AOL Can Go to Hell

[barbitu8]

I bought my computer from Dell last October with a free AOL account for one year. I was never able to get on by a telephone modem, so I canceled and got a cable modem. AOL initially billed me last year even though I had a free one year service. After a lot of hassle, I got them to remove the charges and cancel my account (or so I thought).

Today I got a bill from Chase Visa which includes a $23.90 charge from AOL. I called AOL and they said I never called to cancel. Cancel what? I thought to myself. Never had anything to cancel. AOL's representative would not credit the charge as she said that even though I did not use it, it was available for me to use. She should come over here and see if she can use it. Anyway, it's now definitely canceled (I hope), but they would not credit the inappropriate charge.

So, I say AOL can go to Hell. I must add that after contacting AOL, I called Chase and told them this story. Without hesitation, Chase said they would credit my account. I wanted to add this because I wanted you guys to compare the nice attitude of Chas compared with the absolutely atrocious, obnoxious, and fuck-you attitude of AOL.

AOL CAN GO TO HELL!!!!!!!!!!!

I also wish to compare AOL's shitty attitude with Earthlink. After being unable to get on through AOL, I temporarily switched to Earthlink, with no better luck. Earthlink really tried to connect me, but failed. They billed me too, but when I called and said I never was able to use it, they immediately canceled all the charges.

BULLY FOR CHASE AND EARTHLINK. AOL CAN GO TO HEL!!!!!!!!

[abuse angel]

not that i'm biased or anything....

[AHunter3]

::raises hand::

I, too, would like to damn AOL to hell. I think the last remaining AOL feature I still used was a klunky built-in guestbook feature for people who made use of the web space (FTP space) that comes free with AOL membership. The guestbook portion of my web site was hosted at AOL for that reason. AOL's cgi would parse form data filled out by guests and email me the results in a format that would allow me to add the new postings (manually) so my guestbook.

For quite some time now, I've been thinking "GEE, wonder why my guest book has been so inactive? For a while there, I was getting new posts at the rate of once a week or higher, not exactly SDMB rates but not shabby for an academic theoretically oriented web site". Finally it occurred to me to make a test post to myself and, sure enough, nothing came through.

Without bothering to inform anyone of it, AOL apparently discarded or revised (in some undocumented manner) their CGI support.

Called up tech support to cuss them out for not telling us, and to get the new CGI protocols & possibilities and was told only that "oh, we don't provide tech support on web sites", period.

[abuse angel]

http://www.dreambook.com

a much better free guestbook service. i adore them. i can even help you customize the shit out of it, if you like.

[AHunter3]

Thanks, Abuse Angel.

I will indeed need some help customizing it, as I can't use it in its current format, and the dreambook web site is less than sufficient in explaining how one sets up options.

Here (http://members.aol.com/ahunter3/postbook/guestbook.html) is what I want it to look like (this is the old response page). (I don't mean appearance-wise, of course, but functionality-wise).

[barbitu8]

I didn't tell all in my OP. AOL's representative told me that if I didn't pay, they would ruin my credit. I was going to tell her that I was going to call up Chase, when she hung up on me. Imagine that fucked bitch hanging up on what she said was a customer!?

Is this the goddamn way AOL operates, I have only one question: how do they stay in business?

I also want to emphasize that when I couldn't access the Internet with AOL, they told me in so many words to get lost. On the other hand,Earthlink tried their darnest. The last guy I talked to said if I couldn't get on after the telephone guy comes out, to send him an email. (The problem is that I have only one line. So every time I got some instructions, Earthlink's guy called me back. Imagine AOL doing that! Ha! Bin Laden is more likely to turn himself in.) Anyway, I either wrote the email address wrong or he gave me the wrong one, because I could never contact him again.

Now if AOL tries to ruin my credit record, I'm going to file suit for defamation. I don't care if it costs me hundreds of dollars for the lousy $24. It's the principle. I don't feel I owe them anything.

[Miller]

Wow, they try to steal your money, and then they threaten you when you complain? I got three words for you: Better Business Bureau. I called them on AOL after all the shit I went through trying to unsubscribe.

[shawa]

My beef with AOL is that I can't be on-line if my husband decides to sign on to AOL from work. I know that in previous versions of AOL it was possible for 2 users to sign on at once, so it's not a technological impossiblility. I think if I'm paying over $20/month for "unlimited" access I should have unlimited access.

