AOL's Slogan - " Thanks For Your Patience . "
Written: Nov 02 '01
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Pros: Hmmm.... the free trial .
Cons: Everything and a bag of chips .
The Bottom Line: Find a better ISP .
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| sweetycaroline's Full Review: AOL (America Online) |
Beware all internet users ... there's a new ISP in town ... AOL . They keep getting bigger and sucking the patience from your last nerve . This is scary , because this is what they feed off of and turn in the extras for money . Don't be the next victim of AOL syndrome .
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AOL Has A New Slogan !
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AOL's new slogan is , " Thanks for your patience . " Duly note the sarcasm in my writing as you read this and realize that AOL is in no part affiliated with me . Well , other than I got suckered into trying their ISP ( Internet service provider ) .
Here's my long sad story . I usually hate to write reviews on sucky products , but I am witholding my own reasoning to keep you from having to get on antidepressants such as Prozac .
I was coming along quite happily one day even though Epinions was driving me nuts . I am sure if you are part of the community here you can understand my disgruntled nature at " Thank you for your patience " . For those of you who are reading this to get a straight forward opinion - we at Epinions use all of our patience and even run into the reserves meant for when the in laws visit or bi polar aunts .
This was my first finding of AOL . They immediately had to update some kind of files . I am like okay .... That is understandable . They don't count that towards your usage time anyway . So , I get online .... after trying several times . Is this the same ISP that claims fastest connect times in their commercials ? I just saw them on TV . They are liars ! Maybe I should have named this review Liar , Liar , Bank's on fire ! !
So when I finally get online , none of my usual websites are in my browser . That's okay , can't get it all and a bag of chips . Can you ? ( I did with my other provider . ) To make things simple , AOL is way too fancy for me . You are greeted by a computer animated " Hello " , then AOL proceeds to bring up all these alerts . There are always three I immediately have to click off of . Of those three one "hides" at the bottom of the screen there on out . It shows you can click off of it , but that is just an added aggravation . You can't click off of this , no don't even try ! It will be a wasteless use of your index finger . Wait , before I move on to another topic , AOL is plum full of advertisements .
I don't know why people think AOL is so great for first time users either . I can't figure it out to save my neck . Way to many choices on my hotbar . Why couldn't they have just left all the fancy pictures and choices out and left my simple , somewhat ugly , Microsoft Internet Explorer bar up ? Oh well , makes me look smarter , hee , hee . ( Just because I am laughing doesn't mean I like it . )
Another thing that really burns me is that AOL always does their famous " You've got mail ! " on signing in . that wouldn't be so bad if it was legitimate mail . No , AOL finds some dorky reason to email me daily . Oh sure mail is fun for first timers , but you can only go delete so many " Upgrade now ! " letters before you are ready to eat your mouse . Shriek !!!!! Okay , just had to let that out to finish this review .
I am just now able to work offline on reviews . To be honest it was only a stroke of good luck that I got to do this . The first time I wrote a good hour on a review and decided to get offline so I could receive phone calls . When I got offline my review didn't stay saved hidden at the bottom like it usually does , it went down the toilet into a lost sea of other unsuspecting individuals' lost dreams of internet offline hopes . Maybe it went on home to that great computer chip in technology waves space .
While I was at it , I got an AOL instant messenger . Let me first assure it is not as cool as Yahoo! messenger , but it is way cooler than the MSN messenger . There are tons of icons you can download on AOL to use on your IS ( instant messenger ) . Unfortunately , I haven't found the magic button that makes them appear after using precious time and hard drive space to download them . I will update with that lost secret asap . ( If I don't get committed to a mental institute first from a nervous breakdown. ) As far as IS services go , I only have one friend on mine that is never online , so I haven't got to properly break it in yet , but you can't leave offline messages . That reeks in my book . Stick to Yahoo! or go give it a try . It's so far all the way around better and they have accessories for their IS too .
The overall cost of AOL is $23.95 per month for unlimited service . Personally , I think this is a rip off . I am doing the one month free trial right now and I will be discontinuing my service . I know one person who just now informed that AOL is really hard to get rid of too . She said that she called to discontinue her service and they argued with her . She even sold her computer and told them this and they withdrew the money from her checking account anyway . This was after she had canceled the service . This caused her account to overdraw and they would not refund her money . I hope I don't have that much trouble .
To get on AOL you don't have to have a credit card . They do accept credit cards though . You can use a checking account . There is a downfall of having to give out your account ( banking and or credit card ) over the net . I don't know how safe this is . Many people have advised me not to do so . AOL does state that your information is kept totally confidential . They give you an 800 number that you have to call and verify that your information is correct before they will let you sign on to the internet again .
The main reasons I don't like AOL is the page loads are a lot slower than my old ISP . I can barely creep around on Epinions . At least it feels that way . This is a time consuming site , so when you are ready to go on , you need to move quickly . Also , AOL start up icons and so forth are extremely hard to get rid of . AOL has stashed all kinds of files all over my computer and they do not tell you where . I don't appreciate this at all . Also , every time I go to get off , they are always needing to either update or download the files I currently need . ( I have no idea what these files could be ! ) They give me no choice on this and I can't even get off the net until they are through . In my opinion AOL stinks like poop and I will do my best to erase all their filth and try to get past this terrible experience .
Thanks for reading - sweetycaroline
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): free trial
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Epinions.com ID:
sweetycaroline
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Location: West Texas
Reviews written: 75
Trusted by: 31 members
About Me:
God Bless America
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