PDA

View Full Version : AOL are messing me about....



percy toboggan
12-Nov-08, 19:37
I've been with 'em for about ten years...never late with payment as it's taken from a credit card...the only thing I use that particular card for.

After a new card was issued and I was slightly late in activating it my latest AOL payment was missed. They cut me orf!! I mean...they flippin' well CUT ME OFF after just forty eight hours...without a by your leave..or is it a bye or leave...dunno!

Anyway...I wasn't happy. I rang them last night and could barely understand the Indian on the other end of t'phone. Worse still, he could barely understand me....I had to repeat everything!...still at least he didn't try to fool me that his name was Eric.

So, after a blast...and another one at his immediate 'boss' my service has been restored.

This though, may well be the last straw....last month AOL ended the 'hometown' facility, which gave every member substantial amounts of webspapce to build their own site. I've been at it for years...nothing too serious just travel writing and the like. I thank all who looked at it, but neither of you will ever see it's like again because they have taken down the whole lot!

Last weekend when I logged onto my 'photo' galleries they tell me they too will be removed at the end of the year and I now have to sign up with some German outfit. I'm far from happy...'Photobox' the firm they have always used were brilliant in terms of quality, price and speed of despatch.

AOL costs me £18.50 a month, which allegedly includes McAfee security.
I'm looking for another ISP, preferably one which allots me enough space to build a site and offers fairly easy site building software as standard.

poppett
12-Nov-08, 19:43
Give PIPEX a try. We pay £19 per month for speedy broadband and free calls to 01 02 and 03 numbers 24/7. It`s set up on a paperfree bill sent by email about two weeks before the direct debit is due to come out of the bank account. The bills have always been correct, and the bank payments never taken early, unlike BT with whom we have our landline connection only.

They have a few different price plans on their website to suit all needs.

Hope they can do it for you.

MadPict
12-Nov-08, 19:57
Word of warning - Pipex is now owned by Tiscali - who took over Lineone. The old Lineone customers were less than nice about the Tiscali service and their forums were full of complaints. I'm not sure if things have improved recently but I am with Pipex and I am not that happy about the speed of my connection. I am within 5k of the exchange but I rarely see anything higher that 1.5mbps even though I am on a "up to 8Mbps" package!!!
Ironic really - started out with Lineone, then left when they became Tiscali, joined Applica, they got taken over by Tiscali, then went to Pipex, then they get taken over by Tiscali!!!

This might give you some hints - they reckon O2 is the best deal right now...

http://fwd.five.tv/videos/jon-test-best-broadband-deal

AOL are crap - bet they will do everything they can to stop you leaving when you give them notice. I know they did with me - even offered me free months to stay. The fact to even have a trial with them you have to hand over your CC details is enough to put you off...

percy toboggan
12-Nov-08, 20:03
Yes, they offered me a free month about five years ago and I took it - bit of a tart really. Since then no probs.. THe homepage is a bit like a diluted Daily Star lately - celebs and stuff. Still , in fairness, I didn't have any real complaints until recently.

Thanks folks.

lazytown
12-Nov-08, 21:20
I am with plusnet and never have a problem with them. Although last year they lost a lot of folks emails by accident, but these are one off incidents. I get a 7Mb connection, my connection is always stable as well.

Gizmo
12-Nov-08, 21:26
Get a MAC key and sign up with any of the Entanet resellers, you will not find better ISP's in the UK, i am with Freeola and have never had a single problem with them, their speed is top notch and they do not have any form of traffic shaping or bandwidth throttling when it gets busy, and they work on a month to month contract so you don't have to sign up for a year, i have used quite a few of the big name ISP's over the years and every one of them have been rubbish for heavy internet use, Freeola are superb and i cannot recommend them highly enough.

http://freeola.com/

http://adsl24.co.uk/

MadPict
12-Nov-08, 21:29
My speed is down to 177.10kbps right now!!!!!!

8mbps may backside!!!!

Kevin Milkins
12-Nov-08, 21:32
If you are out of contract with AOL Percy I should ask them for a migration code and leg it.

