Good bye AOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been trying for 4 or 5 years to talk my wife into getting rid of AOL. I haven't used AOL myself since 3.0 version.
We have had Comcast Cable for about 3yrs ($40 a month)+($28 a month AOL). Finally talked her into canceling it! She cancelled AOL by FAX, sending all information required from a printout retrieved from AOL 8.0. 2 wks later we receive a notice in the mail, Not enough information to cancel. She remitted a second FAX, 2 wks later a notice in the mail, not enough information to cancel.
I'm not sure why the wife didn't call AOL in the first place, but Monday I called. AOL tactics, Whatever the cost don't let the customer quit! Offer free this and that! Let them know AOL will work with cable for only $10 a month, Etc... I was told we are paid up until October 6th which P's me off, if they had cancelled when first requested we would have already saved $28! Bunch of BS! ;) Anyway We Are Cancelled!

You're a good man... and give the wife a hug for us! Congrats.

Sorry to hear all you went thru',,might not be much concilation,,but you aren't the 'only' one that's suffered this kind of [*-deleted word-*] from AOHell. :( I personally will never use their so-called internet service or anything else that has their name attached! :mad:

(*** Polite language only please *** - WSUA 3. a.)

Quote:

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Originally posted by Ridgerunr
I personally will never use their so-called internet service or anything else that has their name attached!

---

Man - I am with you there! I quit AOL in 1996 after only 2 months when they went to an unlimited format and didn't think to increase capacity to handle all the extra traffic. We couldn't log on between 7am and 11pm!

congradulations

welcome to the real 'world wide wow!'

enjoy your new ferrari

I had a similar experience. I also had to finally call to cancel. But before cancelling, I had heard that AOL reps wouldn't let customers cancel unless they gave them a reason why! So when I called, surprise, surprise, the AOL rep on the phone wanted a reason for why I was cancelling. After about five minutes of repeatingly telling him "No, I'm not going to give you a reason" he finally relented.

I could have spent that five minutes listing all the reasons why AOL [*-deleted word-*], but then that would be playing on their terms. So when you call to cancel AOL do not give them a reason - it drives them nuts.

I Hate AOf.....gL. they blocked my isp, my ISP, (misn.com), claiming "too much junk email was comming from it". So I can't send email to anyone using their slimy service.

I am going to get a t-shirt made saying

Friends
Dont Let
Friends
AOL

on front and "AOL [*-deleted word-*]" on the back. Hell I might just put it on my web page with the microsoft hate there also.

Congratulations for dumping the trash!

Rick Harvey

I used AOL when I didn't know any better. I signed on for free and then cancelled the week before they commenced billing, got an additional 3 months for free and then cancelled after another 10 weeks, got another 3 months free this lasted for a year and a half. Eventually they cancelled my account I guess they finally believed me when I told them I didn't feel the service was worth paying for. :D

The question now is did you get it completely off your computer? If not sure read this .

The only AOL anything I'll use, ever, is AOL Instant Messenger. Even that is getting some serious competition from MSN Messenger with its huge buddy icons, custom emoticons, skins and integrated webcamming.

Just want to let everyone know, AOL was Never my Idea! It was the Wife! brindle26, yes its off! I just installed a Seagate 120gb SATA hard drive, also at this time I loaded XP Pro instead of XP Home. NO AOL! :)

Kinda' ironic,,sittin' here looking at a neat lil' case that came in the mail today. Says: 'Try all new AOL 9.0 OPTIMIZED :eek:

1045 hours FREE . And in fine print under it says: for 45 days

Les'see now,,,there are 1080 hours in 45 days,,so,,you'd have to be online with cuddly AOL for about 23 hours per day to take advantage of 'all' those 'free' hours? Thoroughly annoyed that they think i have the I.Q. of a paperclip! :mad:

Won't even hang it on the fence to scare birds out'ta the garden this time...Into the dumper it goes,,,SPLOOT! along with the rotten squash...:D

LOL bugspop1
That's the one and only sure way of getting rid of ao....lllllll
Now that you have a new HD don't go and replace ao..lll with norton

I hear you all and agree, I had AOL for 2 years. I got 1 free year for buying a Gateway computer then like you guys have said it's very hard to quit. Finally I got away and signed with ATT. It's a lot better, but still not what I want.

Where do I go from here? Which is the best? Any? Or are they pretty much the same. (excluding AOL) I'm stumped!!

aol Should go into the septic tank cleaning business, because the contents of a full septic tank is what aol [*-deleted word-*].

One thing here almost everyone agrees on, is the fact aol [*-deleted word-*] and [*-deleted word-*] up computers. But I will give them benefit of the doubt, maybe in a hundred years they will finally get it right......Nah, they will still [*-deleted word-*]!

I wonder if the aol designers make sure to take their name badges off before leaving work, to keep from getting hit in the head with a brick?

I cant even remember how many friends got a so called free disk, and [*-deleted word-*] up their computers, then they come begging for a help fix.

:) LOL at Ridgerunr: "Won't even hang it on the fence to scare birds out'ta the garden this time..."

