ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701240074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
The meeting in Chicago was spurred by customers' growing difficulties in getting the on-line access they paid for. A new pricing plan that charges $19.95 a month for unlimited on-line time has strained AOL's network, creating long delays, busy signals and other frustrations.
The representatives of 20 state attorneys general tried to get the company to ``give some relief to AOL customers who feel the company is not living up to its pledge,'' said Dan Curry, a spokesman for Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, whose office was host of the meeting.
Details of the meeting weren't disclosed, and state officials said they were waiting for AOL's next move. AOL said only that the meeting was constructive and the company was cooperating with the states.
AOL's latest brownout, which prevented customers from receiving e-mail for two hours Thursday morning, has heightened concerns about its ability to accommodate a flood of new users.
America Online spokeswoman Tricia Primrose characterized the brownout, triggered by the installation of new computer hardware to increase AOL's capacity, as a minor problem.
But AOL users experienced two other episodes of technical glitches last week, and at least five lawsuits have been filed by consumers against AOL this month accusing the company of breach of contract and deceptive marketing.
``It has been virtually impossible to log on from 6 p.m. until midnight,'' said Michael Fine of Avon Lake, Ohio, one of three AOL users in in that state who filed suit Thursday.
Primrose said the company was working to upgrade its network and expects ``to prevail in the class-action suits.''
A source close to the talks with the attorneys general, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some states were interested in trying to get AOL to make refunds to customers.
Any agreement would be America Online's second in two months with state attorneys general. Last month, AOL agreed to revise its new pricing strategy in a settlement with 19 states that followed complaints from subscribers that they weren't given enough notice when automatically switched to the new flat-rate plan for unlimited Internet access.
One of AOL's biggest rivals - CompuServe - stresses in a new television commercial for Sunday's Super Bowl that people can get on-line access through CompuServe on the first try ``97 percent of the time,'' said Scott Kauffman, CompuServe vice president.
Meanwhile, in a Washington hearing, Federal Communications Commission regulators began exploring ways to ease network congestion by giving companies incentives to provide higher-speed connections into homes.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB