ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu (Patrick A. Townson) (12/29/90)
UK Tony wrote me recently to mention a new development in the situation with Prodigy, the White Plains, NY information service owned jointly by Sears and IBM. After discussions with the Texas Attorney General's office, Prodigy has agreed to refund up to four month's of fees to Texas subscribers who want to cancel the service. The Texas Attorney General's office had accused Prodigy of misleading customers about the rates and fees to use the service. According to Jim Mattox of that office, the main selling point of the service was that it charged a flat monthly rate with no usage charges. He said that Prodigy did not adequately notify subscribers of the change to usage-sensitive pricing of email when that new plan went into effect back in Septmeber. Although Prodigy disputed the claims of the Texas agency, saying that adequate notice was given and that their billing practices were not deceptive, they agreed with the Attorney General that the best interests of all would be served by offering refunds to customers who wished to cancel out. Prodigy has agreed to notify Texas subscribers to the service for the period September 6, 1990 to December 7, 1990 that they may cancel at any time with no further obligation or penalty, and that they are entitled to a refund of up to four month's of service fees. Notices must be posted electronically on the system in conspicuous places making this same announcement. In addition, Prodigy must clearly disclose all fees for the service in future advertisement in Texas. By it's own admission, Prodigy has 'several hundred thousand' subscribers in Texas. Prodigy also agreed to reimburse the government $12,500 for the costs involved in the investigation and negotiations. My thanks to UK Tony for passing along this interesting bit of news. I'm sure many Prodigy subscribers and ex-subscribers are accepting the news gleefully, even if they don't reside in Texas! :) Patrick Townson
briang@eng.sun.com (Brian Gordon) (01/03/91)
The original article referenced only $P$ customers in TX. I'm in CA but, a refund was offered for my dropping off (in favor of GEnie for the kids) as of their start date for "excess message" charges. Except for the fact that I had to send several (six or seven) messages telling them to pull my plug as of the date they started their new charges, quitting seems to be a reasonable process. The first n-1 messages received responses asking that I reconsider, try it for a while and see if the new charges really affected me, etc. I'll be sure when I see their check.