[IGJoe]

Originally posted by barbitu8
Is this the goddamn way AOL operates, I have only one question: how do they stay in business?

I ask myself that question every single day. I do tech support for Comcast@Home cable internet service, and I get a lot of calls that go like this:

Customer: I can't get online.
Me: Ok, what were you doing when your connection dropped?
Customer: Well, I just finished installing AOL 7.0...
Me: (makes a cross with my index fingers to ward off the evil, shrinks back in terror)

At this point all I can do is give out AOL's Version 7.0 Uninstallation Support number, because AOL 7.0 will not run on over the @Home service without some major registry tweaking. The fact that there is a dedicated support line for uninstalling this garbage speaks volumes.

Now, I realize that most of AOL's customers use AOL's propriatary dial-up connection, but they must realize that there are still thousands of people that use AOL over a high-speed connection. But they don't seem to care....

Not that I'm really surprised.

[InternetLegend]

Originally posted by Mr Pud
I do tech support for Comcast@Home cable internet service...Really? I love Comcast's tech support. We got the service a couple of months ago. Mr. Legend, who is a Computer Guy, usually does everything for the computers at home, so I know less than I really should about how things are set up. One morning a few weeks ago, when he was out of town, I couldn't connect to anything, so I called tech support. The person I spoke to was very patient and far less condescending than most tech people I've run across. He tracked down the problem and told me how to fix it immediately, and he was very nice throughout the call. Maybe it was you?

I wouldn't touch AOL with a ten-foot pole. A good friend had almost exactly the same experience as barbitu8 did, only she was cowed enough by the threat to ruin her credit that she paid the 24 bucks. Oh, and they didn't cancel her service until a month later, so she ended up paying yet another $24.

[PhiloVance]

Oh Man, my favorite topic.

AOL is for shit, that's true. I believe everyone and I mean everyone in America and probably world wide has had experience with AOL. Why....because the assholes send the damn cd's everywhere all the time, every fuckin' month. I guess they figure you're gonna succumb to their 10 gillion hours of internet connections one of these days.

Why they're still in business: They have so many people signed up that even if only 2 or 3 of the thousand cd's they send out subscribe the assholes stay subscribed forever. Why, you ask. Because AOL doesn't let you know how to UNsubscribe. :wally

Shit, I guess so pissed, I can't type. :mad:

Great rant, barbitu8!

P.S. Check out this site (http://www.nomoreaolcds.com/) for disposing of those obnoxious CD's.

Fuckin P.S. #2. Earthlink is just as fuckin' bad. I call it AOL JR. :D

[Cartooniverse]

Originally posted by shawa
My beef with AOL is that I can't be on-line if my husband decides to sign on to AOL from work. I know that in previous versions of AOL it was possible for 2 users to sign on at once, so it's not a technological impossiblility. I think if I'm paying over $20/month for "unlimited" access I should have unlimited access.

You're wrong. I've been on AOL since 1994, using AOL release 2.5. To this date, you cannot sign on if another name on that account is online. Now, I did not and of course will not ever DL AOL 7.0, so that may be a feature of the new release that I am not aware of. But, as of AOL 6.0, you cannot sign on if a name on THAT account is already active. In fact, AOL periodically runs banner ads as you sign on, offering to let you release a screenname from one account and begin another account with that screenname.

It gets around the problem you complain about. Of course, it does make you pay for two different accounts. I didn't say I liked their ethics, I just said I have used them for a long time.

People who slam AOL and hold other ISP's up to unending glory are like people who slam Windows and hold up their iMac's, proclaiming that Mac OS never ever crashes and is perfect. Please. There are flaws everywhere. :rolleyes:

Cartooniverse

[Derleth]

PhiloVance: I've never had an AOL experience. I've always had dialup service from local ISPs. I saw right through AOL's BS the moment I saw their ads. I only handle AOL disks to throw them out.

Too bad they don't send floppies anymore. I could use floppies.

[abuse angel]

hunter, no problem. i can do that easy. do you want me to go in and work on it and let you fine tune it? email me: elle_potter@hotmail.com

shawa, i don't know any dial-up isp that lets you log on to the same account more than once at the same time. i know that ev1 doesn't.

