The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/etc/hacklaw/billing1.aol

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"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