60k AOL UK punters hit by billing cock-up

Some 60,000 AOL UK punters have been wrongly billed for their Internet service following a cock-up at the company.

It seems a "technical problem" hit the company's billing run last Friday resulting in punters being billed three times for their March subscription.

In an email to consumers AOL said: "Due to a temporary problem with our billing system that affected a small number of AOL members, we have regrettably billed your March 2004 charge three times."

AOL UK - which has more than two million users - said: "Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this matter may have caused. The temporary problem is now resolved and we are taking steps to try to ensure that this does not happen again."

A spokesman for the ISP said that AOL had already refunded the monies for a vast majority of its punters and that it was now working hard to correct the problem for a "very small" number of people.

"We're extremely sorry," said an AOL UK spokesman. ®