It would appear that a simple AOL peon employee could get access to every single one of AOL’s screen names (about 92 million) and sell the list to spammers.
Surfing The Web So You Don't Have To
It would appear that a simple AOL peon employee could get access to every single one of AOL’s screen names (about 92 million) and sell the list to spammers.
Comments
AOL STOLE MY MONEY!!!!
They promised me FREE AOL and then charged me. Then when I called to get my money back they said there was NOTHING THEY COULD DO !! I have a letter FROM AOL that states I have FREE AOL until July 19 2004. I check my bank account and they have already TAKEN THEIR MONEY!!! I call to get my money back and it is MY Fault because I didn’t call soon enough. I CALLED JUNE 25th!!!
I promise I will NEVER have anything to do with them again and , as a computer tech, I will tell ALL my customers about this !!!
Yes AOL is evil, they have false advertisments and say they iced up there anti virus and parental control but every since 6.0 i never seen one upgrade exsept the outline to the site which is all flash
I was posting on an AOL message board and I got an e-mail saying that my message had been deleted because of content– however, it contained no bad language, sex, etc. It was harmless (to see it, go to the link above).
What’s interesting is that they kept the woman who supported Hitler on there. wtf?
AOL more like T F B (thieving f***ing Bastards) They still owe me money! They have been charging my bank account for the last 6 months even though I cancelled all that time ago! I even have confirmation! They currently state that they do not have record of my cancelleation. Sound familiar?
I think that we should all clear out those little displays for “free aol cds” everytime we see them in stores until we get the equivalent of our money back. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take all of the free cd’s i can carry out of the store so other people won’t get snookered like we did. I have the same problem–charging my account without authorization.
Tim, I hate to be a dick, but what kind of “computer tech” signs up for AOL in the first place?! When I was 15 (11 years ago) I had my first experience with AOL, and quickly switched to earthlink. I’ve been spreading the word that AOL is terrible for a decade now. You just caught on?
shit my ass
cock wip
Not to put you down Garye358, but to have Broadband and dialup(on 0800), you do have to use Silver plus or Gold plus. The reason you were able to use the 0800 number is because your promo code wasn’t changed. But that will change, and you’ll be stuck with the 0845 number. I’m not trying to insult your intelligence, you did a good enough job of that with your message
As for the other problems, AOL is a big company, and like big companies, it’s all about making money, you hardly think any company does what it does for love??? But if you have a real fault, always ask to speak to a supervisor, and if you speak normally and rationally, most time you’ll find they can help.
every1 get a lifwe and stop slagging aol we are the best i sud no i work there
I worked tech support for AOL a while back, and from dealing with many members over the phone, I have this to say…
AOL is only good if you have children. plain and simple…the parental controls work unless your kids know more about computers than you do,and even then you are better off monitoring your kids activities as a parent shouldbe doing anyway. AOL is geared toward kids and people that don’t know how to use the internet, so they need to rely on AOL’s “exclusive” content. Sure…it may be the only place you can see 50cent rap alone in the studio after giving an AOL plug, but who really needs to see that?
Do yourselves a favor…learn to use the internet and get a REAL isp. Leave AOL for the technologically impaired population.
lol padjo why would you want to work at aol?? its SO SAD!!!!!
When I tried this a.m. to notify AOL and Yahoo about a Yahoo-subscribing spammer, I got an advisory that I was not being allowed to send out email (see keyword RATE LIMITS). RATE LIMITS says that it exists in order to keep people from spamming.
So. I was the spammer? NO. I was the one who had the nerve to complain about being spammed.
AOL “Help Online” gave me Website Not Responding advisories until I gave up and phoned for help.
ESL Indian “helper” informed me I had corrupted some art files and that is why I was getting the advisory about not being allowed to contact Yahoo and AOL by email.
Wrong.
Bottom line: 3 attempts to get this problem taken care of online and 9 phone calls during which I was transferred from one person to another to another, etc., because I kept telling the ESL cretins I could not understand them…the only good thing about all this C*** is that my monthly subscrip rate has been lowered to $14.95.
Go thou and do likewise! Call AOL, for whatever reason even if you have to make one up, keep telling phone helpers you don’t understand their accents, and eventually in order to get you not to jump ship your subscrip rate will be lowered to something that makes waaay more sense than the huge amount they get from most everybody else at this time.
