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| Ease of Use | 6/10   |
|---|---|
| Spam Protection | 10/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 2.5/10 |
| Overall Rating | 3.5/10 |
By JamesG830
on 28th Feb 2007
| Content | 0/10 |
|---|---|
| Overall value | 0/10 |
 JamesG830's recommendation | |
Good Home Page
Free broadband modem
Good web site/email box/Toolbar
Free connection and software plus unlimited downloads
Good connection speed
Bad modem/Software
Internet constantly freezing
Won't cancel subscriptions
Show no sympathy if you e.g. subscribe mistakenly 2 times
Exaggerate censorship on their message boarders
AOL is one of, if not, the biggest Internet service provider in the world. How do they manage to do it? The answer is simple: Marketing.
AOL knows how to attract customers by constantly mailing free AOL CD's to people's homes where they offer free Internet trial and you can hardly buy one PC magazine where a AOL CD doesn't pop out.
When it comes to the good points, AOL's Home Page is exceptional.
Everything is on the same page: email box, news, Instant messenger, free pop-up blocker, a very good Tool for easy access to web sites etc.
AOL's search engine is powered by Goggle, which is known as one of the best search engines - but on the other hand you can always just use google with any Internet Service provider!
The email box is very good, nice to look at and if you want to report junk mail, then there's a button below which says 'Report Spam', just click on it and voila - the junk mail has disappeared and been forwarded to a junk mail office that prevent the spam sender from continuing to send you the ever-annoying junk mail.
AOL also provides a free Pop-up blocker, chat rooms, chat message rooms, private conference rooms and a handy photo uploader, the speed is satisfying.
My partner and I originally signed up for AOL a few years ago for a dial-up connection, my partner did once sign up for another Internet service but made the mistake of simply forgetting to inform AOL for one year and they renewed her 1 year contract.
When I noticed her mistake, I called up AOL but there was no sympathy there. They didn't offer to refund a penny, give us free subscription or knock one single day off the 1-year renewed contract. I would have expected more sympathy than that.
Around 2003 we upgraded to broadband. AOL provide a Voyager 105 modem, free of charge if you sign up for one year. However, the quality of the 'Reliable, always-on connection Voyager 105' modem is very poor, I cannot count the times when I have tried to go online when the screen appeared 'AOL is not responding'.
I probably did talk more often to their Technical Help Support Line than to my family members!
The Indian based Technical support staff speak very poor English - yet are friendly and helpful. As I'm a patient man who values politeness above poor communication skills, I didn't bother too much, however, I cannot speak up for what others who are less patient than me would say.
There have also been countless complaints from customers that AOL does not send their 'Reliable, always-on connection Voyager 105' replacement modem when the customers ask for it.
The AOL software takes up a lot of space and slows your PC down. In 2006 AOL's software was 'honoured' as the worst software ever by the respected PC magazine PC World:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125772-page,2/article.html
What is less acceptable is that they do charge extra for calling up their Technical Help Line and you often have to wait on the phone for ages to get help. There are also complaints from deaf people that have to use Typetalk, that phoning them is a nightmare.
One thing did also surprise me; once I couldn't connect to the Internet for more than a day. When I called up their Technical Help Line, they blamed BT and claimed that the 'BT telephone line was down' but when I phoned up BT (I had no problems phoning them?), the BT staff explained to me that this wasn't true and that AOL knows very well that broadband has nothing to do with the telephone line.
When I phoned AOL Help Line again, they admitted that this was true. In other words, I had been lied to.
Now I come to the main point; if you are a current or future subscriber wait until you try to leave AOL and see what fun you have. If you want to cancel online you spend a long time looking for a link for this option as one doesn't exist.
If you want to email any enquiries, no matter if it is cancelling, requests for technical help, complaints etc. just don't bother - they never answer emails.
AOL is notorious for dishonestly continuing to charge people that want to cancel and if you don't believe me - be my guest and take a look at some other comments on this site or do some quick searches on the web.
What I consider the most disgusting thing about AOL is their unfair censorship on their message boards. I used to publish posters there and soon became popular for my articles.
However, AOL censor(ed) interesting posters while they leave bigots that poke insults at others alone - my friends used to publish interesting post but have now left the AOL message boards in disgust. This is simply not fair.
AOL once gave me a warning for talking about my political views despite me not using any swear words. I also once replied to one of the bigots I mentioned earlier and they began to spam me and wouldn't leave me alone - AOL eventually disconnected me.
I wrote a long letter to AOL where I told my side of the story. There are certain bigots that BOAST on the AOL message boards about how they insult others and get away with it.
They insulted me with name calling and swear words for no reason at all and continued to harass my IM/email box ages after they chased me away from the message borders and wouldn't leave my IM/email box alone despite me asking them politely to leave me alone.
I was in the process of writing a book and thanks to AOL's disconnection, I lost several months of hard work linked with my book writing, permission from other authors to refer to their articles etc.
I told AOL that if they think it's all right with them to warn or even ban people for talking about their political views without using one single swear word while they allow bigots to insult and harass others users then something is seriously wrong.
AOL never replied.
AOL is an Internet company that provides a poor Internet connection, blames others for their own technical faults and doesn't value or respect the freedom of speech of its users - while at the same time allowing bigots get away with harassment - simply not worth considering.
I have used BT and do currently use SKY and I guarantee that they are a much better alternative, e.g. I once cancelled my BT Internet subscription and they told me politely that they would cancel my subscription the same day and not charge me one day more - and kept their word.
How I wish that I had stayed with BT instead.
AOL is a big mean machine, which has forgotten about basic customer's rights. But the day will come that David will hit against Goliath and I am one amongst them. As the old saying goes, the bigger they are - the harder they fall.
If you are looking for an honest Internet service provider that doesn't give you a hard time when cancelling your account, sorting out other problems or merely engaging in debates then look elsewhere - AOL is not for you.
But if you do use AOL then I suggest that you cancel your account as soon as possible but expect for your phone call to take a long time - talk to your bank and let them block AOL from taking any more of your money!
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