PDA

View Full Version : AOL Broadband Fab Deal or Big Mistake



drathzel
21st-November-2006, 12:22 PM
I am considering taking on an aol broadband contract with free wireless modem for only £14.99 a month but i have my reservations about using them.

Do you have AOL Broadband...what do you think?

Lee Bartholomew
21st-November-2006, 12:26 PM
NO. No No No NOOOOOOOOO.

Don't do it.

I had my own pc shop for awhile. 90% of my income was from fixing pc's that had become compleatley B*****d through AOL.

Other reasons -

A) It's really unreliable

B) They block websites (ie, if they get a deal with currys, they will block the comet website)

C) Very poor customer Service.

D) There are much cheaper better services out there. Would recommed looking on www.adslguide.org.uk/ I personal have used pipex www.pipex.co.uk as not only do they use the Hoff to advertise but they are cheap and reliable.

Sparkles
21st-November-2006, 12:54 PM
I would say probably don't do it - I've not heard good things about them.

A friend of mine took out one of their "free" trials - decided to cancell it, gave them more than the required month's notice, they stopped the internet connection and she thought everything was fine...
... until a year later when she found out they had been taking a sum of money from her bank account every month for the last six months when she had had no service provided by them at all :eek:.
It was a long, drawn-out process to get the money back :sad:.

TheTramp
21st-November-2006, 12:56 PM
They aren't called Evil-OL for nothing! :rolleyes:

Lee Bartholomew
21st-November-2006, 12:57 PM
I would say probably don't do it - I've not heard good things about them.

A friend of mine took out one of their "free" trials - decided to cancell it, gave them more than the required month's notice, they stopped the internet connection and she thought everything was fine...
... until a year later when she found out they had been taking a sum of money from her bank account every month for the last six months when she had had no service provided by them at all :eek:.
It was a long, drawn-out process to get the money back :sad:.

That is a very very comon thing with AOL. Also trying to cancel after the months free trial is a task. I have read about people that have continued paying for the year dispite not having their broadband as it was easier than cancelling.

You prob wont hear from many pro AOL people on here. Prob because their computers no longer work or they dont have a net connection up for long eough to read this post.

stewart38
21st-November-2006, 01:07 PM
I am considering taking on an aol broadband contract with free wireless modem for only £14.99 a month but i have my reservations about using them.

Do you have AOL Broadband...what do you think?

I still pay £29.99 for them for 8mb ??

With my old PC always had problems (cira 1999 version)

Since getting new PC never had a problem signing on , its fast and quick. That’s been over a year

Although at £29.99 suppose I could get cheaper but don’t want to pay less for a poorer service

azande
21st-November-2006, 01:17 PM
Don't do it! Please!

Give me a couple of days and I'll get you info on the best providers that have proper tech support for Macs!

Trouble
21st-November-2006, 01:54 PM
wow im surprised at the negatives..... ive used AOL for years in fact since it all started and found them to be absolutely great. Great parental controls and great help if ya ever stuck. !!!!!
:grin:

Lee Bartholomew
21st-November-2006, 02:00 PM
Thing is, if you have used them from the start, you won't know any better.

Belive me, They are over priced, slow, cause problems 90% of the time and have rubbish adverts.

If you have a choice of a clapped out old rover (like mine) or a cheaper faster Porche, would you still choose the rover just because it is advertised everywhere?

(clapped out old rover for sale BTW if anyone wants it. lol)

Trouble
21st-November-2006, 02:11 PM
Thing is, if you have used them from the start, you won't know any better.

Belive me, They are over priced, slow, cause problems 90% of the time and have rubbish adverts.

If you have a choice of a clapped out old rover (like mine) or a cheaper faster Porche, would you still choose the rover just because it is advertised everywhere?

(clapped out old rover for sale BTW if anyone wants it. lol)

well i never, didn't realise... so who are we suggesting is a better alternative.??

Lee Bartholomew
21st-November-2006, 02:16 PM
Pipex are good.

All depends on what you need broadband for ie, speeds, webspace, static ip, unlimited downloads etc.

http://www.adslguide.org.uk is a good place to start looking.

Also i think WHICH do a broadband review.

Clara are ment to be really good. www.clara.net

Seahorse
21st-November-2006, 02:29 PM
Supposed to be good if you have kids but personally I wouldn't touch AOL with a barge pole! I seem remember it being difficult to get rid of their browser and collateral software.

Lee Bartholomew
21st-November-2006, 02:34 PM
Supposed to be good if you have kids but personally I wouldn't touch AOL with a barge pole! I seem remember it being difficult to get rid of their browser and collateral software.

It's not even good if you have kids. The filter software is rubbish. Example if a website sells underwear it could be blocked. IE M&S, Debenhams etc.

