AOL-Time Warner Adds Injury to Insult

At a time when the smoke has still not cleared from the rubble that once was the World Trade Center and with thousands of people donating their time and assistance to help New York City residents, AOL-Time Warner has seen fit to wallop the victims with a 12.5% hike in their Roadrunner Internet service.

In what can only be described as an astonishingly myopic, insensitive action taken by the multi-billion dollar conglomerate, the Vice President of AOL-Time Warner's Roadrunner Internet services announced in a letter to subscribers that it would raise prices for their service to New York City residents by $5 per month (from $40 to $45), effective less than 30 days from the receipt of the letter. New York City residents who obtain basic cable and Internet service from Time Warner and Roadrunner can now expect find their bills approaching $100 per month for these services. It should be interesting to see whether AOL-Time Warner challenges Microsoft as the most feared player in the technology arena. The FTC approved the merger of America Online and Time Warner less than one year ago in December, 2000.

What's your opinion? We'd like to know.

Disgraceful. Repulsive. Incredible. I got the letter yesterday and could not believe my eyes. All it says is how wonderful their service is, as rated by JD Power. We lost hundreds of thousands of jobs in New York City and these guys have the nerve to sock it to us like this. What do they care? They make billions and now own more than half the country's ISPs. It's amazing that our government allowed the merger. At least Microsoft actually puts out and improves a product.

AOL-Time Warner is actually constructing a huge tower overlooking Central Park, blocking the sun, and adding too many new residents right next to Columbus Circle. I'll be that it will cast a shadow there that will destroy the beauty of the place. This is another huge black could. After everything good people have done, this is amazing.

I'm switching. I'm also going to get satellite cable and Time Warner can go to you know where. I don't care if it costs just a few extra dollars a month. This is so hard to stomach.

Any company presumtious enough to create its own "keyword" system to supplant html language, and pay advertisers to refer to this arbitrary AOL Keyword, is not beyond antitrust violations, and is certainly not beyond bad-taste. I hope NY understands "price gouging is just business."

I would advise NY'ers to cancel their service, but forewarn...I had to cancel my credit card just to cancel my AOL service. They still owe me $500 in charges to an account from which I couldn't escape. No wonder they can send millions of CD-Roms with "2000hours free," if you can never leave, they'll get paid back at a premium.

What goes around...

I had loads of problems un-subscribing from AOL also. I had just purchased my first computer, and of course, was dying to get online. The computer, How handy, came with an AOL CD, stating no credit card, no payments, just free internet. Well, as I was signing up to this "free" service, they asked something about my long distance. Now, I must admit, I didn't really care at the time, like I said, I wanted internet!! 3 months later, I recieved a bill for $40.00 for long distance service, that I hadn't even used!!!
Not only did they imply that I wanted it, they almost refused to let me cancel. I had discontinued my AOL service within the first month of signing up. I had to threaten contact to my State Surgeon General, (which honestly, I don't know if they could have helped!), before they finally decided to "let" it go. WOW, thx.....
I've never liked AOL/TimeWarner from that time on... The reason they are the #1 ISP, is because of dishonesty, and trickery to the customers that are expecting "free" service.