AOL price increase*check your emails and action within 30 days*

espresso

sam1970 wrote: »

guys..i am thinking of leaving aol after being with them for 12 years...can i continue to use my aol email or will it have to go?

See this thread here

sam1970

thank you for your help

The_stingemeister

After receiving an email from AOL, which stated that if I changed my payment method from credit card to direct debit then I would avoid the price increase. I did change this...my latest bill is for £19.99! :mad:

Not to mention that I'm still in a supposed contract that was agreed on at £14.99!

Perhaps the worst thing of all is they've deviously stopped the email contacts I used for contacting them before (Payments and Customer Services) and you're giving a link to click on for emailing them. The link has no email facility! :mad:

novice-saver

I left AOL after many years just over a month ago.

My exchange is not unbundled (for AOL) and the price increase was a joke.

I live some distance from the exchange and the maximum ADSL connection speed is between 1 and 2 megs, depending on GOK what.

One of the real irritations during the last year or so with AOL was pitifully slow download speeds in the evening - even slower than dial-up.

I was going to write about the conversation with AOL as I asked for the MAC, but it won't really help, except to say I don't think I was being told the whole truth.

Suffice to say I'm now with the cheapest offering from bethere who are unbundled at my exchange, and I can use iPlayer in the evening now. And my upload speed is doubled to nearly 1meg.

Also, thanks to the link above :beer: (#72) I have found that my old AOL email account is still available to me.

squiggles

After reading this thread I have searched for my email from AOL about the price increase. My broadband costs £9.99 per month as I get a £5 discount for being a long term customer. Anyway my email said my BB will be going up to £11.99 as there is a £1.99 fee for non direct debit paying customers which is confusing as I already pay by direct debit.

Just checked my bank account and AOL have taken a payment of £10.31 for January billing.

justonemore_2

I have been with AOL for over five years, paying with a few incentives £14.99. Payments then went to £15.98 for two months (something to do with non direct debit) and are now £21.98!! which over a year is a massive amount! 'MAC code please'

tallulah7

orraloon wrote: »

"for some unknown reason AOL have charged us £15.98 this month"

This will be due to the 0.99 soon to be 1.99 surcharge for not using DD payment; I've so far failed repeatedly to get them to move me from credit card to debit card, so ended up paying more last month due to their ineptitude. Or is it deliberate, to screw even more dosh out of the captive punter?

I think it is - considering that initially paying by CC was the only option. I found out this morning that I've been the victim of credit card fraud and therefore cancelled my card. Contacted aol to give debit card details for the next payment and apparently to do so will cost me an extra £1.99 a month, every month!? Tried to change to DD online but the account no/ sort code boxes are conveniently greyed out. Even if I could - would the charge still apply?

Lucibee

This has happened to me too.

A few things I have found out during the last few weeks, having complained to AOL about their 40% increase in price:

- The price increase isn't just VAT (only 2.5%) or any increase in wholesale price (because that hasn't increased). AOL said it was for "business reasons", and when I asked them to explain why, they said it was because they were no longer prepared to subsidise rural customers (nice!).

- I also found out that they are trying to get rid of broadband-only customers. They would prefer that customers take bundles or nothing at all, which is why they will offer you a much better deal if you take a calls package as well.

- If you are on a contract, then you should be able either to get out of it, because by increasing the price they are in breach of contract, or ask to go back to your previous rate until the end of the contract (which is probably what they will do).

- Prices will be much cheaper at exchange areas where AOL TalkTalk is an LLU provider, because they don't have to pay rental to BT wholesale. Small exchanges (so-called "market 1") are extremely unlikely to ever get any LLU providers because the costs of connecting up to their own network to bypass BT are likely too large to make it worth their while. Ofcom is currently looking at ways of addressing this.

- If you want quality of supply and service, then you have to pay for it, wherever you live.

Hope that helps!

gropinginthedark

Having worked as an IT specialist in internet systems for approx 17 years I strongly advise anyone using AOL, Demon or BT to urgently find another provider. I have experience (either personal or on behalf of my customers who have needed help) of a variety of "issues" ranging from completely wrong "help desk" advice to sales practises verging on the fraudulent.

Just a few examples: a colleague found an item on her credit card bill relating to broadband services - didn't have such a service, didn't even recognise the company name or know they were aan internet service provider, certainly hadn't signed up to anything (husband had a long standing BB service to the house from another provider so no need). The provider refused to engage in any telephone dialogue about the problem. "You must have signed up - if you have a complaint the only thing you can do is write a letter to head office".

A small business customer changed their telecoms provider - the new improved system included a small switchboard with a few voice lines, fax and BB - result: they had none of those services for a week. They then asked how to set up their email. On discovering they had a web domain and web site hosted elsewhere they were told the only way they could use email was to have the domain and web hosting services transferred to the same telecoms provider too.

A disturbingly common problem is "someone says they sent me an important email but I didn't get it" - either it bounced back or wasn't delivered. The clue is that these customers are "very pleased" with their email services because they "never get any junk mail". That's simple. Poor quality junk mail filters block mail for trivial and incorrect reasons. You just happen to mention that you have a friend in S!!!!horpe and the filters spot a naughty word. You mention that you are doing a sponsored marathon for a breast cancer charity and - oh no! it's a naughty person talking about breasts, delete it! In my experience AOL is the worst offender but is not alone...

A customer took my advice and decided to move to a better service. Called the old provider to cease that service - which they did immediately. Free webspace, email and connection all terminated within minutes of the call. But they then billed for the following month's service on the grounds that their T&C require one month's notice or termination - despite the fact that they had already disconnected all services.

And let's not get into the discussion of "broadband speeds of "up to..." where typical delivered speeds are seldom as good as half the advertised maximum and nobody ever actually achieves the maximum.

And finally their pricing policies are such that you can probably get better cheaper elsewhere.

west_is_best

I was gobsmacked when I oppened my Credit Card bill yesterday only to find that AIL have charged me £22.89 for a dial-up connection... Living in a broadband not-spot!!!!!

Its gone up from £14.99 to £22.89
I phoned AOL only to be told that they are trying to get rid of Dial-up customers!!!!!
The woman was quite rude, I stayed on the phone as I was told if I wanted to answer a survey regarding the service Id had... while hanging on, this lady asked me 3 times if there was anything else she could do, when I told her that I was waiting for the survey.. she stayed on the line until I gave up!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad: