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." ®

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