[AHunter3]

Abuse Angel, I emailed you back-channel. I *did* make some progress on my own, but could still use some help.

If you read this and haven't yet received any emails from me, let me know.

[barbitu8]

Originally posted by Mr Pud
I do tech support for Comcast@Home cable internet service

I use Comcast@Home ever since I couldn't get on the telephone lines. I've found its tech support outstanding, but I've had limited experience with them. The only bad thing is their email service. Occasionally they get over-loaded and you can't connect. I've changed my server from "mail" to the specific one in Tennessee and back again to the general mail. I now keep the specific one in TN. A tech support guy told me to use Hotmail, but I don't like Hotmail and all their pornographic emails.

As I said, I found Earthlink guy very cooperative. He called me back several times, as I have only one line. Unfortunately, I was not able to get back to him.

BTW, what's going to happen to Comcast@Home now that Excite is going bankrupt?

[IGJoe]

Originally posted by barbitu8
BTW, what's going to happen to Comcast@Home now that Excite is going bankrupt?
Nada, hopefully.
Comcast, Cox, and most of the other big cable companies have entered into some kind of agreement with Excite. At least, that's the Official Word From The TopTM

[anya marie]

I am going to send in four unwanted AOL cd's ,wish that i had a few more to send in.

[barbitu8]

Originally posted by anya marie
I am going to send in four unwanted AOL cd's ,wish that i had a few more to send in.

Smash them into little pieces first and enclose a note that they sound like a broken record.

[Debaser]

I have been saving all of the AOL CD's that are sent to me for a couple of years now. I throw aways duplicates, and have about 20 now. They make great coasters for use all around the house.

[Lute Skywatcher]

I, too, have been with AOL since 2.5. I belive I even have a 2.5 floppy around somewhere! I do get pissed at the quality of service at times, but I have no plans to change. Those of you who try to call Customer Service to be disconnected are going about it all wrong. The quickest solution is to have someone report you for a TOS violation! :wally

[anya marie]

Barbitu8, i scratched cuss words into them, tic-tac-toe games on another, anarchy symbols, and a swirly doodle around the words fuck aol, and anarchy. these disks are trashed. Fucking them up makes me feel better.

[Klaatu]

Originally posted by anya marie
I am going to send in four unwanted AOL cd's ,wish that i had a few more to send in.

Hell, the Circle K stores around here have stacks of AOHell disks on the counter, free for the taking.

I want to cover the ceiling in my bedroom with em. :D

[The Red Menace]

Originally posted by Klaatu
Hell, the Circle K stores around here have stacks of AOHell disks on the counter, free for the taking.

I want to cover the ceiling in my bedroom with em. :D

Blockbuster video similarily used to have tons of Prodigy internet service discs all around the freaking place. My friends and I would take a bunch and devise different ways of breaking them, or seeing how far across a parking lot they could be thrown. The answers to our queries turned out to be that they're pretty hard to break, but they can be thrown a pretty good distance.

I would suggest you perform similar experiments yourself; covering a ceiling with AOL discs strikes me as being just too constructive for what they are. AOL needs to always be associated with destruction!

[Jackmannii]

barbitu8, I'm glad you had a good experience with Earthlink.

Unfortunately, I canceled my short-lived service with them when I discovered they had lied to me about the the amount of webspace available with my premium account.

[Turlough]

Altogether my family and I have been sent four and a half thousand AOL CDs, now what is truly impressive about this is that I live in New Zealand, about as far away as it is possible to get from being able to use them :).

You have to wonder what they were thinking

[Sublight]

Originally posted by Cartooniverse
People who slam AOL and hold other ISP's up to unending glory are like people who slam Windows and hold up their iMac's, proclaiming that Mac OS never ever crashes and is perfect. Please. There are flaws everywhere. :rolleyes:


Well, I called my ISP (Broadgate01) on a Monday when my connection cut out, and they stayed on the phone for two hours verifying my settings, called back the next day to see if anything had changed (and stayed on for an hour going through all the settings again), sent three guys to my apartment on Wednesday do check the building's router and my apartment connection, then sent three more guys on Friday (I was busy Thursday) to check my computer's hardware, where the problem was found. All for free.

Now would AOL do that?

