AOL Broadband...

AvengerUK · 28th October 2005

hey,
Ive had AOL broadband for 13 months now, And i wish to leave!
First of all im leaving because their support is rubbish, and also im paying over the odds for a 512 connection, (gold package, cannot be upgraded to 1mb).
So, today i asked about the contract, to find out if its up, (12 months contract), i was told ive had it for 13 months, so the contract should be up right? Apprently not:

Quote:

WSMINRajeevMi: May i please let you know that after the completion of our 12 month
WSMINRajeevMi: the contract has renewed automatically for next 12 months

can any one offer advice, or fill me in on this?!?

Dexxa · 28th October 2005

Aol's like msn crap

I dont get why they cant upgrade that package

richardys · 28th October 2005

http://www.aol.co.uk/products/broadb...omoCode=228937

Phone them up and cancel, and if they still say no cancel the direct debit.

AvengerUK · 28th October 2005

Does anyone know if thats the FULL t&c? seems a little short to be a full t&c for aol..

Dexxa · 29th October 2005

Its abit small to me but i guess it does its job

Quote:

Originally Posted by AvengerUK

Does anyone know if thats the FULL t&c? seems a little short to be a full t&c for aol..

philb · 29th October 2005

They can only really extend the contract by a further 12 months if the contract explicity states that. I've not read it, so that's upto you to find out.

If you pay on a monthly basis it is not unreasonable to assume that after the initial contract period that it would go onto a monthly rolling contract if there are no provisions made in the contract that explicitly state the contract will be renewed for a further 12 months.

AvengerUK · 1st November 2005

Just to let you know its all sorted!
God knows what that live support guy was on about!, I got my MAC Code on sunday, and apparently the migration completed today!

philb · 1st November 2005

Congratulations, you've escaped and gained about 30 reputation points as a result

AvengerUK · 2nd November 2005

, i was very suprised it only took two days to migrate and be set up by my new ISP (Prodigy networks)!.
The only problem is that i use my broadband mainly for gaming purposes, and the pings are quite high.
on aol i used to get 19ms/20ms to my dedicated server in sov. house, london, Now i get 30-50ms on a trace!!!
This is also shown on BBST (broadband speed test) as being 20+ on aol!

I can only hope that this is a network problem...(unlikely), otherwise another migration coming up, as it does cause some problems with gaming!

philb · 2nd November 2005

From my office in Huddersfield to our equipment in London:

--- 213.230.209.11 ping statistics ---
30 packets transmitted, 30 received, 0% packet loss, time 29292ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 14.829/15.872/22.258/1.280 ms

Whereabouts are you located?

AvengerUK · 2nd November 2005

Im located in cheshire nr. macc, my servers in london.

The trace to one of my servers is:

1 30 ms 32 ms 31 ms 10.0.0.2
2 33 ms 32 ms 33 ms bt-hg-stm1-2.prodigynet.co.uk [217.47.5.73]
3 34 ms 35 ms 35 ms th-linx-gw.prodigynet.co.uk [213.232.80.1]
4 34 ms 34 ms 33 ms ge0-1.linx.lon.rapidswitch.com [195.66.224.207]

5 34 ms 38 ms 40 ms rb-sov-edge.netrino.co.uk [83.142.224.34]
6 42 ms 46 ms 37 ms colo179-01.dedicated.netrino.co.uk [84.234.17.55

(trace number 2 + 3 went up to 104/100 on a seperate trace last night

)

40ms may seem not bad....but it is 20ms higher than what i used to get! :P

DediFrag · 11th December 2005

im looking to do exactly the same and get out from AOL whilst i still can :s What annoys me most is the stupid AOL CLient they use which forces you to upgrade every few months. Last upgrade totally messed my pc about which resulted in a total reformat! Great! looking for another ISP as we speak if anyone has any recomendations etc

OliverMargetts · 12th December 2005

What speed/budget?

Personally, Zen or Nildram would be my top two choices at the moment.

kenpit · 19th December 2005

hi i just wrote to aol see letter below

Hello Mr Smith
I am writing to complain about your rubbish service my contract is due to end on the 19th of Feb at which time I intend to ask for a MAC code and leave. Your service is worse than useless, as is your tech help, your customer service is also none existent, I cant use on line help as I cant stay on line long enough your tech phone line is always busy and even if I do get through I am asked to perform the same tasks each time, even if I tell them I have already tried it. Your tech help have obviously got no tech knowledge at all and just read from a set of instructions; monkeys could do their jobs.
As I have said numerous times my account works fine the first time I install AOL but as soon as I log off it downloads connectivity updates and I have trouble there after. It is nothing on my computer I have even gone to the extreme of formatting my hard drive reinstalling Windows XP and only putting my router drivers (bought though you as I know how fussy you are and only support certain routers), once again everything is fine till I log off and your rubbish update downloads, which I obviously cant stop. I can use Internet explorer and used to be able to read my emails by logging in through explorer, rather than direct with your rubbish software but I cant even do that now. I don’t use your software at all now and am unable to read my emails at all. All this rubbish about reconnecting, its just your rubbish software restarting since you are always connected with broadband.
You can be sure no one I know will ever use aol I will go out of my way to rubbish your name. I used to think AOL were good but I KNOW different now.
As I said I cant wait for Feb the 19th that’s another thing I was not made aware when I stupidly upgraded to Platinum I would be on another years contract.
You are very short sighted if you think once you have our money we don’t matter, I realise that this letter is pointless but at least t makes me feel better.

I too am fed up, glad to see i am not on my own. I would be interested if anyone has any idea how many people are on this forum fed up with aol maybe we should all form an anti aol campaign. one person really dos'nt bother them.
But hey, thats two customer they have lost.

AvengerUK · 20th December 2005

If you talk to AOL via 'Live help' you will get nowhere! The next day i rang up...and had trouble communicating with the operator, as he didnt have a very good knowlegde of english - typical! But after this painfull phone call, asking for the MAC code, i eventually got it one hour later! I then went to 'prodigynetworks' who where RUBBISH. so, i almost immeadiately reqested a MAC Code...and it took 2 weeks to get it - And my account has yet to close, and they have a rep. of charging after youve gone.
Compaired to prodigynet, who took 10 phone calls to answer...and 2 weeks and an extra phone call to eventually get a MAC, AOL was a 'doddle'!

With all these companys you have to 1) talk on the phone (or send a letter) and 2) To be as forcefull as possible - know your rights! and eventually you will get your MAC or w/e.

Im currently with netrino, and im extremely impressed