AOL Hell - My Experience

Crabman

We've been on AOL Silver since August 2006. Since then we had the following problems:

Can't use existing email address

I contacted onetel (my old provider) who said I must use AOL's SMTP server. I contacted AOL and was given smtp.uk.aol.com and port 587. It didn't work. I went to live help and was consistently told there was a temporary server fault and to come back after 72 hours. This has gone on since august and still no joy. Today I was told on the phone that Live help had given me the wrong smtp server :rolleyes: it's actually smtp.aol.com. Still, it didn't work. :wall:

Can't access BBC Interactive Services

Due to the IP Address from AOL being an US address, all AOL customers are unable to get full access to the BBC (BBC only allows UK customers access to full content). They are again saying this is a temporary server fault and to come back in 5 days. :wall:

Am Lied to by Live Help and Tech Support

Today I have spent over an hour and a half on the phone to AOL (don't worry, not though an 0870 ) and been lied to by Live Help who firstly said that their conversations were recorded on the acccount file and secondly by technical who gave me the incorrect smtp server information. I was cut off from Live Help when I questioned why I keep being told it's a server fault since we joined.

Lied to by Cancellations

Apparently they can't cancel my account as I'm within a 12 month contract and the only way they can do this is if Technical Support place a note on my account to say so. I've spoken to two tech support people today and both claimed to have done this but this turned out not to be the case.

Messed around by call centres

This isn't a case of "have a go at the Indian call centre". The one in Ireland was pretty c**p too. I was shouted at by two ladies in the Irish call centre. The Indian call centre wasn't much better but it seemed to me nobody knew what I was talking about and what to do re: placing a note on the account. I'm not going to say that the Indian Call centre was worse, because for me, it wasn't. They remained polite and courteous to me unlike the Ireland centre.


I've just now requested my MAC Code as I said I have a legal right to it, (little miss ireland wasn't pleased!) It will supposedly arrive in my AOL account, yes, you guessed it, within 72 hours :rotfl:

I guess the point of this post is STAY AWAY FROM A-O-HELL!!

THE_LONE_RANGER_4

ive had good experiance with them i think from what i hear off other people who change there provider is its a night mare aol or not so they never change again if they do its with ...a ah well here goes grrrr

Turning_into_scrooge

I have been with AOL since Oct '98 and never had a problem, I only pay £6.99 a month for full broadband service as i piggyback onto another server. I'm sorry you have had so many problems with them.

Crabman

Turning_into_scrooge wrote:

I have been with AOL since Oct '98 and never had a problem, I only pay £6.99 a month for full broadband service as i piggyback onto another server. I'm sorry you have had so many problems with them.

Are you able to use Outlook Express and access BBC interactive? If so please please please PM me so I can chase it up with them; I want to avoid switching because I'm getting this all for £9.99 but have hell with sending emails through hotmail and watching BBC in 34.5k bandwidth. :wall:

Crabman

Thanks for that!! Is there a way to prove that AOL's smtp.aol.com server is set to reject mail with a different domain address?

Kilty_2

I've just switched to AOL Broadband from the dreaded Tiscali and have no trouble accessing BBC's streaming video etc, or any other websites that arent for use outside of the UK such as my online banking.

Can access my email using Outlook but I use an AOL address. What you could do (I think) is send out emails from your AOL address with Reply To: set to your onetel address. When emails are recieved the recipients will just see your onetel address and that's the one they will reply to.

deanos

BBCi works fine with my AOL ive just tested it now and watched some little brittian and news items.

When i have had to call AOL ive been met by some very good customer service agents and have always helped whithout a fuss, they added £60 to my account for some reason and ive made £200 in refer a friends so cant complain

As for using Outlook Express im sure you cant with AOL i have my own email address anyway, i think the soution will be to use Yahoo or Gmail and there servers or someone like https://www.1and1.co.uk

Crabman

Are you using the AOL browser to access the BBC services? I'm using a wireless router and internet explorer to do so and it never works above 34.5k. How do you get a goodwill gesture out of them? I got abuse, not much else, from the cancellations team in Ireland. :rolleyes:

My aim is to sort this out because for £9.99 per month this is a good deal, but I often use BBCi and can't make do with dial-up quality.

deanos

Im using IE7 and Real Player, dont have the AOL browser installed

Im not sure why they added £60 to my account i never asked it just appeared.

Try this for interactive http://www.newnet.co.uk/bbci/

UKTigerlily

omg don't get me going on aohell! Had problems with frequent disconnections, sometimes after 1/2 minutes, sometimes after 1hr, only once did it last over 1hr. Live help messed me around no end, constantly giving me info I'd told them again & again i'd tried & didn't work, blaming the phone/pc, god knows what, have changed ISP & guess what? NO disconnections

Kilty_2

I use Firefox, AOL software is not installed. (Totally ignored the sheet that came with the router saying "WARNING: Insert AOL Broadband CD before plugging in any cables")