America Online (AOL) apparently tried to wring out a little more than $100 in bogus fees from a writer for the Wall Street Journal, through a collections channel in India.

I’m betting that they weren’t aware that Jason Zweig just happened to write for the Intelligent Investor, which is published in one of the biggest publications in the world. Tough luck.

Apparently, Zweig had to muddle through five different callers asking him for an unpaid balance of $103.60, for an upgrade to his free email account that he didn’t ask for, didn’t authorize and never saw a bill for whether online or in print. The callers insisted that the upgrade was automatic, as per an agreement that may (or may not) have existed in Zweig’s initial customer agreement, but both the collections agency and AOL themselves couldn’t procure a bill for the said upgrade because “they weren’t authorized”.

Zweig flatly rejected the charges, and was threatened to be brought into legal channels, but the callers also wanted to settle for just $85. Still no.

I haven’t even heard of an active AOL service for quite a while now. Could this be a desperate attempt by a sinking company to try to catch a few more breaths before completely going down? Sounds like a pretty bad way to gung-ho.

via The Wallet

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