AOL UK slaps punter with £2k bill
ISP coughs to billing error
Posted in Telecoms, 26th May 2004 11:43 GMT
Free webcast: Service level monitoring and management
AOL UK has apologised after an admin cock-up landed one of its customers with a bill for more than £2,000. Chris Cook, from Pontypool, had signed up to AOL UK's unmetered broadband service but was staggered when he was slapped with the hefty bills.
When he contacted AOL UK they admitted that they had made an error. Instead of billing him £34.99 a month for his 1MB service, he'd been switched to a "Light Usage plan" aimed at infrequent dial-up Internet users. As a result, Mr Cook was charged 4p a minute for being online. And since he is a broadband user, he was online for hours at a time.
A spokeswoman for AOL UK said: "We are extremely sorry about this error and we are refunding Mr Cook in full. We are also arranging a further two month credit as a goodwill gesture and we are writing to Mr Cook to apologise personally." ®
Related stories
Tiscali UK in billing bungle
18,000 Net users caught in BT billing error
Orange says sorry for charging for phone spam

Enabling The Agile Data Center
Checklist: signs you need to upgrade your business phone system
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
SMB phone systems product requirements worksheet
Service level monitoring and management

Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide
Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter