company had not yet updated its toll-free phone number for handling requests.
People calling the number would find themselves in a maze of recorded options. None mentioned a refund. Moreover, confusion abounded over whether the best way to get a refund was to call or write to the company.
The toll-free number was finally updated by Thursday afternoon to include a prompt for getting refunds. America Online said through a spokeswoman that it took time to gear up because the settlement was negotiated in less than a week and that the company is working as fast as possible to increase staffing for its customer service lines.
“Everything happened really quickly. We did our best to get it in on time,†said Wendy Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the Dulles, Va.-based company.
A customer service representative answering AOL’s phone line Thursday afternoon said it would take at least 30 minutes before someone could handle a refund request because of a flood of phone calls from customers. He urged that rather than try to do it by phone, the caller make the request in writing. Even attorneys general from the states that negotiated the refund agreement with AOL were telling customers to write to the company. However, company spokeswoman Tricia Primrose insisted that the only way to get refunds was to call.
“I got put on hold for over an hour and a half,†said Jack Simpson, an America Online customer in southeast Florida. “It seemed like every 30 seconds they said, ‘We’re sorry, the lines will be busy.’ â€
The trouble that led to the refund agreement began in December, when AOL started offering customers a flat-rate price for unlimited time online. But the new pricing created overwhelming demand for AOL’s lines. Customers trying to log on would frequently get busy signals.
The agreement allows those of the company’s 8 million customers who had trouble logging on in December and January to request a refund of as much as about $40, or about two months’ online fees.
America Online would not estimate how many customers are expected to qualify for refunds.
Each refund will be calculated by the number of hours the customer spent online. Several industry analysts said that because of that, only a small percentage of customers is expected to qualify for a full reimbursement.
AOL shares closed up 62.5 cents at $37.875 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
As part of the deal, AOL agreed to virtually halt advertising its service in February, which is expected to diminish the flow of new customers. In addition, AOL is spending $350 million to upgrade its network. That includes buying modems, building a new data center to house computer equipment and adding customer support representatives.
Attorneys general involved in the multi-state settlement, concerned about the latest bout of phone line congestion, planned to issue a statement urging people to write to the company.
California customers can write to Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, 1515 K St., Sacramento, CA 95814.
