# Why you hate AOL..



## RAMAddict

What are your reasons for hating AOL:
-Takes over your browser
-Takes up space
-Waste of Money
-Slows up your computer


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## Deathblow

-Fraudulent charges.
-Deceptive marketing.
-Dumbing down of the populace.


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## brushmaster1

All of the above ^


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## SIR****TMG

never had aol so can't give a good opinion of it....did have the free aol messenger...got rid of it...to many bugs with it...


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## shadowcat

All previously mentioned reason and crashes computer.

I have to put up with it because my fiance insists on it  and people at work use it.


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## K7M

lost my network.


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## gotrootdude

Changing security settings makes AOL 9.0 unable to connect. Either use AOL or stay safe but not both.


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## iltos

because its been so long since i used it that i have no idea what my username/password is anymore....when i did, i tried to cancel...to no avail....and have called many times since....even to my damn credit card to stop the payment...and aol still dings me for the 10 bucks every month (this from the days when you could have access to their features even tho you entered through another isp...don't know if that's still an option).....
....i have talked to others with similiar stories, and so wonder what their real subscriber numbers are, and when that class action suit is coming that will bring em to their knees

oh, shure


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## s43

RAMAddict said:


> What are your reasons for hating AOL:
> -Takes over your browser
> -Takes up space
> -Waste of Money
> -Slows up your computer


ALL, true


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## Skivvywaver

Takes over your browser
Takes up space
Waste of Money
Slows up your computer +
Web based email
Spam in your mailbox
Advertising everywhere
Impossible to remove, well almost
Must use their crappy bug filled software to connect
The "welcome" and "you have mail" stuff
Cause everybody else hates them and it is easy to kick them while they are down


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## joe2cool

Tried a trial once........trial didn't last long, couldn't wait to get rid..........for all of the above reasons ! wouldn't have it if they gave it to me !


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## imdez

Recently, every 15 minutes or so AOL disconnects me from the net! I have had it but don't know which provider to switch to-Earthlink? People? Walmart? You pro's may have had this discussion dozens of times but I need to know who to switch to or are they all terrible at times? I've got to get rid of AOL but where do I go?!


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## Super-D-38

^ Go high speed if available, and you can afford it...  
 3MB/s cable is so nice..... 

*Had * AOL as my first isp, it was nice and very easy.... But like has been said, it was horrible..

--- The constant updates.... ( that take forever on dial-up)  
--- They just won't let you go...
--- All these years and is still garbage... (where is your money going?)

--- One good thing...  All those stupid disk's in the mail have stopped. :up:


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## southernlady

> All those stupid disk's in the mail have stopped.


 Oh, I don't know...the disks make pretty good coasters!

For all their bad sides and I do admit there are many, they do have a few good ones. They are sometimes THE ONLY ISP some people can access. They are nationwide, which is good if you are on the road a lot. And they do make it easy for people to get online who do not understand the internet or computers. Liz


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## Super-D-38

> Oh, I don't know...the disks make pretty good coasters!


That is true, also the older ones came in cases.... (CD/DVD  ). I'm using a few right now for my own CD's... Too bad the disk's wern't CDR-W, then they would have even more usefulness...

It was nice of AOL to send free CD cases with their coasters..


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## Skivvywaver

Super-D-38 said:


> That is true, also the older ones came in cases.... (CD/DVD  ). I'm using a few right now for my own CD's... Too bad the disk's wern't CDR-W, then they would have even more usefulness...
> 
> It was nice of AOL to send free CD cases with their coasters..


 Yeah, I think it should be a law that if you send an unsolicited CD it would have to be rewriteable.


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## barnnyardd

imdez,broadband is the way to go but if you want to stay with dialup check out allvantage.com which starts at 5.95 a month for unlimited access. my friend uses it and has no problems. it did not say where you live in va. but he lives in northern va. in fairfax county. can not beat the price except he said there is a 4.99 setup fee charged 1 time. another low price one i hear is good is highstream.net


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## CoasterFreak

RAMAddict said:


> What are your reasons for hating AOL:
> -Takes over your browser
> -Takes up space
> -Waste of Money
> -Slows up your computer


Do I really have to have a reason  You know from talking to me on AIM why I hate AOL..just so many reasons..


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## BitterCloves

I hate AOL because it locks up all the time. Gah.


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## cheese

Yea, The dvd cases are cool.
-Slow
-Takes up phone line

:up:


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## cavtek

had it in 3 machines. never could get it to work right for any lenght of time !!!!


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## Super-D-38

I was humbled today....... The free disk's I thought I was rid of.... :up: I got one with the new phone book.  

And no free case!.....  Just the stupid vacuum sealed cardboard thing..

Oh well new coaster for the table...


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## winbob

AOL started billing me twice a month for $23.95 each one....I'm NOT an AOL member. Great business if you can get away with it.


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## Deathblow

Yeah, the Cases are the only good thing, Keeps me from having to buy DVD cases. I did get a really nice wooden type case from them a little bit ago, was actually like that compressed paper stuff, but was a nice stiff case, would be ok for carrying some disks around in my jeep or something. 

I think I still have about 30 of their double density floppies, kept me from having to buy any for years.


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## DDALE32

AOL 9 OPTIMIZED isn't too bad. The disconnects are infrequent in our area. I use Bellsouth.net but also have AOL for the wife as that is what she started with and has no desire or need to learn other things. I began with DOS driven BBS software then Netscape on a dialup. I think AOL is just fine for someone who is not at all tech minded and wants very little from the internet. AND the good thing is that if one doesn't like it they can always go to a different connection. AOL was one of the powerhorses in the beginning of the internet for the common person. Times change.


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## Rockn

It is a virus, controls every aspect of your browsing, KEYWORDS, candy coated interface, and the "you've got mail" sound clip.

AOL iz for dummiez


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## joe2cool

In a 'Nutshell'


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## WarC

I hate AOL because when I was in fifth grade they suspended our account because I joined a senior citizen's chatroom and began spouting off about dentures and hernias and broken hips with an accomplice...  

Never turned back and glad for it!


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## joe2cool

:d


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## Skivvywaver

WarC said:


> I hate AOL because when I was in fifth grade they suspended our account because I joined a senior citizen's chatroom and began spouting off about dentures and hernias and broken hips with an accomplice...
> 
> Never turned back and glad for it!


 LOL  No sense of humor, another reason to dis AOL.


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## cheese

Sure they have some good features and all for the price of 23.99, but who uses them all? Maybe they should have it where u can deduct some features and get money back, like 50 cents back if you dont want the "youve got mail" clip 

:up:


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## darkviper

it woul dbe so much easier to answer this thread if you were allowed to swear or some sort of offensive language but as its agains the rules i hate aol because the never meet up to their promises, take over you system, slow, always disconnects. pretty much the same as you guys


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## ROPera

I don't know, I've never used it


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## cheese

Then be thankful :up:


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## jillian2

Hi everyone. New to the forums , but would like to comment. I have never used AOL , probably because there is not a local dialup number for my rural area. You would think with AOL being so big, that they would have numbers for every area. I signed on with MSN and I like it. I have MSN 9. I did try Earthlink, infact I tried it twice. Had it 24 hours the first time and 3 days the second time. Don't like it because I like having a real browser. It just puts a strip across the top of Internet Explorer. Just my take .

Jillian


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## barnnyardd

jillian2 we use msn9 dialup for a good 3 yrs now. any problems there tech support gets straightened out.we like it because we all can have our own sign in which we use 8 of the 9 offered. just a tip if you have to call tech support 2or 3 times for the same thing contact accounts and billing and complain to them and they will usaly give you a couple months for free. i do it sometimes just to get a couple free months. now in our area verizon dsl offers msn for broadband with there service for no extra charge.


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## jillian2

Hi barnnyardd. Yes I know. I had a problem and they could not resolve it at the time, so they gave me 2 months free . I later solved the problem myself. I really like MSN.

Jillian


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## pincmonkey

-scams its customers
-rips off its empoyees
-ceo(steve case) (stock rised when he announced retirement)
-scamming
-decpetive advertising
-censorship
-slow speeds
-****ty support
-bad connection
-no security, hackers playground
-shut down the warez rooms but not kiddie porn?
-sued aolsucks.org
-fake C+D letters
-gives money to FBI and FTC to insure ability to continue
-****ty parental control (parental in-control)
-spamming its own damn customers
-wasting oil and paper on free cds
-defines life as 80 yrs old or 50 yrs from now according to their contest TOS for free aol for life
-bundled software
-logs your activity
-kicks off aohell users
-tries to stop 3rd party apps such as IE, opera, mozilla, aohell, gaim
-bought and ruined ICQ
-the name
-usenet debate
-the fradulent stock prices
-stealing mozilla and making netscape
-charging 30 bucks a month for dial-up
-hacked keywords
-keywords
-crashing machines
-making machines slow as hell
-trying to cancel an account
-fradulent credit card charges
-claiming copyright to other peoples material
-bans alt.aol-sucks
-members labeled as "security threat" for no apparent reason
-attacked in 2004 with the same type of attack that ruined them in 2000 which they claimed to fix with their magical software "merlin"
-anti-trust violations
-volunteer sham
-less than minimum wage employees
-hiring people for customer support in the phillipines who dont have a computer
-their dirty tricks while cancelling accounts
-monitoring your activity
-ads and spam, and bundles software


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## Big-K

all of the above,but especially the advertising. For isntance, their newest commercial has a couple trying to figure out what wrong with the computer, the baby hits the mouse with the hammer a few times, and its fixed. What the hell? If a problem is easy enough to fix with a program like that, and need to use it, they shouldnt even be using a computer. Make your customers smarter, not stupider.

I also despise that little yellow thing


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## lotech

They Stole Money From My 73 Yr Old Fathers Checking Acct. After He And Their Support People Both Tried To Get A Trial Disk Installed, Telling Him His System Wouldn't Support Their Software And Agreeing To Cancel His Trial Subscription, They Immediately Began Taking 23.90 A Month From His Acct. For The Next 23 Months. Shame On Him For Being One Of Those Who Writes So Few Checks That He Feels He Shouldn't Have To Reconcile His Acct Monthly. After Contacting Aol, Supervisors Conceded That He Had Never Used Their Service, And He Would Be Refunded All Of His Money. After Numerous Calls, He Received The Equivalent Of 3 Months Back. May They Burn In Hell!


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## cavtek

lotech, the more im hearing about these AOL things. the more im getting pissed OFF.....(*cavtek states to lotec as they walk down the hall to the armory to prepare for the mission to AOL headquarters. their mission is a just one. a mission to extract vengence and retribution for the citizens wrongly abused by the great corporate entity know as Assholes Only Living......because we let them............


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## ~Candy~

cavtek said:


> lotech, the more im hearing about these AOL things. the more im getting pissed OFF.....(*cavtek states to lotec as they walk down the hall to the armory to prepare for the mission to AOL headquarters. their mission is a just one. a mission to extract vengence and retribution for the citizens wrongly abused by the great corporate entity know as Assholes Only Living......because we let them............


I would like to kindly suggest that you read our forum rules regarding your language.

Category III Offenses
Intentional Offenses 
Crude or Rude Intent - Tech Support Guy was designed to be a community of people who can help one-another, and should be completely free of any profanity and vulgar language.

Also, pincmonkey, I think you've been warned before. I don't have time to verify that at the moment, but when I do, and if that is the case, your account will be disabled.


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## cavtek

to all the great people here at TSG i extend my humble apologies for commiting a category III offense. if anyone was offended, again i am sorry. i have read and understand the rules and in defense of my actions i can only say i got caught up in the moment...
Ron


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## lotech

I, also called and finally was transferred enough times that I talked to a " supervisor who told me that they didn't feel that it was their responsibility to reimburse my Dad. When I told him that unfortunately, I now felt it my responsibility the rest of my life to tell anyone I met of their wrongdoings. Eventually stock performance would be poor enough that he would probably lose his job. His response was that, that would be ok. In the end, I love getting their disks in the mail and with my sunday paper. I have even grabbed a few of the "free trial " offerings at our local Walmart and drugstore just to destroy them so that some other unfortunate soul trying to find a deal doesn't get cheated. John


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## ~Candy~

For the record, they can verify that the account was/had not been used.


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## hermes

Doesn't overwrite old versions, nor give instructions for removing.
Doesn't genuinely support home networking.
Offers a trial that never connects then surprises you with a bill three months later
Employ idiot call centre staff with absolutely no wish to help
Interferes with other browsers


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## lotech

Yes, Aca they admitted that he had never used the service. They just would not refund the money. This was discovered in August of 2003 and after trying to recover it for more than six months, they then claimed they couldn't go back that far. The gentleman that I spoke to told me that the previous promises of a refund were not company policy, that they didn't give refunds more than 3 months for any reason. even to people who were wrongly charged.


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## Deathblow

That sounds like law suit talk to me. There's gotta be a class action out there you can jump on.

The most surprising part of all this is, none of this is surprising. This is the same type of stunt they pulled on me over a decade ago. I tried their free trial. I canceled it in plenty of time, then found out a few months later they had been charging the persons checking account I had used to sign up for several months there after. This in turn caused a few bounced checks since this person was not expecting these charges. Not only did they refuse to refund all the fraudulent charges, they also would do nothing for the fees they had caused. I will never recommend AOL to anyone.


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## ~Candy~

lotech said:


> Yes, Aca they admitted that he had never used the service. They just would not refund the money. This was discovered in August of 2003 and after trying to recover it for more than six months, they then claimed they couldn't go back that far. The gentleman that I spoke to told me that the previous promises of a refund were not company policy, that they didn't give refunds more than 3 months for any reason. even to people who were wrongly charged.


Too bad he didn't use a credit card. I know from experience, that users can charge back up to a year.


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## lotech

I even wrote my congressman a letter, who referred my complaint to a vice president of external affairs at aol . They then wanted my fathers screen name and how he originally signed up. Duh!! He didn't have a screen name and the "free trial disk " he tried to use, they told him wouldn't work on his computer. Amazingly, the deductions from his checking/ debit card worked immediately. I not only do not reccomend AOL, but try to warn as many who use it that they are in danger of being ripped off. As for litigation, unfortunately it is a relatively small amount of money that if recovered would be eaten up by the attorneys. I hope I can do more damage to their revenue stream by sharing his experience with the thousands of people I come in contact each month in the course of my job. Perhaps we have saved someone new to this forum from falling into the same trap.


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## lotech

Aca, you are correct! There is a different set of laws governing FAKE Visa ( debit cards) and a real Visa charge card. At my urging he did also get 2 months credited by his bank. The maximum allowable by law. I was amazed at the number of complaints that exist at the consumer fraud and rip-off sites from people who had used and then tried to cancel within the allotted time frame who also had money taken from their bank accounts. So A warning to all, Do Not give your bank acct and routing number to someone like AOL and always use a real credit card to pay for these types of purchases. Whenever you can, use anyone but AOL for your internet needs. John


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## Big-K

Fake visa? Debit cards can be useful ya know.

I recently found out that my uncle, aunt, and cousins are getting rid of AOL, finally.


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## lotech

Yes they can be useful. They just do not afford the consumer the same protection under the law. In fact, I use mine regularly. However, I never give the number to anyone over the phone and always use my Visa or mastercard credit card when buying online. John


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## ianscotm

My dad had aol dial up, he just upgraded to broadband, i strongly advised him to not use aol again, but he did. He clearly listens to me. He's not had any problems as such, i was just sick of that 'welcome to aol'. And who designed that mish mash of a browser they have, i only last week worked out how to log in without having to have there 'browser' running in the background and taking up space on the taskbar, clearly not as major as the problems above, but i still don't like them, maybe they have a better service in the UK, i'm sure i find out when my old man cancels his subscrition or has any problems
ian


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## Big-K

Yeah I hate it when someone installs a mandatory browser with anything. Let me use my own choice dammit


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## Skivvywaver

I just love their new commercial. You have a broadband connection?? Why not screw it up with AOL for broadband? AOL just stinks period.


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## M_Eccentric

I got a new Dell and used the free 6 month service that
was included in the package. One day was all I could take,
their setup is really lousy and whats with all that stuff going
on in the browser. I cancelled immediately and dumped the
card that I set up the account with cause I heard there
were so many problems with AOL charging fees even after
ending the account. I made sure that I kept a copy of the
fax I sent them and their reply back to me that we had
reached an agreeable end of service. When I set up
someones new computer and they really want to try the
free AOL I try to talk them out of it, but most people 
salivate over anything free for 6 months. Everyone I
have set up has dumped AOL before the free trial was
up. I actually use Compuserve which is a sister of AOL
and have had no problems except for when I opened my
new gmail accounts. I am moving links so I can get
broadband.


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## nobles

lol you should try AOL dial up for really poor service....only takes on average 10 attempts to login to the server...then you get kicked off after like 2 minutes man....Think I might start my own ISP using some sticky back plastic an old tin can and some string....EVEN then I could still offer better connectivity.


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## RAMAddict

haha this thread still going, thats great


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## craigk777

I really like their idea of broadband. sign up with a provider for like 29.99 and up, and then aol will only charge you a dollar more for aol with broadband on top of their standard rate. so basically you are paying for broadband twice. the sad part is that there are people paying it.


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## Big-K

When I first saw that commercial the first thing I said(my dad, a techie type guy, was in the room with me) was

"Why the HELL would anyone want two ISP's? Especially when the second one is aol!"


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## Gabriel

So far they are OK with me...I had a horrible time at first connecting, but they got me up....They wanted me to do something weird though that I had a bad feeling about so I didn't do it....They wanted me to call Systemax and have them rebuild a file TCPIP spacks...I thought it odd they are the only IPS that ever did that...It would have cost me too as all my warranties and tech support are up........I have them on a credit card I can easily turn off and activate another card from the same credit CO. to get rid of hangers on that want to keep charging my cards...I had to start doing that kind of stuff with bookclubs and magazine subscriptions a few years back...that's how I got MSN off my back too after I discontinued them.....but I like them a little better for their service.......AOL did want me to do that strange thing though....Being new to computers and the internet, the multiple window ease I like, and everything I need is right there....If it gets weird though, they will have to go and I'll have to learn to do things more on my own I guess


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## dabwid45

AOHell
Tech support is in India, hard to understand.
Kept getting kicked off line.
Said I needed a new modem. It was new. In fact I tried three of them. It was always my modem, my computer, or me. Never AOHell. Took me THREE HOURS to cancel my membership. I was offered a free modem, 3 months free service, all kinds of things. I talked to aprox. 25 people some of them two or three times. By now I am past any kind of being nice. When they finally put me to someone who cancelled my service she got all *&%()*(^#@ with me.
Like it was all my fault. Okay thought I was all done with AOHell. Paid my bill and kept sending bills to my bank and my bank paid them. When I tried to stop payment they put collections on me. It took another FOUR HOURS on the phone. AOHell can take the big jump.


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## hermes

I've told it before on these forums but here it is again:

My partners ex-husband signed them up for AOL. When he left her mother moved the payment plan to her credit card. When she upgraded to broadband, AOL moved the payment plan back to her ex-husbands card. Two or three months down the line the police turn up at her house just before the school run and arrest her in front of the kids. Her PC's are taken away by the computer crime squad and she is charged with deception (I don't know the exact wording of the charge).

A couple of weeks later the computers are returned, the charges dropped and an apology issued by the police. AOL refuse to reinstate the account because of violation of the Terms and conditions. They eventually relented and she stayed with them!?!?!?!?! I personally do not and will not use them for all the reasons everyone else, including me, have stated, let alone this.


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## Big-K

Good o'l corrupt bussiness peoples


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## smeegle

So, does anybody like MSN?


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## ~Candy~

No.

Their user interfact stinks too.

