Any AOL haters out there?


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/columnists.nsf/techtalk/story/A0F7FD49EFA6565A862571BF006C005A?OpenDocument

Check this out

Wow, that sucks!

Now, just imagine if someone wrote in their Will "I give my AOL account to my _____". Now THAT would be one screwed up gift, LOL.

She let that go on far longer then I would have. After a week of it not being resolved, I would have threatened legal action. After a month, I would have initiated a small claims action against them so they knew I was serious. I guarantee you that it wouldn't have lasted much longer then that...

I don't really care too much. AOL admitted their mistake, they admitted they ****ed up, they get brownie points for once.

No, no they didn't. To admit their mistake they would need to say "We are greedy morons that try low and pathetic tactics in order to keep billing people so it would make it look like we've got tons of customers."

My reason why I never ever got AOL.

Like I need more reasons to hate AOL.

It was a mistake. You're making stupid, unsupported claims on their behalf. They're working to rectify the mistake.

AOL isn't as bad as everyone seems to think.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]It was a mistake. You're making stupid, unsupported claims on their behalf. They're working to rectify the mistake.

AOL isn't as bad as everyone seems to think.[/QUOTE]

It isn't?

The only good thing that came from AOL is their IM, which even then I prefer MSN to.

And they're working to rectify the mistake because basically this is bad press.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]It was a mistake. You're making stupid, unsupported claims on their behalf. They're working to rectify the mistake.

AOL isn't as bad as everyone seems to think.[/QUOTE]

Have you ever canceled an AOL account? Nuff said.

These "mistakes" have been going on for YEARS. It's not changing.

Hell, when I was cancelling AOL to get roadrunner back in 2000, what should have been a 5 minute phone call turned into a HALF AN HOUR argument about why roadrunner is better than AOL.

I finally gave the guy an ultimatem that if he didn't cancel my account when I hang up, I was going to sue the company. That seemed to do the trick.

It shouldn't be like this, and it pisses me off every time I think about it.

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]Have you ever canceled an AOL account? Nuff said.

These "mistakes" have been going on for YEARS. It's not changing.

Hell, when I was cancelling AOL to get roadrunner back in 2000, what should have been a 5 minute phone call turned into a HALF AN HOUR argument about why roadrunner is better than AOL.

I finally gave the guy an ultimatem that if he didn't cancel my account when I hang up, I was going to sue the company. That seemed to do the trick.

It shouldn't be like this, and it pisses me off every time I think about it.[/QUOTE]
AOL used to be horrible, everyone knows that. They're not anymore. And it IS changing. AOL is giving back to the internet community. They bought up Winamp and gave it new life instead of letting it die, and didn't change it much at all in the process. They give free bandwidth to TWiT, thousands of dollars worth of bandwidth so far in direct downloads, just so they can distribute their podcast.

I see them as a company that's on the reform for the better.

It's fine to bash how they used to be. However businesses change a lot in 6 years.

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]AOL used to be horrible, everyone knows that. They're not anymore. And it IS changing. AOL is giving back to the internet community. They bought up Winamp and gave it new life instead of letting it die, and didn't change it much at all in the process. They give free bandwidth to TWiT, thousands of dollars worth of bandwidth so far in direct downloads, just so they can distribute their podcast.

I see them as a company that's on the reform for the better.

It's fine to bash how they used to be. However businesses change a lot in 6 years.[/QUOTE]

Yet cancelling is still a *****. At least it was last week when my uncle cancelled his account.

And I propose that the "giving back" part comes from Time Warner's end of the business, not AOL :p

And wasn't AOL responsible for the hellish Winamp3?

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]Yet cancelling is still a *****. At least it was last week when my uncle cancelled his account.[/quote]
They try to keep their customers. Boo hoo.

[quote=Cool Matty]And I propose that the "giving back" part comes from Time Warner's end of the business, not AOL :p

And wasn't AOL responsible for the hellish Winamp3?[/QUOTE]
You can propose all you want, but the "giving back" is from AOL Time Warner, not Time Warner. They're one company, not two.

And even if AOL was "responsible" for Winamp 3 (which was just an experiment in usage of alternative skins which led to a lot of problems), they're also responsible for Winamp 5 which is better than any previous version.

Quit trying to put down the company just because you don't like them. They're alright now. Seriously, it's like listening to half of the stupid massassians around here going on about how "Maxtor sux cuz a harddrive I had died" or "Mac sux becuz they sux" and other idiotic statements.

Not Maxtor, Western Digital.

people are really paying $25 for dial up?? lawl!!

[QUOTE=Dj Yoshi]They try to keep their customers. Boo hoo.
[/quote]

I am sorry, but there is a limit to what a business should do to "keep customers". I don't care what the reason is, if they want to cancel, it should not be a huge charade.



A. I propose it came from the Time Warner end of the business, as I said before. Maybe making irrelevant statements makes you feel better or something, I dunno.

B. Sounds more to me like they forced Nullsoft to completely change their strategy, failed miserably, and then meekly covered up their mistake by allowing the developers to continue doing the work they WANTED to do in the first place.

C. Quit trying to boost the company just because YOU view them as "okay". It's a generally accepted point of view (with lots of evidence to the fact) that AOL is horribly flawed in its business practices. Seriously, its as if they're paying you to put them in a good light, when they absolutely do not deserve it.

If yer don't like AOL, den you can git out

[QUOTE=Cool Matty]I am sorry, but there is a limit to what a business should do to "keep customers". I don't care what the reason is, if they want to cancel, it should not be a huge charade.[/quote]
In your opinion. In the business' opinion, they're losing money. I personally can't fault them for not trying to persuade you to stay--though I don't think it's nice, it's good business practice.

[quote=Cool Matty]A. I propose it came from the Time Warner end of the business, as I said before. Maybe making irrelevant statements makes you feel better or something, I dunno.[/quote]
There's no "Time Warner" SIDE. It's ONE BUSINESS. You're the only one making irrelevant statements. How the hell did you pass high school economics without a firm grasp of what a company is?

[quote=Cool Matty]B. Sounds more to me like they forced Nullsoft to completely change their strategy, failed miserably, and then meekly covered up their mistake by allowing the developers to continue doing the work they WANTED to do in the first place.[/quote]
Translation: "I'm going to base my hatred for a company on my own suppositions about its staff and how it's effected a company they absolved, and nothing on fact. Hey, I'm cool."

No, you're not.

[quote=Cool Matty]C. Quit trying to boost the company just because YOU view them as "okay". It's a generally accepted point of view (with lots of evidence to the fact) that AOL is horribly flawed in its business practices. Seriously, its as if they're paying you to put them in a good light, when they absolutely do not deserve it.[/QUOTE]
I never said they were a good company. People just tend to see the worst in companies that are more benign that others make them out to be.

That's like saying Microsoft is a horrible company because its OS gets hacked often. That doesn't make the programmers idiots, that doesn't make the company horrible, that just makes Microsoft's OS the most targeted OS to hack. You have an irrational hatred of certain things--Apple (iPods in particular) and AOL among them.

It almost seems like someone's paying you to trash them as much as you can. There's facts that point to AOL being a poor company in the past, but not only do these "facts" that support the evidence of AOL being a poor company end up not being conclusive (individual harrasses you on behalf of AOL because he'll be in trouble if you cancel, so AOL sucks?), but most of the time they're from somewhere around the year 1998.