Name And Shame! Aol

bbb_uk

djblamire wrote:

I have just had confirmation from AOL that this is the case. Apparantely it doesn't matter if you are no where near the end of your contract. They said:

"The new number represents a change to the current AOL Member Agreement, so you have the right to cancel your contract with AOL within 30 days of the email notifying you of this change."

I think everyone who is unhappy about this should cancel their contract due to the change of t&c as this is the only way they would take the hint that this is disgraceful.

It's just another money making scheme to rip us off. Due to the amount of calls they must get it would mean they would make a fortune from everyone calling them via this 0870 number.

UPDATE: Noticed MSE Martin's update that confirms they are gaining revenue from this number and can't promise people aren't going to be stuck in a queue.

pricefighter

djblamire wrote:

I have just had confirmation from AOL that this is the case. Apparantely it doesn't matter if you are no where near the end of your contract. They said:

"The new number represents a change to the current AOL Member Agreement, so you have the right to cancel your contract with AOL within 30 days of the email notifying you of this change."

Thanks
Daniel

So if you wanna get out of your AOL contract here is a Golden Opportunity to do so.

djblamire

pricefighter wrote:

So if you wanna get out of your AOL contract here is a Golden Opportunity to do so.

Exactly

Daniel

bbb_uk

For those that have AOL and had to ring tech support/cust serv, etc - just how long (on average) can you be on the phone with them for (including the time waiting for them to answer)?

djblamire

bbb_uk wrote:

For those that have AOL and had to ring tech support/cust serv, etc - just how long (on average) can you be on the phone with them for (including the time waiting for them to answer)?

I called them once for a billing issue, and was on the phone (including queueing) for 40 minutes.

Daniel

pricefighter

Out of interest, does anybody know what numbers they use in other countries to access there customer services eg Freephone/ Premium/Normal geographic number.

Is it only the Great British Public who are ripped off in this manner.

BexTech

This is a good reason for never relying on ISP email addresses, always get yourself an email address that never changes when you change ISP. Gmail is OK for this, I myself back in 1996 got myself a domain name when I first started using the net, as I would often switch from one ISP to another.

pricefighter

meheraltaf wrote:

I wouldnt want to criticise AOL tech help CS, the tech support we always received online have been from India and other centres, we never complained because we couldnt judge by accent!

Just thinking from their point of view, I suppose this 0870 has been instigated perhaps due to the high volume of calls they receive and specially that people are not happy with call centres abroad,perhaps they may decide to take upon themselves to answer calls, price we pay for having things our way-just a thought

My contact in AOL tells me they have three call centres answering there calls one in Ireland,one in England,and one in India.She said that they try to answer the bulk of the Uk calls in England or Ireland,and only the overflow calls are routed to India.
It may interest readers to know that there is no reason why they could not have used a normal geographic no to replace the freephone one,as modern systems allow them to be switched like NGN.Therefore the real reason for this move appears to be to squeeze money out of Joe Public.

bbb_uk

djblamire wrote:

I called them once for a billing issue, and was on the phone (including queueing) for 40 minutes...

That would have cost around £3. Do I take it you're thinking of leaving AOL as well now Daniel?

BexTech wrote:

This is a good reason for never relying on ISP email addresses, always get yourself an email address that never changes when you change ISP...

Another reason is that you can then access your email from anywhere that has internet access and not just your home computer. I have 2 hotmail accounts, 1 yahoo account and my ISP account.

loopy_lass

can anyone reccomend another BB provider, i admit to being a bit of a dummy with such things, and reading martins comments confused me more. I liked aol as i could monitor my reenage daughters movements, are there any others which allow me to do this...

thanks.... loops