They won’t fix your problem, if you actually have a problem, but you won’t have to spend so much to be treated so badly.
i went to the store and bought a new xbox for $150 and a new $100 router so that i could use xbox live. Apperently it was all a waste of $ because using xboxlive through AOL Broadband “cable”, is against their security policy. I found this out after hearing 4 network soulotions on how to get it to work with AOL broadband”DSL”. thanks alot aol!!!
I started having the same problem (RATE LIMITS) as OmniGusted around the first of May and still have it. My email to support just got me robot-answered replies. Called support, talk to Indian support, they didn’t solve the problem, “in summation, we fixed your problem by”… no dammit, you didn’t fix my problem you bunch of idiots. After 10 years with AOL I’m about to move.
OK, another reason that AOL is s**t – they give their loyal customers a good kick in the teeth. Over here in the UK, they recently underwent a ‘speed upgrade’, which meant that everyone gets their speed doubled for free, or that’s the theory anyway. In practice, what happens is that brand spanking new customers get their speed upgrade straight away, but customers who are tied into a year’s contract (like me) wait for bloody ages for it, then get extremely pissed off when the date it was supposed to happen (in my case, ‘sometime in May’) rolls around and this upgrade simply fails to materialise. I’ve actually pointed out to them that there is a clause in the contract that says that my account must be cancelled (even if I DIDN’T want them to) if I cannot get what I’m paying for due to ‘technical limitations’, and I have been told, both by BT and AOL themselves, that my phone line is simply incapable of taking the 2Mbps line I am supposed to be upgraded to, which is clearly a ‘technical limitation’. The two responses I get to this are either them basically calling me a liar or them hanging up the phone.
F**k aol man this things just happen to me …they charge me 28.90 on a Phonebill…when am not even use their service…it was my friend who use it..god i dont even know how they charge me..my friend he put his phoen number and address in ..NOT MY but they charge me..f**k american online..i will never go with THEM, EVEN THEY GIVE ME 3 years free OR EVEN 10 YEARS FREE.
the other things is am not 18 years old ..my dad not even know about this.all he know is his phone bills getting charge…and when we call american online they did nothing about this problem…I HATE AMERICAN ONLINE.
I could probably say it one more time though its been said over and over again…AOL sucks. And they are employed with imbeciles in their accounting dept. who can’t understand plain english-” I want to close my AOL account”
meg, the reason anyone works in aol (or anywhere) is cause it’s a job. The problem with all big companies is that they go to places like india where it’s really cheap to employ people and they can afford to have an 80% turn around in staff. It all comes down to money. Unfortunately, all big companies are moving their help support out of english speaking countries to non english speaking, which is why the service goes down hill. 🙁 It’s the ruination of the consumer experience…..
America On Line is the biggest.
I didn’t use their AIM free email service because after 60 attempts to find a user name for my free email account I realised they own practically every user name that exists and anything that’s left over is something only a person who is absolutely desparate would want to use. example: vista, already used, vista2006, already used. If I wanted to call myself vista2007 it would be inappropriate.
my name? You know better.
I use Netscape although they sold out to AOL and that is really a crying shame.
now we can forget about updates for composer and netscape beyond 8.0 which doesn’t carry composer.
AOL America Outa line.
F*** AOL!!
I hate them, but my dad thinks their really good because they pretend to be very helpful and he has never experianced anything else. If he did, he’d know how crap they really are. As it stands however, he won’t hear a word against AOL.
i hate aol. the only way to put them out of business is to get everyone to cancel it.
AOL’s got some big problems… They’re losing more than 300 subs an hour!
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=83507
AOL is for people who can read, if you can’t understand english don’t sign up for a free trial and expect to have it free for months after the trial is over, all services have a TOS don’t close it read it then you wouldn’t have to call beggin’ for your money back and be upset becuase its not returned, nothing in this world is free. The times are changing and so are computers (upgrade your PC) then you wouldn’t have so many issues. AOl 9.0 is for people with newer computers don’t expect win 95 or 98 to run without a problem….DUH
Erm, OK? Lindsay, the only thing that your comment really has any relevance to whatsoever on this page is the very first comment by Tim Daigle. If you read it, he is complaining because AOL told him he would have AOL for free until JULY 19TH. He phoned JUNE 25TH, three weeks BEFORE his ‘free trial’ ran out complaining that AOL had already taken money from him.
