Name And Shame! Aol

digp

narol wrote:

i'm online a lot & i get their BB Gold reduced price @ £19.99 monthly
can i get better out there in cyber world?

how did you manage that? we can go only get a 1 meg connection here... and they won't do it for less than £24.99 yet Demon do a 2 meg connection for £19.99!!!!

digp

April2 wrote:

What? How do they justify doing that?

complete tosh, the saynoto0870 web site is not blocked by AOL

Art_2

digp wrote:

how did you manage that? we can go only get a 1 meg connection here... and they won't do it for less than £24.99 yet Demon do a 2 meg connection for £19.99!!!!

Even £19.99 is dear for broadband now. You can get up to 2 mb from a number of ISPs much cheaper. Have a look at:

www.plus.net £14.99 per month
www.ic24.net £9.99 per month
www.adsl4less.com £11.99 per month
www.lobsterpot.net £13.99 per month

All of these offer 2 mb but some put a cap on downloads but if you are only browsing the web and using email that should not be a problem.

Also a good site to compare all ISPs can be found at:
www.adslguide.org

This site is great for anything to do with broadband and there is also a chat section where you can view what others have to say about a particular ISP.

Regards,
Art.

Ellie2758

digp wrote:

complete tosh, the saynoto0870 web site is not blocked by AOL

I joined as a member then tried to search and was unable to do so as I was not recognised as a member. I queried it with the administrator of saynoto0870 and was told that it was due to an aol problem. so nerrrrrr.:p

April2

Ellie2758 wrote:

I joined as a member then tried to search and was unable to do so as I was not recognised as a member. I queried it with the administrator of saynoto0870 and was told that it was due to an aol problem. so nerrrrrr.:p

You probably meant that the membership confirmation e-mail from https://www.saynoto0870.com was bocked by AOL. AOL appear to do that with e-mails from a number of ISPs for some reason (IIRC, e-mails from 1899 ad 18866 frequently fail to get through as well).

So it's not the saynoto0870.com website that's blocked.

Sorry, I misunderstood.

wedgesaver

:rotfl: Has AOL gone completely off its trolley. I have been with them for 6 years and never known anything like it. For years you always got the great Irish guys in Waterford, Ireland. Those guys were generally brilliant. They now want you to ring an 0870 number, only to be answered by an Indian call centre that you cannot understand. They give these poor guys english names like "Bill" or "Charlie".I just want polite straight talk not "How can I enhance your AOL Broadband experience". Someones head should roll for this. I am signing up to NTL. 1mb Broadband and free local and national calls all weekend for £20.50. No BT line rental at £10.50 a month and no AOL £17.99 for 512 kb.Oh and their tech help is an 0845 number. May the consumer win!!

Tupper007

I left AOL well over a year ago now and am so glad I did. But I had heard from friends that it wasn't going to be easy - one friend had to take her pc to an expert because despite uninstalling AOL, not all the software had been removed. A sneaky piece of kit hidden by AOL, but you don't become aware of until you try to leave them. Almost as if they really really don't want you to go.

Not one to be defeated, I armed myself with the guidelines for installing a new ISP and set about it. It wasn't that difficult in the end and now I'm free of them I'd NEVER EVER go back and have advised friends of the pitfalls of joining them.

I did however ensure I had another ISP already set-up, plus changing and getting your friends used to a new email takes a few days etc., it's wise to do this otherwise your suddenly without any connection and it can be a bit daunting.

A great website that reviews service levels in the ISP world is https://www.net4nowt.com.

From that site I went to https://www.eclipse.co.uk. They have a number of different options including Broadband - however I opted for the Eve & Weekend service, which is what I originally wanted from AOL, but they removed this option. Funny how they offered it to me when I cancelled. I now pay £10.99 inclusive per month. Dial in via an 0808 number (free). If I need to speak to Technical Support it's an 01392 number (based in Exeter), the support guys are down to earth, you can have a conversation in English and I have been known to dial in outwith the eve & weekend and still not get charged for it.

There are cheaper still, but for me the important issues were price and customer service without premium calls. Eclipse covers this.

If you're not sure about which ISP and want to take advantage of getting out of your contract with AOL within the 30 day period then pop into your local Waitrose or go online and use their dial up service. They would be my next choice and were a backup for AOL. Why? Technical Support is FREE 24 hours a day and they are the only ISP to donate all profits to charity (you can even vote on the charity of your choice).
Pay as you Go is 1p per minute.

Final thought: Leaving AOL is rather like changing job, you really really want to but it's taking that first step. When you have and look back you wonder why you never did it sooner.

:T

Jobywitwot_2

To Tupper007 yes changing ISP's is like changing jobs and like taking a dip in the water but hey once you're in you feel great. I am currently in the process of swapping to TalkTalk as I and my daughters are already with them for our phone account. We can talk to each other for ever on the phone for nothing and signing up for their Broadband means that the tech help is free too.

BexTech

TalkTalk is great for a phone service (we use them), for broadband they are one to steer well clear of. You will have nothing but problems with them, traffic shaping, so your internet will crawl slower than dial up.

Tech support isn't free it is a 50p/min 0906 number, the 0870 number free from TalkTalk lines is for billing issues and setting up the modem.

We managed to escape TalkTalk broadband, and many others are doing the same or at least trying to, they all regret wasting their time with TalkTalk broadband. Stick with the phone service, avoid the broadband service.

Art_2

BexTech wrote:

TalkTalk is great for a phone service (we use them), for broadband they are one to steer well clear of. You will have nothing but problems with them, traffic shaping, so your internet will crawl slower than dial up.

Tech support isn't free it is a 50p/min 0906 number, the 0870 number free from TalkTalk lines is for billing issues and setting up the modem.

Stick with the phone service, avoid the broadband service.

Yes, their broadband service doesn't appear very good. If you take it on its own it costs £26.99 per month for 1Mb. That's expensive! Much better deals around.

Regards,
Art.