"In, Around and Online"-A Weekly Summary of Consumer Online Services http://www.clark.net:80/pub/robert/home.html July 28, 1995 [ Journalist Robert Seidman's first analysis of AOL's overbilling. ] Whoops-I didn't report all of what the class action law suit against AOL, filed by Palo Alto Attorney Stephen Hagen on behalf of AOL's 3 million customers, stated. What I reported was that the suit stated AOL rounded up to the next minute in its billing. I also said that was a pretty common practice-it is. However, the suit also alleges that if you're on AOL for more than a 45 second portion of a minute the time will not only be rounded up to the next minute, but that an additional minute will be added. For example, if you're on 3 minutes and 46 seconds it would be FIVE minutes instead of four minutes. My memory of the situation is that AOL had 15 seconds of fluff built in. There are all kinds of theories as to why. Some speculated that it was because they charged for the time while your password was being checked, but before you were at the main welcome screen. Some theorize that AOL is just trying to soak their membership. I have another theory. Once upon a time, if you were on only a very short amount of time and signed off, you were not charged at all. So what happened was people figured out that they could sneak on to see if they had any e-mail and if they didn't, sign right back off without being charged. This might have been a problem for AOL because Sprint would have billed them for that time. So, what I think happened is that AOL added 15 seconds to ensure billing of the first minute would kick in. If that's the case, what happens is that you may have thought you were only on 3 minutes and 46 seconds, but AOL added the 15 seconds in and they thought that you were on 4 minutes and one second and round it up to 5 minutes. I remember grumblings about this in the Members Helping Members boards on AOL a couple of years back. This would be no big deal if AOL tracked seconds and then added it all up at the end of the month. Believe it or not that is exactly what Prodigy, yes PRODIGY, does. They track seconds, and then at the end of the month add all the seconds up and round up to the nearest minute -- and that is very cool. In a world of rounding, you won't be screwed out of more than 59 seconds per month. I've got mixed responses from CompuServe, they either do the same thing Prodigy does or round up to the nearest minute. I'm still trying to get this clarified. Robert Schafer, publisher of the Star-Tribune Online on AT&T's Interchange assures that Interchange bills by the second. "...it's billed by the second: 0.082 cents per second, which, if my math is right, works out to $2.95 per hour,"; said Schafer. Then with a wry grin, Schafer added," Of course, if you use it for 2.1 seconds, you do get billed for a full three seconds." The class action suit against AOL also alleges that members get billed for time spent in the "FREE" area. There isn't much "Free" on AOL, but the Members Support Area and Members Helping Members forum are in the "Free" Area. Unfortunately, I'm well aware that this happens, and it happened again just recently. I don't think this happens intentionally and I don't believe AOL is trying to get over on anyone. No great conspiracy at hand. It's just plain sloppiness. And it is not excusable at this point. The word on the street has always been that when this happens, it's when AOL has upgraded software and someone forgets to put the settings for the free area back in. I now work for a very process oriented company. At times, I find myself trying to get around all of the processes, but this is a clear example of why processes are necessary. The problem compounds itself because nobody in AOL Customer Service knows that it happens until members start screaming. Many of the service reps, unaware that there is a problem tell the customers things like, "we do NOT bill for time in the free area"; That just upsets an already agitated customer. The truth is, generally they don't bill in the free area, but sometimes, they just plain screw up. Yep, I know they're human and they're working hard and all of that. When the problem first occurred, I could live with it. The second time it happened, "they're only human"; still applied. By the third time, I wondered just how human they were. By the fourth time, they were idiots who should be fired. As for the 15 second dilemma-boy that's a tough one... A Little Experiment I am not happy to report that the problem definitely still occurs, at least with regard for how time is subtracted from a subscribers "free" time. I went on for 50 seconds...it subtracted 2 minutes from my "free" time. I went on 1 minute and 50 seconds and it subtracted 3 minutes from my "free" time, etc. I didn't want this to be true. But that doesn't change the fact that it is true. People don't see what they don't want to see. But I made myself look. There's no way to ignore it. The disappointing thing to me is the realization that this has been happening for 2 years now, give or take a couple of months. Members have been complaining about it that long. Since members have been complaining about it for 2 years now, it is probably reasonable to assume that Steve Case has known about it that long. That disappoints me even more. Why? Hmmm. Don Henley once wrote a song with the lyric "...and now it all comes down to numbers-now I'm glad I've quit. Folks these days just don't do something, simply for the love of it..." Of course, Mojo Nixon once wrote a song called, "Don Henley Must Die," and I sort of liked that song too. Steve Case speaks of community-has been speaking of it for 10 years. I've been listening for 8 years now. I bought into it. I still do. Call me crazy. Call me naive. I believe Steve Case does what he does because he loves it. That he's made millions of dollars doing something he loves, well, that's cool too. I believe that is what the American Dream is all about. Now AOL is a major Wall Street darling. There are stockholders and three million customers. Two years ago, when there were 300,000 customers this was a problem. Now there are 10 times as many customers. Potentially, the problem has grown ten-fold. I hope Mr. Case does the right thing. He's got Intel to the left of him and Microsoft to the right of him. Intel clearly demonstrated what a public relations nightmare a screw-up can be when a company KNOWS about the screw-up but doesn't say anything. Microsoft, in spite of today's news is still planning on forging ahead with the Microsoft Network. It might cost AOL in more than one way, if they come clean. But that's the right thing to do. Come clean and figure out a way to deal with it. If it is truly no big deal -- (and maybe it isn't, I suppose it depends on how you look at things) then coming clean should be no big deal either. People will respect that. I know there are stockholders to look after, but in the end, you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror. Will Steve Case and AOL do the right thing? I sure hope so. A quality service includes quality billing. SOURCE: "In, Around and Online"-A Weekly Summary of Consumer Online Services Robert Seidman http://www.clark.net:80/pub/robert/home.html