Anti AOL

[Worldlife]

In looking for an answer to the AOL uninstall problem in this forum I came across this article cached by "Google". Can't access the original website (Moggies) though and so I've copied and pasted in case the article vanishes!!

Anti-AOL from "Moggies"

Would most Screamers agree with the following contentions:-

Anti-AOL (American On-Line)

What is it about AOL that upsets so many people? After dealing with the so called AOL Help I can personally vouch that AOL is arrogant, stupid and has no interest in what their customers have to say. AOL has far too much power, power that they will eventually use in the Political World. Below are more answers on why AOL is disliked and should be avoided at all costs.

AOL does not give you direct Internet access: AOL is an On-Line-Service. They really want you to play their own games and do their own things. Only when you open the web window are you really on the Internet.

AOL controls what you see on the Internet: AOL provides a portal to the Internet - a filtered portal. AOL controls which sites you can visit. It limits the power of the Internet by disallowing you to venture into lands that compete with AOL's own services, such as places on Yahoo or Web pages that have games or chat. AOL DEMANDS that you use their own services if you want them and at a price, when these services are often free to all other Internet Users.

AOL e-mail isn't compatible with Internet e-mail: Often, AOL users cannot receive common e-mail attachments. These aren't a problem for anyone else on the Internet, but for AOL users the attachments never make it through.

If you use the AOL e-mail program for sending and receiving e-mail, clicking on "Reply" to an e-mail, the original message is not copied to the reply e-mail. You need to do this manually with Copy and Paste.

AOL is expensive: My ISP charges me £10 per month for unlimited use. No need to install any software that may cause problems in Windows. The access I have is Direct Access, a mail box, web space for creating my own web page, a local freephone number to call for technical support. More importantly, I have the power to go and browse the web where I want and when I want without disconnections, or having myself being tracked and having personal profiling done on me.

AOL has a very bad feature to their e-mail system. At any time, you can check the status of any piece of e-mail sent to another AOL or Compuserve member, and find out if the recipient opened it, ignored it (marked it as read without deleting or reading it) or deleted it without reading it. Furthermore, you can request a return reciept that CANNOT be blocked by the recipient that will notify you when the e-mail was opened (this applies only to other AOL/Compuserve users). If you are an AOL member and value your privacy, do not use AOL e-mail and don't open anything in your AOL inbox from another AOL member that you do not trust. Good thing there's Yahoo, and Hotmail, and Mail.com, and... you know!

AOL has very bad support: After dealing with AOL personally I can now tell you that any answer from any technician working for AOL gives answers from a pre-prepared script. They are NOT allowed to give you straight and honest answers.

AOL upgrades cause loads of problems: If it is not broken, there is no need to fix it. Upgrading AOL is often unnecessary and potentially a bad thing to do. The upgrade may be incompatible with Windows or other software on your system. Why take the risk?

Anything AOL offers is also available on the "real" Internet: You can get instant messaging from Yahoo or MSN. You can chat using a number of features and portals. The good news is that you don't pay extra for these features, as you do with AOL. The better news is that these features often work better and faster out here on the real Internet than with AOL. If you do consider to move away from AOL, either to save money or to see the "real" Internet, congratulations. I think you won't be disappointed!

What about the incredible amount of junk mail that you get in an AOL email account, your address being given or SOLD to companies so they can advertise through junk mail. With a non-AOL email address, virtually NO junk-mail is received. Lets not forget that with AOL, after receiving a certain number of email messages, your mailbox will NO longer receive mail. This can be the case with non-AOL accounts, although you don't get it clogged-up with junk mail.

One of the biggest mistakes AOL has made is their attitude in not supporting POP3 Mail or SMTP Mail, these are two of the most widely used E-Mail services in the world. AOL does not want you to know about how easy it would be for you to get and send mail without their badly coded and bloated software. Most users use Outlook Express in Windows to send and receive mail, if an AOL user receives an e-mail with links from a non-aol user, the links will not work. Pictures sent as attachments or in HTML mail will either not show or be garbled.

