60% of AOL's Profits Come From Misinformed Customers

satuon writes "Ken Auletta's big New Yorker piece on AOL (subscription only) this week revealed an interesting detail about the company's inner workings. According to Auletta, 80% of AOL's profits come from subscribers, and 75% of those subscribers are paying for something they don't actually need. According to Auletta: "The company still gets eighty percent of its profits from subscribers, many of whom are older people who have cable or DSL service but don't realize that they need not pay an additional twenty-five dollars a month to get online and check their e-mail. 'The dirty little secret,' a former AOL executive says, 'is that seventy-five percent of the people who subscribe to AOL's dial-up service don't need it.'"

Comments

Todo: Get your granny's AOL login

[SchizoDuckie]

Time for ./'ers to step in and save their grandparents some money:

How to Cancel an AOL Dial-Up Service By Stacey Price, eHow Contributor
Canceling your AOL account is a simple task that can be done over the phone or online. With the integration of AOL's free web-based email service, you can cancel your dial-up service and still enjoy some of their features by converting to a free AOL account if you have an Internet connection.
Instructions
Things You'll Need:

• Account information
• Answer to your security question
• Phone number

1. Go to http://bill.aol.com/
2. Sign on with the primary screen name that you created when you registered your AOL account. Type the answer to your account security question and click "Continue."
3. Click "Cancel my billing" in the right panel under the "I want to" heading.
4. Click "How do I cancel my paid member account or convert it to a free member account" in the right panel, under "Frequently Asked Questions."
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to send the cancellation request. It can be done through an electronic cancellation request online, by fax or mail.

Tips & Warnings

• To cancel by phone, call (800) 827-6364, or send a fax to (703) 433-7283.
• Send a cancellation request form to:
  AOL Inc.
  PO Box 65100
  Sterling, VA 20165-8800

  Source: http://www.ehow.com/how_5955872_cancel-aol-dial_up-service.html

Same thing with earthlink

[goombah99]

I found my mother was being billed $50/month by earthlink even though she had service through another ISP. The phone number earthlink claimed they were providing service to was not only in another area code but did not even exist in that area code. When I complained to earthlink that they had stolen thousands of dollars from her over the years they just said "Earrthlink is not a usage based service". Of course not, especially when they supply service to telephone numbers that don't exist.

It get's worse. actually. I had canceled her service. but it turns out they called her back aftrwards and asked if she was unsatisfied and would she like to continue the service. They then told her that given her usage patterns they reccomended she buy extra space! Extra space on an account that she could not even use if she wanted to.

Never got any money back. Thieves. Boycott Earthlink.

Re:My grandmother is one of them...

[gmack]

Don't forget that the people who you call to disconnect your service get payed a commission on every customer they get to stay and those people will say anything to get you to reconsider even if it's completely untrue. You might also want to keep in mind that their disconnection process was actually the subject of a lawsuit that involved the Attorney Generals of 48 states.