As for your comment about AOL 9.0 running only on ‘newer’ computers, I’m afraid it still has some issues with Windows XP and brand spanking new computers. Apart from that, your comment appears to be a rabid, fantical defence of AOL based on…well…not much, really.
Seems like your real problem is not noticing that AOL isn’t really an ISP company anymore…sure, it offers dial up service, but do you really think that’s what Google and Yahoo are interested in? Go take a look at the portal at aol.com and see what’s really going on.
No keith my real problem is people who a bash a service that is for novice users, the people who bash the service can’t get it to work….hmmm hence the word novice users not only do they offer dial up the also have DSL and Netscape, AOL Max and a partnersip with McAfee try checking the portal @aol.ca and @netscape.ca, why do u think microsoft and aol are always at battle?
OK, Lindsay, how is it bashing AOL only because you’re a novice to say that AOL took money off you three weeks BEFORE a free trial ends?
Or to say that AOL are still taking money from you six months after you cancelled your account and stopped using AOL?
Or to say that AOL say they are giving you a ‘free upgrade’, and two months after yours was supposed to happen, you’re still waiting for it, yet people who joined in the meantime already have the upgrade you’re still waiting for, and this is despite the fact you told AOL they have breached their own contract by not sorting it out?
well what else do i say ive worked in there fraud dept for 5 years, if you want them to stop billing you give them your method of payment 9 times out of 10 they will find 2 accounts. its an automated billing system as long as your credit card or debit numbers are still actively on file then you will be billed. your free trial is exactly 29 days long if you wait until the 30 days then yes you have been billed…upgrade are done by keyword:upgrade or by upgrading from a CD ??? why would you still be waiting?
Customer Complaint Data
Number of complaints processed by the BBB over the last 36 months: 11077
Number of complaints processed by the BBB in the last 12 months: 4771
Im gonna finsh the rest of the info that you have posted
Customer Complaint Data
Number of complaints processed by the BBB over the last 36 months: 11079
Number of complaints processed by the BBB in the last 12 months: 4768
Complaints Concerned:
Selling Practices (245 complaints)
237 Resolved
8 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Advertising Issues (82 complaints)
82 Resolved
Service Issues (1827 complaints)
1773 Resolved
54 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Credit or Billing Disputes (7879 complaints)
7562 Resolved
317 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Delivery Issues (21 complaints)
21 Resolved
Refund Practices (390 complaints)
384 Resolved
6 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Product Quality (15 complaints)
14 Resolved
1 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Contract Disputes (62 complaints)
61 Resolved
1 Company made every reasonable effort to resolve
Guarantee or Warranty Issues (5 complaints)
5 Resolved
Repair Issues (2 complaints)
2 Resolved
Customer Experience
The company has resolved the complaints presented to it by the Bureau. The company responded to complaints by explaining the terms of its promotional offers and billing policies, referring to its Terms of Service. The company also provided adjustments and referred some complaints to its business partners which marketed goods and services through their on-line listing.
OK, let’s take this step by step:
‘if you want them to stop billing you give them your method of payment 9 times out of 10 they will find 2 accounts’
If you have given them all your details, including method of payment, name, address, master screen name, last four digits of card you use, and answer to secret question, why would they find two accounts? If they do, that’s down to incompetence and/or a flawed system. This is AOL’s responsibility, not the customer’s.
‘its an automated billing system as long as your credit card or debit numbers are still actively on file then you will be billed.’
So even if you have gone through the correct procedure to cancel your account, you could still be billed simply because AOL still have your card details?
‘your free trial is exactly 29 days long if you wait until the 30 days then yes you have been billed’
OK, I’ll explain this again. I’ll try to put it as simply as possible, as I commonly have to do with AOL employees.
Tim Daigle, who posted the very first comment here, apparantly got a letter from AOL confirming that he had AOL for free until JULY 19TH. With me so far?
He then found, on JUNE 25TH, which is three weeks BEFORE this date, that AOL had already taken money from him. He then phoned AOL who told him that he had ‘left it too late’. In fact, if you look, the date he has posted that comment, is, indeed, JUNE 25TH.
‘upgrade are done by keyword:upgrade or by upgrading from a CD ???’
Actually, no, speed upgrades where AOL change what speed a particular service is, are NOT done this way. They are done entirely by AOL.