I just got done fighting with them as I extended my email address only for ONE YEAR at $19.95. They decided that they would re-extend it, since I didn't reply to their email indicating otherwise. I haven't even used their email in the last 6 months. Had to go thru two levels of phone support to get credit


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## Big-K

msn or yahoo?^


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## ~Candy~

Big-K said:


> msn or yahoo?^


MSN.


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## Big-K

Yeah I really dont like them either. I dont have a @msn adress, but I do have a hotmail one. The only reason I use it is for MSN Messenger, since thats what everyone else uses. It's pretty good for if you need to communicate with someone, but msn otherwise sucks. Everytime I install a windows OS for a computer i'm going to use, I immediatly change the homepage to something other than msn.com, usually to mail.yahoo.com or something. Hotmail itself is crap, and probably the number one provider in terms of how much spam is sent to their addresses. Thankfully they have gotten a bit better about filtering it. Thankfully I dont use hotmail for email much anyways.


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## barnnyardd

i have had msn dial up for about 5 yrs now and anytime i had problems they got them fixed pretty quick.i did have 1 problem with msn8 on my win me pc which i had to deal with tech support about 10 times and finally i made a deal with them to use msn7(which i had no problem with) for 9 months free service. then i got an xp system and use msn9 with no problems. even though sometimes i will call tech about a problem 3 or 4 times about a problem that does not exist just to get 2or3 months service for free.they are good about giving free months but you have to be heard and stand your ground.like the old saying the squeaky wheel gets the grease.


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## Big-K

they have an msn 9 now?


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## ~Candy~

Yep, but don't upgrade right away


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## barnnyardd

i have had msn9 in the xp and the 2 win me pcs for months now with no problems .


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## treespirit

Had aol back in 1999, worked good for me, love my cable now though, wouldn't trade it for anything.


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## Servant of Eru

AOHell's terrible. My family uses it. I use Earthlink. For the person who talked about the Dell PC's 6 months free ISP do they still offer Earthlink of AOHell or just AOHell now? That was how I got started on my ISP, kept it because I liked it so much. It doesn't give you a stock browser with the service....I heard someone complain about that earlier....but it does give you the toolbar...which is compatible with any of the far superior third party browsers on the market; or even IE if you're lazy.  It also gives me up to eight accounts with real E-Mail, webspace for a small site (I used it to host images for awhile) and various other goodies. I've been happy with it.  




P.S. Big-K, I don't know what version of MSN Messenger you're using, but it's even more dysfunctional than AIM on my computer.  Yet everyone uses it.....so I'm stuck with it for the time being. But I still love IRC.


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## ramtek

Had to laugh at using the CD's as coasters. I give all the disks to my grandmother, who uses them in her garden to keep the birds and animals away. LOL!

I experienced the same problem with aol.. Kept billing my account even though I canceld it. took me a few months to realize it then they would only go back 3 months. Even though they did verify I had not used the account.

UGGHH there ought to be some way all these people that have been scammed by aol... to get there money back.


Have a great night!


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## BWhorton2003

I never had these problems but as i have read all this i guess i made a good move 
leaving aohell.


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## BWhorton2003

Hello,
The reasons I hate aol are many,that"you have mail"and "welcome"crap are just a few
also they were rude when i pulled the plug on them after my 6 months free with my
new Dell expired.
Have been on Cox highspeed since dumping aol and couldn't be happier.Am running
windows xp with sp2 and have very few popups and connections are no comparsion
to aohell.
One bit of advice dump dialup in general if you can even though it is higher to use
highspeed.It will also free your phoneline.I know i am a new weenie but i'm still learning
and the net is unbelieveable.


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## libbyinabq

Best ISP i have seen is www.toast.net. Great connection speeds in several neighborhoods I have tried, better than earthlink or aol. Really simple to use. When you call nights or weekends you get the tech guy who actually knows what he is doing! Call days and there are two choices--the office or tech help. No long phone trees. No techs in training. !2.95 a month or less annualy. No bills that keep coming long after you have cancelled like with AOL and NetZero/Juno.


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## jillian2

I have had MSN 9 ever since it came out. Before that, I used MSN 8. I have never had any problem but once. I had a very minor problem with the email and they gave me 2 free months . I am satisfied with MSN. I recommend it.

Jillian


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## Big-K

Yes, cox is nice. We also have them as our cable company. Quite nice.


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## nwfarm

Why I hate AOL? I don't have AOL. BUT I still hate it. Everytime I send a friend "with AOL" a photo I have to shrink it so tiny or they don't get it.


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## bobbi

I'll give you the main reason I hate AOL...they won't go away!

My 18 year old daughter got a laptop for graduation. She (foolishly) signed up for the 3 months free of AOL.

After 2 months and 3 weeks she canceled AOL. Or at least she went through the motions. She left for college. 

AOL called about a week later to inquire about her account. They asked that she call. She did and told them she wanted to cancel, again!! That evening she signed into her account to see if it was still active and it was. She thought since she talked to them that day, that it would be all taken care of. Wrong!!

Three months later her account was overdrawn. AOL had been taking monthly payments out of her account. She called them up explained to them that she had canceled her account. They had no record of it. They tried to give her another month free, but she said no. She wanted her money back, but they would only give her 2 months because of that one time she signed in to see if the account was still active. She talked to 3 different people and they said they would give her back 2 months and cancel her account. 

One week later she received a letter from AOL thanking her for continuing her service. It informed her that the next monthly payment would be taken from her account on December 17th. She had to sign the back of the paper, mail it back to them in order to cancel her account. That has been done. 

In the meantime they only credited her account with one month's payment. Now she has to call them again...heaven only knows what more confusion will result from that phone call. 

My advice...be afraid be very afraid!!!


----------



## ~Candy~

I had an almost identical problem with AOL in Mexico. Except here, you don't have to give a credit or debit card. But after my trial expired (now, one would just 'assume' that if you didn't pay them, they'd cut you off).  Silly me. I left the country and came back to about 6 months of billing. I immediately called them and they suggested that I find a friend to take over my account  Can you imagine? I told them where to go and hung up. A couple of months later I got a letter from a collection attorney  

I immediately phoned him and told him the history and he said it wasn't the first time he'd heard that.


----------



## gotrootdude

My Calender in AOL say's "Your activeX settings prohibit this content from being displayed! Even after enabling activeX and setting all security functions to low.. 

Stupid AOL tech says, "your machine has a virus".. After three clean virus scans with different antivirus programs, and scanning using spybot and adaware (Which the AOL tech didn't even recognize the names of) and coming up clean, I called back to tell that idiot tech off. 

Forgot to mention, it doesn't even work with a fresh install of windows.. It worked until the last "update" AOL forced upon me.. What the hell did they do to it, I had a ton of things planned in that calender!


----------



## cheese

When i was cancelling...

They probably asked me 10 times if i wanted a free 3 months if i stayed. I said No. If i would like to keep my email there for so & so a month. I said No. Then after more things offered they finally got to the end and said you will have your account for 30 more days free, and then your account will be cancelled. So ok cool yeah nice ill use for 30 more days. So i log on and do whatever and uninstall it within the last week. Then the next month after the free ending, we get a bill for the month after. I call and their like "..well you reaccessed your account after your free month was up..." no i didnt, it was uninstalled. After talking for awile they discarded the charge. Now im with charter and happy...going to get FIOS once verizon TURNS ON MY STREET, which they said they would do a month ago.


----------



## Mr Broly

What??? I love AOL. I never had probles cancelling. An it FREE. what more can you ask for. Ive been using AOL for like 2 years without paying. Its FREE. Anyways, that what i think.


----------



## Big-K

Anyone seen the netzero commercials parodying the aol ones? Woo frickin hoo.


----------



## Mr Broly

There very funny.


----------



## jmpmuse

Mr Broly said:


> What??? I love AOL. I never had probles cancelling. An it FREE. what more can you ask for. Ive been using AOL for like 2 years without paying. Its FREE. Anyways, that what i think.


I wouldn't use them if they gave it to me free for ten years. They are predatory. A friend moved over to DSL and AOL convinced them to continue to pay and keep their AOL service and dumbed everyone down to the point that they still pay a DSL monthly service fee along with a $ 22.00 a month AOL service fee. It's like you buy a new car, a 2004 VW, but your Ford motorship folks convince you that you need to tow around that comet for the duration of using your new car under their proclamation perhaps the radio or heat in other car would be good have on hand just in case. Kind of like panasonic convincing you to keep their old set on top of your new set indefinitely, just in case.. ect. AOL is facing a huge loss in customer base and they are struggling fighting with other competitive ISP's to keep their market strong. BB sound the death knell for AOL.


----------



## smeegle

Got another offer in the mail from AOL before Christmas. They were bragging about their anti spam features. For a few minutes there I was tempted because the MSN that I have now is getting more and more pathetic each day. Then I see on the news that the spam attempts on AOL are down 25% from last year. As a result, the spammers will begin to concentrate on the smaller ISP's this year. Just thought I mentioned that.


----------



## poochee

Try a local company. They are small and give good service. I have softcom.net. They don't have dsl, but do have a faster dial-up if you wish. I get to the internet in 44 seconds with regular dial-up. They also have a great SPAM/virus filter. The cost is $14.50 a month. When you call for help you get quick service. AOL is too big to give good service.


----------



## smeegle

Poochee, I checked out softcom's website. Looks good. Maybe 2005 will be the year that I can dump MSN.


----------



## poochee

I think you will like it. A friend recommended them to me.


----------



## Big-K

I might have already posted this, but to the thing about going toward the smaller ISP's: I'm not sure if cox.net is considered a small one(it's part of Cox Cable), but my parents use the email they got with the high speed. They get loads of spam each day, but some of them they noticed are addressed to mass amount of cox customers, nothing else.


----------



## Servant of Eru

I have somewhere around 50 AOL Free Trial discs sitting in front of me....I will be redistributing them soon with the URL for this thread on them.


----------



## poochee

Big-K, cox.net must not have a filter. My ISP softcom.net has Barracuda Filter. It stops spam and viruses. You can set the level of stoppage you want. I may get one spam a week, but it stops in the filter, they send me a notice and I can determine if I want it delivered or not. They also stop suspected viruses.


----------



## smeegle

Poochee, am I to understand that you are withdrawing your endorsement of cox.net? Also, maybe I may need to start a new thread about this but what is the difference between ISP's that end with .net and those that end with .com?


----------



## Big-K

Since when was he endorsing cox? Since when was ANYONE endorsing cox? I was just using them as an example...


----------



## poochee

smeegle, I am not unendorsing cox.net. Was just saying that perhaps cox.net doesn't have a filter to stop SPAM. I know nothing about cox.net. You can go to this site to get an answer on your question. www.webopedia.com


----------



## smeegle

Thanks for the website info, Poochee. I misunderstood you about the cox.net site.


----------



## ~Candy~

Cox is one of the worst in my opinions. I have NEVER given that email address out to anyone, and everytime I check it, I have about 30 spam emails.


----------



## Big-K

And yet free ones like yahoo(and amazingly hotmail has recently joined the bunch), have GREAT spam filters! Everything unwanted goes straight to the bulk folder, everything good goes to the inbox. Isnt that amazing? Something for free works better than something for cash!


----------



## s43

Big-K said:


> And yet free ones like yahoo(and amazingly hotmail has recently joined the bunch), have GREAT spam filters! Everything unwanted goes straight to the bulk folder, everything good goes to the inbox. Isnt that amazing? Something for free works better than something for cash!


Yea


----------



## Servant of Eru

I've given my Earthlink email addy out ot everyone and their mom, used it on just about every forum I was a member of up until I recently got Gmail, and I have yet to get one (1) spam email. For Spam blocking, I'd have to say Earthlink is pretty good. In all other respects I've been really satisfied with them as well, probably better ask someone else about highspeed options though, we only have dialup out here in the woods...


----------



## poochee

Servant of Eru, there is nothing wrong with dial-up. :up: My friends with DSL are always complaining about having one problem or another. My dial-up runs smoothly 98% of the time. I bought a top of the line computer and it is speedy enough for me...I can reach the internet in 44 seconds. And surfing is pretty fast!


----------



## Servant of Eru

poochee said:


> Servant of Eru, there is nothing wrong with dial-up. :up: My friends with DSL are always complaining about having one problem or another. My dial-up runs smoothly 98% of the time. I bought a top of the line computer and it is speedy enough for me...I can reach the internet in 44 seconds. And surfing is pretty fast!


It isn't if you're a gamer...have you seen the size of Patch downloads lately?


----------



## poochee

Servant of Eru...I'm not a gamer, so I see your point!!! Have fun, and a *HAPPY NEW YEAR*  to everyone.


----------



## Big-K

I prefer high speed to dialup(I've had both). The best part is how much less noisy hs is. If I can't connect, then there's two options. Either Cox is having problems at home, which hasnt happened yet, or I simply have to reboot the connection, which is easy enough. The instantaniousness is also nice.


----------



## Skivvywaver

Ahhh the good old days when addicts of the net used to brag "I have been on the net for 26 hours straight."

Not much of an accomplishment these days. I am connected 24/7. I like it, sit down and click.

Now back to why I hate AOL, I have a new one. The "free" anti virus commercials they have now.

They go something like this. " I am clueless on how to back up my data and run my own anti virus. " 
" I want to lose all my brats baby pics. " 
" I want my hard drive to sound like a yeti. "

In other words AOL is telling the public that they are too stupid to protect their own machines??

Maybe there are some left that don't but they are getting fewer and fewer. Hell, AOL itself is a virus.


----------



## Deathblow

Yes, not only do they make the people that use them dumber, but they look at the people that keep them in buisness as morons. I'm so glad they're crashing and burning.


----------



## Big-K

Too bad most people dont know about the fact that there are free alternatives for AV, firewall, anti spyware/adware, popup blockers, etc.


----------



## s43

Big-K said:


> Too bad most people dont know about the fact that there are free alternatives for AV, firewall, anti spyware/adware, popup blockers, etc.


What are the facts then?


----------



## s43

Why dont people make a website called Anti-AOL.org(or something like that) then everybody could write about their experiences!

I've started a poll to see how many ppl hate AOL


----------



## poochee

Have you ever typed in: AOL complaints on your web site? Amazing # of complainers. No AOL for me.


----------



## Skivvywaver

http://www.aolsucks.org/


----------



## Servant of Eru

HEHEHE


----------



## walangbuhok

I've been with Netzero for over two years, I love it! I was using it for free, then after about 3 months, decided to go w/ $9/mo. Now I upgraded to their highspeed service.


----------



## Big-K

^^I second that 'hehehe'


----------



## bobbi

Can anyone recommend a east coast isp? I'm currently using QIS but I'm not real happy with them. Their webmail interface is very cumbersome. 
Thanks


----------



## Big-K




----------



## Baldeagle001

I have to add this. I used AOL as my first ISP a very long time ago. Now I use Cable Connection. I would never go back to them. And when I did use them about a two years ago. When I final canceled the service they keep billing my credit card. So I had to treated to sue them if they didnt recredit my card. Well got half the money back. But I could not find a lawyer that would take the care. I ask one about a class action suit on them doing the same thing to other people that had cancled there service and keep getting billed. Has this happened to anyone else using it in the past. Never again will I use it. But I do like the free coster they keep sending. They make good little frezbees too.


----------



## JRSellers

Skivvywaver said:


> Ahhh the good old days when addicts of the net used to brag "I have been on the net for 26 hours straight."
> 
> Not much of an accomplishment these days. I am connected 24/7. I like it, sit down and click.
> 
> Now back to why I hate AOL, I have a new one. The "free" anti virus commercials they have now.
> 
> They go something like this. " I am clueless on how to back up my data and run my own anti virus. "
> " I want to lose all my brats baby pics. "
> " I want my hard drive to sound like a yeti. "
> 
> In other words AOL is telling the public that they are too stupid to protect their own machines??


Exactly. They get AOL cuz they get the included protection, and then when they leave AOL to get a less expensive ISP that doesn't provide the same protection, they whine cuz they have no idea how to protect their computers.


----------



## Big-K

Pretty much.


----------



## JRSellers

The only thing about their commercial I actually like is hearing Famke Jannsen's voice.


----------



## rhorne4

I Think Everyone Gets Sucked Into Aol At Least Once.i Know I Did And I Hate Aol.nothing Good To Say About It,nothing Good Heard About It.


----------



## poochee

rhorne4 said:


> I Think Everyone Gets Sucked Into Aol At Least Once.i Know I Did And I Hate Aol.nothing Good To Say About It,nothing Good Heard About It.


Suspect free services!! I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. I stick with the local guys.


----------



## Big-K

I was never sucked in....therefore your theory is proven incorrect.


----------



## rhorne4

To Big-K,There are exceptions to everything.I am glad that you never got sucked in to aol.


----------



## Skivvywaver

I did for a few minutes, er I mean months. Didn't take me long to rid myself of them.


----------



## Hulk701

iltos said:


> because its been so long since i used it that i have no idea what my username/password is anymore....when i did, i tried to cancel...to no avail....and have called many times since....even to my damn credit card to stop the payment...and aol still dings me for the 10 bucks every month (this from the days when you could have access to their features even tho you entered through another isp...don't know if that's still an option).....
> ....i have talked to others with similiar stories, and so wonder what their real subscriber numbers are, and when that class action suit is coming that will bring em to their knees
> 
> oh, shure


So how did you finally get rid of them? I'm going through the same thing right now. I called to cancel and they said I can have free service until May. I don't know if I'll get free service until May or even why they'll give me free service until May.

I wanted to quit and they wouldn't let me. *How did you finally get rid of these pests*...


----------



## Hulk701

dabwid45 said:


> AOHell
> Tech support is in India, hard to understand.
> Kept getting kicked off line.
> Said I needed a new modem. It was new. In fact I tried three of them. It was always my modem, my computer, or me. Never AOHell. Took me THREE HOURS to cancel my membership. I was offered a free modem, 3 months free service, all kinds of things. I talked to aprox. 25 people some of them two or three times. By now I am past any kind of being nice. When they finally put me to someone who cancelled my service she got all *&%()*(^#@ with me.
> Like it was all my fault. Okay thought I was all done with AOHell. Paid my bill and kept sending bills to my bank and my bank paid them. When I tried to stop payment they put collections on me. It took another FOUR HOURS on the phone. AOHell can take the big jump.


How did you finally get rid of them? What did you say?


----------



## bobbi

Just to let you know...I still hate AOL. I posted earlier about my daughter's awful experience with them. They still owe her money. They said they would refund her two months, but they only refunded one. 

I think this is part of their plan. They are so difficult to deal with that you just give up. They owe her $24.95, but she doesn't want to call them because every time you do, it's like it starts all over again. They try to give you free months, then some how you're signed up again etc. 

She's just happy to be rid of them. It's a valuable lesson learned! 

If she had been unable to stop this, her next step would have been to cancel the credit card. She didn't have to do that, but she was prepared to. 

Good luck to all of you trying to escape their evil clutches!!


----------



## Hulk701

Thanks for the info.

I tried to cancel today. They said I was going to get a month free and they were going to cut off my billing today. Fat Chance.... 

Now that I know the name of the scam...."_just try to collect" _ I'll demand immediate cutoff now.

Thanks,
HULK!


----------



## coderitr

Hulk701 said:


> So how did you finally get rid of them? I'm going through the same thing right now. I called to cancel and they said I can have free service until May. I don't know if I'll get free service until May or even why they'll give me free service until May.
> 
> I wanted to quit and they wouldn't let me. *How did you finally get rid of these pests*...


I'd take their offier of free service then cancel the credit card.


----------



## rhorne4

I had to send them a letter to let them know that i was cancelling and any more attemps to charge my credit card would cause me to put a block on my card.They don't know the meaning of the word NO.