I am suprised our friend Eric let you get back on line without you signing up to a new contract that will tie you in for another 18 months.

The problem is with most ISP, is you don't know how badly you have been shafted untill you try to go to another server and then all the good deals come from under the table.

If you leave AOL your next problem will be getting rid all of the crap that they have put on your puter.:confused

Good luck and feel liberated

cemmts
12-Nov-08, 21:43
Getting rid of the AOL programs are in a way easy. I've been with AOL for so long I can’t remember lol... But ever since they sold the UK part to Carphone it’s gone rapidly down hill day by day. The Indian call centre are illegible and frustrating. Remember the days of a free gift each month lol. I pay around £50 a month for aol but not for much longer........

Metalattakk
12-Nov-08, 23:35
i am with Freeola and have never had a single problem with them, their speed is top notch and they do not have any form of traffic shaping or bandwidth throttling when it gets busy../

All the Entanet resellers are subject to Enta's own Anti Loss Tool (ALT) which does indeed 'manage' the traffic when it gets busy (usually 10pm to 12 midnight, and early evenings at weekends), but the ALT does it in a different way than most. It decreases everyone's maximum speed to about 2Mbps but crucially, this lets them keep the ping rates very low. Good for gamers and VoIP users. And unless you're hammering your connection, you'll hardly notice the drop to 2Mbps.

I've been with Entanet (UKFSN) for 18 months now, and I can't recommend them high enough. Have never come across a company that is so open about what they are doing, nor about what their service provides.

MadPict
12-Nov-08, 23:45
I have fired off an email to complain about my speed (or lack of it) on this Pipex package - we'll see if my logging speedtests since March makes any difference.
As I am an O2 customer now I may just look at their BB packages.

Metalattakk
12-Nov-08, 23:48
They'll just come back with endless questions about router stats and signal to noise ratios, blame it on your internal wiring and then they'll decide that there's nothing wrong at all.

Trust me. ;)

Gizmo
12-Nov-08, 23:56
All the Entanet resellers are subject to Enta's own Anti Loss Tool (ALT) which does indeed 'manage' the traffic when it gets busy (usually 10pm to 12 midnight, and early evenings at weekends), but the ALT does it in a different way than most. It decreases everyone's maximum speed to about 2Mbps but crucially, this lets them keep the ping rates very low. Good for gamers and VoIP users. And unless you're hammering your connection, you'll hardly notice the drop to 2Mbps.

I've been with Entanet (UKFSN) for 18 months now, and I can't recommend them high enough. Have never come across a company that is so open about what they are doing, nor about what their service provides.

Well i'm a heavy downloader and even between 10pm/12am i can still download around the 4/5Mbps mark, i'm connecting at the moment at 5629kbps, very rarely have i ever seen my speed drop to the 2Mbps level.

Metalattakk
12-Nov-08, 23:58
Well i'm a heavy downloader and even between 10pm/12am i can still download around the 400/500kbps mark, i'm connecting at the moment at 5629kbps, very rarely have i ever seen my speed drop to the 2Mbps level.

Yep, 'cos all the centrals are green - http://www.hmmm.ip3.co.uk/enta-centrals.shtml - so the ALT hasn't needed to kick in yet. ;)

As an aside, how many other ISPs will let you have this information?

Gizmo
13-Nov-08, 00:07
Yep, 'cos all the centrals are green - http://www.hmmm.ip3.co.uk/enta-centrals.shtml - so the ALT hasn't needed to kick in yet. ;)

As an aside, how many other ISPs will let you have this information?

Thanks for that, i've been looking for a new status page for which Central Pipe you are connected to for a while now, the old Entachoice page has been gone for sometime, i've just been using the http://noc.enta.net/ page, but it doesn't tell you which central you are connected to.

We should also add that there is no peer to peer port blocking with Entanet.

Boozeburglar
13-Nov-08, 08:40
The Indian call centre are illegible and frustrating.

Illegible?