Using a POP3 e-mail account allows a user to use the Dial-Up-Networking (DUN) in Windows, this allows a user to use Internet Explorer for browsing the Web and Outlook Express for Mail and Newsgroups. What this means is there is NO need to install third party software such as the very bloated AOL software. Their software also opens unknown back-channels that report back to AOL where you have been on the Internet, they do track you and do personal profiling. Their Customer Support will tell you this does not happen, believe me it does.

AOL does NOT want Microsoft Internet Software or Microsoft Mail Software to be used by any of their users. Why is this? Because AOL will lose control once YOU, the user, realizes just what you have been missing. Once YOU see how easy it is to send and receive mail, browse the Internet without being kicked off after a certain time.

AOL is incredibly slow, relayed web access, with very little spare bandwidth, and the default AOL web browser is terrible. It can hardly display simple JAVA applets, has trouble using proper colours, and sometimes can't even display graphics properly.

If you take up AOL on their current "1000 free hours for 45 days," realize that to take advantage of the full 1000 free hours you'll have to be online with AOL for 22 hours a day, every day for the fully 45 days. If you do sign up with AOL and then decide to stop using them you will experience many problems trying to close your account. Also, you have to watch your monthly statement from the bank or credit card to ensure that they are not still charging you once you have left. Yes, they have charged many people AFTER they have closed their account and left.

The installation of AOL software is supposed to have a very simple uninstall feature. Forget it, trying to uninstall their software is a total nightmare. It is simpler to format your drive and start again without any AOL software, better still burn their CD's so no one can install anything from them.

All AOL is interested is numbers and control, the more users the better for them. This gives them an incredible amount of power that can and probably is being abused by them. AOL has hidden agendas, you the user are not privy to these.

[Worldlife]

Catslinky requires uninstall advice - if anyone can help on this please reply directly to the request for help.....

Guidance appreciated please - request by Catslinky

[Bill T]

Vic

I agree 100% with what you say about AOL. It's good to see that this forum is not only anti-Tiscali

[Catslinky]

Many thanks to The Beef and Worldlife - wow, that was quite an article you quoted from the Google Cache! I can certainly identify with some of it too - in fact, I was just in the middle of replying to your posts (having been on-line for no more than 10 minutes, when AOL disconnected me!) Result? Blue screen of death! It's as if they could see what I was writing, so not only have they managed to mess up my PC, they've also managed to increase my level of paranoia!! LOL

AOL is rather like having a nanny peering over your shoulder! It really dislikes allowing me to access Hotmail - despite being issued with 3 dial-up numbers, only one of them will get me through to the Hotmail site. It is also excruciatingly slow to load - I practically get cobwebs whilst it's fussing about! Previously, sound was good on this PC, whereas now it has developed a permanent stutter when that blasted voice announces "We-e-e-lc-come to A-AOL!)

Just once, I tried speaking to one of their tekkies on their on-line help section! What a waste of time! I thought I was communicating with a pre-formatted machine. Didn't seem like a person at all.

Anyway, they're coming off! I will give the uninstall feature a try, but I take your point about AOL leaving bits behind! I will also be checking bank statements after the cancellation takes effect - they apparently give you a "four digit confirmation number" when you cancel, which you're advised to "keep for future reference." Too right I will!

With any luck I shall be back .... unless AOL manages to strangle me in cyberspace!!

Thanks again Guys

[uknl]

AOL is ULTRA BAD!

[silver]

AOL back in 2002 was quite messy for broadband access, you couldn't even use a router for instance,. these days the access side of things is more relaxed and it behaves mostly as a normal ISP - so far as I know that is..

Sil

[tattaloop]

AOL sucks, everyone knows that. They've got you, but so has Bill Gates. What is this blue screen of death of which I keep hearing? And all this stuff about the registry?

Get Linux. Free. No funny business.

Use the source, Luke

[Coomb]

There American

[emily12]

Has anyone on here tried to cancel? It is the biggest joke ever. You cant if you call them, you cant do it online! It's not simple like cancelling a direct debit, as they make you set up a payment from a card. If, like us you have endured a few years of crappy service and that card has now expired you have to write to the bank, explaining what has happened. Ours was very understanding, apparently this is a very common problem.

Also.... I always though broadband was supposed to be always on. But my bf who has aol broadband has to sign on to access the internet.

I don't know why anyone would sign up to their crappy services they're not even cheap.