Cancel AOL service?
Got AOL? Ever tried to cancel AOL service? Ever been billed month after month for AOL service even after you’ve canceled? Help is on the way.
AOL, the largest provider of Internet access in the US, if not the entire world, has started to crumble following a court decision in New York in a case pitting the state Attorney General against the online giant.
Eliot Spitzer, the New York State Attorney General, said, “This agreement helps ensure that AOL will strive to keep its customers through quality service, not stealth retention programs,”
That would be a welcome respite from the usual cancellation procedure. Callers are often (or at least have been in the past) chastised for their choice to cancel and offered free months of access to stay with the service. I’ve heard of customers who used the free 25 years of access the first month and tried to cancel only to be offered more time for free. I have know of one customer who had access to AOL for eight months and never paid a dime simply because the “help desk” kept offering more months free in an attempt to keep him as a customer.
I’ve also heard of AOL subscribers who were billed a monthly service fee for up to a year after they had cancelled service. I’ve even heard of subscribers who cancelled and cut up their credit cards on the spot, then called the card’s bank and explained they had cancelled AOL and would like a new credit card with a different number. No questions were asked by the banks so one could only assume this was a common practice.
And it’s no wonder. In the second quarter AOL lost a reported 917,000 subscribers in the US. They now claim a total of 20.8 million, down from a high back in the ‘90s of 39 million or so. Ad revenues tend to drop when you hemorrhage nearly a million users in a three-month period, and that doesn’t count the reported loss of an additional 100,000 European users in the same quarter.
Now I’ve never witnessed this type of behavior myself, mind you. I have nothing but good things to say about AOL and would NEVER speak evil about their wonderful service and well written applications.
Yeah, right. And I find Imelda Marcos strangely attractive. Who are we kidding, I counsel any and all to avoid AOL as well as ANY ISP that requires you to install additional software. This includes MSN, Juno, NetZero, PeoplePC and AOL properties CompuServe, Wal-Mart Connect and Netscape.
You have everything you need to get online already onboard, regardless if you use Windows, Linux or OSX.
Basically if you use a service like those mentioned above I would strongly suggest switching to cable, DSL or wireless broadband. If you HAVE to use dialup go with a straight ISP. Likely there are several with local numbers in your area, just check the phone book or ask at the local computer shop.
Remember, the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle applies to PCs as much as it does to lesson plans or politics.
Until next week…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
pcguru@microdome.net
AOL, the largest provider of Internet access in the US, if not the entire world, has started to crumble following a court decision in New York in a case pitting the state Attorney General against the online giant.
Eliot Spitzer, the New York State Attorney General, said, “This agreement helps ensure that AOL will strive to keep its customers through quality service, not stealth retention programs,”
That would be a welcome respite from the usual cancellation procedure. Callers are often (or at least have been in the past) chastised for their choice to cancel and offered free months of access to stay with the service. I’ve heard of customers who used the free 25 years of access the first month and tried to cancel only to be offered more time for free. I have know of one customer who had access to AOL for eight months and never paid a dime simply because the “help desk” kept offering more months free in an attempt to keep him as a customer.
I’ve also heard of AOL subscribers who were billed a monthly service fee for up to a year after they had cancelled service. I’ve even heard of subscribers who cancelled and cut up their credit cards on the spot, then called the card’s bank and explained they had cancelled AOL and would like a new credit card with a different number. No questions were asked by the banks so one could only assume this was a common practice.
And it’s no wonder. In the second quarter AOL lost a reported 917,000 subscribers in the US. They now claim a total of 20.8 million, down from a high back in the ‘90s of 39 million or so. Ad revenues tend to drop when you hemorrhage nearly a million users in a three-month period, and that doesn’t count the reported loss of an additional 100,000 European users in the same quarter.
Now I’ve never witnessed this type of behavior myself, mind you. I have nothing but good things to say about AOL and would NEVER speak evil about their wonderful service and well written applications.
Yeah, right. And I find Imelda Marcos strangely attractive. Who are we kidding, I counsel any and all to avoid AOL as well as ANY ISP that requires you to install additional software. This includes MSN, Juno, NetZero, PeoplePC and AOL properties CompuServe, Wal-Mart Connect and Netscape.
You have everything you need to get online already onboard, regardless if you use Windows, Linux or OSX.
Basically if you use a service like those mentioned above I would strongly suggest switching to cable, DSL or wireless broadband. If you HAVE to use dialup go with a straight ISP. Likely there are several with local numbers in your area, just check the phone book or ask at the local computer shop.
Remember, the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle applies to PCs as much as it does to lesson plans or politics.
Until next week…
Kevin Mefford, Editor
pcguru@microdome.net
