ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
Phone delays and conflicting information bedeviled America Online customers seeking refunds Thursday - the same problems that made the company promise to x reimburse them for troubles getting on line.
A day after AOL reached a multistate agreement to give millions of dollars worth of credits and refunds to customers, the company had not yet updated its toll-free phone number for handling requests.
The number finally was updated by Thursday afternoon to include a prompt for getting refunds. America Online spokeswomen said it took time to gear up because the settlement was negotiated in less than a week and that the company was working as fast as possible to staff up its customer service lines.
A customer service representative answering AOL's phone line Thursday afternoon said it would take at least 30 minutes before someone could handle a refund request because of a flood of calls.
Instead, he urged the request be put in writing. Even attorneys general from the 36 states that negotiated the refund agreement were telling customers to write the company. However, company spokeswoman Tricia Primrose insisted that the only way to get refunds was to call.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 32 linesby CNB