‘why would you still be waiting?’
Exactly the question I was asking AOL. I eventually got downgraded to the next service down, which was what I was essentially being provided with, 10 months after these upgrades began and 5 months after mine was supposed to happen. Even then, I only managed to get them to do this by threatening to sue them for breach of contract.
again i do deal with the issues everyday for at least 8 hrs, and just like everyone else you’ll only believe what you wanna believe please don’t listen to what im explaining…just be defensive becuase “you know your right” i’m sure they are glad you switched services anyway
Yep, you definately are an AOL employee, as this is exactly the kind of response I have gotten before from AOL – ignoring the problem, sidestepping the issue, and refusing to answer my questions.
Actually I tried to explain how the system worked, I can’t make you believe me, I’ll answer any questions you have ask away…..
First of all, Lindsay, you have not adressed one issue that me has brought up. You just told him that he’s wrong because he thinks he’s right, which he is, no doubt about it. Second of all damn AOL to hell. Those bastards really are incompetent. AOL gave me free internet service for more than a year. Why? I don’t know. Everytime I would call to cancel, they would give me two more months for free, because after a year, I guess I still haven’t tried all of AOL’s features. Anyway, a week before my free trial was over, I accomplished the long and dangerous journey, AOL was cancelled—or so I thought!!!!
Even though I had a confirmaion of cancellation number, and I made sure the account was cancelled three times before I hung up the phone, when I called to cancel, AOL sent my account to a collection agency, when I hadn’t recieved a single bill from AOL. I like AOL’s method, no bill, cut out the middle man, straight to the collection agency. I called the collection agency and the guy on the phone actually tried to convince me to pay the bill. Yeah-fat chance buddy. I call AOL and have their people tell these assholes to fuck off, that we don’t owe them any money.
A year later, because I needed an isp for high school and didn’t want to pay for it (2 jobs just for college) I went back to aol. After about 6 months I cancelled AOL, again a week before the last day of my free trial. Same good cop bad cop routine, try it more, two more free months, a little more, MORE MORE MORE. Fuck you. Same routine again, the traditional three time check, and a confirmation number. Just three months after cancellation, guess what, another collection agency letter, even though for those three months I hadn’t recieved a single bill. AOL was fucking with me, passing me around to collection agencies like I was the only lighter in a crackhouse. I called AOL and had some Indian guy notify the agency to stop collecting. Cool. A month later I get another letter from the collection agency. Not cool. I call the collection agency and tell them to fuck off, that my latest account was cancelled, but I found out from the agency that AOL wasn’t trying to collect for the latest account that I had, AOL was still trying to collect for the first account, the one that had been cancelled almost two years ago, now. The guy from the agency told me to call AOL and tell them to send them a notice to stop collecting. But wasn’t that what just happened. That shit doesn’t work, I tried to explain. I call AOL and tell them that I need to talk to a supervisor to notify the agency and tell them to stop collecting. Another Indian, same routine, tells me they’ll stop collecting after 24 hours. Three days later, I call the agency to see what happened, they told me AOL hadn’t notified them.
At this point, I was wishing horrible deaths to the people responsible.
I call AOL, and tell them what happened, about all the letters, about all the stupidity, and about all of AOL’s fake attempts. Guess what I get. The Indian guy, who’s english is very limited, offers to do the same shit that hasn’t worked three times in the past, one more time. Thank you so much, you think the fourth time is the one that counts?
Anyway, fuck em, I’m pretty sure that nothing has changed, but as long as I don’t get any letters or bills I’ll be fine. And for those of you that think no bills or letters means that it’s been cancelled, think again, I hadn’t recieved anything for more than a year and then they sent another letter. Even though I never got harassing call from the agency, when I called on my own to check the status of the account, they told me that they were still collecting. That shit is damaging to my credit history.
Before I go, even when I had AOL, it was slow (an not because of my PC), very unreliable, crashed all the time, and frustrating. FUCK AOL.
I guess i missed your name through all of the swearing, so you got a year of AOL for free…wow then you even tried it a second time for free and your complaining cause they asked you to pay money? if its damaging to your credit try paying for it, then you never have to worry about collections, or don’t use it? if you feel you got burned the first time why would you try it again……..does that make sense…, i bet if you stopped paying your hydro bill they would send you to collections, i wonder how people feel they shouldn’t pay for internet that they used?? do i have to be any clearer?
when you use AOL free for a year…eventually they will ask you to pay. Then you went and used it a second time, try paying for it then you would be sent to collections, i have no sympathy for people who think internet is free, if you didn’t pay your hydro would they send you to collections?