----------



## JRSellers

I guess I got lucky. I've canceled and re-joined many times over the years, and every time I've canceled, they've complied.

I won't be going back to them...EVER!!!


----------



## Hulk701

coderitr said:


> I'd take their offier of free service then cancel the credit card.


Thanks, but I contacted the FTC instead. It was only today and I have yet to hear from them....


----------



## Black Goku

I use aol but I havent had any problems. Do they really track your surfing?!


----------



## Hulk701

Black Goku said:


> I use aol but I havent had any problems. Do they really track your surfing?!


As far as I know they track when you go online and go offline, if you're using dialup, but they don't track where you go.

Someone correct me on this if I'm wrong, but I think it would be illegal to track WHERE you go online.


----------



## Black Goku

Yeah it would but im just worried because I do occasionaly go onto some anti-aol site or something illegal through those damn popups (thank god for firefox  )


----------



## Hulk701

Hey Gang,

I've finally escaped from AOL, I think. At least they didn't bill me this month.

Here's how I did it:

First transferring your Personal Filing Cabinet, Favorite Places and Address book isn't easy. Trueswitch didn't work entirely, it only transferred my Address Book. Good 'nuff I said, after all I am working with AOL.

So I went online and discovered a product called Good A*L. Its in German with an English version. I used the free version to manually convert 1852 favorite places by hand. It took me two days to accomplish this and the reason it took me two days was because I didn't want to get carpal tunnel syndrome.

Now to the emails, 8 years worth. I broke down and purchased a product called "e-preserver" for $27.00 which did work. Just setting up and outlook express account with AOL didn't work.

Now to the hard part, getting a cancellation number. First the fax number AOL uses to cancel your accoun't didn't work. So I first decided to cover my tracks by sending a complaint to the FTC and telling them I couldn't access their FAX machine and I was trying to get a cancellation number. I sent this and got a confirmation number from the FTC.

Then I spoke to some AOL Indian woman named Praibitha who told me they would stop billing me immediatley and give me a month of free service and THEN cancel my account. I accepted (like a jerk) but then asked myself why AOL should be so nice to me. I then checked the Internet and found all sorts of stories of people being billed for _Free Service_ and not being cancelled in the end.

So I emailed Praibitha back and told her to go ahead with my original plan. The next day I decided to try confirm what I had told Praibitha and talked to JASON insted. Jason put me on hold after I said I didn't want to argue with him. For a Loooooong time too. I finally disconnected the call. I called back and a recording told me I was cancelled but didn't give me a cancelllation number.

In meantime I had also written AOL a letter asking to be cancelled (when I had contacted the FTC). Over the weekend when this was happening I had received a Confirmation of Renewed Service letter from AOL.

This made me livid. I contacted the Attorney General's office of Washington State (where I live) and told them of my intent to leave and my problems getting a cancellation number. I had also written my credit card company and told them not to accept any more charges from AOL.

Why all the hassle? Read these articles. AOL employes special people to get cancellers to change their mind and offered them a bounty for each successful attempt:

http://www.aolsucks.org/list/0091.html

It says too that AOL doesn't offer a chance to cancel by email because if they did _more people would cancel_... 

But AOL must have gotten the message somehow. This afternoon when I checked to see if I had any new charges from AOL I RECEIVED NONE!!!! :up:

Note: AOL has been sued over this stuff:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A26515-2003Oct27&notFound=true

Today I am happily enjoying Qwest DSL and Yahoo Plus for the same price I used to pay for AOL dialup...Good for me!
HULK!


----------



## Hulk701

teengeekgrrl said:


> Hi, i'm new to this site. Just wanted to chip in my two cents.
> 
> I HATE AOH!!! I talk to this guy a lot who has AOHell, and he has Parental Controls on it. I can IM him, but I can't send him emails with pictures or attachments, he can't see my buddy icon, and he can't get to half of the sites I send him a link to. Even the url to yahoo won't work because of the parental controls, but I doubt it has anything to do with parental controls. Also, I have a website on GeoCities and he can't get to it. But the worst part is blogging. He made a blog and he reeeealllly wants me to see it, but I can't get to it for some unknown reason. He sent me the official invite that I was now authorized to view his weblog, but I click the link and it says I do not have access! He actually swore after the fifth time he tried to get me to be able to look at it, which is somewhat contrary of him. I think it's the fact that I'm not an AOL member, I just use AIM. If he sends me the invite email to my real email address which is not with aol, i guess I can't get to it. Argh!!!!!! dump aol even if you have no problems. Use the disks as coasters or wall decorations like I do.  The only reason I use AIM is because it is the universal medium of talking to people from my school online. why, I'm not sure. Maybe cuz there are a lot of computer illiterates at my school. there. I'm done ranting.


Hi teengeekgrrl,

BTW, one of the reasons I don't like AOL either is that it _does NOT accept Hotmail_. I had a friend who had to switch to Yahoo mail in order to get me, on aol, to receive his messages....


----------



## Skivvywaver

AOL users are also starting to have a hard time signing for forums and other online communities. The reason being the numerous email accounts you can have. If one gets banned they simply cancel it and make up a new name.

With dial up it is harder to ban an IP because it changes everytime you connect. You end up banning an entire range. 

Yep, AOL sucks.


----------



## two1361

lol well we have had comcast high speed for quite some time, but i say AOL are a bucn of money grubbing *******s lol


----------



## ~Candy~

two1361 said:


> lol well we have had comcast high speed for quite some time, but i say AOL are a bucn of money grubbing *******s lol


Please refrain from using asterisks for language censor.


----------



## Big-K

Why? He's doing exactly the same thing as the filter would do, just showing that it's plural. Not to start an arguement or anything.

I hear AOL has been getting sued in Ohio(may have been another state) for the frequent complaints. The attorney general of that state is attempting to get lots of cash away from them for the people complaining and force them into the standards that were actually put in place in 97(which they havn't followed).


----------



## ~Candy~

Big-K said:


> Why? He's doing exactly the same thing as the filter would do, just showing that it's plural. Not to start an arguement or anything.


I've spoken with TechGuy about it, really  The filter catches the language as well, and that is not to be tolerated either.


----------



## Hulk701

Big-K said:



> I hear AOL has been getting sued in Ohio(may have been another state) for the frequent complaints. The attorney general of that state is attempting to get lots of cash away from them for the people complaining and force them into the standards that were actually put in place in 97(which they havn't followed).


Actually they were already sued in Ohio  back in '03. I don't know of anything recently:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A26515-2003Oct27&notFound=true


----------



## Deathblow

Hulk701 said:


> Actually they were already sued in Ohio  back in '03. I don't know of anything recently:
> 
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A26515-2003Oct27&notFound=true


Any idea what the outcome of that lawsuit was?


----------



## Hulk701

Sorry, but I haven't researched it yet


----------



## wuggish

I hate them because i installed win media player 9 and because I installed it, apparently (sez the tech person on fone) it conflicts with aol, and it caused problems with my registry and therefor the modem wouldnt work. It took a further 12 hours to get it back online speaing to various unhelpful tech people that say the same thing each time


----------



## wuggish

lol i no yeh, but i got i-tunes but its rubbish compared to win media player 10


----------



## Big-K

WMP is rubbish compared to most other big media players(such as winamp and media player classic)


----------



## 4steve44

I have just read this entire thread and I may have missed it, but aol has been known to give away identity info that can and has been used in Identity Theft.


----------



## Hulk701

BTW, today I got a call (two weeks after I cancelled) from AOL. They wanted to give me my _cancellation number and apologized for the trouble _ they've caused me. *OMG...AOL Calling me to apologize*....


----------



## Hulk701

4steve44 said:


> I have just read this entire thread and I may have missed it, but aol has been known to give away identity info that can and has been used in Identity Theft.


Actually that's not exclusive to AOL, *unfortunately*. Hackers will often have an employee on the inside who will record credit card numbers and later sell them..


----------



## pr0t3st

4steve44 said:


> I have just read this entire thread and I may have missed it, but aol has been known to give away identity info that can and has been used in Identity Theft.


Interesting... Let's see some proof of that. I don't use AOL, but have friends that do. About the identity theft issue... Whether you realize this or not, AOL has been hacked so many times, and in some instances resulting in the exposure of private information. As anti-AOL as I am, I don't believe AOL "gives away" identity information, much less engages itself in any form of identity theft.



Hulk701 said:


> Actually that's not exclusive to AOL, *unfortunately*. Hackers will often have an employee on the inside who will record credit card numbers and later sell them..


As for hackers having an employee on the "inside", this I don't know... I'd like to see some proof of this as well.


----------



## pr0t3st

Btw, I don't mean to sound as if I'm defending AOL, cuz I have no reason to... But people can sometimes get too "carried away" with their comments.


----------



## ~Candy~

AOL Latin America should be out of money by the end of May


----------



## noobie777

AOL hahahaha


----------



## Hulk701

my remark about hackers using someone in the inside comes from a PC Magazine article about identity theft. 

Sorry, but it would take too long to go back and find the original article.


----------



## jillian2

I use MSN and have never had a problem. Seldom have to wait online for over 2 or 3 minutes . I now have MSN 9. Another thing I like is not all their techs are foreigners and those that are, have very good english. Yes, I like MSN. Have had it over 2 years. The best ISP that I have tried considering the wait time and the techs that are American. I have tried a lot of different ISP's and always come back to MSN. Some people knock it because it is Microsoft, but Microsoft has a lot of good things.

Another thing . A poster asked the question "what is the difference in a dot com and a dot net" and no one has aswered his post. I am wondering the same thing. What is the difference between .com and .net . Please , someone aswer this as there are now 2 posters who would like an explanation.

Thanks,
Jillian


Jillian


----------



## Hulk701

jillian2 said:


> Another thing . A poster asked the question "what is the difference in a dot com and a dot net" and no one has aswered his post. I am wondering the same thing. What is the difference between .com and .net . Please , someone aswer this as there are now 2 posters who would like an explanation.
> 
> Jillian


I don't know what forum you are referring to but *Its a distinction without a difference*. .com refers to a company and .net refers to a company on the interenet. Companies that already have their .com name taken willl take the same name and put a .net on it and get it.

Check this link:

http://www.thewritecontent.com/dotcompromise.html


----------



## jillian2

Thanks Hulk701. That answered the question.

Jillian


----------



## Hulk701

You bet,

HULK!


----------



## Big-K

I always thought there was no difference, that they were all just extensions(.com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, .biz, .tk, etc.) for use with different operations.


----------



## Hulk701

To be honest I don't know the purpose or meaning of a different extension, or the penalties for misusing an extension. Like .org for a government organization, vs. .gov. I'm really not an _expert_. 

I just googled for an answer to Jillian's question and found that url.


----------



## Big-K

For one, if you want address.com but it's taken, you can just go for address.net. Or sometimes one is cheaper(think .tk here).


----------



## rez410

i recently seen an explanation for each one. i remember it saying that .org was for non profit organizations. i will try and remember where i had seen it.


----------



## josdegr

rez410 said:


> i recently seen an explanation for each one. i remember it saying that .org was for non profit organizations. i will try and remember where i had seen it.


could this be what you are looking for?

These extensions found at the end of a URL or e-mail address signify a category of web site, such as commercial(.com) or the country from which the web site originates, such as Tuvalu(.tv).

Domain Suffixes


----------



## XcheifX

beleive it or not when we ringed them up to quit they started yelling why and offering 3 months free. It was the lamest thing that has ever happend to me. that is why i rate aol a humilliating -666 out of a million.


----------



## Hulk701

XcheifX said:


> beleive it or not when we ringed them up to quit they started yelling why and offering 3 months free. It was the lamest thing that has ever happend to me. that is why i rate aol a humilliating -666 out of a million.


Seriously??? _Yelling _ at you???? or is just Beavis talkin'.


----------



## XcheifX

They started yelling at me...serious!!!!


----------



## XcheifX

that was a long time ago and i guess aol was desperate


----------



## Big-K

rez410 said:


> i recently seen an explanation for each one. i remember it saying that .org was for non profit organizations. i will try and remember where i had seen it.


Alot of schools use .org, such as usd383.org, my own district. Others use .eud, although I think thats more universities.


----------



## jillian2

I tried AOL a while back and had to call about 5 times to get cancelled. I got a call yesterday, 2 months since cancellation , and was asked why I cancelled. I told him I just did not like AOL. He asked what didn't I like and I told him I liked nothing about it.
I said it was hard to cancell an account, long hold times, foreigners with poor English, and that AOL is spyware. He kept on and I finally told him that I just did not like Time Warner period. He hung up immediately. He had really called to get me to sign back up. No deal.

Jillian


----------



## RAMAddict

wow this thread won't stop haha


----------



## bkfdbarbara

iltos said:


> because its been so long since i used it that i have no idea what my username/password is anymore....when i did, i tried to cancel...to no avail....and have called many times since....even to my damn credit card to stop the payment...and aol still dings me for the 10 bucks every month (this from the days when you could have access to their features even tho you entered through another isp...don't know if that's still an option).....
> ....i have talked to others with similiar stories, and so wonder what their real subscriber numbers are, and when that class action suit is coming that will bring em to their knees
> 
> oh, shure


 I had the same problem here in Holland; signed up and got 55 free hours, or whatever. This was at the end of the month, and when our bill came it was outrageous. They 'forgot' to tell us that the 55 hours had to be used by the end of the month, which was two days. We then tried to cancel for 5 months, and luckily, in Holland, the banks help out, so we finally got out of AOL. I will be moving back to California in a year, and any 'free' CD's from AOL will be used to scare birds away from my blackberries. AOL sucks, is dishonest, and could care less about anything except making more money. My entire family (daughter, etc.) use it, but I have a mind of my own, so need to follow down that path. Why do they use it? Because it is easier, Mom, then learning a whole new way to use the computer, I was told. To each his/her own. Thank God for choices.


----------



## fhirsch7

If you must use dial-up, Earthlink is great.


----------



## Hulk701

fhirsch7 said:


> If you must use dial-up, Earthlink is great.


But their hi-speed is rather pricey. Out here you have to pay a $100 activation fee - just to sign up.


----------



## fhirsch7

That's robbery. What about your local telephone provicfer - PacBell

Frank


----------



## Hulk701

fhirsch7 said:


> That's robbery. What about your local telephone provicfer - PacBell
> 
> Frank


Actually, that's what I use. QWEST, is what its called. They only have a $10 activation fee.


----------



## XcheifX

Use charter cable for $30...I love it


----------



## Hulk701

teengeekgrrl said:


> Good decision. You will be happy without AOHell in the long run.


You're right. I pay as much for an entire year of Yahoo Plus as I used to pay for ONE MONTH for AOL - $25.00

- and Yahoo Plus has all the features of AOL, except the smiley's. I really liked the AOL smileys...


----------



## sellcars

Hey all,
I will add this, Once you have it and decide to drop them, their Indian support team tries very very hard to keep you. I have Roadrunner and didnt need AOL anymore, this guy on the phone didnt speak very good English at all kept on trying to keep me with them. 
I told him i didnt need 2 ISP'S and he could not understand me. After 1/2 hr i figured this guy wasted enough of my time so i started swearing at him, 5 seconds later he dropped my AOL. It's sad when you have to treat a telemarketer " AOL " support like dirt to get what you want. Plus they are very very slow.

Thanks,
Sellncars


----------



## XcheifX

ya those things were cool


----------



## XcheifX

Is there going to be a problem solved on this thing or what???


----------



## Hulk701

sellcars said:


> Hey all,
> I will add this, Once you have it and decide to drop them, their Indian support team tries very very hard to keep you. I have Roadrunner and didnt need AOL anymore, this guy on the phone didnt speak very good English at all kept on trying to keep me with them.
> I told him i didnt need 2 ISP'S and he could not understand me. After 1/2 hr i figured this guy wasted enough of my time so i started swearing at him, 5 seconds later he dropped my AOL. It's sad when you have to treat a telemarketer " AOL " support like dirt to get what you want. Plus they are very very slow.
> 
> Thanks,
> Sellncars


I had to threaten legal action. When I was with AOL for broadband they were supposed to charge me $20/m. When I got my first bill it was 38/m. That was excluding the shipping, mailing and activation fees.

Not only that, but the equipment they used made my computer slower. It made opening other programs slower and it took twice as long to reboot. They offered me free for a month. I took it. Then they offered me another free month and I refused. They couldn't understand why. I told them about slowing down my computer and it didn't 'compute' with them. (it was a P233 w/32mb of RAM)

Finally I threatened to call the Attorney General's office. They gave me a cancellation number. I sent it 'return receipt requested' so they wouldn't charge me for lousy equipment.

That was about 3 years ago. Since that time AOL has sold their broadband division.(or at least I'm told)


----------



## XcheifX

wow, i'm not alone in the fight agaisnt aol...HEHEHE


----------



## two1361

man i would never go back to AOL... used it was i was in middle school ( early-mid '90s) then once i started commuteing to college my parents got Comcast Broadband, holy crap, kicks *** so why even get AOL to go on top of broadband? i wouldn't want my network performance to degrade cuz of AOL.

any why aren't there more lawsuits, etc, for all the fraudlent charges and crap ppl have encountered? sad huh?


----------



## Colossus610

AOL doesnt properly uninstall itself:down: 
AOL doesnt properly remove previous installations:down: 
AOL doesnt have any considerations for their customers' property 
AOL doesnt realize that they are catering to an ever increasingly ignorant customer base  
AOL doesnt realize that a good majority of their customers have no idea what the term "phishing" is or have never heard it before  
AOL doesnt give up on the billions of cd's that nobody pays attention to  
AOL doesnt have a chance in the world, what with everybody going broadband thru other ISP's :up: 
AOL doesnt realize that their software DEMANDS the existence of someone ele's internet connection SBC/Yahoo have their own DSL, Comcast has their own coax, etc. :up: 
AOL doesnt realize that their "Security Edition" is so paranoid, it wont let itself online even though IE, Firefox, program updates connect fine thru broadband  
AOL doesnt like getting calls from their customers saying that they got broadband and wont be needing the full paid account anymore, just charge me 5 bucks a month to keep my email @aol.com  
*AOL doesnt know that everytime I'm at Blockbuster, I secretly take some of their free cd's, remove them from their sleeves, put them data side down on the nice and rough textured-for-grip floor tiles, put one foot squarely on the cd, and spin several times before putting the cd's back in their sleeves and hence, back into the AOL display rack. *

As a customer support/tech specialist I have often yelled at people for paying 30 bucks a month for some ancient and outdated days-gone-past necessity gone horribly wrong AND paying for broadband 
I hate getting sytems in and loking at the service ticket only to see the dreaded words "AOL won't connect, check modem and/or NIC for connectivity"
AOL should just bite the bullet, write their own OS and give us something to hate even more than Windoze


----------



## Hulk701

Colossus610 said:


> *AOL doesnt know that everytime I'm at Blockbuster, I secretly take some of their free cd's, remove them from their sleeves, put them data side down on the nice and rough textured-for-grip floor tiles, put one foot squarely on the cd, and spin several times before putting the cd's back in their sleeves and hence, back into the AOL display rack. *


While I thoroughly agree with you about AO-Hell, your method of teaching is a bit like the cook who spits up phlegm on a McDonald's hamburger just because the boss didn't give him a raise.

The problem is that you can make people sick that way. Do you really think the person who wants that disk is going to be discouraged by what you did to it?

Chances are they probably went back to the same shop to get a new one...  because, like you said most of them are computer illiterate..  and they believe what the AOL commercials tell them.