The software it comes bundled with is nasty. You are sometimes better of formating and re-installing windows than you are trying to get shot of it.

Stuart M
21st-November-2006, 02:37 PM
I loaded an AOL disk onto my last PC but one, in the month before replacing it. I'd heard bad things and out of curiosity decided to take a look. It proved as bad I'd been told, with proprietary software and bits being downloaded onto the machine. Then there were the follow-up phone calls after the free trial period expired...

As others have said, I'd shop around if I were you.

Dallen
21st-November-2006, 02:46 PM
Hi Danielle,
I use Virgin Broadband and have found it to be very reliable. Prices vary depending on what sort of service you want. Have been a customer of Virgin since 2002 in the days of dial up.
As for AOL stay well clear.
http://www.virgin.net
See you tomorrow evening.

David

Dreadful Scathe
21st-November-2006, 03:08 PM
wow im surprised at the negatives..... ive used AOL for years in fact since it all started and found them to be absolutely great. Great parental controls and great help if ya ever stuck. !!!!!
:grin:
whats curious is there are STILL no positive votes :)

straycat
21st-November-2006, 03:16 PM
Heard very good things about Tiscali of late (and am considering switching to them) - anyone got any experience of 'em? a 2Meg connection, for £19.99 for 2Mb (price includes all national and local UK phone calls you might happen to make) - is sounding very tempting to me...

drathzel
21st-November-2006, 03:27 PM
I am looking for broadband, any speed, unlimited d/l and wireless if poss! Also has to be avliable in Northern Ireland!:D

azande
21st-November-2006, 03:51 PM
Does your iBook have an Airport card installed?

Shodan
21st-November-2006, 03:57 PM
Don't do it - they are not an INTERNET service provider, they are an AOL Services Provider. Part of AOL services includes HTTP web site access.

But as said above, their software installs tons of rubbish, kills your registary and is not fun at all and blocks a lot of stuff.

Every tried switching from AOL to another service provider? *shudder*

Sorry, but I'm biased - hate AOL. Hate Microsoft as well. :nice:

drathzel
21st-November-2006, 03:59 PM
Does your iBook have an Airport card installed?

of course!

Whitebeard
21st-November-2006, 04:23 PM
whats curious is there are STILL no positive votes :)

Don't overlook me oh dreadful one. I started way back with Compuserve, where you could very easily contact helpful people on general computer issues, and stayed on when this was phased into AOL. Never had any real problems though I prefer not to use the inbuilt browser and always bring up at least one separate instance of Explorer.

And I was invited to update to Explorer 7 this morning. This was a painless exercise and quicker than the, what seem like umpty-nine, iTune updates of recent weeks. Not sure of Cleartype yet, type appears more bold and perhaps a little fuzzy. Apparently there's a "Cleartype Tuner" if I can just find it.

TheTramp
21st-November-2006, 04:30 PM
And I was invited to update to Explorer 7 this morning. This was a painless exercise and quicker than the, what seem like umpty-nine, iTune updates of recent weeks.

:yeah:

I don't have iTunes. But I do have Quicktime. And I was getting so bored of them, that the AppleUpdate program got removed from the PC yesterday....

stewart38
21st-November-2006, 05:23 PM
whats curious is there are STILL no positive votes :)

I use it , im not the with the 'ive heard its not good'

I only voted ok as think price is too much

its on my to do list to change contract run out in january

Lee Bartholomew
21st-November-2006, 05:25 PM
Think it is safe to say AVOID.

Lucy Locket
21st-November-2006, 05:34 PM
Heard very good things about Tiscali of late (and am considering switching to them) - anyone got any experience of 'em? a 2Meg connection, for £19.99 for 2Mb (price includes all national and local UK phone calls you might happen to make) - is sounding very tempting to me...

I've used Tiscali since dial up, then changed to broadband, so used them for a few years now & no probs. :clap:

Have never heard anything good about AOL though. Everyone who has used them has had problems.:hug:

Dreadful Scathe
21st-November-2006, 08:17 PM
evAOL evAOL evAOL :)

RogerR
21st-November-2006, 08:20 PM
A O Hell

Robin
22nd-November-2006, 04:19 AM
AOL - they still around? ;-) they used to be known as Arseholes on line - think it was supposed to be more of a reference to the people using them as an isp rather than to AOL but i know people with good and bad experiences. Just for your info though, the most worrying thing is that they drop emails. As in they decide what they won't accept for you and drop it. they don;t tell you they've dropped it nor do they tell the sender - this is in total contradiction to the internet standards that define all this sort of stuff.

