Aol Rethinks Plans For Switch To Flat Rate On-Line Service’s Customers Will Get Additional Time To Opt Out
America Online subscribers systemwide will be given more time to consider and opt out of AOL’s new pricing plan under an agreement between the on-line service and Washington state’s attorney general.
The agreement announced Friday follows negotiations over the Virginia-based service’s plan to automatically switch subscribers to a new $19.95 flat rate on Dec. 1 unless individual subscribers advised the company that they preferred to stay with the current basic plan - $9.95 a month for five hours and $2.95 an hour thereafter.
State Attorney General Christine Gregoire contended that AOL’s plan, announced late last month, violated Washington’s consumer-protection law because it used “a negative option sales plan which would deceive consumers into paying for a service they didn’t want, didn’t agree to buy and for which they were not legally obligated to pay.”
The agreement, which applies to AOL’s 7 million subscribers system-wide, requires the company to begin notifying customers of the upcoming pricing change by using a “pop-up” screen that will appear when subscribers access the service, said Paula Selis, the assistant attorney general who negotiated the agreement. The pop-up screen is expected to be in place by the start of next week.
Under the agreement, customers have until March 31 to make a decision about billing, Selis said. Initially, AOL had planned to start applying the $19.95 flat rate to any subscriber who did not chose another option by Dec. 1.
Subscribers were notified last month of the planned pricing change. The notice listed three new options:
A standard monthly plan offering unlimited use of America Online and the Internet for $19.95.
A “bring-your-own-access” rate of $9.95, offering unlimited access to America Online features for those who already have an Internet connection.
A light-usage program offering three hours of the service per month for $4.95, with additional time priced at $2.50 per hour.
The letter failed to mention the extra effort required to avoid the higher rate. Members had to ask for more information and comb through a list of topics to learn that their rates would go up unless they asked to remain on the current plan.