----------



## Colossus610

Party pooper.
Go and spoil my one true indulgence in life and make me feel guilty about it now.
My father-in-law still uses AOL(despite my attempts at otherwise), and I dont know how many times I've gone over there and had to boot up in safe mode and unistall McAfee(2 antiviruses running at the same time has got to be the best system slowdown I've ever seen) that was installed without his knowledge or approval.
Maybe it's just me, but any software that is the cause of or the continuation of the adware mentality, where it's ok to deluge their loyal customers with spam, ads, software they didnt ask for or need is infuriating to me.

I know what I do is not the cure or even mature, but it's one of my only little allowances of malicious thoughts of deliverance.


----------



## crazyinengla

hey all i use AOHELL. i have to really cos thats what my grandad signed up for.
i find it ok actually...ok the tech support is bad and something wrong started to happen on my comp which im trying get fixed (i no its AOHELL related because it never happened before AOHELL) this problem started back in january when we signed up

the 1MB broadband they provide is fast and like their popup blocker as it filters out every ad....their spyware protection is rubbish it finds this item from iwon and it tries to block it but everytime it freezes when trying to.

it freezes evry now and again and disconnects me (Always Off Line hehe) but thats cos of the comp problem i have lol

really starting hate aol


----------



## Hulk701

Colossus610 said:


> Party pooper.
> Go and spoil my one true indulgence in life and make me feel guilty about it now.
> My father-in-law still uses AOL(despite my attempts at otherwise), and I dont know how many times I've gone over there and had to boot up in safe mode and unistall McAfee(2 antiviruses running at the same time has got to be the best system slowdown I've ever seen) that was installed without his knowledge or approval.
> Maybe it's just me, but any software that is the cause of or the continuation of the adware mentality, where it's ok to deluge their loyal customers with spam, ads, software they didnt ask for or need is infuriating to me.
> 
> I know what I do is not the cure or even mature, but it's one of my only little allowances of malicious thoughts of deliverance.


Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put AOL cd's on the same level as McDonald's hamburgers...


----------



## Colossus610

Hulk701 said:


> Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to put AOL cd's on the same level as McDonald's hamburgers...


Hey nothing you need to apologize for, I'm the immature one, and I understand your position on that, just shows that you are more civilized. 
but one last question;
Ummmmm......AOL cd's being on the same level as McDonald's hamburgers...........which is that more of an insult to? At least AOL cd's dont make me gassy, and I only wish I got hamburgers in the mail every week  LOL


----------



## Big-K

crazyinengla said:


> their popup blocker as it filters out every ad....their spyware protection is rubbish it finds this item from iwon and it tries to block it but everytime it freezes when trying to.


So does the one that comes with Firefox


----------



## Aol guy

Look I have been employed with AOL for a couple of years. The billing and the lagging browser issues are on the haters. The browser is the same as netscape "mozilla ring a bell" Too much crap download by the kids and spyware have impact on performance. The billing issues are on greedy people who took advantage of the generous offer of free time that was given and never bothered to call and cancel. I can be your accountant so dont ask. I know all tech people think AOL is a kiddy interface, thats ok, but if your not a tech person and want to have firewall anti-virus and spyware protection without hassel. Come back and see the new AOL. As for the genius population, the commoners out number you by many, 22 million to be exact.


----------



## Noyb

You think AOL is deceptive ???
Last year, after spending 6 months in Florida, I called my cable service and told them to come and reconnect me.

I got an outrageous reconnect bill that included an extra charge for installing an AERIAL.

Can you imagine how much fun I had when I called Insight to come fix their AERIAL because it wasnt working ??


----------



## Big-K

Aol guy said:


> Look I have been employed with AOL for a couple of years. The billing and the lagging browser issues are on the haters. The browser is the same as netscape "mozilla ring a bell" Too much crap download by the kids and spyware have impact on performance. The billing issues are on greedy people who took advantage of the generous offer of free time that was given and never bothered to call and cancel. I can be your accountant so dont ask. I know all tech people think AOL is a kiddy interface, thats ok, but if your not a tech person and want to have firewall anti-virus and spyware protection without hassel. Come back and see the new AOL. As for the genius population, the commoners out number you by many, 22 million to be exact.


Did you even look at the many responses to this thread talking about experiences where they DID call in to get it cancelled but it wasn't?


----------



## joshkp3

I tested AOL's bandwidth and it was zero kilobytes a second!!!!
I didnt know it was that slow


----------



## Hulk701

Aol guy said:


> Look I have been employed with AOL for a couple of years. .....


But I bet you're not a customer....


----------



## teengeekgrrl

Aol guy said:


> Look I have been employed with AOL for a couple of years. The billing and the lagging browser issues are on the haters. The browser is the same as netscape "mozilla ring a bell" *Too much crap download by the kids* and *spyware have impact on performance*. The billing issues are on greedy people who took advantage of the *generous offer of free time that was given and never bothered to call and cancel.* I can be your accountant so dont ask. I know all tech people think AOL is a kiddy interface, thats ok, but if your not a tech person and want to have firewall anti-virus and *spyware protection* _without hassel_. Come back and see the new AOL. *As for the genius population, the commoners out number you by many, 22 million to be exact.*


Hey, I thought if you had kids you were usually supposed to put "parental controls" on it which won't let your kid go off cartoonnetwork.com.  :down:

Sometimes I wonder if people bother to read anything at all. Thousands of people have called to cancel that crappy service after the free time was up (or close to up) and the people in India wouldn't let them cancel. So then they wind up with a bill for a service they didn't want. Or ask for. That they tried to get rid of. For lots of very good reasons, as mentioned throughout this whole thread.

Spyware protection? Hah! AOL _IS_ spyware, wrapped up in a pretty yellow box with a little yellow man on it. That you PAY 30 bucks a month for.

AOL comes with an extra heaping of _hassle_ free of charge. Just another way to reward their faithful customers. 

We are trying to lower that number, because one less person in Hell is a little more peace of mind that someone has redeemed themselves in the tech world by finally kicking AOHELL to the curb.

Look, we ain't dissing your company to hurt your feelings, we're dissing it because...

*IT SUCKS!!!!!*


----------



## teengeekgrrl

Colossus610 said:


> AOL should just bite the bullet, write their own OS and give us something to hate even more than Windoze


ROTFL!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Hulk701

teengeekgrrl said:


> ROTFL!!!!!!!!!!


It already did. Wasn't Windoze ME written by AOL? or am I wrong????


----------



## teengeekgrrl

Who knows? It was crappy enough it would seem plausible. =/


----------



## pr0t3st

teengeekgirl said:


> Hey, I thought if you had kids you were usually supposed to put "parental controls" on it which won't let your kid go off cartoonnetwork.com.
> 
> Sometimes I wonder if people bother to read anything at all. Thousands of people have called to cancel that crappy service after the free time was up (or close to up) and the people in India wouldn't let them cancel. So then they wind up with a bill for a service they didn't want. Or ask for. That they tried to get rid of. For lots of very good reasons, as mentioned throughout this whole thread.
> 
> Spyware protection? Hah! AOL IS spyware, wrapped up in a pretty yellow box with a little yellow man on it. That you PAY 30 bucks a month for.
> 
> AOL comes with an extra heaping of hassle free of charge. Just another way to reward their faithful customers.
> 
> We are trying to lower that number, because one less person in Hell is a little more peace of mind that someone has redeemed themselves in the tech world by finally kicking AOHELL to the curb.
> 
> Look, we ain't dissing your company to hurt your feelings, we're dissing it because...
> 
> IT SUCKS!!!!!


You tell 'em TGG.


----------



## teengeekgrrl

lol thanx


----------



## Psycheout

AOHELL? You bet!

I just use AOL for my connection now, I just connect, minimize, and use Firefox. Now the only use it`s got for me is the occasional use of e-mail. I don`t like the way it looks, I don`t like the connection you get, plus I can`t stand the price for such s****y service. You call them for assistance, you get some guy in India who doesn`t really know what he`s talking about. My cable company is going to lower its` price for cable internet in the future, and I`m going to give AOHELL the boot as soon as the price of cable internet comes down.


----------



## joshkp3

if you dont want to have aol open you could just use aol dialer. its on aol 9.0 but i dont know about the older crap. i use firefox too.

AOL SUCKS


----------



## Cablemodemjf

Hulk701 said:


> It already did. Wasn't Windoze ME written by AOL? or am I wrong????


ROTFL, the hell it might have.

I used to have AOL and a ME comp (a Compaq actually) - the three worst ingredients in the world.

AOL was crap, ME was crap, Compaq was crap.

In fact, ME crashed because AOL trashed it, or something.

Now I have ntl: (which is £30 a month for phone line, 1Mb broadband and digital tv) and Mozilla and I'm happy as can be.


----------



## treespirit

My first computer was Win98 , Compaq with aol dialup. lol, worked good for me then, but I like my emachines with XP and cable lots better.


----------



## Hulk701

Cablemodemjf said:


> ROTFL, the hell it might have.
> 
> I used to have AOL and a ME comp (a Compaq actually) - the three worst ingredients in the world.
> 
> AOL was crap, ME was crap, Compaq was crap.
> 
> .


OMG, All three Together.... 

What did you do   

You must have done something wrong in a previous life like....stole the collection plate at church..  or chopped the heads off midgets...  or threw baby kittens into the fireplace....


----------



## Doom_Machine

neither compaq nor aol was designed to be the best to begin with, their designed for noobs and old people. compaq is owned by HP and like most pc manufactures they take the cheapest bids on hardware but as a techy many of you should already know this so why are you all complaining, tahts why your $600 pc is that instead of $2000...just buy the extended warranty/usually 4 years and quit installing 3rd party apps and drivers that cause problems/ reinstall your restore disc once in a while since you should anyway no matter how expensive your pc is simply cuz xp isnt that well designed. and all pc's have problems no matter what

aol does suck to cancel from but if your smart you just tell them you sold your pc and cant afford to buy another one, therefore they cannot give you any excuse to keep it...it really is that simple.
if they have ur credit card number for billing simply cancel it and get another one after you call to cancel...i do it all the time on companies and its quite simple and fast to do.

if you dont currently have aol then why are you complaining and why do you care?
if you currently have aol then its your own fault..just call to cancel and dont be nice about it or they wont stop talking and cancel your cc if they have it to bill with and stop whining.


----------



## Hulk701

Doom_Machine said:


> neither compaq nor aol was designed to be the best to begin with, their designed for noobs and old people. compaq is owned by HP and like most pc manufactures they take the cheapest bids on hardware but as a techy many of you should already know this so why are you all complaining, tahts why your $600 pc is that instead of $2000...just buy the extended warranty/usually 4 years and quit installing 3rd party apps and drivers that cause problems/ reinstall your restore disc once in a while since you should anyway no matter how expensive your pc is simply cuz xp isnt that well designed. and all pc's have problems no matter what
> 
> aol does suck to cancel from but if your smart you just tell them you sold your pc and cant afford to buy another one, therefore they cannot give you any excuse to keep it...it really is that simple.
> if they have ur credit card number for billing simply cancel it and get another one after you call to cancel...i do it all the time on companies and its quite simple and fast to do.
> 
> if you dont currently have aol then why are you complaining and why do you care?
> if you currently have aol then its your own fault..just call to cancel and dont be nice about it or they wont stop talking and cancel your cc if they have it to bill with and stop whining.


I guess the answer to your question, at least about AOL is that when I buy a program and pay $25/m for it I expect it to work. I don't expect to be kicked offline for no reason at all.

When I pay $25/m for something that features tech support I expect to be able to understand the person on the other end of the phone.

I expect when I pay $25/m for something and want to cancel I expect to be cancelled and not billed for services I am not receiving. I shouldn't have to cancel my credit card or contact the attorney general's office to do it.

I expect that when I pay $25/m for something that I should be told the truth about why my modem is only coming in at 30kbps when it came in at 44kbps the day before, when AOL changed the access numbers. I don't expect to be told that this is the average speed of all modems.

Lastly, when I pay $25/m for something I expect for it to work with third party software - I don't expect to have to pay exhorbitantly jacked-up prices just to buy from the original manufacturer _just to make sure it works_... :up:

Maybe its my fault. I guess I'm just a bit old fashioned...  but IMHO AOL is a danger to the Internet and Computing as a whole. It represents everything that is bad out there... :up:


----------



## Doom_Machine

Hulk701 said:


> I guess the answer to your question, at least about AOL is that when I buy a program and pay $25/m for it I expect it to work. I don't expect to be kicked offline for no reason at all.
> 
> When I pay $25/m for something that features tech support I expect to be able to understand the person on the other end of the phone.
> 
> I expect when I pay $25/m for something and want to cancel I expect to be cancelled and not billed for services I am not receiving. I shouldn't have to cancel my credit card or contact the attorney general's office to do it.
> 
> I expect that when I pay $25/m for something that I should be told the truth about why my modem is only coming in at 30kbps when it came in at 44kbps the day before, when AOL changed the access numbers. I don't expect to be told that this is the average speed of all modems.
> 
> Lastly, when I pay $25/m for something I expect for it to work with third party software - I don't expect to have to pay exhorbitantly jacked-up prices just to buy from the original manufacturer _just to make sure it works_... :up:
> 
> Maybe its my fault. I guess I'm just a bit old fashioned...  but IMHO AOL is a danger to the Internet and Computing as a whole. It represents everything that is bad out there... :up:


but all isp's are like that in many ways...i got booted all the time on msn/earthlink,peoplepc and now netzero.
your speed will also vary on all other isp's as well...i get only 25k on netzero most of the time, it changes each time you connect/ many factors involved there.
if its not working for you correctly then use another isp. apparantly 20+ million like it
if aol is billng you for services not recieved you report them to the BBB and cancel all associations with that company immediatly.

you cant blame aol for all that stuff, there are many more factors involved, no one here should be making excuses for an aol hate thread when the user has the option of not being associated to aol...i liked aol for a while when i first started on the internet then i didnt afterwich i canceled that and my ccard they had to bill me with or have your cc bank not accept aol

ive tried several isp's and other than the interface/price and features their all basically the same there is no perfect dialup or braudband service.


----------



## Hulk701

Doom_Machine said:


> but all isp's are like that in many ways...i got booted all the time on msn/earthlink,peoplepc and now netzero.
> 
> you cant blame aol for all that stuff, there are many more factors involved, no one here should be making excuses for an aol hate thread *when the user has the option of not being associated to aol.*


That's one of my/our points. *You don't have the option of not being associated withAOL*. Not without extreme difficulty and hardship.

Have you ever tried to cancel AOL, have you ever tried to change your email, favorite places and address over from AOL? Read the rest of the thread. AOL won't let you. Quitting is extremely costly and difficult.

I repeat you shouldn't have to contact the attorney general's office or cancel your credit card to quit. That's not right. It may seem okay to you but not to me...

I hate AOL, and I loudly proclaim it. I don't make excuses for it. The proof is already there.


----------



## treespirit

To cancel, just tell them you are moving out of the country, it worked for me. Of course I really did move


----------



## Doom_Machine

Hulk701 said:


> That's one of my/our points. *You don't have the option of not being associated withAOL*. Not without extreme difficulty and hardship.
> 
> Have you ever tried to cancel AOL, have you ever tried to change your email, favorite places and address over from AOL? Read the rest of the thread. AOL won't let you. Quitting is extremely costly and difficult.
> 
> I repeat you shouldn't have to contact the attorney general's office or cancel your credit card to quit. That's not right. It may seem okay to you but not to me...
> 
> I hate AOL, and I loudly proclaim it. I don't make excuses for it. The proof is already there.


yes i have canceled aol..read my previous posts, i also told my g/f and 2 friends the best and easiest way guaranteed to work

1. tell aol you have sold your computer and are NOT getting a new one and you need to cancel your account immediatly...theres not much they can say at that point but even if they try simply repeat I NEED TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT IMMEDIATLY.

2. if you use a credit card for aol billing, call your cc bank...not the attourny general's office..dunno where u get that from...tell them to not accept charges from aol, at worst you can cancel and get a new one...to think its not ok to you is the wrong way of thinking, its your money were talking about...do something about it regardless of what you think is right, you have to do what you have to do..dont make excuses to me about it cuz your just making them to yourself...talking on the phone is easy

3. do not pay aol for anything else should they try to bill you in any other way.

4. call the Better business burau and report your complaints about aol about them not wanting to cancel and billing you for services you didnt ask for or whatever your beef is with them...if enough people do just that instead of making hate threads then aol might be forced to change thier policies.

i hope that helps and ends the excuses some seem to like to make for themselves, not trying to sound mean or anything i'm just being real by saying dont be too lazy to use the phone and make things happen.


----------



## Hulk701

I don't know what you're saying. I don't think you know what you're saying either. First you say you've cancelled AOL then you turn around and say you've recommended it to you girlfriend and best friend. 

Doesn't make any sense to me. I think you just like to argue...


----------



## brendandonhu

Better Business Beareau already has thousands of complaints against AOL. There is nothing they can do. BBB isn't government organization, they can't force AOL to change their policies.

I also had problems cancelling AOL a few years back...including the AOL rep hanging up on me when I firmly told them that I wanted to cancel


----------



## Doom_Machine

Hulk701 said:


> I don't know what you're saying. I don't think you know what you're saying either. First you say you've cancelled AOL then you turn around and say you've recommended it to you girlfriend and best friend.
> 
> Doesn't make any sense to me. I think you just like to argue...


amazing how no one comprehends what they read...reread that, i told my g/f and 2 other friends what i did to cancel cuz it was so easy to do it that way
and no i'm not argueing...i'm repeating myself over and over cuz no one seems to comprehend how easy it can be if you try and why complaining does absolutly no good...dont respond to me...just make things happen..cripes!


----------



## Doom_Machine

brendandonhu said:


> Better Business Beareau already has thousands of complaints against AOL. There is nothing they can do. BBB isn't government organization, they can't force AOL to change their policies.
> 
> I also had problems cancelling AOL a few years back...including the AOL rep hanging up on me when I firmly told them that I wanted to cancel


thousands? really, i looked up one particular aol in AZ: http://www.tucson.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=22967

in short copied and pasted

Based on BBB files, this company has a satisfactory record with the Bureau. The Bureau has processed no customer complaints on this company in the last three years. A satisfactory record means a company has been

heres another one from the dc bbb
http://www.dc.bbb.org/codbrep.html?ID=2087&wlcl=y

Customer Experience
The company has resolved the complaints presented to it by the Bureau. The company responded

Government Actions
FTC Settlement Agreement On September 23, 2003, AOL entered into a Settlement Agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to resolve allegations concerning service cancellation procedures

so if they hang up on you...keep calling and stop giving them money!
the bbb does in fact help..certainly better than a discussion board would


----------



## brendandonhu

In case you didn't actually read the links you posted...MANY reports have been submitted, and that they have had to deal with the Federal Trade Commission for years to settle those issues. 

Do you know how many class-action lawsuits it took against AOL before any of that changed?

The point of calling them to CANCEL my account was to stop giving them money  How am I supposed to cancel my account when the customer service rep HANGS UP THE PHONE?

One should not have to CANCEL THEIR CREDIT CARD or deal with their bank to end an account subscription.

They also refused to give a refund for stretches of days at a time that I could not connect at all. Supposedly its my fault their servers are too busy to accept a connection?


----------



## Hulk701

Doom Machine,

Do you work for AOL?

Sounds to me like your primary point is this message thread. You really object to it. You hate broadcasting the truth about AOL. We're trying to warn people about them and you can't stand it. 

IF not you does anyone close to you work for AOL?


----------



## brendandonhu

In my experience, if someone understands English, they don't work for AOL (not in the tech support department anyway.)
I'm not saying they're outsourced or foreigners- most of them just can't comprehend anything beyond "I want to renew my account." But you don't need to ask them to renew your account, they'll do it for you unless you spend several hours convincing them not to. They'll even charge your credit card automatically, without making you call them to confirm. How nice of them.