Personally I've had good experience with BEunlimitied of late - absolutely brilliant technical support. They've just been bought out by O2 so that should make for some interesting future packages. The other option is to go for something like t-mobile web and walk, but you pay more and its limited to 3g speeds and download capped to either 2 or 3gb per month depending on the package

hope this helps

DavidY
22nd-November-2006, 09:04 AM
Not sure of Cleartype yet, type appears more bold and perhaps a little fuzzy. Apparently there's a "Cleartype Tuner" if I can just find it.Try the Microsoft Powertoys page here (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx)? The download is one of those listed on the RHS of the screen.

Edit: Or there's an online version here (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx).

Whitebeard
22nd-November-2006, 01:34 PM
Try the Microsoft Powertoys page here (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx)? The download is one of those listed on the RHS of the screen.

Edit: Or there's an online version here (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx).

Thanks David though I did find it for myself after a little while. Now I've just got to get familiar with the new features and rearranged interface.

Paulthetrainer
23rd-November-2006, 09:34 PM
Had AOL in the days of dial-up and it was pretty rubbish - it kept telling me that there was a problem with certain sites - so I'd go on-line with my Dellnet pay as you go and the site would work just fine, so it must have been them. They do give you a free month when you cancel them though - you just have to remember to try and cancel them AGAIN once you've had your free month though! :wink:

Also had Tiscali broadband, who were not really very good. Speed only a tiny bit quicker than dial-up. Foreign helpdesk with people who didn't really speak understandable English, coining in at least 75 pence an hour of my money! And you can't even threaten*** to go round there and beat them up if they don't help you. :grin:

I now have Virgin broadband which is so far the best product, and only 14.99 per month, although if anyone is thinking of buying it, beware the premium rate help line if things do go wrong, and the over-long security procedure just to squeeze those extra pennies out of you!

Paul


*** I don't actually physically threaten people on helpdesks, although when those annoying telephone sales people call me up, I do sometimes try and sell them some of my own books, CD's and videos. That REALLY throws them off their stride......

drathzel
24th-November-2006, 03:04 PM
So what is the conlusion for my broadband for my mac!

Lee Bartholomew
24th-November-2006, 03:12 PM
So what is the conlusion for my broadband for my mac!


Throw it out get a PC. lol, just kidding. Prefer macs in all honesty.

Any isp should work with your mac. If the ISP is supplying your modem, just let them know you need mac drivers and not PC ones

Dreadful Scathe
24th-November-2006, 03:18 PM
Throw it out get a PC. lol, just kidding. Prefer macs in all honesty.

Any isp should work with your mac. If the ISP is supplying your modem, just let them know you need mac drivers and not PC ones
no no no avoid any USB modems like the plague - best to not get one from the ISP and buy your own one for £40.

straycat
7th-December-2006, 12:17 PM
no no no avoid any USB modems like the plague - best to not get one from the ISP and buy your own one for £40.

I recommend getting a router, rather than a modem. Not much more expensive, but a lot more versatile - and the whole Mac / PC / something-else debate becomes irrelevant. If you have a laptop, a wireless router is a must...

straycat
7th-December-2006, 12:18 PM
So what is the conlusion for my broadband for my mac!

Well - this thread has inspired me to switch providers over to Tiscali (for many reasons) - I'll give a report when the changeover kicks in (probably early next week)

Magic Hans
7th-December-2006, 12:53 PM
check out http://www.uswitch.com

Don't know if it'll work in NI ... might do!

Lee Bartholomew
7th-December-2006, 01:05 PM
Well - this thread has inspired me to switch providers over to Tiscali (for many reasons) - I'll give a report when the changeover kicks in (probably early next week)


Funny Enough, im just looking at changing over from Tiscali after days of outage and days of phoning an non-english speaking call center to be told again and again, it was because im not using a tiscali modem they sent out (using a d-link router). Despite the fact it's been working for over a year. After insiting on speaking to a manager they done a line test to find out that there is a fault on the line!!!. Idiots.

P.S. I agree with the other advice about a router. Much better option and shouldn't be much problem with a mac. USB modems should be OK. Def ok for home use on a PC, not 100% sure what they are like in general with Macs.

baldrick
10th-December-2006, 04:34 PM
Just started with Tiscali. All great so far.

Always though AOL great for begginers to WWW cause it does so much for you. After that go with something that has less features andd lower cost.

Interested to hear that swapping to routers good. Anyone know if the PC world deal, router plus wierless card £40 is worth taking?

Lee Bartholomew
10th-December-2006, 04:42 PM
PC world in general are really expensive with the exception of one or two good deals. I brought a d-link router with 2 usb adapters for £28 from ebuyer ( www.ebuyer.co.uk ) but I can;t find the offer again though so they might have stopped it.

baldrick
10th-December-2006, 10:46 PM
same deal at dabs is £49, so going with pcworld