AOL broadband

By jon | 01 Jan 2009 12:06

There customer service system dont work had a letter to upgrade my aol speed,phoned up and befor i knew it i had been signed up to aol talk phoned up to cancle within the amount of days it says u have to cancle it was told it had been done then found i got charged,rung back up and got india and got offerd a lower d/d but for the same speed i was upgraded to and a new router waited and waied for the router phone up after 2 weeks was told it had been dispatched,no router turned up so rung back up to find out thast the router had never been oreded and the offer i had been given hadenteven been put on the system to this day i aint recived my new ruoter and have given up

By Giles | 21 Dec 2008 11:34

Really can't fault AOL, I moved to them in Feb 2007 in a town where they had their own equipment installed at the exchange so at the time only paid £14.99 per month for 2mb unlimited broadband service (Silver product)... I moved address in November 2007 to a smaller town where the local exchange has not been unbundled and AOL broadband had to go through BT's own equipment. AOL usually change an additional £10 per month for broadband packages going through an unbundled exchange - £24.99. I was expecting AOL to make me pay the additional £10 per month and also have to start a new 12 month contract because I have moved address... When I contacted AOL I was pleasantly surprised... The Irish lady on the end of the phone advised me as I am on an "old" 12 month contract (pre-Carphone Warehouse takeover), I would not have to renew my contract for moving address and also they could not increase monthly charge for moving to a location with an unbundled exchange! I have continued to stay with AOL since moving and they have since offered me several further loyalty products at no additional cost and without having to renew my contract. These include upgrading my broadband to the 8mb service and I receive about 6.5mb which I am very happy with. While I still pay £10.50 line rental to BT, AOL have also offered me free Anytime calls to any UK landline, this service alone would cost about £8 a month with BT! Technical Support and Customer Service calls are free if calling from the AOL phone line too! I bet not many other people can beat what I get for £14.99 a month, while receiving broadband from an unbundled exchange: - Unlimited 8mb Broadband - Free landline calls anytime of day I appreciate this kind of of package is not now available to new customers but thought I would let you know my experience! --------------------------------------------------- Calls to Technical Service and Customer Service is a bit of a mixed bag, if I get through to the Irish call centre they will go out of their way to help you and usually very friendly. The Indian call centres are not the greatest all seem to read scripts and struggle to understand at times. I have not found the service too bad with AOL, the connection is extremely rarely interrupted. The speed at times can fluctuate but I usually get around 6.5mb service.

By Beacon | 18 Dec 2008 12:56

Absolutely HORRENDOUS provider!!!! Moved to AOL from EFH/ 186k as I thought no one could be as bad as them! After an easy set up and a period of faultless 2 weeks service and very good deal £4.99 month for first 3 months wireless flexi, the internet connection was cut off completely. Rang the helpline- told by automated service that they were fixing a problem. Day 2- no connection, rang customer services, based in India- spoke to 6 (!) individuals for a total of 30 mins, having to repeat my problem and details each time! Spoke as if they were computerised droids, unable to tell me what was wrong, with very bad English as well. Day 3- Spent another 20 mins to customer services at 5p/min, eventually put through to techical team- who told me to wait for 6 hours then I would be connected. Day 4- still no connection- have started to email now as I am likely to verbally massacre the customer services team if I speak to them again. Day 5 (today)- still nothing. AVOID AOL!!!!! They are absolutely awful. (And avoid EFH/186k while you are at it- They are shoddy, charged me for 3 months use once I had cancelled) I am despairing of UK Broadband providers- I have yet to find one that does the very simple task of allowing me to switch on my computer and access the internet.

By gareth | 17 Dec 2008 18:23

Been with aol for years , never had a problem with them until about 18 months ago when the connectivity messed up completely ,aol blamed the router and sent me a thomson speedtouch. Recently aol wrote by email asking me to confirm my d/d details to make sure they were correct which i did then the next thing i find is they have cancelled the d/d from my bank and blamed me for cancelling. Now because of their mess up instead of charging me two months b/b and calls which usually comes to around 27 each month, they want £123,59 for two months . Have written and phoned several times but never had an answer back. Taking legal advice at present, and planning a move to either tiscali or virgin. DO NOT GO WITH AOL ABSOLUTERIP OFF MERCHANTS.. BAD LOT.

By Roisin Morgan | 24 Nov 2008 01:04

Was with aol for several years, had to change provider as my internet explorer wouldnt work with aol software and I needed it for some of my programmes. Cancelled in April, they then proceeded to take money from my account in August this year - apparantley for a dial up service i had at a different address and a different phone number in 2002! This is THEFT! Am in dispute and have reported them to the relevant body.

By jack | 12 Nov 2008 13:31

One word sums up AOL - rubbish. I saw that the carphone warehouse and AOL were offering a free laptop deal and signed up as my existing 12 month contract with aol was over (12 months but had actually been with them for 3 years). I recieved not one not two but 7 different letters fom them all saying different things. "ring us with your MAC code", "you will connected in 7 days", "we will be sending your modem soon", "Your laptop will be with you in the next few weeks". I phoned up with my mac code which I had requested 2 weeks ago as I was going to change ISP. I gave it to them and was told I would be connected soon. 1 week later nothing had come so I spend 3 hours on the phone and was told it would be coming. 2 nights ago I tirne on my PC abnd found that my existing AOL broadband had been cut off without myself being informed - I need broadband on my line for business purposes! I spend a further 4 hours on the phone, I was hung up on twice, and eventually put through to the indian cancellation centre.The hold music is enough to make you want to commit suicide. I was told it was my fault for my line being cut disconnected for trying to change package and giving them a mac code and I was then screamed at with a million different packages and was virtually begged to sign up. I refused and the man kept on trying to make me sign up for a new package as I was told my line was now clear. NO was my answer and he got quite rude and put the phone dowbn on me. Im now going to go with o2 I hope they will be btter.

By StuffTheCarphoneWarehouse | 07 Nov 2008 20:16

Have been an AOL user for years. Suckered into upgrading to 8mb and the Thomson Speedtouch router and thus a new one year contract. This means that I was transferred across to their new non BT network. Have had continuous problems since the move across. Speed no better than my original 2mb service. PCs get disconnected from the service and cannot always get back connected. One PC will only connect for about half the day. Indian call centre......Hmm well. Level 2 are the only ones with any competence at all. The rest are incompetent and lie. Don't know whether they do it naturally or whether they have no choice because there is no other way that they can handle the customers of the failing AOL network. Examples would be "the server is being worked on" (6 times), "give us 24hrs and log in again and all your problems will be fixed", "you have on choice but to reload your operating system", "we will ring you back shortly"(they never do). If all these fictitious ideas do not get you off the phone then they either transfer you to some one else(17 minute wait last time) or put the phone down on you(when you have spent hours avoiding using the language you would really like to use). On one of the last occasions I spoke to them I put aside the afternoon an spent 6 hours on the phone. Problems still not fixed. AOL/Carphone Warehouse/Charles Dunstone have no concept of customer service. Thank god I did not take the "free" telephone service as I probably would not be able to talk to anybody now(might be a blessing in respect of the Indian call centre). not go anywhere near AOL now. They are a disgrace.

By Stuart Swaine | 04 Nov 2008 11:18

I have been with AOL for over 10 years and just recently switched to Broadband which has been fine up to now. I have AOL 9.0VR and I have just started to have constant problems with connectivity. I cannot sign onto the software because when it tries to connect it comes up with the Stop Blue Screen BAD_POOL_HEADER error message and shuts down my computer. I dare not try to sign on to AOL anymore as I am frightened of damaging my computer. I am very dissapointed with AOL now.