I guess the moral of the story is…don’t sign up for aol in the first place
First of all my name doesn’t matter lindsay. Second of all, the reason why I used AOL the second time was already mentioned, I was low on cash and AOL was offering a free trial, why not, I needed the internet. And please pay attention to what I say, read my message clearly the answers to your stuppid questions are all there if you just read carefully, I tried to be as descriptive and as specific as possible so you wouldn’t write a reply like the one you just did. Oh well, lets just ignore everything that I say. I got AOL a second time, Lindsay, because I was desperate for free internet at a time I had no money, and I went back because I never thought I’d have to go through what I went through with them. When they made their first and only mistake during the first free trial, they told the collection agency that it was THEIR MISTAKE that they put me on the collection list, and after the first time I wasn’t too hurt. That’s why I went back. Read Lindsay, it’s all there my child. And how the hell can you protect AOL for trying to collect on a bill that was never there? My amount was always zero, I canceled a week before the trial was over, it was a free trial, they can’t collect when the amount is nothing, it was free Lindsay, free. Pretty stupid for me to assume that the internet is free, huh Lindsay, pretty stupid for me to expect the internet to be free when AOL spends hundreds of millions of dollars advertising their free internet and making free cds so people can log on to their free internet. And about using AOL for a year, I never asked for it, everytime I would call to cancel, they would just give me more and more AOL. Why? I did’nt want it I just wanted to cancel it, the person on the other end just kept convincing me to continue it. And again, this was all in my first message, let’s not ignore what I said the first time. I even felt like I accomplished something big when I was able to cancel AOL. How can you blame me for using a year of AOL for free, when it’s so hard for me to cancel. You would expect it to be as easy as saying cancel my free account right? but it’s not. I’m gonna say this one more time, I’m never paying for something that I don’t owe. If I had subscribed to AOL and it wasn’t a free trial, I would promptly pay my bill every moth. But why are you asking me to pay for a free trial? is that really what you’re asking me to do? if so you’re dumber than I thought. Who pays for a free trial? If someone offered you a free something, and you took it, and then instead of even sending you a bill for it, they immediately sent you to collections, how would you feel? would you even pay?
Jim that is the most brillant thing ive heard on here i commend you…..why sign up for a service that your not willing to pay for?
The most important thing that I want to do right now is to remind Lindsay that the AOL trial is free. Lindsay keeps forgetting that. I thought you worked for the company. I didn’t sign up for a service I wasn’t willing to pay for. I signed up for a free service, that I was never supposed to pay for. It was free. You get it Lindsay, free. I wasn’t supposed to be willing to pay for something that is being given away for free. Why must you take people’s words and twist them into totally different things? Jim said the moral of the story is don’t get AOL (Meaning AOL is crap, it’s useless, stay away from it). You turned it into don’t get something you’re not willing to pay for. What you did is you took “I guess the moral of the story is…don’t sign up for aol in the first place” and turned it into “why sign up for a service that you’re not willing to pay for?”
Two different things. I can see why you made such a good AOL employee. You keep taking people’s words, keeping what you want, ignoring the rest, editing it, and turning it into something different, that’s what you did to my first post and to Jim’s post. So keep doing the same shit over and over, and I’ll keep correcting you.
One more thing. Why is it so hard for you to comprehend the story Lindsay. It’s very simple. What happened was I subcribed to AOL, not the AOL that you pay $24.99 a month, I subscribed to a free trial of AOL, the one in which you don’t pay anything if you cancel before the free trial expires. Are you still with me? And that’s exactly what I did. I cancelled my free trial before it was over. So what does that mean Lindsay? It means that I don’t owe AOL anything right? It means that I followed the rules, cancelled my acount before my free trial credits were over, and means that I shouldn’t be charged anything. But guess what, AOL tried to charge me for it, not only that, before I even got a bill from AOL, which I didn’t, they sent me to collections. How can you possible try to defend AOL on this one? In its most basic form, I cancelled AOL before the free trial expired, and without sending me a bill they sent my account to collections. This is what you are really trying to defend. Now right about now, you are probably thinking about the one year thing. Go ahead, think about it, I did get AOL for free one whole year, but not because I wanted to, everytime I would call to cancel, they would just give me two more months for free. At one point I got fed up, I didn’t want AOL, I wasn’t using it, I wanted to cancel it, they weren’t letting me. Just answer one question, was it fair for AOL to send my account to collections, without a warning, without a bill, because I used their free trial and cancelled it before the free trial was over?
are you using AOL or America Online?
