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!!!
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.
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 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).
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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 for disposing of those obnoxious CD’s.
Fuckin P.S. #2. Earthlink is just as fuckin’ bad. I call it AOL JR.
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:
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.
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?
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 Top[sup]TM[/sup]
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.
