The Pitch – When Online Companies Rip You or Someone You know Off!

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Fri, Oct 30 2009 | 4 Comments

Are you being ripped off by an online company?

Question:

In 2006, AOL announced that it would stop charging for @aol.com email addresses. Since then most of the customers have been switched to the free service, however there are still a few less internet savvy users out there that are paying for email service that is supposed to be free; many of them not even noticing.

This is just one example of how people are being ripped off every day from online companies. Are you being ripped off? How about someone you know?

Answer:

While I am not currently being ripped off by AOL’s shady business practice of continually billing someone for something that is free, I think I might know someone who is. And all I have to say is: If this person is paying for this service than he/she is less internet savvy than I could have ever imagined and he/she deserves it.

Other than that, I am not currently being ripped off by any online company to my knowledge. There was a time a few years ago, however, that “someone” I know was being ripped off by a company who cheated him out of a couple hundred dollars…he has not seen that money to this day.

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Tags: business practice, aol, savvy users

Time Warner may spin off AOL division

Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Wed, Apr 29 2009 | 0 Comments

AOL and Time Warner merged about 8 years ago and ever since the merger has seemed like a bad fit and a failed attempt at a merger to make an entertainment giant. Today Time Warner disclosed plans to spin off AOL in an attempt to get rid of the sagging division.

If it does spin off AOL, it will likely buy back the five percent stake in AOL that Google purchased in 2006.

“Although the company’s board of directors has not made any decision, the company currently anticipates that it would initiate a process to spin off one or more parts of the businesses of AOL to Time Warner’s stockholders, in one or a series of transactions,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

“Based on the results of the company’s review, future market conditions or the availability of more favorable strategic opportunities that may arise before a transaction is completed, the company may decide to pursue an alternative other than a spin-off with respect to either or both of AOL’s businesses.”

Source

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Tags: entertainment giant, aol, merger