Hell no. After what happened, I wouldn’t care how badly I need the internet, AOL is never going to be an option again.
sorry i meant to ask which WERE you using AOL or America Online?
Stop acting dumb, you know damn well what I meant. But if you still want to play these little games, that’s cool, I’m not gonna stop. In case your brain really is the size of a green pea and you really didn’t understand what I meant, I will explain. AOL and America Online are the same thing. I was simply saying that there is a difference between subscribing to AOL as a paying member (the one you pay $24.99 a month for) and trying AOL for free (the one if you cancel before your free trial credits are over you don’t get charged.) I was using the second one, the free trial. And I did cancel before my free trial expired. Capiche. Did that answer your question or do you have a dozen more just as stupid?
no AOL and America Online are different companies thats why one is canadian one is american this is why they use 2 completely difference pieces of software and have 2 different portals http://www.aol.ca and http://www.aol.com…lol they don’t even charge the same price …haha who has a brain the size of a green pea do your research before you write back and look stupid again, i only had one question and you still didn’t comprend enough to answer..lmao
AOL stands for America OnLine. Yes, there is a Canadian part of it and a US part of it, as well as a UK part of it (their website is aol.co.uk). You may also notice that if you do go to aol.ca, you get redirected to canada.aol.com. It is best to stay silent and be thought a fool than to speak and confirm it.
ME!!! To get to lyndseys point, people make mistakes, not just aol people, but consumers. A lot of problems with two accounts comes down to people who set up a new account instead of using the usernames given. I’m not defending AOL, I worked for them and they are b’stards to work for. But a lot of the issues that AOL face does come from users themselves
Lindsay, are you on crack? Fine there is a Cana based AOL and there is a U.S. based AOL, big whoop. Everybody that wrote in this blog had a problem with AOL, wheter it was the Canadian one or the U.S. one. Why don’t you ask each person which one it was. The point is it doesn’t matter. We all got ripped off by the same AOL. But with that aside, I would like to get back to you. We really got off topic here, Lindsay, I believe the main question is do you think what AOL did to me was fair. Just a yes or a no. No more stupid questions, no more uslesss info. I got hell from AOL, and you know the whole story better than anybody (or at least by now you should). Just tell me if you’re still backing up AOL.
No, I’m not on crack…..? you know what they say the customer is always right. I asked a simple question because there is a big difference between the 2 companies. GET OVER IT
Again, you refuse to get to the original point, which is why we are even at this point. Why the fuck were you defending AOL after they pulled that shit on me. You refused to answer all my questions, you just dodge questions and ask useless shit, that’s why I’m sure you were a great aol employee. I don’t care about the two different AOLs. Lets get that out of the way. To me it’s AOL, which stands for America On Line. so I didn’t know there was one in canada and the UK, who gives a fuck. This isn’t about that, this is about how you tried to defend AOL. Now I answered all your questions and dealt with all your stupidity, can you at least answer my one question. Why the fuck did you defend AOL after you read my detailed explanation of what happened????
Lindsay, I’m not going to go any further with this. Trying to get a point across to you has become as impossible as draining the pacific ocean. Just answer my question, that one question that I asked before this. Can you do that? Just answer it and lets end this thing. If you don’t answer it, it’s cool, you’ll just show everybody that you know you were wrong in the past and don’t want to admit to it. Wheter you answer it or not, I don’t care, this is the last time I write anything here. Goodbye.
why would anyone want to answer you in a civialized manner after the way you are speaking to me on here? I don’t work for America Online, I work for AOL Canada I can only speak for there billing practices, I wanted you to answer my question on which one you were using so i could give you the correct answer but you are raving like a crazy person. Have a good one.