[barbitu8]

Originally posted by Sublight
Well, I called my ISP (Broadgate01) on a Monday when my connection cut out, and they stayed on the phone for two hours verifying my settings, called back the next day to see if anything had changed (and stayed on for an hour going through all the settings again), sent three guys to my apartment on Wednesday do check the building's router and my apartment connection, then sent three more guys on Friday (I was busy Thursday) to check my computer's hardware, where the problem was found. All for free.

Now would AOL do that?

Not only would they not, they didn't come close. When I couldn't connect, they told me, in effect, to go to Hell. At least Earthlink tried, but they didn't come out and I wouldn't expect them too as their nearest service guys are probably many miles away. They advised me to have my connection checked and the outside wires checked, which I had done. Every thing was OK, but I still couldn't connect. I did spend hours with them on the phone, however.

[Amp]

Quickest way to unsubscribe from AOL?

Cancel the credit card it gets charged to.

[ozonebaby]

I'm totally with you on this one. AOL is like the a turtle on my computer. Everything takes about 5 minutes to load. I tried to install Earthlink but whenever I try to get to the other account I THOUGHT I set up, I couldn't do it. It said I had more than one account but. . .

Anyone know how to get to the other one I set up?

[The Mick]

Originally posted by shawa
My beef with AOL is that I can't be on-line if my husband decides to sign on to AOL from work. I know that in previous versions of AOL it was possible for 2 users to sign on at once, so it's not a technological impossiblility. I think if I'm paying over $20/month for "unlimited" access I should have unlimited access.

HERE HERE!!

I've been (regrettably) using AOL since version 2.0, and I too remember being able to have multiple screen names on. Then, this feature disappeared, and now what solution do they haev for you? Why, just purchase another account and pay another $21.95 a month. Bullshit, to me it sounds iffy when they could just re-implement the technology.

Though, perhaps with multiple SNs for each account on simultaneously, the load placed on AOLs servers would be too much, with their "millions and millions" of subscribers.

[Primaflora]

I just extracted a refund from AOL! Yay me! January 2000 when I moved to Australia, I set up AOL (nope I didn't know how bad they sucked, they weren't in NZ and silly me just thought they were an ISP like any other). They sucked. I used them for oh, 5 days?

3 months later they began billing me $8 a month. I didn't notice until about 3 months ago and finally I wrote them a letter calling them unethical. A service rep just rang me and get this! They will refund the last 6 months but they cannot check how long they have been leaching $8 from my account and whether or not I have actually used said account because they don't keep records! Arseholes! That can't be legal! But anyway after I made a few choice comments about the company which employed him, he agreed to refund what he could.

[Civil Defense]

but they cannot check how long they have been leaching $8 from my account and whether or not I have actually used said account because they don't keep records! Arseholes! That can't be legal!

Having seen said records, they do indeed exist. AOL keeps *very* specific usage logs on their members. Or at least, they did back when I had access to such information.

I, too, just gained victory over AOL. After being billed for AOLbyPhone twice on my bill, I called up and spoke to a *very* nice and helpful young woman named Jennifer. After explaining to Jennifer that I had not signed up for the service and had not used it, she, without hesitation, immediately cancelled my enrollment in this pay service and refunded not only my lost $9.31 through AOLbyPhone, but also credited me $9.95 for my next month's service in apology for AOL's error.

God I love AOL. :D

[Houlihan]

Originally posted by barbitu8

Now if AOL tries to ruin my credit record, I'm going to file suit for defamation. I don't care if it costs me hundreds of dollars for the lousy $24. It's the principle. I don't feel I owe them anything. [/B]

Hundreds of dollars? Try thousands, maybe even tens of thousands. Although I have no first-hand experience, AOL's rep in the legal biz is that they employ Walmart and Ford style obstruction to drive up the cost of litigation to the point of crushing most lawsuits.

[barbitu8]

Originally posted by Houlihan
Originally posted by barbitu8

Now if AOL tries to ruin my credit record, I'm going to file suit for defamation. I don't care if it costs me hundreds of dollars for the lousy $24. It's the principle. I don't feel I owe them anything.

Hundreds of dollars? Try thousands, maybe even tens of thousands. Although I have no first-hand experience, AOL's rep in the legal biz is that they employ Walmart and Ford style obstruction to drive up the cost of litigation to the point of crushing most lawsuits. [/B]

I'll file in the local small claims court. Probably get a default judgment.