I also got a free year of AOL with a Gateway notebook. Biggest mistake I made was activating that account. Not counting the minutes I spent disconnected, one afternoon of use was enough for me. Freebie expires next month, guess I should begin the extrication process now, before they start billing my credit card...

I am proud to say the only time I ever had aol on my puter was back in 95-7? somewhere round there, And the ONLY thing I used it for was to get some free ISP's to dial into....'dial into....sounds so prehistoric' after I got my ISP's I logged out of AOHELL and uninstalled all there software and have NEVER USED IT SINCE...I dont even use there version of AIM...i use trillian...and Since that sad sad day that I had AOL on my pc I have since had 5 pc's and the one that HAD aol is LOOOOONG gone!!!

I originally installed AOL's free trial in order to get information regarding other ISP's. Never understood why it was so hard to do research on them (oh, wait, that's right... AOL blocked their competitions' websites!). I stuck with them for about a year, mainly because I was too lazy to find out how to cancel. This was back in the 3.0 days, when they wouldn't post any of ther phone numbers or their email so you knew how to cancel. I finally found the number to call, and when I spoke with the rep I explained how disappointed I was with AOL. I told them I didn't get decent service, and was tired of people sending me loads of spam cause I used AOL. To make matters worse, AOL wouldn't let me view any of the attachments, nor could I view pictures in the emails. The rep offered to give me 3 months free service, at which point he would deactivate my account. Sounded fine with me, free service and no more hassles. Boy was I ignorant! At the end of the three months, they billed me for a total of 4 months. The three 'free' months plus a month in advance. I called and complained, explaining that they were supposed to cancel my account. After speaking with about three reps, I finally spoke with a supervisor. She asked me who I had spoken with, what their employee number was and blah blah blah (like people can remember that after three months!). Luckily I had typed that info in to a Word document and saved it. I passed that info along to her, and not surprisingly, that 'employee' never existed, nor did the employee number I gave them. I was irate. How could they explain the 3 months of free service? They claim it was a fluke, and thats why they were billing me for 4.

AOL Sucks. I am their biggest (non)fan.

Well put Jslater25

Man, you guys are all just missing the boat! I have the most beautiful set of coasters in my office, all of them beautifully printed, some with their own little custom cases, and matched in size.

None of my tables have water circles on them, and I have enough of these coasters to sponsor a 6-table poker party, and my total investment is $0!

Maybe you're just not lookin' at this AOL software issue from the proper perspective?!

;)

I especially like the little tin containers they've been sending out lately, maybe I can find someone who can use them for a craft project.....

Anyone check lately on those guys in CA who were trying to collect 1 million AOL CD's? Over 200k already.

shiva_42 that was great - you got me in stiches. You put it best!! Very well done.

Anyway I used to work for a call center in 2002. I was not part of this so don't jump on me; I worked for another part of the call center that had cellphone payments coming in. Anyway my friend also worked for this call center but for the AOL tech support side. Oh My God the stories she would tell me about how they trained her. The most important thing in training was, no matter what always try to keep the customer from cacnelling and do what ever you have to in order to accomplish this. But I found out one thing though; we can't always blame the tech support rep on the phone for AOL. It is mandated that while you are an AOL tech support rep you are only allowed "X" number of minutes to be on the phone with a customer to solve their problem. If you excede that time you are penalized and repremanded for spending too much time on the phone solving the problems. You are only allowed to provide one solution as quickly as possible and encourage the customer that this will solve their problem and even if that was the 20th time theywere calling and are irate as hell becus they are still having the same problem you still have to end their call by offering to sell them a product/service - oh sorry, you don't offer "You shove it down their throats". This is truth. My friend fianlly quit because she could not handle having to do this to people. She did not have it in her heart to throw them to the wolves like that. She had people screaming at her on the phone and she knew theywould be screamingeven louder when she would have to make the sales pitch. So we can't blam the tech reps, only AOL which makes the rules theyhave to follow.

This does not mean that AOL does not suck though.

Just figured I would drop that in their for those AOL tech reps that have to make a living.

After reading this post and seeing other complaints about cancelling AOL in the past, I decided to get a jump on the issue. (Per my earlier post, I got a year free of AOL with a notebook PC. Service was so poor I quit using AOL the first afternoon.)

Free period expired 11/1. On 10/17 I called AOL to cancel. Thanks to the info in this post, I was prepared (the rep was persistent, even going so far as to ask if I'd tried a new modem. Yeah, I'm going to rush right out and get one when AOL bumps me offline 10 times in an hour, but other ISPs are no problem. ) I finally told him ' I understand it's your job to keep me as a customer, but I do not want the service, period.' So he said it was cancelled and gave me a confirmation number.

That was a bit too easy. Left me a little leery. In an attempt to head AOL off at the pass should they try to bill my account, I promptly zipped off a letter to my credit card company informing them of the AOL situation, cancellation date and confirmation number and that should AOL charge my account I would neither accept nor pay for it. C.C. company then sent me a letter back saying "We cannot stop or prevent payment to merchants for purchases after you have given them your card or account number. As soon as merchants submit their charges, we are required to send payment to them. Therefore, we are unable to stop payment on the charges requested."

