America On-hold. America off-line. You've heard the jokes, but if you're an America Online subscriber, you're not laughing. Traffic on AOL has increased dramatically since the company switched to a flat-fee payment plan, almost tripling since December 1. Adding to the traffic are 800,000 new customers, bringing AOL's total subscriber list over seven million. Well, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, a group of AOL users filed class-action lawsuits in three states against the online giant. The suits, in California, New York, and Illinois charged the company with deceptive pricing tactics. The California suit claims that AOL acted with "malice" and "fraud" by not having the hardware in place to handle the extra people online