Every call I have made to an Indian call centre has been as fruitful and pleasant as calls to those based, say, in the Glasgow area.

Perhaps AOL have trainied their operatives to confuse and refuse. How else could they milk £50 a month from anyone nowadays for internet access?

£50 a month?

Bizarre.

NLP
13-Nov-08, 11:52
[quote=Boozeburglar;457389]Illegible?



How else could they milk £50 a month from anyone nowadays for internet access?

£50 a month?

easy Internet and phone we were paying over £60 a month needless to say we have now gone elsewhere.

Mizpah
13-Nov-08, 15:37
I've been with 'em for about ten years...never late with payment as it's taken from a credit card...the only thing I use that particular card for.

After a new card was issued and I was slightly late in activating it my latest AOL payment was missed. They cut me orf!! I mean...they flippin' well CUT ME OFF after just forty eight hours...without a by your leave..or is it a bye or leave...dunno!

Anyway...I wasn't happy. I rang them last night and could barely understand the Indian on the other end of t'phone. Worse still, he could barely understand me....I had to repeat everything!...still at least he didn't try to fool me that his name was Eric.

So, after a blast...and another one at his immediate 'boss' my service has been restored.

This though, may well be the last straw....last month AOL ended the 'hometown' facility, which gave every member substantial amounts of webspapce to build their own site. I've been at it for years...nothing too serious just travel writing and the like. I thank all who looked at it, but neither of you will ever see it's like again because they have taken down the whole lot!

Last weekend when I logged onto my 'photo' galleries they tell me they too will be removed at the end of the year and I now have to sign up with some German outfit. I'm far from happy...'Photobox' the firm they have always used were brilliant in terms of quality, price and speed of despatch.

AOL costs me £18.50 a month, which allegedly includes McAfee security.
I'm looking for another ISP, preferably one which allots me enough space to build a site and offers fairly easy site building software as standard.

Hi know how you feel I was aN AO: customer for a long time but the service got so bad earlier this yerr I shifted to BTInternet and have not regretted it once.:lol:

Kodiak
13-Nov-08, 16:33
AOL I would not touch with a Barge Pole let alone have any of their Progs on my Computer.

If you watch the Gadget Show on Ch 5 you will have seen that after a consumer test that O2 Broadband came out the Best ISP but SKY Broadband was the ONLY ISP to provide a Genuine 100% Unlimited Download.

Personally I am with orange and so far have had no problems. If and when I do I will then look around for a better and cheaper

Kevin Milkins
13-Nov-08, 16:54
Hi know how you feel I was aN AO: customer for a long time but the service got so bad earlier this yerr I shifted to BTInternet and have not regretted it once.:lol:

I think I moved from AOL to BT at the same time as Mizpar and the thread at that time was about the same as this one.
I have had many a run in with BT over the years over bad service,price,value for money Etc, but I have to say this time around all has been good and at last I feel as if I am getting a very good value for money package.

Gizmo
13-Nov-08, 17:54
AOL I would not touch with a Barge Pole let alone have any of their Progs on my Computer.

If you watch the Gadget Show on Ch 5 you will have seen that after a consumer test that O2 Broadband came out the Best ISP but SKY Broadband was the ONLY ISP to provide a Genuine 100% Unlimited Download.

Personally I am with orange and so far have had no problems. If and when I do I will then look around for a better and cheaper

No, O2 came out on top with the best overall deal, that's a long way from being the best ISP.

percy toboggan
13-Nov-08, 17:58
I apolosige for the grammatical error: the thread should read...
AOL is messing me about...
because there is only one AOL. (in Europe anyway, but that's splitting hairs)

Boss
15-Nov-08, 21:23
Percy, my husband would be with you all the way on the dreaded incompetence of AOL.
There's only one problem and that is that I like it regardless of it's faults.
Believe me when I say that there are worse IP out there, orange are terrible, bt is terrible, at least with aol you get to talk (if need be with a human), even if they do tell lies assuming of course they can speak english in the first place.
I would, however, if I was you query your costs as this seems awfully high.