Okay, next time aol calls me at work trying to collect money that I don’t owe them. I’ll tell them to just deduct it from some of the money they already have from other people whose money they stole. I’ll give them a for example Mr. Kent Benson. That should impress them that I’ve done some homework. Although, I doubt it. They don’t seem to care about anything except getting on my last nerve.
who is mr kent benson, is that supposed to mean something. do u think AOL looked up your work number to call you? humm lets think about that, maybe that was the contact number you gave them? point being if you owe money for a service pay up.
AOL is a scam if you get a cd for a 6 MONTH FREE services good luck trying to get your free 6 months. In order to get your 6 months for free you need to call customer services and waste HOURS on the phone. You are going to call and wait 2 more hours opn the form. for some reason they claim that email containg an especial form( mmm… that takes day for the email to arrive) It seem some how that they assume tha if you are aol user you are computer Illitarate and they BS with the special email. A word of advise dont fall for their false free adverstiment. unless you are wailling to waste HOURS on the phone.
No, none of yourxxxxxxx, I don’t think aol looked up my work number to call me. Yes, it is the contact number I gave them when I signed onto aol. But, like so many others, I continued to get charged even after I canceled my subscription so I will not pay for what I don’t owe. And, it’s not a consumer mistake. It’s aol fraud.
If you feel it is fraud then why is AOL still a company? shouldn’t someone have shut them down yet?
Having utterly, completely, finally and forever dumped AOL and having gotten a cable-connect with local cable company for internetting around, I can’t express how much better the higher-speed service is.
One of my favorite things: the employees speak English as it is spoken on this Continent.
Another: the ISP is whiplashingly fast.
Still more: I don’t get dumped offline while attempting to get ONline.
Rant, post partum: here in northern California we had one, count them, one local access number to serve all AOL subscribers in 4 towns. Specifically, Clearlake, Glenhaven, Lower Lake, and Clearlake Oaks.
I began contacting AOL/Asia about this situation around 2003/2004 and continued until sometime in 2005 when I gave up in utter frustration.
AOL reps would claim additional local access numbers must be provided by the telephone company local to where the server branch exists.
DUH. And here I thought one could simply walk in to a deli store and find local access numbers available. That’s not true? Imagine my surprise. Try. I dare you.
After getting bored by hearing too many times that (AOL rep speaking here) “We are working as fast as we can to fix this problem…and anyway, I see here on my screen many numbers you could use in your area,” I contacted the phone company. Just before ending the call to AOL, I tried to educate the ESL AOL rep. “Those numbers you are seeing are tollcharge numbers here. If an AOL subscriber in the southshore area of Clearlake uses them, the result is massive phone bills.” The words “tollcharge numbers” apparently meant nothing to the AOL rep.
Here are the details of the call to the telephone company (not including their nearly incomprehensible menu, that is):
“When can the telephone company issue additional local access numbers to AOL? base in Lower Lake, California?”
Phone company: “AOL must request additional numbers.”
Attn AOL employees and sycophants:
Please do AOL subscribers who haven’t yet jumped ship the kindness of not lying to them about things which are so easy to check.
I could see how you would be upset, but one thing you should remember…AOL Reps are only reps. Do you think they have the power to call the phone company for you to add an additional access number and have the company foot the bill? Access number are added when ther is warrant and as any company would tell you they cannot add an access number asap it is granted by the CTRC who governs all numbers…do you feel an internet company should be able to tell you what numbers are toll=free in your location, when they have no idea? A rep does not have the power you are asking them to have and neither does there manager…DUH
Just to reply on the comment made by none xxxx AOL has had many issues pertaining to fraud and I personally have gotten 2 letters from attorneys who were successful in class action law suits against aol and as a result i have been compensated for my losses. Specifically the charging for extra services such as voicemail and aol travel. So maybe you should do a little research into this company you’re so eager to defend. They have had to pay consumers as a result of their fraudulent practices.
From my experience with AOL, they restrict the user to only use their things.
I never recommend AOL to friends and family since its utter shite.
Aaron – Desktop Engineer.
@my battle with AOL. The one point which fails to get through to you is that AOL, no matter where in the world, is the same as EVERY other provider. They all do the same, they all have webpages/blogs where people bitch about them. What you have to remember is you are the exception to the rule, for every one person moaning, there are at least 20 (or more) people praising AOL. But people like you are never happy. You shouldn’t have gotten a year free, but you did, then you bitch about it, then you went back AGAIN…….How fkn stupid are you???? If I’ve a bad experience with a company, I never go back.