Oh, for Pete's sake. So I called my c.c. company. They said if AOL does indeed ignore my request (as they have been known to do with others) and bills my c.card, the only recourse is to dispute the charge and continue trying to cancel AOL.

What a royal pain in the behind. Wish I had never opened the Pandora's Box called AOL. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed that they do not try to bill my account.

Good for you!! When I tried to cancell my AOL acct they tried to keep me by offering another FREE month.
But I am glas I.m with BT Broadband now and not had any probs.

Is there any way we can ask the government to regulate this malpractice?
I would like to send this thread to AOL people. Could anyone show me how?
Thanks

I'm only an armchair lawyer, but this issue sounds ripe for a class-action lawsuit to me. Maybe the ACLU would like to take on a meaningful issue for a change?

It would appear that the state of Ohio is indeed taking action:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33635.html

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12384

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-break...1623-9773r.htm

Great links, SuperSparks!

Here's the complaint filed in The Court of Common Pleas, Franklin County, OH

State of Ohio vs. AOL Compuserve

When i get the aol cds i throw them like a frisbee acroos the garden and use the dvd cases 4 my cd's.

AOL are a f****** pile of s***.

They obviously haven't got the idea that once uve been on them once, u will never ever use them again.

Online tech support??
Wat online tech support? Its basically non existent!!

They give u a pre made "problem solver" thingy and when u tell them it didn't work they send u another exactly the same. They kept doing this to me until i gave up and cancelled.

http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...hreadid=149585

Yet another AOL problem

Okay, I've listened and have been convinced. Have used AOL since 1995 and am still using it. Time to move on.......what do you think of Earthlink?

Quote:

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Originally posted by brindle26
The question now is did you get it completely off your computer? If not sure read this .

---

Are there any problems or concerns in following the procedures suggested in this quote?

Just an update, I did receive written confirmation today from AOL via snail mail that they cancelled my account. So if somehow a charge does end up on my c. card, at least I've got a little bit of ammo. ;) Suspect AOL is on their toes now with The Lawsuit.


GOth 52: I used Earthlink for 6 months. No problems, no complaints, consistently got 44-46 Kbps connection speed. I just cancelled that as well, but it was a price issue (I got AT&T for $11.95 as a special offer to land line customers vs. $19.95 for Earthlink.) A side note: when I cancelled Earthlink, the rep (very courteous) informed me that Earthlink just bought out peoplepc, and rates are much lower ($10.95/mo. unlimited, no credit card required). Know a couple peoplepc users, and they're happy so far. -Kat

U live in UK Or America??

Coz if u live in UK NTL is good

Quote:

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Originally posted by G0th52


Are there any problems or concerns in following the procedures suggested in this quote?

---

I have not had any problems in the past using this process. Fact use it anytime I delete a program. The warning is because you are editing the registry and anytime that is done and you make a mistake it's trouble.
If you really want a program gone and especially ones like ao**ll,norton, incredimail and others you must edit the registry.
I would add one operation to step #4.. after deleting ao**ll from the mentioned key press F3 to search for all other references to ao**ll and press F3 after each deletion until all have been found and deleted.

Think I might change from AOL to Earthlink, but it took 3 days to just be able to get the Earthlink connection to work and:

Been with AOL since 1995 and haven't experience a lot of the horror stories that I've read about. Anyhow, Earthlink sends me a CD with a promotion offer. Here are two things that bother me and am not sure if they are good or bad:

When I completed connection to Earthlink then Zonealarm asked me if I would allow "InstallShield update service agent" to access the internet. Never heard of it before and didn't allow access. Anyone know what this is about?

Secondly, I went to dial-up networking in control panel and there was a dial-up profile connection that had been created for the IP address or Host name of 192.168.0.1 which appears to be a connection to some sort of shopping something or other. Anyone know about this one? Note: I did not use it for connection but the connect for it kept popping up whenever I started my computer so I checked it out some, but would prefer more info on it.

Hi GOth52,
I never relied on Earthlink's software, so don't have answers to your questions. I just created a Network Connection for Earthlink (running XP). BTW, if you're interested at all in peoplepc mentioned in my post above, I was out this afternoon and their CDs are turning up in stores, Circuit City and Office Max to name a couple. -Kat

I just cancelled my AOL. The repesentative was courteous, but the phrase " may I ask the reason why you want to cancel" still came up, which I think It was legitimate considering AOL would like to keep its customers.
This is the part I find outrageous: three days later, one AOL representative called me at home, in the evening and at an hour where I was enjoying my dinner, talking bla bla bla, about bringing me back to AOL.

curious why you spent $28 a month for so long, not cuz I am anti AOL, but if you have high speed it is only $9 a month to TCP/IP into AOL. I keep for my daughter. its called "bring your own service" and AOL likes it because it keeps their server traffic down.

I am surprised how many people have another ISP and keep paying full price to keep AOL.

Daneph2,
It was because she liked AOL and also used the accout at work instead of the employer paid Verizon dial-up account Cable was "MY" choice!