Slashdot Mirror
AOL Users Will Need to Pay $2 a Month For Phone Support
destinyland writes "8.7 million AOL subscribers face a new 20% fee increase next month — unless they agree to never call AOL's technical support lines. They'll have to use AOL chat for support or the online help "portal" unless their issue is a failed connection — and they're being enrolled in the program by default unless they opt out. Ominously, AOL used the exact same wording as when they quietly changed their terms of service to allow them to sell subscribers' home phone numbers to telemarketers. 'Your continued subscription to the AOL service constitutes your acceptance of this change.'"
as they descend in AOHell; desperate grabs at revenue are being made. It was tough to cancel before; no you can't do it on weekends or holidays.
After creating eternal September they are sliding to obscurity.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Nostalga is okay but in this case who gives a flying fuck? AOL is irrelevant. They are a internet portal and dialup provider. I'm with the posts that say "hey i didn't know AOL still had users!" but I take it a step further in that I don't want to know either. Back when they had a huge market share they were relevant and their pricing practices deserved scrutiny, even if 99.9% of slashdotters thought it's service was foul. Now they have to compete for the scraps of dialup users who don't want to upgrade to broadband, and that market is neither vibrant nor growing. We don't post pricing practices of Juno or netzero, do we?
C'mon it can't be that slow a news day can it?
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
they can afford a vacation home, but can't afford internet for it?
Additionally, if it's in another country, and that country is in western europe or the pacific rim, they could probably get broadband there for half the current price of AOL.
Either way, they're paying a "tax" for that level of stupidity.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
You aren't kidding about grandmas.
In addition, it seems to me that AOL is tricking people into accepting this $2 increase. Let me explain:
My wife's grandma uses AOL and she told me that she got an e-mail that said that her bill will go up by $2 every month unless you click this link and answer some account security questions. I immediately thought this was a fake e-mail to get grandmas account information. I looked at the e-mail and it looks just like the false bank emails that I receive all the time. However, I called AOL and it ended being a true e-mail.
We have been trained to ignore e-mails with wording like this, how many old people do you think will just delete this e-mail and end up getting charged an extra $2?
Sure does!
The working poor aren't the way they are because of too little money. But rather, because of too much consumerism. When I look back 20 years ago, the poor kids didn't have Nike. The poor kids didn't have Polo. The poor kids didn't have SHIT. Parents put priorities first.
Now today. Every kid has fancy sneakers, cell phones, laptop computers, new cars for graduation... And bankrupt parents.
It's not the kids I'm worried about. It's the parents. What will the world be like when the parents of todays spoiled, money sucking kids, get spit out at 65 without a dime to their name - and greedy children with little desire to help them out?