@ Aaron AOL doesn’t restrict people to just AOL info. When it first came out, it’s client was designed for just AOL, but like the internet and computers in General, it has evolved, it’s still a pile of ****, but it can access any page the same as IE, and actually uses the IE settings .
after 6 mothes we final got wireless working but for only a week they only support about a dozen products and we had all apart from one laptop with centeno but the said that the ones that were supported were out of date, WTF, now we have it working now :), but aol always freezes they should of made a 64 bit verson but as people say all that changes it there site and support location, and one last thing the anti virsi thing sucks it blocks all my other things for working!!!
Buyer beware: Read your service agreements with AOL before signing up, or better yet DONT SIGN UP with AOL. Learn from my mistake!
I signed up for a 90 Risk Free Offer with AOL. The day after I signed up, I was charged $25.90. I called & they explained that during the 90 day risk FREE trial, you will be charged regardless, even if you cancel the service, you are tied into 3 months of charges. After further investigation, the people at AOL state that unless you ASK FOR A REFUND, you will be charged & when you cancel, the charges will remain on your credit card unless you specify that you want A REFUND! AOL has questionable billing practices & if you do join & decide to cancel its much easier to send them a fax requesting to cancel, & oh yea – dont forget to ASK FOR A REFUND!
heelp me.i’m stuck with aol dial-up and not sure how to change to tiscali broadband.should i tell aol to f–k off first? or change to tiscali and then tell aol to f–k off.i’ve tried to get of aol twice and it hasn’t worked.
Dudeselwyn, I’m assuming you’re in the UK? If so, simply contact AOL Cancellations department and cancel your account. Insist on it, no matter what they say. It may take a while for them to get the message, but be firm, and, just before you hang up, ask them to confirm your AOL is now cancelled. Then contact Tiscali, and go through the procedure of becoming a customer with them. They may ask you to sign up for dial-up (on a non-contract basis), then immediately request upgrade to broadband.
stupid americans instead of crying about the risk free trial why dont u read the terms of service next time
f–k you lindsey. you’re stupid. “why sign up for a service that your not willing to pay for?” maybe because it was a free trial you idiot.
Dudeselwyn… Or anyone else who signs up for Broadband with ANY company who go through BT, 90% of the problems with the service, as in connection (before any dickheads start talking about customers service), is down to BT, I’ve worked in a few callcenters, and the biggest problem is BT put their own company first, so if you’re with someone else, and the service goes, a lot of the time they do nothing about it.
As for AOL, as a company, they are shite to work for, money is crap, management are assholes (most of them), they treat their people like crap, and especially in the cancellations dept, if you have too many people cancelling on you, you could lose your job.
If you are going for Broadband, go Cable, not NTL, but a small local company, if possible. In my own experience, they’ve always gave the best service
@ Mick, you are actually a bit wrong there about BT. I had some lines issues when I got Broadband and had an enginereer come out (from what I thought was BT) turns out the Engineer is from BT Open Reach. BT Open Reach handle all the broadband exchanges in the UK. I asked the engineer if a BT customer would get preference, I was informed that BT and every other ISP in the UK has to submit a request to BT Open Reach if there is a service issue. So no, no preference, all ISP`s have to wait the same time.
Oh and AOL sucks, Ive paid for a couple extra months after I cancelled too. Bastards.
I’ve been using AOL since 1998 and I am still using AOL today, version 9.0vr (Vista Ready) on my current computer 10 years later. I do agree that AOL customer service is garbage but I love AOL and have had very little problems with their service after all these years. AOL isn’t going anywhere and I will continue to use AOL as long as they’re in business. GO AOL!!!
aol is a serously stupid piece of bs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-i hate the s@$# out of aol!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i know it’s a piece of fcn bs!!!!!
ben…i still think it’s retarded-it’s impossible to use!!!!!!!-i’m with all the people who hate aol canada!!!!!!!
i agree with you guys it’s so stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it’s so gay
oh fuck
tits
WHAT THE DEUCE
Has AOL died yet or should we light torches?
Is there any way to make AOL pay for holding my “FREE” account hostage, and allowing someone to use my old E-mail to send malicious E-mails to people on my old address book? I can not get them to cancel it .
CHILD ABUSE IS GOOD, SUPPORT IT