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'No Thanks' Not Good Enough For AOL Promos

Posted by timothy on from the informed-consent dept.

boio writes: "AOL users are suing AOL over its advertising practices, claiming that they were charged for products that they never requested. Apparently these users say they clicked the 'no thanks' button, but still received the advertised products. Of course, we must wonder if these people truly clicked no thanks ...they are using AOL after all, and maybe they had a secret yearning for that Torreador Bed-in-a-Bag ;)."

9 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Opt-Out is there, but hidden by niola · · Score: 5, Informative

    I had to help my mother with this, but there is a way in AOL to opt out of their marketing crap. I can't remember the top level menue, but it is somewhere hidden in the MyAOL section where you can set your preferences. There are a series of marketing prefences that allow you to opt out of AOL emails, AOL service pop-up ads, etc. Of course they make you click no to each individual type to be a pain in the ass, but the option is there.

    --Jon

    1. Re:Opt-Out is there, but hidden by nuggetman · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's not in the menus as far as I remember. You have to manually go to Keyword: MARKETING PREFERENCES.

      And while that may opt you out of popups and emails, the fact every screen from the mailbox to the address book to profile windows to the welcome screen to chats (the list goes on and on) is littered with ads doesn't change.

      --
      ...and that's all there is to it.
    2. Re:Opt-Out is there, but hidden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      on 6.0 and 7.0 it's under Settings -> Preferences -> Marketing Preferences or KW: Marketing Preferences

  2. Re:Check this out too by falloutboy · · Score: 5, Informative
    We learn that they're suing to, among other things, keep the products that were sent to them at AOL's expense.


    According to article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, if any party sends another party unsolicited goods, the recieving party is entitled to keep them. They don't even have to sue for that.

  3. Re:AOL sucks? by CaseyB · · Score: 3, Informative
    is adopting a lot of open source practices (Mozilla)

    You mean "Netscape". You think AOL had _anything_ to do with the open-sourcing of Mozilla? Ha!

    acquiring fringe technology with rebellious attitudes (Winamp)

    Yeah, this enlightened view must be why they shitcanned official gnutella development the second they got a whiff of Nullsoft's new toy.

  4. To remove AOL advertising.. by 1155 · · Score: 3, Informative

    To remove AOL advertising (or at least what they let you) from the proprietary AOL client, do the following (Must be done to every user/screenname):

    1. Log in.

    2. Go to your settings, and then preferances.

    3. Click on the marketing option.

    4. Wait forever.

    5. Click on e-mail.

    6. Click the continue button after reading their plea to Not remove advertising.

    7. Click the no option.

    8. Click save.

    9. CLICK THE X ON THE TOP OF THAT BOX. Otherwise, the only other two options are continue and cancel. Continue takes you back to the yes/no option. Cancel takes away the setting, making your activity fruitless.

    10. Wash, rinse, repeat.

    11. Choose the pop-up. (Not sure if that is the real name) and do the same as before.

    12. Do the same for every e-mail account.

    To truly remove the AOL advertising, AOL MUST be removed. Choose a local isp instead, which charges less, and will help you more. I went with one here and suggest anyone with aol should do the same.

  5. Re:this happened by marvinglenn · · Score: 2, Informative
    Random advice: don't call your girlfriend's mom "stupid."

    at least until she's your mother-in-law

    --
    The whores get mad when the sluts give it away for free.
  6. How AOL can trick people by NFNNMIDATA · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have used AOL recently (for work, not for personal use since 1994), and what they did was put up several ads when I logged on top of one another. There would be two buttons on the bottom, "cancel" and "order" - but they would sometimes swap sides of the window so if you just clicked the same place until the ads went away (which I did once being impatient by the 2nd ad), you would wind up ordering something. Conveniently billed to your credit card of course.

  7. Very True! by SupaYoda · · Score: 2, Informative

    And the CDs (now printed in pretty colours!) work well as bird and vermin chasers, too.

    Very true. A friend of mine hangs them in strategic locations on his boat. There is not a spot of bird poop anywhere!

    I say that we should be thankful to AOL for providing us with such a service.