----------



## Hulk701

brendandonhu said:


> In my experience, if someone understands English, they don't work for AOL (not in the tech support department anyway.)
> I'm not saying they're outsourced or foreigners- most of them just can't comprehend anything beyond "I want to renew my account." But you don't need to ask them to renew your account, they'll do it for you unless you spend several hours convincing them not to. They'll even charge your credit card automatically, without making you call them to confirm. _How nice of them_.


yes, and convenient for them...


----------



## Doom_Machine

brendandonhu said:


> In case you didn't actually read the links you posted...MANY reports have been submitted, and that they have had to deal with the Federal Trade Commission for years to settle those issues.


you missed my point entirely and your just trying to argue, i simply explained a succcessful way in 4 steps what may NEED to be done to end aohell.



brendandonhu said:


> Do you know how many class-action lawsuits it took against AOL before any of that changed?


did i say aol was a good company or something?..i showed you a freaking bbb report...get over it



brendandonhu said:


> The point of calling them to CANCEL my account was to stop giving them money  How am I supposed to cancel my account when the customer service rep HANGS UP THE PHONE?


are you trying to say that despite the no doubtly millions that have cancelled succesfully that its literally impossible to cancel....cmon, use your brain and get it done....wah they hung up the phone...well keep calling, try to locate someone higher up, email, fax, write your president..i'm just saying complaining about 1 company in a hate thread does nothing to help



brendandonhu said:


> One should not have to CANCEL THEIR CREDIT CARD or deal with their bank to end an account subscription.


OMG,seriously this is rediculous, your still not getting it...if canceling your cc is what you have to do to end your association with aol and prevent them from billing you, then thats just what you have to do...thats life and yes it can sometimes suck
i mentioned that cuz it will make your life alot easier to cut em off from your money...obviously you shouldnt have to but....



brendandonhu said:


> They also refused to give a refund for stretches of days at a time that I could not connect at all. Supposedly its my fault their servers are too busy to accept a connection?


i think all isp's and many other companies are that way...i never got a refund from the cable company cuz i was out for a day or so
so you know what i did about it...i made up a bill on the computer..very professional looking and charged my cable company $20.00 for lack of service for 2 days..next month i sent them a late charge of $5.00, 2 weeks later they called me and offered to give me a free month.
treat companies as if you were a company, the billing thing may not always work but it never hurts to try something...anything



Hulk701 said:


> Do you work for AOL?
> 
> Sounds to me like your primary point is this message thread. You really object to it. You hate broadcasting the truth about AOL. We're trying to warn people about them and you can't stand it.
> 
> IF not you does anyone close to you work for AOL?


1> i said i didnt like aol..more than once i think

2> i said complaining is a waste of time

3> i gave 4 easy steps on what NEEDS to be done....doesnt work? then try again..do whatever is in your power to get what you want out of life

4> how am i hating broadcasting truth about aol?....was that BBB report i showed a lie or something? it is a truth, one of many
i showed that for 2 reasons
1- someone said there was thousands of reports to BBB, i showed the fact that all those complaints must be in web forums cuz there hasnt been any there for 3 years...just one truth of many, i know there are alot of legit complaints otherwise over the years...obviously
2- in hopes others like you would go there and renew complaints that havnt been there in 3 years, but i now know you wont and would rather complain or put your hatred towards me when i have been helping with solutions

5> i dont see alot of warnings to people, i see complaints and hatred and only a few that actually helped others by mentioning a good procedure to cancel.
if you want to warn others you do it so that its helpful information rather than saying i hate aol cuz of blah blah

directing your hatred towards me also doesnt help or warn others, instead some would rather mis-read my posts forcing me to clarify to a simpler education level.


----------



## Hulk701

Doom_Machine said:


> directing your hatred towards me also doesnt help or warn others, instead some would rather mis-read my posts forcing me to clarify to a simpler education level.


You missed my point as well. Read my post in this thread entitled "Escape from AOL" Post 144, page 10

I did complain. I did report then. Not only to one but to three agencies. I wrote to the AG's office, to the FCC and the BBB. I speak from personal experience. I'm not just complain.

Complaining to forums like this do alot of good, including getting a lot of fustration out. They also help to warn people.

BTW, now you say you don't like AOL. _Why did you recommend them to your girlfriend and best friend_...???  Sounds like you're the one who's confused and forcing me to clarify to a simpler educational level.

bTW, I thought this thread was dead until you decided to come back in...


----------



## Big-K

Doom_Machine said:


> i also told my g/f and 2 friends the best and easiest way guaranteed to work


Seriously hulk, read his damn post.


----------



## brendandonhu

Wow, you really don't understand this.


Doom_Machine said:


> you missed my point entirely and your just trying to argue, i simply explained a succcessful way in 4 steps what may NEED to be done to end aohell.


The point of this thread is that you _shouldn't_ need to do that to cancel an internet subscription.



> did i say aol was a good company or something?..i showed you a freaking bbb report...get over it


Did I say you did? You clearly didn't read the BBB report, which described that many people have had problems with AOL.



> are you trying to say that despite the no doubtly millions that have cancelled succesfully that its literally impossible to cancel....


Nope, I don't recall saying that. I think you made it up.



> cmon, use your brain and get it done....


I spoke in small words. The AOL people still didn't get it.



> wah they hung up the phone...well keep calling,


Yeah that's really professional of them, hanging up on customers. Some of us don't have 6 hours a day to tie up our phone line explaining things to non-English speakers.



> try to locate someone higher up,


Hahaha, you'd have to wait on hold for 2 hours to get a supervisor.



> email, fax, write your president..


Yeah, right. I dare you to find an email address to cancel an account. Someone who will respond within 6 weeks.



> i'm just saying complaining about 1 company in a hate thread does nothing to help


Actually, we've convinced quite a few people not to sign up for AOL. Wha exactly are YOU doing to help by posting here?



> OMG,seriously this is rediculous, your still not getting it...if canceling your cc is what you have to do to end your association with aol and prevent them from billing you, then thats just what you have to do...thats life and yes it can sometimes suck
> i mentioned that cuz it will make your life alot easier to cut em off from your money...obviously you shouldnt have to but....


Yeah, that's kind of the point. Screwing up credit cards for a month's billing cycle to get rid of a dialup service. What's up with you...telling people to "deal with it and do whatever they have to." I think you sound like the kid that got beatup in the locker room every day, but never did anything about it.



> i think all isp's and many other companies are that way...


Nope, never had these problems with the cable company.



> i never got a refund from the cable company cuz i was out for a day or so
> so you know what i did about it...i made up a bill on the computer..very professional looking and charged my cable company $20.00 for lack of service for 2 days..next month i sent them a late charge of $5.00, 2 weeks later they called me and offered to give me a free month.
> treat companies as if you were a company, the billing thing may not always work but it never hurts to try something...anythingp


My cable company refunds me when they screw up the service. AOL never did that. It does hurt to "try something" when it takes days out of your life and accomplishes nothing.



> 2> i said complaining is a waste of time


No, its not. Spending an hour and a half on hold with AOL is a waste of time.



> 3> i gave 4 easy steps on what NEEDS to be done....doesnt work? then try again..do whatever is in your power to get what you want out of life


What is this, a motivational speech? We're talking about paying bills, not accomplishing your long-term goals .



> now know you wont and would rather complain or put your hatred towards me when i have been helping with solutions


Yeah...you're experiencing so much hatred 



> 5> i dont see alot of warnings to people, i see complaints and hatred and only a few that actually helped others by mentioning a good procedure to cancel.


This is the REVIEWS forum. For REVIEWS of AOL. That's what we're posting.



> if you want to warn others you do it so that its helpful information rather than saying i hate aol cuz of blah blah


Again, this forum is for REVIEWS of AOL. That's what we're posting.



> directing your hatred towards me also doesnt help or warn others, instead some would rather mis-read my posts forcing me to clarify to a simpler education level.


Yeah, I'm sure no one thinks of this thread as a warning against AOL 
Don't talk about hatred, you aren't being victimized here...we're discussing an internet service proveder.


----------



## Hulk701

Big-K said:


> Seriously hulk, read his damn post.


I did. several times. What's you point big k?


----------



## Doom_Machine

brendandonhu said:


> Wow, you really don't understand this.
> 
> The point of this thread is that you _shouldn't_ need to do that to cancel an internet subscription.
> 
> Did I say you did? You clearly didn't read the BBB report, which described that many people have had problems with AOL.
> 
> Nope, I don't recall saying that. I think you made it up.
> 
> I spoke in small words. The AOL people still didn't get it.
> 
> Yeah that's really professional of them, hanging up on customers. Some of us don't have 6 hours a day to tie up our phone line explaining things to non-English speakers.
> 
> Hahaha, you'd have to wait on hold for 2 hours to get a supervisor.
> 
> Yeah, right. I dare you to find an email address to cancel an account. Someone who will respond within 6 weeks.
> .


you would stay on the phone on hold for how long now? lmao
then wait six weeks if thats all you can do. 
if you wanted it bad enough you would just cancel your card and wait for them to call you, but you obviously dont want it that bad do ya

canceling your cc really doesnt screw up your cycle, your final bill will arive just like it always does..ive canceled many, i cancel when they raise my interest rate and get a new one for lower.
sad you think its that horrible to cancel. the words "i can't" is a horrible way of thinking but then again i'm a doer, i do whatever means necessary to get my daily things done...well within limits of the law of course.

if you cant cancel then bend over for them and be happy with the finer points of aol if there are any.

i'm sorry i offered any solutions and reinforcment to do something besides complain but this is suppose to be reviews...not trolling and you know thats what it is.
see this link is an actual review of aol..this thread is trolling..see the difference?
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1208193,00.asp

no more responses please, i'm not reading this thread anymore


----------



## Hulk701

Doom_Machine said:


> you would stay on the phone on hold for how long now? lmao
> then wait six weeks if thats all you can do.
> if you wanted it bad enough you would just cancel your card and wait for them to call you, but you obviously dont want it that bad do ya
> 
> canceling your cc really doesnt screw up your cycle, your final bill will arive just like it always does..ive canceled many, i cancel when they raise my interest rate and get a new one for lower.
> sad you think its that horrible to cancel. the words "i can't" is a horrible way of thinking but then again i'm a doer, i do whatever means necessary to get my daily things done...well within limits of the law of course.
> 
> *if you cant cancel then bend over for them and be happy with the finer points of aol if there are any*.
> 
> i'm sorry i offered any solutions and reinforcment to do something besides complain but this is suppose to be reviews...not trolling and you know thats what it is.
> see this link is an actual review of aol..this thread is trolling..see the difference?
> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1208193,00.asp
> 
> no more responses please, i'm not reading this thread anymore


I still fail to see why its okay to have to cancel your credit card in order to cancel aol?

Maybe you enjoy bending over and enjoying their finer 'points', but I don't...


----------



## brendandonhu

Doom_Machine said:


> you would stay on the phone on hold for how long now? lmao
> then wait six weeks if thats all you can do.


How thick is your skull? Waiting six weeks means you GET CHARGED FOR ANOTHER MONTH. Would YOU like to reimburse me the $23 it costs?



> if you wanted it bad enough you would just cancel your card and wait for them to call you, but you obviously dont want it that bad do ya


You obviously don't read very well 
If you cancel your credit card without cancelling AOL, your AOL bill will be unpaid, and you'll have creditors calling you every day about the money you owe. Dropping your credit card doesn't magically absolve you of all debts, you will still have to pay AOL.



> i do whatever means necessary to get my daily things done...well within limits of the law of course.


AOL doesn't work within the limits of the law. Hence all the class action suits.



> if you cant cancel then bend over for them and be happy with the finer points of aol if there are any.


Yeah...be happy by cancelling your credit card, not paying your bill, and screwing up your credit ratings to get rid of a service provider.



> i'm sorry i offered any solutions


Don't worry, you haven't offered any solutions.



> no more responses please


You're not a moderator (and for good reason), you don't tell us when we can and can not respond.



> i'm not reading this thread anymore


I don't think you ever read the thread in the first place.


----------



## Hulk701

brendandonhu said:


> How thick is your skull? Waiting six weeks means you GET CHARGED FOR ANOTHER MONTH. Would YOU like to reimburse me the $23 it costs?
> 
> You obviously don't read very well
> If you cancel your credit card without cancelling AOL, your AOL bill will be unpaid, and you'll have creditors calling you the every day about money you owe. Dropping your credit card doesn't magically absolve you of all debts, you will still have to pay AOL.
> 
> AOL doesn't work within the limits of the law. Hence all the class action suits.
> 
> Yeahyour cred...be happy by cancelling it card, not paying your bill, and screwing up your credit ratings to get rid of a service provider.
> 
> Don't worry, you haven't offered any solutions.
> 
> You're not a moderator (and for good reason), you don't tell us when we can and can not respond.
> 
> *I don't think you ever read the thread in the first place.*


ROTFLMAO


----------



## Uth233

AOL, in all fairness to it, does well for those that have neither the time,inclination,nor(so they may think) the ability to become computer literate, or are absolute beginners. I myself was in those last 3 words, I reiterate WAS!  It was only after watching a Tech TV show about Firefox that I found the inclination & that I could become at least somewhat computer savvy.
My overall point is Yes AOL sucks!!! very badly!!! Yes it is damn near impossible to get rid of. But we all had to start somewhere. Without AOL I'd never gotten a PC in the 1st place & surely'd never watched that show. Would I go back to AOL? No times1 raised to the 100th power! I know better now,  but then I didn't. That's who it's meant for( beginners) & unfortunately some in this case 20 some odd million stay that way.


----------



## Hulk701

Uth233 said:


> AOL, in all fairness to it, does well for those that have neither the time,inclination,nor(so they may think) the ability to become computer literate, or are absolute beginners. I myself was in those last 3 words, I reiterate WAS!  It was only after watching a Tech TV show about Firefox that I found the inclination & that I could become at least somewhat computer savvy.
> My overall point is Yes AOL sucks!!! very badly!!! Yes it is damn near impossible to get rid of. But we all had to start somewhere. Without AOL I'd never gotten a PC in the 1st place & surely'd never watched that show. Would I go back to AOL? No times1 raised to the 100th power! I know better now,  but then I didn't. That's who it's meant for( beginners) & unfortunately some in this case 20 some odd million stay that way.


Good point Uth,

I myself used AOL for a number or years. First, it was the only ISP that you could use at that time that allowed you to get online without a credit card. Fir a $5.00 fee, bringing the overall price to $29/m I could get online. I stayed this way until I got my credit situation straightened out.

The problems began when I discovered how bloated it was in relation to other software, and how many times you got kicked offline for no reason, and being lied to over the phone, and etc, etc, etc.

And the real problem began when I tried to switch over. After I got my credit situation fixed I discovered that AOL was so proprietary that you couldn't switch unless you were able to loose all your previous info.

Took me years to figure out how to get around this. And when I finally did it was time consuming and expensive.

AOL kind of like reminds me of a bad hollywood agent, who gives you your first big break in Hollywood, only to take 50% of your income afterwards...


----------



## Uth233

Thanks Hulk!


----------



## Nitynate

Blows up your head


----------



## Big-K

Hulk701 said:


> I did. several times. What's you point big k?


I'm not saying I agree with him anywhere, but despite there being nowhere in his post where he said he had reccomended AOL to anyone, you still seem to think he did.


----------



## Hulk701

Big-K said:


> I'm not saying I agree with him anywhere, but despite there being nowhere in his post where he said he had reccomended AOL to anyone, you still seem to think he did.


Read Post 231


----------



## Big-K

And? All it says is that he reccomended a method of cancelling to some people and then lists some methods he thinks works. He never reccomended or said he liked AOL.


----------



## Hulk701

Big-K said:


> And? All it says is that he reccomended a method of cancelling to some people and then lists some methods he thinks works. He never reccomended or said he liked AOL.


Okay, now I see. But he didn't express himself very well. I thought I saw he was recommending AOL to his friends. On closer examination I didn't see that he was recommending _a method of canceling AOl _ to his friends.

Sorry,


----------



## SIR****TMG

Roadrunner now gives you FREE AOL..............Ok, I know I'll catch alot of heat from this with everyone bashing AOL. But I just wanted to give fellow RoadRunner users a heads up on it.

Time Warner is now offering all their RoadRunner users FREE AOL.

1)To use AOL you MUST first call your local TimeWarner/RoadRunner office and setup your account for AOL.
2)Then goto www.rr.com/getaol and download the installer file.
3)Find the file you downloaded and double click it to download/install AOL.
4)After its done.. Just sign in with the username/password provided to you from TimeWarner/Roadrunner.
5)Thats it... Start using AOL!

OK.. While I agree AOL isn't the best ISP to use.. RoadRunner is... And knowing alot of people using AOL is why I thought I'd try it (Being FREE helped lol). My local TW/RR office was all confused as to where to get the software from (they just started offering it this weekend).. is why I included the instructions on how to get it.. Hope it helps ya.. CYA!!

P.S. AOL does not take over your internet... You can still use RoadRunner as usual with AOL closed


----------



## Hulk701

AOL is NEVER free. I don't know anything about Roadrunner but AOL will figure out a way to screw it up..


----------



## angel71023

I use AOL cause it is easier for me and I don't have to keep fighting those Internet Exployer pop-ups.If someone could tell me a way to you Internet exployer and not fight those pop-ups I would love to know, I have DSL through bellsouth. Here is a site to check out. http://www.ripoffreport.com/results...=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search!&q5=AOL


----------



## Hulk701

angel71023 said:


> I use AOL cause it is easier for me and I don't have to keep fighting those Internet Exployer pop-ups.If someone could tell me a way to you Internet exployer and not fight those pop-ups I would love to know, I have DSL through bellsouth. Here is a site to check out. http://www.ripoffreport.com/results...=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search!&q5=AOL


I use Yahoo. Actually I have Yahoo Plus. For 25 dollars a YEAR I get all the features of AOL. including popup blocker.

Trueswitch is free for Yahooplus users. It supposedly switches all your aol stuff to yahoo stuff. If that does't work use Epreserver to switch your mail, favorite places and address book. Epreserver isn't free. It costs $27 but it well worth it if trueswitch doesn't work.

I also know that a number of other ISP's use popup blocker. Its pretty standard today.


----------



## EasY_TargeT

have to keep that gay browser open. and you have to login to use


----------



## Cid2

s43 said:


> ALL, true


I agree. Everythin' being said here is all true. I hate AOL. I need AIM to stay in touch with my friends who use it so...

I use Trillian. DIE AIM!


----------



## Cid2

s43 said:


> ALL, true


I agree. Everythin' being said here is all true. I hate AOL. I need AIM to stay in touch with my friends who use it so...

I use Trillian. DIE AIM!


----------



## brendandonhu

Gaim > Trillian


----------



## Hulk701

brendandonhu said:


> Guys with high post counts are obviously compensating for something


What about Girls with high post counts.?..


----------



## Big-K

brendandonhu said:


> Gaim > Trillian


Agreed.

And angel, you shouldn't NEED an ISP popup blocker. Mine doesn't provide one as far as I know(I don't even use any isp software) and yet, somehow, i havn't gotten a single popup for years now, excluding a very occasional one that uses non-standard code.


----------



## wolfworx

Use the AOL CDs for fun on the beach. Use with the sun to get the attention of the string bikini gals on the blanket over there!


----------



## SIR****TMG

Myself was thinking more of using them like a clay pigeon ..... BLAST.......from a shot gun.........


----------



## Deathblow

Funny you mention that, I do indeed use them as targets. They blows up real nice.


----------



## SIR****TMG

Great ....................


----------



## Big-K

wolfworx said:


> Use the AOL CDs for fun on the beach. Use with the sun to get the attention of the string bikini gals on the blanket over there!


Just don't use it as a frisbee.


