Eliot Spitzer 'Concerned' With AOL

Not even a year after the state settled a landmark decision with AOL over its cancellation policies, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer expressed concern over the company's compliance with its terms. His office has sent a letter to AOL asking for more information on its policies, as well as requesting a meeting with executives.

Last August, AOL paid $1.25 million to 300 former subscribers in New York after it agreed to a settlement that accused its employees of ignoring requests to cancel and stop billing customers due to minimum requirements for "saved accounts."

The minimum-save requirement was eliminated and cancellation requests are now recorded, as well as verified by a third party.

However, Spitzer has reason to believe that AOL is not following the terms of the agreement. His actions may have been spurred by a report in the New York Times where a New York City resident was told he could not cancel his membership by customer service representative.

The call was recorded and posted to the Internet to highlight the ISP's tactics. In it, the man says the word "cancel" 21 times, and the customer service representative, named "John," refused several times to take action. AOL has internally verified that the call is indeed real, and has since fired the employee, according to a company spokesperson.

Spitzer, who is running for New York Governor on the Democratic ticket in November, says that the incident is a major concern, and told Reuters that "obviously, we need to do something." The Attorney General's office did not elaborate further on what possible sanctions could be placed against AOL.