OK, my family have all had AOL at some point, and every one of us have had problems with them.
My husband and I set up our account with them 3 years ago. My husband is in the military, and we were living in Puerto Rico at the time. Our dial up service was terrible (which OK I expected), but we kept getting kicked offline all of the time. I spoke with AOL countless times and they told me it must be my computer since it was a few years old, and the modem needed updating.
So, we went out and bought a new computer (top of the line, best one out there), and we still had the problems, again I spoke with AOL tech support and they told me that the phone connection lines in PR are terrible and that was the reason.
On one of the many phone calls I had with AOL tech support, they put me through to someone else regarding AOL Auto Advantage.....I told them I wasn't interrested, hung up, and found out the next month they were charging me for it! So I called up again, and they told me it would be canceled.
A few months later we moved back to the States (Florida). We moved into a rental, and I set up the computer, I even called AOL to set up Call Alert, which they told me I had to call the phone company to set up....so I did that, and found out I couldn't make any changes to my phone bill because the phone is under my landlords name. So I called AOL back, they offered me 2 months free of the service and I said no, that I just wanted to all cancelled. Did they cancel it? NO!
After I got my computer hooked up here in Florida I found out I was experiencing the same problems, I was constantly being kicked offline. I would sign on and instantly I'd be booted, and it continued to happen every few minutes. I can't count how many times I spoke with AOL Tech Support, AGAIN, and we did everything. I wiped EVERYTHING from my computer, and started again, I updated my aol to 9.0. They finally said it's my computer, not AOL, they suggested I get it in to be checked. I then took my less than a year old computer in to be looked at, and spent around $300 on this, they cleaned the modem, but there really wasn't anything wrong with my computer. I proceeded to take the computer and hook it up, signed on, and guess what?
I got booted instantly. So, again I called AOL, and you won't believe what they told me?! It's the Florida phone lines!!!!
OK, now I'm tired of it, I called up last week to cancel my account, I told them I was tired of it, I'm moving again (which I am, and we're not going to have a phone line), and I want everything cancelled. They man I spoke with (I'm not naming anyone), kept trying to Sell sell sell, and I kept saying no.
Anyway, I got off the phone all happy thinking I'm FINALLY done with AOL! Only to find out, they set me up with a Netscape account!!!!!
I call AOL back to find out what on earth is going on, they told me that this AOL man must have read me the Netscape disclosure.....which he did not, because the guy started talking about Netscape, and I told him I don't want any internet service what-so-ever. He said I had to call Netscape myself and cancel the account which he started for me.
So, I called Netscape, to find out they had all my bank account and billing info, which AOL gave to them. I cancelled everything and again thought everything was done.
Only to find out a week later (today), that AOL charged my account for the AOL call alert!!! Please tell me this, I cancelled the call alert 6 months ago, why would I want call alert now, when I don't even have AOL. So I called the AOL Call Alert number, and they told me they wouldn't cancel it because my AOL account hadn't even been cancelled.
OK, I'm going to stop now, cause I think you get the gist of what i'm trying to say. I also found out today that Netscape is owned by AOL, that's how they could get away with giving out my billing info. But if I can't stand AOL, why would I want an account with a company owned by AOL?
Sorry this is so long, I'm just really mad right now.
Please think twice before you start an account with them, they won't let you get away.
Jessica
Naples, Florida
U.S.A.
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