----------



## teengeekgrrl

angel70123 said:


> I use AOL cause it is easier for me and I don't have to keep fighting those Internet Exployer pop-ups.*If someone could tell me a way to you Internet exployer and not fight those pop-ups I would love to know*, I have DSL through bellsouth. Here is a site to check out. http://www.ripoffreport.com/results...earch!&q5=AOL


Two words: Mozilla Firefox.


----------



## teengeekgrrl

Cid2 said:


> I agree. Everythin' being said here is all true. I hate AOL. I need AIM to stay in touch with my friends who use it so...
> 
> I use Trillian. DIE AIM!


right on! The only problem is that some of my smileys don't match up with my friends' and when people ask me things lik ehow to get a buddy icon I haveto explain that I use trillian. Then I get "What's that" and I tell them and they still don't get it. Oh well.


----------



## techno_lust

I think that there is one very big advantage to AOL.

The moment anyone tells me that they use AOL, I am able to significantly shorten my time in conversation with them and move on to more worthy candidates to interact with. 

The use of AOL instantly defines ones intellect and worthiness in ways that can't be measured.

Think of AOL as shorthand for ___________ ( fill in the blank)


----------



## Hulk701

masochist


----------



## teengeekgrrl

techno_lust said:


> I think that there is one very big advantage to AOL.
> 
> The moment anyone tells me that they use AOL, I am able to significantly shorten my time in conversation with them and move on to more worthy candidates to interact with.
> 
> The use of AOL instantly defines ones intellect and worthiness in ways that can't be measured.
> 
> Think of AOL as shorthand for ___________ ( fill in the blank)


LOL  

I went to camp and we all put our email addresses on a sheet so we could keep in touch... there were thirty of us and at least six peoples' emails ended with "@aol.com".  Also, I have lots of email addresses from people at school and almost half of them are AOL users. **slaps forehead** why, why, WHY? but then, what do you expect, it's West Virginia.  LOL


----------



## SIR****TMG

There's alot of AOL in ohio..........most of my friends email is aol.com so to me aol is a big outfit......and if you have road runner like me its free to us....... not that i use it......


----------



## XcheifX

los angles, california. aol--------------out of date
sbc yahoo dsl--------------cheap and affordable, sort of slow downloading
chater cable--------------normal pricing, fastest, still growing faster.

as u can see aol is nothing but the past and the future is cable, which is now 3meg speeds and growing.


----------



## Deathblow

Comcast is 6meg.


----------



## mslozowy

That's part of the problem...they do make it easy for people that don't understand the Internet or computers, but they keep it that way. Like Deathblow said, they dumb down the populace.


----------



## Hulk701

Wow,

Read this:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/aolcasepointstoatrendbreakingupishardtodo

Here are the first few lines:

America Online Inc. agreed Wednesday to pay $1.25 million to settle allegations that its customer service representatives ignored cancellation requests in a case that highlighted how far companies were willing to go to keep customers


----------



## Deathblow

Ok, so when do we get our share of that?


----------



## Hulk701

Deathblow said:


> Ok, so when do we get our share of that?


I know what ya mean. When you consider all the millions of people they've screwed over the years my share ought to be worth about 10¢ 

After rereading that article I think it _only applies to New Yorkers_..


----------



## Hulk701

Hey Gang,

I know of a way to cancel AOL...

As long as they don't allow you to cancel why don't you put your AOL password up on Ebay????  

Tell people you can't get AOL to cancel so you're taking bids on your password. You might as well get subdized for it as long as you can't cancel it. :up: 

I bet AOL would cancel you then...but I don't know what Ebay would think about it...


----------



## Deathblow

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4162320.stm

Another wonderful reason to shun AOL.


----------



## SIR****TMG

nice............


----------



## bobbi

Darn...I wish I'd been a part of that lawsuit. AOL still owes my daughter one month payment. They said they'd credit her account for two months but they only credited her for one. 

She doesn't want to call them, because every time she does they try to get her to sign up again. She's afraid they'll reactivate her account if she even dials their phone number. 

I guess we'll just chalk it up to a lesson learned!! $$$$


----------



## SIR****TMG

YEP...........sorry about your daughters aol experience..........I never did use aol even with road runner its free..........


----------



## Hulk701

bobbi said:


> Darn...I wish I'd been a part of that lawsuit. AOL still owes my daughter one month payment. They said they'd credit her account for two months but they only credited her for one.
> 
> She doesn't want to call them, because every time she does they try to get her to sign up again. *She's afraid they'll reactivate her account if she even dials their phone number. *
> I guess we'll just chalk it up to a lesson learned!! $$$$


Normally I'd say that was paranoid, but in AOL's case, not..!


----------



## jonasdatum

shadowcat said:


> All previously mentioned reason and crashes computer.
> 
> I have to put up with it because my fiance insists on it  and people at work use it.


 ... AND isn't worth what most people do online. $25+ to check email, browser, and IM... LOL. I haven't spent that much on dialup in almost 10 years. Foolish. I remember the days of newsgroups and irc chat. Tools that were around before the form and the IM. Still popular by the way. Problem is that many DSL providers don't provide newsgroup access.

AOL is like the MS of ISPs.


----------



## Space Cowboy

> By Alice Hill
> RealTechNews
> 
> I actually tried to cancel my AOL account and it took three hours only to find out that I had a free account from my days at CNET. The woman on the phone said now why would you want to cancel something thats free? She had a point and so I still have my account. (How much do you want to bet the goons at AOL will yank it now - oh the irony!) Heres an interesting piece from the NY Times on how even the dead cannot cancel their accounts:
> 
> THREE years ago my brother died (officially missing, presumed dead - no death certificate), wrote an anonymous contributor last week at gripe2ed.com, a consumer complaint Web log. At that time I was able to cancel his credit card, gas, insurance - everything except his AOL account.
> 
> It seems that America Online, not entirely irrationally, needed a screen name and other account information to properly cancel the subscription - something this consumer, under the circumstances, did not have handy. Collection notices for payments past due soon followed. The consumer was not amused. Maybe other people have resorted to faking death in order to get out of their AOL accounts? Source: NY Times


----------



## Hulk701

Maybe other people have resorted to faking death in order to get out of their AOL accounts?

That's funny...but true....








ROTFLMAO


----------



## SIR****TMG

faking there own death..............WHAT ???


----------



## hammerbill

Yes, I had an AOL account too. I could not cancel it. I tried to call and do it but they kept me on the phone so long that I would have been late to work so I had to agree to another month of free service to get the call to end without having my credit card charged shortly thereafter.
I was trying to think of excuses. Next month I told them I was joining the French foreign legion. Then I listed my credit card lost or stolen and got a new number. So far that seems to have worked.


----------



## teengeekgrrl

How's this for the latest conspiracy novel:

AOL conspires with the US Gov't to take over the minds of Americans... but its mind control devices only work on people with no technological experience, some guy finds out... geek war! 

I scare me.


----------



## hammerbill

Personally, I've used AOL every few years when for some reason I have been in between ISP's-broadband or other. If I need to go a few days without internet or expect to be computing away from my home broadband I need some temporary dialup to keep up on my email. AOL discs are the easiest to find so I wind up with their discs; maby they DO conspire with the government because they are even in the post offices (I thought government institutions were not supposed to favor one business over the other). There is no way I am so braindead that I would actually take AOL seriously as a permanant ISP.


----------



## Hulk701

hammerbill said:


> .... maby they DO conspire with the government because they are even in the post offices (I thought government institutions were not supposed to favor one business over the other)....


That's a good question..Why DO US post offices display AOL disks and not competitor's?

Can anybody answer that..


----------



## firestormer

All of the above x10 with icing on the motherboard and an unreliable >conection that constantly ficks on/off/on/off/on....


----------



## Hulk701

firestormer said:


> All of the above x10 with icing on the motherboard and an unreliable >conection that constantly ficks on/off/on/off/on....


?????????

are you responding to a question or making a statement. Or are you in the wrong forum....


----------



## kdd9

If you still can't think of a use for those free disks, how about this . . .


----------



## XcheifX

Hulk701 said:


> That's a good question..Why DO US post offices display AOL disks and not competitor's?
> 
> Can anybody answer that..


they pay the post office alot of money (when i mean allot ALLOT!)


----------



## Hulk701

XcheifX said:


> they pay the post office alot of money (when i mean allot ALLOT!)


like...how much? how dya know?...


----------



## SIR****TMG

i use to get a aol disk about every other day....now i don't get any........


----------



## PixieStrange

LOL that hanging CD picture was great. Is there a reason NOT to hate AOL? I mean, seriously. Well, ok, for n00bs it's.... well.... easy.... but.... *thunk*

I think I had finally realizedd it had gotten out of control when I saw the book "AOL For Dummies". I couldn't help but think "Isn't that kind of redundant?"


----------



## jonasdatum

XcheifX said:


> they pay the post office alot of money (when i mean allot ALLOT!)


 LOL, I still remember Junior High and High School. When I'd tell people what ISP I was using. They would look at me like I was from Mars. "Never heard of it," they would say. Well the ISPs I used to have were 9 to 10 years old when I was a subscriber. Now they all got brought out by Earthlink. More expenisve, but I would gladly use them over AOL! LOL, there are still plenty of cheap and more reliable ISPs (check my thread history) that nobody has heard of.

The one good thing that came out of AOL is AOL Messenger. People at like that's a bid deal though. Even before threads-message boards became popular there was that lovely Newsgroup Server. Remember? What about IRC?

Now I have streaming add videos annoying the heck out of me. Well that's all over the internet now.


----------



## [email protected]

AOL is a virus. It takes over all your computer settings even if you delete it and set up another ISP. You must completely rewrite your whole computer in order to get rid of it. Now, if that's not the definition of a virus, I don't know what is!


----------



## teengeekgrrl

[email protected] said:


> AOL is a virus. It takes over all your computer settings even if you delete it and set up another ISP. You must completely rewrite your whole computer in order to get rid of it. Now, if that's not the definition of a virus, I don't know what is!


Welcome to TSG.  :up:


----------



## angel1369

Hey how many disks do you guys recieve? So far i have like 225 disks and counting . I wish tehy were eraseable *drools*


----------



## Hulk701

angel1369 said:


> Hey how many disks do you guys recieve? So far i have like 225 disks and counting . I wish tehy were eraseable *drools*


How do you get 225 disks? I've only got 15.

BTW, I don't know if you get jewell cases with your disks but they _are _ reusable..


----------



## Deathblow

I get several a week sometimes, I also have about 30-40 old floppy ones that I reformated and used. At least in those days they had some value.


----------



## johnnyburst79

My best friend has an HP computer with AOL and it ran dog slow. Went thru his computer and AOL put maybe 15 or 16 running processes there. Deleted all of them, permanently, except for the AOL check up because he wants that for some reason, and his computer is running great now. Now I have proof AOL is total crap, before I had the theory.


----------



## teengeekgrrl

Does he still pay AOL $25 a month or whatever?


----------



## johnnyburst79

Yes, to get their DSL service.


----------



## teengeekgrrl

Okay. Just wondering.


----------



## axis77

I have been working on this HP pc that had all this aol 7.0 crap preloaded and it kept locking up and what not so I did a spyware scan and found over 1,000 spyware files, so I assumed that was the culprit....I was wrong everytime I attempted to run the explorer (provided by AOL) it kept locking up, so I uninstalled 7.0/9.0 and the sucker runs like a champ, but this person swears by AOL so I think im forced to reinstall it again,,,anywho aol sucks no matter what version and its a pain to completely get rid of and they do have like 15 differnet services that come up on startup and run services....


----------



## Hulk701

axis77 said:


> I have been working on this HP pc that had all this aol 7.0 crap preloaded and it kept locking up and what not so I did a spyware scan and found over 1,000 spyware files, so I assumed that was the culprit....I was wrong everytime I attempted to run the explorer (provided by AOL) it kept locking up, so I uninstalled 7.0/9.0 and the sucker runs like a champ, but this person swears by AOL so I think im forced to reinstall it again,,,anywho aol sucks no matter what version and its a pain to completely get rid of and they do have like 15 differnet services that come up on startup and run services....


I know, and those programs like AOL instant messaging, AOL spyware scan (what an oxy moron), AOL popup blocker, AOL ICQ messaging, etc, all take resources and hardware space. AND you can't get rid of them eitherrr... 

I use Yahoo now and I reclaimed about 750mb of hard space on my computer


----------



## Skivvywaver

I hate them because they are there.


----------



## FitQueen

*I use redirects for a lot of my website works and if aol decided that they don't like either the server, site, or whatever, they automatically censor emails containing liks!!!!

They also bounce back several emails when I use my Yahoo account -- even when there are no links included!

Aside from the ads they bombard one with, I dislike the fact that they support computer ignorance by designing their program to prevent their users from thinking and learning computer basics, e.g., how to send a link in an email! aol's drag and drop capabilities seem to only work inter-aol email and all too often, I ignore aol users' emails to me because I don't have the time nor the desire to teach them Windows basics!

Well, that was my two cents worth! Thanks for listening!  *


----------



## gyrgrls

Surfing the web with AOL is like riding on a Harley with training wheels!


----------



## Deathblow

Actually, it's like driving the Autobahn on a tricycle with training wheels.


----------



## Hulk701

Deathblow said:


> Actually, it's like driving the Autobahn on a tricycle with training wheels.


No, its like driving on the autobahn on a tricycle with training wheels with a flat tire....


----------



## firestormer

AOL dosnt allow you to sign on without using their software.
The service is crap.
All their programs are always running slowing up my pc. But without them inet dosnt work
Their control freeks they dont give you hardly any options about setup. Its icredabily hard to setup another browser to use the internet

I HATE THEM


----------



## MrBillPro

Hey I like AOL been using it since 1998 no gripes here.


----------



## jonasdatum

firestormer said:


> AOL dosnt allow you to sign on without using their software.
> The service is crap.
> All their programs are always running slowing up my pc. But without them inet dosnt work
> Their control freeks they dont give you hardly any options about setup. Its icredabily hard to setup another browser to use the internet
> 
> I HATE THEM


 Hello. I agree. Just a means of holding on to a customer base. Control = power!


----------



## Hulk701

MrBillPro said:


> Hey I like AOL been using it since 1998 no gripes here.


Figures, you're from _Texas _ too...


----------



## Jimbo2005

I don't understand the dislike. 
I owned my own ISP for a while and still kept my AOL account, go figure.


----------



## 1_rob_1

:down: 
I have seen a problem with it on numerous occasions that sometimes the modem just stops working for no apparrent reason and if a new modem is supplied by them, that never works either, even with a clean install of the operating system and the drivers. Nobody has ever been able to explain this to me. AOL helpdesk and techies obviously dont know their own product.  

I tried aol myself a few years ago on dial up and connection took longer & longer. (between 5 mins & 50 mins) and once it connected I had to wait ages for all its windows to load before I could surf.

:down: So aol gets the thumbs down from me. :down:


----------



## DrP

Yes!
At last!
I've done it!
I have cancelled my AOL contract! Oh, yes!
Can you believe I've been paying £24.99 per month for 12 months and the last 5 months of that I couldn't even get AOL because they wouldn't help me when I moved house Instead, I've been using Demon? Why couldn't I get AOL, when I moved house? Ask AOL. Not that I'm complaining... Demon give me twice the speed, a million times better connection, don't talk crap on the phone, and they cost me £5 less!
The world's worst customer service (arrogant, often rude, ignorant, patronising) even continued when I was cancelling (I've tried to cancel 4 times within the last 4wks and been given a different cancellation date each time.
Even when I told him this down the phone and was going through the cancellation he had the cheek to say "If you stay on and recommend us to anyone else, we will..."
I'm off for a beer.


----------



## teengeekgrrl

Congrats on canceling!


----------



## Armless

AOL has horrible connections and their customer service is one of the worst probably the worst. I always got disconnected when I had AOL. After I switched to Charter Cable I was thankful that I won't ever get laggy internet.


----------



## Hulk701

DrP said:


> .....when I was cancelling (I've tried to cancel 4 times within the last 4wks and been given a different cancellation date each time.
> Even when I told him this down the phone and was going through the cancellation he had the cheek to say "If you stay on and recommend us to anyone else, we will..."
> I'm off for a beer.


They should cancel AOL on demand. That's what I did. They aren't supposed to give you a cancellation date, You should be giving _them_ one.

And as to recommending them to someone else...yeah, how about the last boss, landlord, former friend, *ex*-girlfriend...etc... 

Just make sure they sign a year contract.. 

:up:


----------



## aarhus2004

I don't but perhaps this member does.

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?p=3042528


----------



## firestormer

DrP said:


> Yes!
> At last!
> I've done it!
> I have cancelled my AOL contract! Oh, yes!
> Can you believe I've been paying £24.99 per month for 12 months and the last 5 months of that I couldn't even get AOL because they wouldn't help me when I moved house Instead, I've been using Demon? Why couldn't I get AOL, when I moved house? Ask AOL. Not that I'm complaining... Demon give me twice the speed, a million times better connection, don't talk crap on the phone, and they cost me £5 less!
> The world's worst customer service (arrogant, often rude, ignorant, patronising) even continued when I was cancelling (I've tried to cancel 4 times within the last 4wks and been given a different cancellation date each time.
> Even when I told him this down the phone and was going through the cancellation he had the cheek to say "If you stay on and recommend us to anyone else, we will..."
> I'm off for a beer.


How did you do it the contract looks solid!
My problem with AOL is thaty it works 90% of the time - so once every 10sec or so i loose the DSL signal. It wont ignor the disconection so it is relly long and tiresome having to reconect.

HOW can you cancel. Id give anything* to know

*not actually anything.


----------



## MrFishy

AOL Spyware Uninstaller, etc.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure some of you have wanted to safely dump some of the crap AOL bundles with their service. Tired of the constant false + hits none of these excellant and proven apps, like Spybot, EVER find, I decided I wanted AOL Spyware Scan OUT of my PC. As some of you know, AOL doesn't generally afford one a way to selectively dump any of their unnecessary glitzy bling.
I came across a tiny 39.2kb program that quickly and, apparently cleanly, removed the spyware scan and a few other "bells and whistles" I chose to dump. This PC has never run better and, best of all, NO more needless worrying from false "hits" on their software. http://www.mrtech.com/aolcleaner.exe << download only
for more info, you can look here >>http://www.mrtech.com/cgi-local/msg...f=11&t=164;st=0


----------



## gandolf23

AOL spinned off two screen names ( you are permitted 6 or 8 for each account) and made them new accounts charging me for three instead of one. wife pays the credit cards and I didn't catch the fraud until two years latter. what is the use posting why one hates AOL? Does anyone know what you can do to about it? I have filled a complaint with the FTC but I doubt they will do anything at all. Is there a site to join forces againest AOL?


----------



## gandolf23

hammerbill said:


> Yes, I had an AOL account too. I could not cancel it. I tried to call and do it but they kept me on the phone so long that I would have been late to work so I had to agree to another month of free service to get the call to end without having my credit card charged shortly thereafter.
> I was trying to think of excuses. Next month I told them I was joining the French foreign legion. Then I listed my credit card lost or stolen and got a new number. So far that seems to have worked.


AOL spinned off two screen names ( you are permitted 6 or 8 for each account) and made them new accounts charging me for three instead of one. wife pays the credit cards and I didn't catch the fraud until two years latter. what is the use posting why one hates AOL? Does anyone know what you can do to about it? I have filled a complaint with the FTC but I doubt they will do anything at all. Is there a site to join forces againest AOL?


