Apart from the quite adequate assortment of calculators, it’s all a big heap of plain-Jane articles slotted into categories by simple tags.
AOL
AOL Repackages Personal Finance Content, Names It WalletPop
By 7.16.08
By 7.16.08
../../../..//2008/07/16/a-man-who-spammed-12/
A man who spammed 1.2 million AOL customers was sentenced to 30 months in prison yesterday. Now how will we ever find out how to make bigger p3nz? Oh wait, here comes another spam… [CNN Money]
AOL Just Wants To Be Left Alone
By 7.2.08
Please just leave AOL alone! AOL is raising their dial-up internet access prices by $2 for everyone who refuses to promise not to call technical support.
AOL Tops MSN Money's Customer Service Hall Of Shame
By 5.30.08
Earlier this week, MSN Money published the results of a national Zogby poll they commissioned on who delivers the worst customer service. The winner was AOL, ranked “poor” by 47% of respondents, while Comcast came in second with 42% suckage. Sprint ranked third at 39%.
Quit AOL Using Highlighters
By 4.24.08
It looks like AOL is up to its old shenanigans and is still making hard for some people to cancel service (yes there are still some people using AOL), but reader Richard figured out a way to finally get through to them, with a highlighter. He writes:
I could not find a way to contact AOL to stop my service. So I took a yellow marker, drew a line though that line item on my credit card bill, and wrote on the bill….”Do not pay, account in dispute”. I paid all the other items on the CC bill that month. It took AOL about 2 weeks to call me…..I told them what I thought of their service, and instructed them to terminate my account, while I was still on the phone. It worked. They seem to understand when you tell them you are not going to pay.
That’s one way to go about it. You could also call up your credit card company and request a chargeback, but this has the added benefit of zero hold time. First rebates, now AOL cancellations, this highlighter is starting to look mighty potent.
Azureus: Other ISPs May Also Be Throttling BitTorrent
By 4.22.08
A few months ago Azureus petitioned the FCC, which led to a FCC hearing in February. One of the complaints from the commission was that there is little data available on the scope of BitTorrent throttling, a gap Azureus now tries to fill by collecting data on the prevalence of TCP-resets among ISPs worldwide.
Exclusive: AOL's Collections Guide Encourages Agents To Lie And Deceive
By 4.5.08
An anonymous tipster sent us AOL’s 153 page internal collections guidebook for prying money out of delinquent account holders. The guide shows that AOL is following some of the debt industry’s most egregious collection tactics by encouraging agents to deceive and lie to customers. After the jump we present AOL’s scare tactics, tricks to negotiating a substantial discount, and the full collections guide.
Apple, AT&T, Sued Over Visual Voicemail
By 12.3.07
A firm called Klausner Technologies has just announced that they are suing both Apple and AT&T for patent infringement over the iPhone’s “visual voicemail” feature. Klausner Technologies has already sued VOIP provider Vonage and AOL/Time Warner for the same darn thing, and both companies chose to settle and license the technology from Klausner.
By 11.7.07
../../../..//2007/11/07/aols-new-ad-based-plan/
AOL’s new “ad based” plan is just not working. Boohoo. [NYT]
By 10.2.07
../../../..//2007/10/02/aol-is-still-trying-to/
AOL is STILL trying to extort money from people who canceled their account. STILL STILL STILL. [KUTV]
9th Circuit Court Says Companies Can't Change Contract Terms Simply By Posting Changes On A Website
By 7.26.07
Parties to a contract have no obligation to check the terms on a periodic basis to learn whether they have been changed by the other side. Indeed, a party can’t unilaterally change the terms of a contract; it must obtain the other party’s consent before doing so….
Not Canceling The Account Costs AOL $3 Million
By 7.12.07
AOL has avoided what was certain to be an entertaining court battle by settling with 48 states and the District of Colombia over allegations that it made it, uh, difficult to cancel for the many customers who were fleeing to broadband.
Happy Birthday To Cancel The Account!
By 6.12.07
Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of Vincent Ferrari’s famous “Cancel The Account” recording of his attempt to cancel AOL.
Gee Whiz, The New AOL Beta Looks Familiar
By 4.28.07
Where have we seen this website before? —MEGHANN MARCO
Some Of Our Favoritest AOL Posts
By 4.20.07
This new batch of AOL confessions got us all misty. Here’s a walk down memory lane.
AOL Made Reps Give Out One Piece Of Tech Support At A Time, Making Customers Call Back Again And Again, And Get Upsold Every Time
By 4.20.07
A former AOL tech support rep confesses one of the worst parts about his job. AOL had a policy called “One Call/One Resolution” which basically meant that they were only supposed to dole out ONE troubleshooting step when you called. Then they were supposed to pass you off to someone who tried to upsell you to DSL or some video computer courses. The result was that customers had to call in call in call in, just to get the most basic problem solved.
AOL Already Planning To Go Free Well Before Vincent Ferrari Came Along
By 4.20.07
This gut-spilling from a former AOL employee helps confirm what we suspected all along: While it definitely spurred them to action, AOL already had the plan to switch over to a free, browser-based, ad supported system well in hand before Vincent’s call blew up.
AOL Changed Policy On Customers Recording Calls 10 Days After Vincent Ferrari Uploaded His
By 4.19.07
Vincent Ferrari uploaded his famous AOL cancellation call on June 13th, 2006. A screenshot from AOL’s internal database shows that 10 days later AOL revised its policy for what reps should do if a customer says they’re recording the phone call.
