OT problems with AOL

[Mortiroloboy]

Hi,

Any other AOL 'customers' out there? we have recently gone wireless with AOL, after many years of being a happy broadband customer, suddenly it has all gone horribly wrong. the connection drops out on a regular basis, they recently introduced a new homepage with a drag and drop upgrade, which does not work, when you call their help line you get a message telling you they are aware it doesn't work, and are attempting to remedy it ( for three weeks now) FFS they are a HUGE organisation selling internet access, what can be so hard about getting it to work? If you try and call to speak to someone you just hang on the phone (at 5p per min.) and just get told they are experiencing a high volume of calls (no sh*t) and some one will be with you, they never do. Their online help page doen't load, so you cannot get in touch that way. Anyone experiencing this problem. I want to bin them and go with another ISP but the missus says no. Grrrrrrr!

 

[fossyant]

Mine has slowed down in the last week or so - failing some of the broadband tests - no Quality of service. Some pages hang, then download.

Will see how it goes on - was blindingly quick before Christmas when I switched to them.

I manually configured the router and PC's - absolute doddle, so don't touch the AOL software.

But it's not working well at the moment at all !

 

[Mortiroloboy]

I think they have got a massive problem , but it annoys me how uncontactable they have made themselves, I have sorted the main computer for the wireless, but cannot get the second machine to connect to the internet, despite it being only a couple of yards, through a wooden floor, away from the router, I get a message telling me the signal is excellent, then one telling me it has dropped out, and so on. I don't know enough about the things to start messing about. Upto going wireless it was brilliant, I just wish that they would do something to improve their customer service, which has always (in the past) been pretty good.

I cannot understand how such a big ISP seems unable to rectify whatever has gone wrong.

I don't want to change, the rest of the family all use BT, I've seen that and IMO it's rubbish in comparison to AOL (when it works properly).

I just want it working as it should has I wonder if it is the fact we have gone wireless?

 

[Tynan]

AOl are famous for being shoot and have been over ages, they were my first ever ISP back in the day and I thought they wee normal until I eventually had enough and switched to someone else and realised that an ISP is just that, they're no reason for them to take over your machine and browser, they should be like the gas and electric, just there, nothing more

get rid

 

[simoncc]

I used AOL for nearly 3 years with no problem whatsoever, but then I started losing my connection every 6 to 7 minutes regular as clockwork. After about 3hours on the phone going through every stage of technical support, each of which assured me that they had done the vital thing needed to solve the problem, it didn't go away so I ditched them. Thankfully their support line was only 3p per minute!

One thing to look out for with AOL is reluctance to let you cancel. They seem to be very evasive about this, often not answering the phone, claiming you've come through to the wrong department etc, saying you must cancel on a particular day and no other if you want to avoid another month's payment etc. I found out that they'd been fined in the US for making cancellation very difficult.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#Account_cancellation

 

[Danny]

AOL sold their UK operation so it is now run by someone like Carphone Warehouse (sorry can't remember exactly who).

Try Ukonline who I have been with for several years with very few problems, and they also have a helpful UK based customer service desk/

I also have friends who use Zen and swear by them.

Either will be much more reliable than the likes of AOL and TalkTalk.

 

[Tynan]

isps is a minefield, they're all so aggressive now that they all offer the earth while cutting the service as much as they dare, read any user forums and people are complaining, usually about the bandwidth being throttled, I'm paying for an 'up to 8Mb' service with unlimited usage

I've never seen it go over 4.5Mb and they now admit that they throttle bandwidth for P2P during the daytimes

'try to only do it at the weekend

some unlimited usage that is, exactly why someone would sign up for an unlimited 8Mb line and not want to use p2p is beyond me, I have no idea how they're allowed to get away with it

 

[Alan Frame]

In fairness, I have never had a problem with AOL in the years that I have used them.
I used to pay £12.99 for AOL dial up but they kept badgering me to go broadband and eventually offered it to me for £9.99 per month and I've been paying that for the last few years.
Maybe I've just been lucky !

 

[fossyant]

I was with pipex for some time, but started getting connection drop offs - anyway, got the free AOL laptop deal, happy bunny - lets hope the connection issues are fixed soon.

I don't use the software although I can see it's uses if you have kids, but of course they can just use IE or Firefox instead.. it looks a pretty polished 'portal' but I don't use any of that.

 

[Mortiroloboy]

Thanks for all the advice, I would have replied before now, but my connection keeps dropping out! LOL! What I find hard to understand, is that they don't seem to be addressing the problem, as I have kids 12 yr old twin girls, I appreciate the AOL features/parental controls etc, but this current situation is bugging me, this so called drag and drop update that doesn't work, and the continual dropping out, all of which only started when we switched to Wireless. We have never had a very fast speed delivered, due entirely to the old BT exchange through which they(aol) route, , I think we are at about 4.5 mbps at the moment.

AOL UK is now owned by carphone warehouse, but I'm not sure that this change of ownership has anything to do with my current situation?

An inability to contact them on their helpline, which in the past has been good, and their online 'livehelp' just returns a blank page, very frustrating, not like you can send them an email either.

I suppose I could just cancel my DD at the bank, but from what I see of the BT service the rest of the family use, it's not too impressive, and I belive that certain programs that AOL use can be invasive, meaning you have to fit a new HD if you want to rid yourself of them completely.

I will stick with it for a bit longer and see if things improve, I just wish I could talk to someone at AOL about the problems

 

[Gerry Attrick]

I had the same problem with my homepage going berserk, but after unsuccessfully trying to contact their help facilities, I downloaded AOL version 9VR. That has solved the problem. You can get it at AOL keyword help, then click the third link in "Most popular questions answered".

 

[Danny]

I agree that the ISP market is very competitive, and ISPs regularly go up and down in the various ranking tables. However the cheaper ISPs are renowned for their poor customer service, as is BT.

If you want to speak to a human being you need to be prepared to move. You have much more chance of getting a good service from the ISPs I mentioned above, but you will pay a bit more.

The Phone Co-op is another ISP that has a good reputation as well as being an ethical business.

 

[Mortiroloboy]

I had the same problem with my homepage going berserk, but after unsuccessfully trying to contact their help facilities, I downloaded AOL version 9VR. That has solved the problem. You can get it at AOL keyword help, then click the third link in "Most popular questions answered".

Great, but I cannot get the aol help page up, it appears then disappears, I think that is what the drag and drop icon at the top of the homepage is supposed to do, but that don't work either FFS!!

 

[fossyant]

Right,

Change the MTU on the router to 1450 - the AOL site says 1400 and 1450 - 1450 is apparently the right one..idiots.....

Use your browser and type in 192.168.0.1 - user = admin, password = password - this will take you into the router's admin pages.

Goto Advanced WAN Setup then change the MTU to 1450. Then click Apply

Speeded up my connection - was 1400.

 

[giant man]

AOl are famous for being shoot and have been over ages, they were my first ever ISP back in the day and I thought they wee normal until I eventually had enough and switched to someone else and realised that an ISP is just that, they're no reason for them to take over your machine and browser, they should be like the gas and electric, just there, nothing more

get rid

I totally agree, they've always been crap. Sorry you have problems but switch if I were you. I don't advise you to go to Orange either. These kind of companies think they can do everything, but they can't. I use Orange for my mobile tariff, but I wouldn't use them for an ISP.