----------



## gandolf23

bkfdbarbara said:


> I had the same problem here in Holland; signed up and got 55 free hours, or whatever. This was at the end of the month, and when our bill came it was outrageous. They 'forgot' to tell us that the 55 hours had to be used by the end of the month, which was two days. We then tried to cancel for 5 months, and luckily, in Holland, the banks help out, so we finally got out of AOL. I will be moving back to California in a year, and any 'free' CD's from AOL will be used to scare birds away from my blackberries. AOL sucks, is dishonest, and could care less about anything except making more money. My entire family (daughter, etc.) use it, but I have a mind of my own, so need to follow down that path. Why do they use it? Because it is easier, Mom, then learning a whole new way to use the computer, I was told. To each his/her own. Thank God for choices.


AOL spinned off two screen names ( you are permitted 6 or 8 for each account) and made them new accounts charging me for three instead of one. wife pays the credit cards and I didn't catch the fraud until two years latter. what is the use posting why one hates AOL? Does anyone know what you can do to about it? I have filled a complaint with the FTC but I doubt they will do anything at all. Is there a site to join forces againest AOL?


----------



## firestormer

Ive decided it is my duty to all those people who dont konw about th horrors of AOL to revive this formum and possibly start an awareness campaign.

POST MORE AOL HORRORS HERE NOW!


----------



## Killer360

-Slow
-Installs other uneeded crap
-Takes up space


----------



## Hulk701

Impossible to cancel
telephone support is in Indian
changes modem speed, forcing your to buy a new modem:down:


----------



## firestormer

Form _The Times_ 20/03/06

Hacked off
Thousands of AOL customers were unable to get online after they recived a faulty update from Symantec, which supplies Norton anti-virus software. Up to 15,000 users were blocked from connecting to the internet for up to five days last week. Norton and AOL expect that the problem will be resolved by today.

OK heres the thing from this it seems that norton viewed AOL as a virus so whats the problem. It practicaly is.


----------



## Hulk701

oh yes, I forgot to say that it is the most expensive ISP on the net...


----------



## firestormer

Do you want to join my anti-AOL campaign?

If so just add what ive got as my signiture to your sig


----------



## Hulk701

firestormer said:


> Do you want to join my anti-AOL campaign?
> 
> If so just add what ive got as my signiture to your sig


Done!


----------



## firestormer

I only ment the last two lines but i dont mind i honoured


----------



## sscanlon

When I rang to cancel I said after about 30 minutes I know its your job to convince me to keep it and he said 
'No not at all - we just want the best for the customer. Can I interest you in high speed access - that will solve your dial up problems!'

They are brilliant sales people so you have to be better at saying no. 
You may have to tell them you are on death row or going into space however to convince them to cancel.

New York City Anti AOL League


----------



## scorpions

AOL is my first ISP , and it crap. They charged you for 20 bucks for dial up. Crappy protection suite. I cancel AOL on the first month i used them, there protection is so bad, it let all the virus and spyware slip through my computer, and destroy it . So i have to buy a new one. I later scan it and found 30 virus, 70 spywares, and several trojans. After i canceled AOL for a year now. They call me today and ask if i interested in high speed internet and why i quit AOL, i felt like cussing them off. So do not use AOL no matter what. 

Use verizon DSL , for the price of dial-up , good customer support, great features, and awesome protection including antivirus, antispyware, email-scanner, popup killer. And for 8 dollars more, you can get the better protection suite with firewall. 

It only $16.95 a month including tax. They send you the self-installation kit for free, and usually delivered in 2 days. Pretty fast connection and cheap.


----------



## Hulk701

Didn't AOL raise its prices recently? Isn't it $27.00 now instead of $25.00?

Thanks


----------



## sscanlon

Yes - and it can be even higher or lower depending on what promotion they are running. 
s


----------



## sscanlon

thanks for very good advice re Verizon and AOL. Best. Seamus


----------



## firestormer

Its just totaly dodgey.

In the UK broardband silver is £14.99 for first 6 mounths then £17.99 there after
For that you get second hand filters and your not allowed to connect multiple computers

Then you have AOL gold. £24.99 a mounth. thats about a £10 difference! 
You still get crap filters but you can connect two computers just you'll have to buy a special router costing loads

Heres the crafty thing they got going. 56kb dial up is £15.99 a mounth, more expensive then the lower broardband at first . Which the only stick the final price in small print in an obscure part of the page.

All i can say is this BURN AOL, BURN!


----------



## sscanlon

One thing I forgot to mention was that during widespread virus and adware infestation with 100% CPU usage all the time etc the AOL computer check up on my PC always came back with computer check fine! It is amazing they are in business. 
Regards
s


----------



## firestormer

Hi my names **** and i have AOL

or at least some of the time.

I have intermitent broardband and recently when i fell back on to dial up when bb wasnt working i was told access to AOL via that number wasn't allowed. I HATE THEM
just 1 mounth to go then bye bye AOL


----------



## jonasdatum

firestormer said:


> Hi my names **** and i have AOL
> 
> or at least some of the time.
> 
> I have intermitent broardband and recently when i fell back on to dial up when bb wasnt working i was told access to AOL via that number wasn't allowed. I HATE THEM
> just 1 mounth to go then bye bye AOL


 I think we have a new Jedi!  ! Yoda would be proud. Them darn sith lords will call you soon beggin' ya to come back.


----------



## SIR****TMG

AO...who ?


----------



## scorpions

AOL called me like 3 days ago and asked if im interested in high speed internet again. I said im not interest and stop calling me. Sometime i felt like suing them for keep calling me every freaking week.


----------



## sscanlon

You have to hand it to them really. They are like zombies who can't be deflected by good manners, bad manners or no manners. They just keep coming at you.


----------



## firestormer

I just tried to cancel AOL again
Before they said i couldn't cancle because when Brordband was down i still had dial up.
Now dial-up stoped working. so i call. After 45min they told me i wasn't enttlied to dial-up.
So i spent another 45min looking for a copy of the contract. Turned out it was under AOL keyword PACB or somthing obscure.

Turns out theve chabged the contract so that i have to pay an extra £8 to use dial up with my BB conection
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH


----------



## jonasdatum

firestormer said:


> I just tried to cancel AOL again
> Before they said i couldn't cancle because when Brordband was down i still had dial up.
> Now dial-up stoped working. so i call. After 45min they told me i wasn't enttlied to dial-up.
> So i spent another 45min looking for a copy of the contract. Turned out it was under AOL keyword PACB or somthing obscure.
> 
> Turns out theve chabged the contract so that i have to pay an extra £8 to use dial up with my BB conection
> AHHHHHHHHHHHHH


 O man, you're getting messed around so dang bad it's not funny. You're DSL is dead, so you can't use dialup? Get somebody else. Anybody else. If I had to go back to dialup, I'd rather spend $10 to $25 with another ISP rather than use AOL. I tried AOL for about two weeks years ago. Wasn't worth my time or my money. AOL isn't what old school tech heads would call a direct-ISP. I prefer the old school way. I sign a digital contract, you give me the dialup networking, newsgroup, and email configs and that is it. AOL controsl AOL-Dead Heads by REQUIRING THEM to use their software. Which is little more than IE/Netscape skin.

The only thing I think AOL did well was AIM; and the only reason I use it is because most of the people I know are on AOL.


----------



## Hulk701

scorpions said:


> AOL called me like 3 days ago and asked if im interested in high speed internet again. I said im not interest and stop calling me. Sometime i felt like suing them for keep calling me every freaking week.


You should be on the National Do Not Call List.

At least then you have a legal avenue if they do call again.


----------



## firestormer

only 7 more weeks then bye bye AOL and hello BT
Although BT has a useage limit the basic idea is to go with them as they own the lines so if theres a problem im only dealing with them.

Anothere thing probably fore mentioned is their emploees and call centers.

I spent 10min spelling out my screen name to someone who is probalby on the otherside of the world


----------



## Deathblow

Hulk701 said:


> You should be on the National Do Not Call List.
> 
> At least then you have a legal avenue if they do call again.


That's an idea, but I'm not sure that they still couldn't call because of this...

"If I register my number on the National Do Not Call Registry, will it stop all telemarketing calls?

No. Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. Because of limitations in the jurisdiction of the FTC and FCC, calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors would still be permitted, as would calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship, or those to whom youve provided express agreement in writing to receive their calls."

They may be able to use the "existing business relationship" part.


----------



## scorpions

i think verizon offer some kind of technology that block telemarketing. My friend had it and he said it work very well


----------



## Hulk701

Deathblow said:


> That's an idea, but I'm not sure that they still couldn't call because of this...
> 
> "If I register my number on the National Do Not Call Registry, will it stop all telemarketing calls?
> 
> No. Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. Because of limitations in the jurisdiction of the FTC and FCC, calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors would still be permitted, as would calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship, or those to whom you've provided express agreement in writing to receive their calls."
> 
> They may be able to use the "existing business relationship" part.


Thanks Deathblow for the info.,

I do know that the "prior business relationship' part only extends to 18 months. After that its goes back to the regular pile.:up:


----------



## ursaminor

RAMAddict said:


> What are your reasons for hating AOL:
> -Takes over your browser
> -Takes up space
> -Waste of Money
> -Slows up your computer


AMEN!


----------



## Tedejc

iltos said:


> because its been so long since i used it that i have no idea what my username/password is anymore....when i did, i tried to cancel...to no avail....and have called many times since....even to my damn credit card to stop the payment...and aol still dings me for the 10 bucks every month (this from the days when you could have access to their features even tho you entered through another isp...don't know if that's still an option).....
> ....i have talked to others with similiar stories, and so wonder what their real subscriber numbers are, and when that class action suit is coming that will bring em to their knees
> 
> oh, shure


I had AOL on my first computer, after I switched It took me 9 months to get them to stop charging me, I had to send snail mail certified to do it. I will never go with them again.


----------



## Hulk701

Where do cousins come from? 

Auntholes:down:


----------



## sscanlon

A few weeks ago I cancelled a trial sub and because they were having technical difficulties because they were updating their help desk they cancelled my sub straight away. It was like a miracle. I was bracing myself for the usual minimum 20 minute patter but I was saved. Maybe its a new policy or I suspect its temporary because of the technical fault. Someone was probably fired for letting me escape so easily. 
The NY anti AOL League


----------



## Hulk701

sscanlon said:


> A few weeks ago I cancelled a trial sub and because they were having technical difficulties because they were updating their help desk they cancelled my sub straight away. It was like a miracle. I was bracing myself for the usual minimum 20 minute patter but I was saved. Maybe its a new policy or I suspect its temporary because of the technical fault. Someone was probably fired for letting me escape so easily.
> The NY anti AOL League


OR maybe it was because they were sued successfully in New York last year for 1.25 Mil. for not cancelling customer subscriptions>


----------



## AntonioManzano19

Because i hate it...when it says "you got mail"......and i hate all the things related to aol....

get comcast it works wonders


----------



## Gabriel

Hulk701 said:


> OR maybe it was because they were sued successfully in New York last year for 1.25 Mil. for not cancelling customer subscriptions>


 Maybe I should move to NY to get rid of them


----------



## Gabriel

Well...here's the link on the NY thing, and I printed this out several times to send to my CC Co. with every written complaint about being charged fraudulantly every month alond with my print-out of the pending cancellation and date that appears on my account page at AOL

http://www.stopscum.com/archives/ca...ot_spitzer_slams_aol_for_slimy_practices.html

This print-out will also travel through the mail with the written request to AOL for the cancellation.


----------



## Hulk701

Gabriel said:


> Well...here's the link on the NY thing, and I printed this out several times to send to my CC Co. with every written complaint about being charged fraudulantly every month alond with my print-out of the pending cancellation and date that appears on my account page at AOL
> 
> http://www.stopscum.com/archives/ca...ot_spitzer_slams_aol_for_slimy_practices.html
> 
> This print-out will also travel through the mail with the written request to AOL for the cancellation.


And then you have people on the other side of the coin saying that AOL is acting just like credit card companies, like any good capitalist would do, to _save _its subscribers...

I say some people just like to be abused. Credit card companies shouldn't do it and neither should AOL...:up:


----------



## firestormer

Bombadaba!

Yes the day is finaly hear!

Tommorw (22nd) i ditch AOL as my 12 mounth contract is out!

                 ​
For those who still have AOL the only option is sianide so i sympathise

Whippeeeeeeee!


----------



## AntonioManzano19

aol took my ability to loved........the net


----------



## sscanlon

firestormer said:


> Bombadaba!
> 
> Yes the day is finaly hear!
> 
> Tommorw (22nd) i ditch AOL as my 12 mounth contract is out!
> 
> ​
> For those who still have AOL the only option is sianide so i sympathise
> 
> Whippeeeeeeee!


 did it work? did they let you cancel?


----------



## firestormer

ARRRRRRRRRR

NO!

They said i had to wait until thursday morning as they have to wait 48 hours for confirmation of my last payment.

ARRRR i @$*!&£% hate AOL


----------



## Hulk701

Wow, they're reallly sticking it to you... 

They really don't know when to quit..


----------



## firestormer

I know i hate them!

What do u think i should do?

Burn the moden and filters or try and sell them?


----------



## Hulk701

I know how you feel. Burning would be nice. So would explosion. 

So if you do, I'd get a video cam and put it on the net.

But if it were me I'd be practical. After all you want to alleviate as much damage as you can. So therefore I'd put them on Ebay and sell them yourself... 

Get what little money you can out of it. Then write AOL and tell them how crappy their software is and how much you got for all your efforts...


----------



## firestormer

humm yea.

But im thinking. Dont you think it would be a crime against humanity selling them to someone else?


----------



## Hulk701

firestormer said:


> humm yea.
> 
> But im thinking. Dont you think it would be a crime against humanity selling them to someone else?












You could always start the bidding out for a penny....


----------



## firestormer

Yesterday (Friday) i go to cancel.

the lady from deli asks why i want to cancel.

I couldnt resist. "Well..."

15 min later i finish after explaing in great detail why AOL is rubbish

Then she asks if i want to keep my email address with them. "Sure why not"

Then 10 mineuts later after going through the details

"Ok done i will send your MAC code to your existing email address you should recive it within 48 hours. Your account will stay active until you use your MAC code with BT i will also be charging your debit account £2.95 a month"

"HOLD ON! why are you charging me £2.95 a mounth?"

"For use of the email account."

"You never mentioned it before!"

So of course i canceled keeping my email account

Why is it AOL cant do anything instantly?

Oh you must wait 48 hours after your last payment before canceling

you must wait 48 hours for you MAC code

by this rate i doubt ill have left AOL by the end of next week


----------



## sscanlon

firestormer said:


> Yesterday (Friday) i go to cancel.
> 
> the lady from deli asks why i want to cancel.
> 
> I couldnt resist. "Well..."
> 
> 15 min later i finish after explaing in great detail why AOL is rubbish
> 
> Then she asks if i want to keep my email address with them. "Sure why not"
> 
> Then 10 mineuts later after going through the details
> 
> "Ok done i will send your MAC code to your existing email address you should recive it within 48 hours. Your account will stay active until you use your MAC code with BT i will also be charging your debit account £2.95 a month"
> 
> "HOLD ON! why are you charging me £2.95 a mounth?"
> 
> "For use of the email account."
> 
> "You never mentioned it before!"
> 
> So of course i canceled keeping my email account
> 
> Why is it AOL cant do anything instantly?
> 
> Oh you must wait 48 hours after your last payment before canceling
> 
> you must wait 48 hours for you MAC code
> 
> by this rate i doubt ill have left AOL by the end of next week


That sounds more like the AOL we love - I mean hate


----------



## firestormer

They realy are stretching this 48 hour thing. Ive been timing it.

It has now been 42 hours since they said they would send me the MAC code and i still hevnt got it. I plan to phone up at exactly 5:32 today if i havnt recived it by then.


----------



## firestormer

ok i phoned them up they gave me a MAC code BUT!

it cant be used until 06/06/06

what joy im going to kill myself


----------



## Hulk701

firestormer said:


> ok i phoned them up they gave me a MAC code BUT!
> 
> it cant be used until* 06/06/06*
> 
> what joy im going to kill myself


Wow, that's the same time the Anti-Christ is going to come to Earth..


----------



## holy_saiyan1

Thought this was funny


----------



## RT

An FYI, PC World recently posted the worst tech products of all time....guess who tops the list? 

http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/0,aid,125772,00.asp#


----------



## Hulk701

Wow, I owned 5 out of 25 of those.

I had an Iomega Zip drive. Mine was internal though. I didn't give me any problems.


----------



## RT

I have an external Zip, 'course it's not used at all now-a-days but never had a problem either.

Interesting they picked IE as a baddie. And a standout, too.

Actually surprised to see Apple made the list.

Never had AOL on any of my machines, but I have had to deal with it on other folk's PCs.
GAWD, what a nightmare!


----------



## Deathblow

I'm surprised Apple isn't on there more, I think they were being nice throwing a few of their products in the Dis-honorable mention category. I was only unfortunate enough to have used 4 of the top 25, although I had a system that came with a zip drive, I never actually used it. There's also some products that I would add to the top 25, like my first comptuer, the Timex Sinclair, or as I liked to call it, the Timex Frisbee.


----------



## Hulk701

RT said:


> I have an external Zip, 'course it's not used at all now-a-days but never had a problem either.
> 
> Interesting they picked IE as a baddie. And a standout, too.
> 
> Actually surprised to see Apple made the list.
> 
> Never had AOL on any of my machines, but I have had to deal with it on other folk's PCs.
> GAWD, what a nightmare!


Yea, I was surprised about IE 6.0 being there too. I think its okay. It has been hacked more days to Sunday but Microsoft in its usual way has come up with patches for the holes.

IF you want a version of IE that should be on the list_ how about IE 5.5._ I think that thing was in Windows ME.

Talk about problems. That thing crashed and crashed and crashed......


----------



## firestormer

THATS IT IM FREE!!

well nearly.

As of the 6/6/06 i will be on BT broardband!

PS is it me or has this thread dittched a load of pages? Appartently this is page 27 im sure there wer much more.


----------



## firestormer

OH MY GOD!

Today i switched to BT.

Guess how long it took to set up my connection. I didnt use any guides or cds or anything.

5 whole minuets! thats compared to about 1 hour with AOL and 2 or 3 computer restarts!


----------



## firestormer

Would you belive it (Sarcasm) AOL uninstaller dosnt work it frezzes once you start it


----------



## crazyinengla

nice triple posting man... (sarcasm)


----------



## Kenny94

Just watched this video today on MSNBC TV with Keith Olbermann: http://www.break.com/index/aolhell.html


----------



## Hulk701

This came several months after AOL had been successfully sued in New York for doing the same thing.

I cancelled AOL by sending a complaint to the attorney general's office in my state.

Its bad I have to resort to this. 

Its a shame somebody doesn't shut these people down.


----------



## ekim68

Kenny94 said:


> Just watched this video today on MSNBC TV with Keith Olbermann: http://www.break.com/index/aolhell.html


I read this transcript earlier. They've been doing this for years. I had aol about ten years
ago and had a similar experience. They kept playing games over the phone and said I had
to submit it in writing to cancel. At the time I was paying their bill by electronic withdrawel
from my bank. So I went to the bank the next day and had them cancel anything going to 
aol. I got a call that night from aol wanting to know what the problem was. I told them
there was no problem. It was solved.


----------



## Hulk701

I heard the same tape on "Scarborough Country" last night. AOL says the person was fired for doing this. (like it was only_ this one _person in the company )

I bet if you tried to cancel today there'd still be a person on the other end of the line_ doing the exact same thing_...


----------



## Kenny94

> I bet if you tried to cancel today there'd still be a person on the other end of the line doing the exact same thing...


AOL is becoming a virus, (which it is)...

Friends don't let friends use AOL.


----------



## RT

My boss had such a time canceling AOL he eventually just canceled his credit card he was using for payment instead.
Said that was a WHOLE lot easier.


