AOL > Reviews (279)

Have I gone stark raving bonkers? I think AOL is fantastic!
Yes, despite it’s reputation and many quips about being Assholes OnLine, in my experience it’s all I could wish for!

I have been online since Oct 1999. My first ever ISP was Currant Bun which was a pay by the minute. May average monthly phone bill? - £180!
I soon changed to Cable and Wireless’s own unmetered service and was paying £35 a month but I wasn’t happy with them so I came across the BT Surftime Anytime package at £20 a month and my new ISP was Flexnet. In addition to paying BT £20 monthly, I also had to pay £10 to Flexnet and £6 to Affinity each month.

I was happy with what I got. Fast, reliable connection, a very friendly customer service – it was a small company and at one point I spent an hour talking to the manager who answered most of the calls himself, talking about anything and everything! I was the first in my group of peers to have a fast, unmetered connection and recommended them to anyone who stopped long enough to listen.

So why have I suddenly reverted to AOL? My phone bill came a few weeks ago and at £120 it was all internet charges for a quarter and that didn’t include the £16 a month going out of my bank account by direct debit to Flexnet and Affinity.
Coupled with the fact that BT had just increased the Surftime to £25 a month. I was fed up with it.
Seeing as I’m hardly rich either, that money could be spent on something more useful (no, not a few new lippies!).
So my 2yr relationship with Flexnet had come to an end.

Although every ISP has it’s pro’s and cons, I didn’t want to go to a less well-known ISP. It also had to be unmetered access and at £15.99 a month AOL was looking attractive.

I must admit I was wary about it, so I emailed Trampus for her opinion and also read some ops on Ciao. Some that were all for AOL and some against to get a balanced view.
On the whole it seemed to me AOL worked ok for some but for others it caused problems, mainly crashing their computer.
I decided to go for it. I signed up online for the free trial and downloaded the software, which took ages (1 1/2hrs). For years I had been sent AOL Cd’s at the rate of two a month but when you want one, you can’t get one!

Installation was a piece of cake but when I tried to connect nothing happened! I tried everything I could think of but no luck and I had to ring AOL. I was wary of this, as I’ve heard they can be rude and patronising. I was impressed. The woman I spoke to was kind and they certainly know their stuff!
My modem driver wouldn’t work with this version of AOL (version 7) and with WIN XP but all I had to do was download the latest driver and I was up and running.

I’m not about to launch into what AOL is/has because unless you’re an alien, you’re bound to know! But here’s my impression of the service.

I’ve connected every time and set up several email addresses. I’m impressed with all the content they provide, never having had this before with an ISP.
What I’m most impressed about is being able to set up a screen name (which is also your email address) for my young son and restrict what he does online.

The layout for the under 12’s is bright and colourful with plenty to see and do. Games, stories, chat, message boards and loads more. The homework button will come in handy in a few years!
As my son who is nearly 7 is just getting into the internet, AOL is ideal for him.

I’ve only been on AOL for a very short time and still learning about all the different features.
There is one con for me and that email that has been in your inbox for 20 days gets deleted but you have a personal filing cabinet to make new folders to keep your emails, so in a way it makes me organised and I make sure I keep or delete emails as soon as I’ve read them whereas before I my inbox would be filled with tons of rubbish for months!

As I have several email addresses now or screen names, I thought I would have to log off, then log on again with a different name to check my email but all I have to do is press switch screen name and a box will come up showing all the screen names and whether any of them have email waiting so I can see before I decide to switch.

Paying by credit card each month isn’t great as I’d prefer to pay by direct debit or with my debit card but it isn’t a huge inconvenience as I do most of my banking online and can transfer money from my bank account to my credit card when I want.

I am concerned about virus checking emails and can’t find any help on this yet but I do like the huge amount of help available including the facility of talking to a ‘techie’, which I’ve done already and you talk in private in a chatroom.

I’m am bemused at the way if someone has included a file in an email such as a photo you can’t just view it in the email but you have to download it onto your computer and then open it. It’s more long-winded that way.

Overall, I’m very pleased with my change to AOL and I think I’ll be with them for a very long time. My AOL trial comes to an end the middle of Aug but I won’t be cancelling.
That just leaves me to cancel my BT Surftime, Flexnet and Affinity. Cancel the direct debits, inform everyone of my email change including all the websites I’m registered to. Shame AOL can’t do this for me, as it seems to do everything else!

That just leaves me to say to those considering a change to AOL. Ignore the reputation, keep an open mind, read other ops on Ciao, install the software and just try it for yourself, you just may be pleasantly surprised!

Thanks for reading!