----------



## firestormer

OH DEAR GOD

There clones! 

Im in the UK and that was spooky, talk about daijavou apart from the accent that was almost the same as what i went through!


----------



## gotrootdude

> My boss had such a time canceling AOL he eventually just canceled his credit card he was using for payment instead.
> Said that was a WHOLE lot easier.


Same here.


----------



## JohnWill

One man's account of trying to cancel an AOL account. http://media.putfile.com/AOL-Cancellation


----------



## RT

John, that's the same quagmire that Kenny94 posted, #398.
I know, it's hard to keep up in these long threads  


Kenny94 said:


> Just watched this video today on MSNBC TV with Keith Olbermann: http://www.break.com/index/aolhell.html


----------



## Hulk701

What do you think of this:

http://www.dearaol.com/

Evidently companies like AOL are going to charge people to send bulk email.

Yes it does cut down on spam, but what about bulk emailers that _you are subscrbed _to? They still have to pay...


----------



## pooladdict2

Though am not an AOL user, theres 1 thing i hate about AOL, i keep getting these AOL internet installation CD's saying "first 6months free" in my mail box. i just wish our addresses were not public,because AOL is really loosing a fortune outta this.

All i do is pick them out of my mail box and throw them in my recycle bin.(more money for the recycling company, less money for AOL) how sad.


----------



## ferrija1

pooladdict2 said:


> Though am not an AOL user, theres 1 thing i hate about AOL, i keep getting these AOL internet installation CD's saying "first 6months free" in my mail box. i just wish our addresses were not public,because AOL is really loosing a fortune outta this.
> 
> All i do is pick them out of my mail box and throw them in my recycle bin.(more money for the recycling company, less money for AOL) how sad.


They used to come in nice cases, which I could use. I should try calling AOL and ask them if they could send _rewriteable_ discs so people could acually use them...


----------



## gyrgrls

RAMAddict said:


> What are your reasons for hating AOL:


They blackhole CIDR blocks.

That means I can't use my home ISP's SMTP relay to email friends
and family who use AOL. That sucks.

BUT: I have my own server, so I can use that, if I have to.
PINE is your friend. Learn it. Use it. (you need Linux)


----------



## firestormer

Hulk701 said:


> What do you think of this:
> 
> http://www.dearaol.com/
> 
> Evidently companies like AOL are going to charge people to send bulk email.
> 
> Yes it does cut down on spam, but what about bulk emailers that _you are subscrbed _to? They still have to pay...


They blocked TSG for a while until someone pointed out to them that TSG is a non-profit organisation


----------



## RT

ferrija1 said:


> They used to come in nice cases, which I could use. I should try calling AOL and ask them if they could send _rewriteable_ discs so people could acually use them...


Great idea! :up:

Won't happen though, you've heard what happens when you try to call


----------



## ekim68

Okay, now this.

http://today.reuters.com/business/n..._0_BUSINESSPRO-MEDIA-TIMEWARNER-REPORT-DC.XML

They probably think their ubiquitous software will do better with broadband...


----------



## Hulk701

AOL giving away its service for free???

Yeah, and I heard that Osama Bin Laden will convert to Judiasm too.... 

They don't give away not'in for free. Pigs will fly first. 

I'll believe it when I see it...


----------



## Deathblow

Well, when you lose 8 million customers, you may need to make some changes. Of course, if your still with them, and not high speed, it's just going to get worse for you, because they plan on making up the lost revenue with more advertising income.


----------



## jonasdatum

Hello. I can't say it enough. The only thing good to come from AOL was AIM, and their now trying to screw that up with Triton. I've tried that new version of aim. It doesn't let me chose my own ICONS. AOL just trying to screw over the ignorant masses. 

I remember the good old days where you just had to create a dialup networking conneciton (or however you do it in UNIX/LINUX/APPLE). Now most ISPs want you to install a load of useless software. I'd rather use a $6 - $20 a month old school dialup ISP than use AOL dialup. Same thing with DSL/Cable.


----------



## petersonx

Stupid AIM Triton takes up 200mb of RAM. Jesus ...

Friends internet cuts out everyonce and a while.


----------



## firestormer

Have you seen those AOL adverts? Where it talks about the bad things on the internet and goes
"Some people say the internet is a bad thing, what do you think? " 
Then says go to


----------



## Hulk701

firestormer said:


> Have you seen those AOL adverts? Where it talks about the bad things on the internet and goes
> "Some people say the internet is a bad thing, what do you think? "
> Then says go to


I just checked the message board you listed. There were only 12 Comments about whether the internet was unhealthy...

I can't believe it a mere 12 comments for a nationally advertized campaign.

Just goes to show>>>>>>>>The must be editing out all the people who are saying "Only if yu use AOL....


----------



## bjohlwiler

RAMAddict said:


> What are your reasons for hating AOL:
> -Takes over your browser
> -Takes up space
> -Waste of Money
> -Slows up your computer


----------



## bjohlwiler

:down: 

I am thoroughly disgusted with both AOL & DELL, I have used both for over 6 months of frustration, wasted time, boilerplate replies from both companies. I receive all this unnecessary gobledygook from AOL when I am trying to tend to my business. Sometimes it takes me 2 hours to access a necessary website, I have tried other companies and have no probelm accessing these same websites. AOL is the slowest on earth, I believe they do this deliberately in hopes you will buy their accelerated program.

I had to take my computer to a local repairman and pay a bill for almost $200 as I removed AOL, as suggested by AOL, when I reinstalled it I could no longer gain access! The repairman said he tried to access AOL for over an hour before doing repairs. I have a copy of this bill and will send it to anyone interested.

Now I have written to both companies and told them their warranties and their programs are no good and I want my money back.

Monday I am going to my credit union to be sure AOL can no longer withdraw money from my account as THEY are at fault and broke our agreement.


----------



## firestormer

poor bj.

I used to have AOL but now i am free.

AOL scars you, your computer and you phone line for life.

i had to endure it for a year. I wanted to get rid of it after a week but it was one of those 12 month contracts.

My advice: Get rid of it. If your in a 12 month contract you can escape by paying them the money for the 12 months and the asking them to get rid of it. Your out of pocket but its worth it to get rid of AOL


----------



## jonasdatum

bjohlwiler said:


> :down:
> 
> I am thoroughly disgusted with both AOL & DELL, I have used both for over 6 months of frustration, wasted time, boilerplate replies from both companies. I receive all this unnecessary gobledygook from AOL when I am trying to tend to my business. Sometimes it takes me 2 hours to access a necessary website, I have tried other companies and have no probelm accessing these same websites. AOL is the slowest on earth, I believe they do this deliberately in hopes you will buy their accelerated program.
> 
> I had to take my computer to a local repairman and pay a bill for almost $200 as I removed AOL, as suggested by AOL, when I reinstalled it I could no longer gain access! The repairman said he tried to access AOL for over an hour before doing repairs. I have a copy of this bill and will send it to anyone interested.
> 
> Now I have written to both companies and told them their warranties and their programs are no good and I want my money back.
> 
> Monday I am going to my credit union to be sure AOL can no longer withdraw money from my account as THEY are at fault and broke our agreement.


 I see you get it, but many others don't. It's called "dependants-marketing." The idea is that you provide a service and make them as dependant as humanly possible. This is done for the most part by making the customer as ignorant as possible.

I remember years ago, when dailup was the standard people would ask me "what is my email address?' I'd tell them and they'd ask who the heck my ISP was? The good old days when you could use half a dozen different OS and still setup your dialup networking to craete a conneciton to get to the internet. Now, everybody wants you to use their "speical" software to get online.

For example I recently had to switch from MCI dsl to Verizon dsl. This was because MCI was getting out the residential DSL game (free modme . Tried out my old DSL modem and it didnt work. Then I tried out the Verizon DSL hardware which isn't a modem, but a router, and installed the Verizon garbageware. So I have DSL where I am paying the same price for half the speed I used to have (1.2mbps). My knoloage of networking isn't what it used to be, but why does Verizon give me a router instead of a modem? Why can't I use my old DSL modem?

O yea, I neglected to mention that while switching my DSL service my phone was cut off for a week? Had to buy I prepaid cell. Cost me $110. Now I am trying to get my money back from MCI, but I doubt they'll do anything.


----------



## Hulk701

jonasdatum said:


> I see you get it, but many others don't. It's called "dependants-marketing." The idea is that you provide a service and make them as dependant as humanly possible. This is done for the most part by making the customer as ignorant as possible.


I know what you mean. That's why, even though I have Earthlink DSL I don't use their email software. I just use the DSL box. I use yahoo premium for my email. Works great too and I can use it with ANY DSL or Broadband service....and it only cost $20/*YEAR*!!!!!!

(yeah, Earthlink hates it but I'm doing what's best for ME, not what's best for them...)and yes, Earthlink DSL is a good service!


----------



## firestormer

Hulk701 said:


> I know what you mean. That's why, even though I have Earthlink DSL I don't use their email software. I just use the DSL box. I use yahoo premium for my email. Works great too and I can use it with ANY DSL or Broadband service....and it only cost $20/*YEAR*!!!!!!
> 
> (yeah, Earthlink hates it but I'm doing what's best for ME, not what's best for them...)and yes, Earthlink DSL is a good service!


I agree. When ever i get new hardware or service i always try to set it up without using the software provided. BT instructs you to install BT yahoo desktop help and stuff but its just easier to plug every thing in and let windows do it all.

Failing that i just locate the drivers on the CD and install them manually and have anothre go.

This works with most ISP except AOL with forces you to sign in with their software.


----------



## firestormer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5272974.stm


----------



## jonasdatum

Servant of Eru said:


> I've given my Earthlink email addy out ot everyone and their mom, used it on just about every forum I was a member of up until I recently got Gmail, and I have yet to get one (1) spam email. For Spam blocking, I'd have to say Earthlink is pretty good. In all other respects I've been really satisfied with them as well, probably better ask someone else about highspeed options though, we only have dialup out here in the woods...


 Give it time, the spam will come  !


----------



## gmcsierra99

$24, ties your phone line up, when you quit their service, they keep calling you asking if you want their service again...


----------



## infojunky50

I want to ressurect this and have my say on AOL too!
SOmeone gave me an old WIN 95 puter in Oct of 2003 I used a free AOL cd to get online but didn't know what to do after I got online. I had to teach myself what to do with a computer. SO I did. WIthin 2 months I was fed up with AOL and went to Sympatico DSL. NO trouble cancelling then.A couple yrs later I gave a computer to my brother and he started with a couple months free AOL too. Last summer I finally convinced him to get rid of it so he had ME call AOL for him and try to cancel. I never heard so much crap in my life!!! Took me 40 minutes to get a cancellation confirmation number from them and they were nasty to me, yelled at me, asked me a mess of questions I was obliged to answer before they would continue etc. I was in a rage by the time I got thru and I'm a pretty laid back old gal usually. I hope he's keeping an eye on his credit card like I told him...ALso I have a niece that married a guy with a *ouch!* Compaq Pent 2 puter with Win ME and AOL dialup. I've learned how to fix computers so they're forever calling me with problems. Their modem keeps blowing. ME keeps screwing up and they wonder why they can't go anywhere on the net and AOL redirects them to their own sites. THey can't use Google at all for example - AOL won't allow it.I haven't been able to convince them that for $2.95 month they'd be better off with another dialup provider.(295.ca) THey pay AOL $25 and are only allowed so many minutes a month, same as brother was. Next time I fix their puter maybe I'll trash it intentionally just to get them away from AOL. So sad.....
Another friend had AOL for their first ISP. AOL neglected to explain to them they had a limit on the number of minutes a month. THeir second bill was for OVER $2300.00!!ANd they wouldn't let them cancel so they had to keep it ???......Even sadder....SO I guess you know what I think of AOl now!


----------



## RT

infojunky50 said:


> I had to teach myself what to do with a computer. SO I did.


Good for you :up: :up:

Sorry your knowledge had to be passed on in such a way, live and learn


----------



## Hulk701

infojunky50 said:


> ...
> Another friend had AOL for their first ISP. AOL neglected to explain to them they had a limit on the number of minutes a month. THeir second bill was for OVER $2300.00!!ANd they wouldn't let them cancel so they had to keep it ???......Even sadder....SO I guess you know what I think of AOl now!


What happened about the $2300? Did she dispute it?


----------



## Josh8178

My auntie Hazel has AOL, She asked me to go round the other night because she couldn't buy something from Amazon because everytime she clicked 'Buy' the page went all funny, so i went over to investigate the problem. 
When i got there i soon realised that the page was not rendering correctly in the AOL browser (IE Shell) so i immediatly downloaded Firefox and installed it, She logged on to the Amazon site (In Firefox) and tried to make her purchase again, The purchase was successful.
I told her that she should change ISP to Orange (What i have) and she is looking into it.


----------



## jonasdatum

iltos said:


> because its been so long since i used it that i have no idea what my username/password is anymore....when i did, i tried to cancel...to no avail....and have called many times since....even to my damn credit card to stop the payment...and aol still dings me for the 10 bucks every month (this from the days when you could have access to their features even tho you entered through another isp...don't know if that's still an option).....
> ....i have talked to others with similiar stories, and so wonder what their real subscriber numbers are, and when that class action suit is coming that will bring em to their knees
> 
> oh, shure


 LOL, You're gonna have a tought time fighting the Mega Man of ISPs, sorry to hear it dude. On a side note keep your passwords backed up in secure location(s). A flash drive, CD/DVD, USB, removable, etc. Encrypt them in a secure file. Such as an addressbook file (old techtv trick - call for help - Leo Leporte), or document file. The stronger the encryption the better. That way you don'thave to remember 50 different passwords. Only a handful to access the others. Dude, that is why even achients wrote stuff down.

Windows file encryption is flawed, but good for the short term I recommend a third party application like PGP!


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## jonasdatum

Kenny94 said:


> AOL is becoming a virus, (which it is)...
> 
> Friends don't let friends use AOL.


Messes with system configurations, results in increase of system crashes, consumes system memory and processing power, and is difficult to remove. Yes, I believe it's a virus, a widely distributed trojan horse.


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## Hulk701

jonasdatum said:


> Messes with system configurations, results in increase of system crashes, consumes system memory and processing power, and is difficult to remove. Yes, I believe it's a virus, a widely distributed trojan horse.


You forgot cost. People actually pay to get themselves rifted.....


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## lexmarks567

AOHELL does this cause they can cause they know there are people stupid enough out there who will keep useing it. We need someone to that AOL to court just like enron


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## Hulk701

lexmarks567 said:


> AOHELL does this cause they can cause they know there are people stupid enough out there who will keep useing it. We need someone to that AOL to court just like enron


ya gotta wonder why Larry King, Oprah, MSNBC Investigates, Primetime Live, Or 60 Minutes doesn't do a show on AOL.

Of all the topics they cover that are useless, like Anna Nicole's breast implants, or Antonella Barba's nude pics, you'd think they want to cover something _really _juicy like corporate fraud.

I guess its a tribute to AOL's clout that they've been able to keep this story under wraps


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## MizQuirk

gotrootdude said:


> Changing security settings makes AOL 9.0 unable to connect. Either use AOL or stay safe but not both.


Aha! My thoughts exactly. Now please tell me how to get rid of that latest safety thing I agreed to without getting bumped off completely. It messed things up big time but I feel too computer *unsavvy* to do anything about it.


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## nwfarm

I am using MSN Messenger, never really liked AIM. I like MSN and I can put my own pictures into the display area.


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## jonasdatum

nwfarm said:


> I am using MSN Messenger, never really liked AIM. I like MSN and I can put my own pictures into the display area.


 I used to use ICQ alot, the only reason I starting using AIM is because everybody I know uses AOL. AIM is the only product I like from AOL, and I say that lightly. I'd rather use ICQ, MSN, or even good "old" IRC chat. Whatever happened to Microsoft's IRC Chat client? I loved it so much. Even harder to find free IRC chat programs.

If my DSL died and I had to go back to dialup I'd chose earthlink because I don't need any 3rd party software. All I need is dialup networking and configuration settings. Heck I'd use Netzero if it wasn't for their requiring me to use software to connect.

AOL does have some advantages in it's product design, but the vast majority doesn't use them. Check email, play games, do research, pay bills, log off.


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## ACA529

-Bad tech support


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## Deathblow

jonasdatum said:


> I used to use ICQ alot, the only reason I starting using AIM is because everybody I know uses AOL. AIM is the only product I like from AOL, and I say that lightly. I'd rather use ICQ, MSN, or even good "old" IRC chat. Whatever happened to Microsoft's IRC Chat client? I loved it so much. Even harder to find free IRC chat programs.
> 
> If my DSL died and I had to go back to dialup I'd chose earthlink because I don't need any 3rd party software. All I need is dialup networking and configuration settings. Heck I'd use Netzero if it wasn't for their requiring me to use software to connect.
> 
> AOL does have some advantages in it's product design, but the vast majority doesn't use them. Check email, play games, do research, pay bills, log off.


ICQ supports AIM.


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## jonasdatum

Deathblow said:


> ICQ supports AIM.


 I know, but I've not installed the advanced version in a while. Also, many of the people I know in the games I play don't even use it and people I know from ICQ don't use it much any more


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## firestormer

Thank god I no longer have AOL. Even so:

I HATE AOL!


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## madd74

besides every mentioned reason here, way back when I first started on the net and had used AOL, we (my father and I) stopped service with them. something happened with a card problem (unrelated) and my dad had new cards issued. how legally on earth it happened I will not ever know as I live and breath, but they managed to get a NEW card number and bill it. I got a call from my dad some time long after I stopped using it.

"Did you start using AOL again?"
"No"
"Well, I am getting charged by them on my card"
"I thought you were issued a new card number?"
"Yes, it is on the new card"


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## jonasdatum

madd74 said:


> besides every mentioned reason here, way back when I first started on the net and had used AOL, we (my father and I) stopped service with them. something happened with a card problem (unrelated) and my dad had new cards issued. how legally on earth it happened I will not ever know as I live and breath, but they managed to get a NEW card number and bill it. I got a call from my dad some time long after I stopped using it.
> 
> "Did you start using AOL again?"
> "No"
> "Well, I am getting charged by them on my card"
> "I thought you were issued a new card number?"
> "Yes, it is on the new card"


 For lack of a better term 'kill the account.' That old and/or new number is link to the account. AOL we know dude  .


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## joolz121

Not sure if this has been said yet but about a month ago it apparently had to update, so it did and when I logged on next time around, the welcome screen had a flash advert which kept refreshing and playing annoying jingles every 5 minutes or so, which would blast out my speakers while Im trying to listen to music. Thankfully, it hasnt happened again. Yet :up:


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## Xalainu

Why i hate AOL? Webkinz doesn't work on it, it loads too slow, it messes up the computer, it also blocks things that i really wanna go to.


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## dcook12

Most of the reasons have been said already. This is old because when I got my first computer about 10 yrs ago I thought you needed it..DUH...
First week I had it, I got locked out. I called and they said I sent a note to a mass mailing and wanted to make sure it was me. It wasn't..They said I had a trojan and tried to sell me a program so it wouldn't happen again..Coincidence? I got back on and found my account had sent an adult site link to over 500 people. Got some really stinging replies including a man who said his 8 yr old got it. I had a young daughter at that time. I explained what happened and saved it...And cut and pasted it into every reply I got..Took me about 2 weeks.
Took me 3 months to cancel. Each month I would check to see if my ID worked and it did.I would call and they said we see you are still using it and had no calls from me to cancel..Finally had to speak to a stupervisor and screamed at the top of my lungs...threatened legal action etc...(not like me at all) So four months of charges..It was like 35 bucks then...and then finally cancelled. They are crooks without a conscience... That is my story...


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