To ALL: An interesting articles/opinions/comments about AmericaOuttaLine that is circulating on AOL members emails concerning about AOL latest snafus... brace yourself for LOL... it is funny but TRUE!!!
>>>>>>>>
O f f - l i n e A g a i n !
~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++~++
An electrical malfunction knocked AOL off-line Monday.
"Please try again in 15 minutes," AOL's software told subscribers -- for the next two and a half hours. "I wonder if someone can sue them over the definition of 15 minutes?" one subscriber asked AOL Watch.
The outage came at a peak time -- 9:15 p.m. EST -- and it wasn't until shortly before midnight that the service was restored. "Maybe their conception of time is just a tad slower than the rest of us," another AOL Watch reader complained. It took AOL an hour to restore power -- and almost two hours later, an on-line announcement conceded that "Member [sic] are not yet able to send or receive e-mail."
( aolwatch.org ) "We expect the e-mail system to be functional within the next few hours," it concluded optimistically.
Ironically, BoardWatch magazine had just published results of a nationwide survey of ISPs, reporting that though AOL ranked in the bottom third of the 90 services tested, "they were by no means the worst in the pile."
cnn.com
Despite that, Boardwatch's figures indicate one out of every eight calls to AOL failed to connect (12.9%). Unfortunately, AOL's service outage comes as AOL attempts to justify a $2.00-per-month price increase. "It's paying caviar prices for day-old bread," one subscriber told Reuters columnist Michelle Rafter.
yahoo.com
Another subscriber had even harsher words for C|Net. "America Online isn't even worth two bucks per month..."
news.com
In a late-night interview, AOL's spokesperson attempted to downplay the outage for Reuters. "This is the first time something like this has happened in well over a year," she claimed -- though just last month C|Net reported that AOL had experienced a 40-minute outage.
biz.yahoo.com
news.com
But AOL subscribers know the service also experiences unreported mini-outages. Last weekend several AOL Watch readers encountered serious e-mail problems. "For over 24 hours, I have received a 'Service Unavailable' error from AOL when trying to send mail," an Earthlink subscriber reported Monday, February 16. "I haven't gotten any e-mail on AOL since SATURDAY!" another subscriber complained Tuesday. "I even sent myself a test e-mail Sunday, and it never arrived."
"Now what is that extra $2 per month for?" they asked rhetorically. "Given the level of service," another AOL Watch reader quipped, "a price decrease would be more appropriate." In fact, nearly 130,000 subscribers came forward to claim refunds for a month of service over busy signals last year.
( biz.yahoo.com. )
Exacerbating their outrage: service problems continue to occur regularly. In early November technology correspondent Simson Garfinkel observed that "Many customers who use local ISPs to telephone AOL (using AOL's TCP/IP connection option) have been unable to get through."
( catless.ncl.ac.uk )
The next week AOL temporarily stopped delivering e-mail from the Microsoft Network and FlexNet -- just as in the past, AOL had also stopped delivering mail from other internet services, including FuseNet, CyberCom, Gorilla.Net, and En.com
aolwatch.org
news.com
aolsucks.org
aolsucks.org
aolsucks.org
aolsucks.org
Those of you on Suzt's list may have read about this recently:
This week subscribers encountered another unpublicized block, one newsletter reports. "It appears that AOL has taken the decision on all its users behalf to block all your mailboxes from being able to receive the daily Eureka newsletter..." editor Robin Nixon wrote Thursday.
( aolwatch.org )
Nixon told AOL Watch the newsletter had 75,000 AOL subscribers. "We are not totally sure that all readers are affected," their announcement read, "but have determined that tens of thousands of you are." One angry Eureka subscriber e-mailed their reaction to AOL Watch. "I am dumping AOL in the next couple of weeks," he wrote. "They are too #@$&ing much!"
Other subscribers complain about "scheduled" outages -- which unfortunately occur near the middle of the day in England, preventing subscribers from accessing their e-mail. "One wonders why they don't come clean BEFORE they turn off the e-mail system," a U.K. subscriber objected "and TELL the paying subscribers not to waste their time, and THEIR AOL PAID FOR TIME, by trying to access their incoming emails."
"It is a simple matter of AOL's service being inadequate," they concluded, "and AOL treating its own customers -- you know, the people who pay their wages -- with what amounts to contempt."
aolwatch.org
Additional problems Sunday night prompted further anger. "When is this going to stop, the unannounced down time, the lies, and system lock-ups..." 24 hours later, the outage hit.
How can AOL justify a price hike? Steve Case wrote the increase was to cover AOL's cost for providing service. But according to the Washington Post, AOL's gross profit margins have only fallen from 37% to 35%.
washingtonpost.com
Apparently AOL wants subscribers to make up the difference. "Asked to comment on the timing," CNN Financial News reports, "Keith Benjamin, a technology analyst at Banc America Robertson Stephens, said it was made 'because Steve Case thought he could get away with it'."
cnnfn.com
Fury is building. A Minnesota ISP has even created a web-site at "leave-aol.com" ( leave-aol.com ), set up a toll-free number ( 1-888-Leave-AOL ), and guaranteed users their rates won't increase for two years. Four days after AOL's price increase was announced, Earthlink told Wired News they were "besieged by tens of thousands of people" responding to an offer titled "Get Out of AOL Free."
earthlink.net
wired.com
"With the service levels they've been delivering, the guys at AOL must be out of their minds," Prodigy's CEO told C|Net. ( 1-800-Prodigy )
news.com
"AOL just raised the price of inferior service," Earthlink's CEO gloated in a press release. ( zdnet.com ) And the New York Attorney's General office seemed to agree. "We encourage customers to shop around," a spokesman remarked pointedly to the New York Post.
( nypost.com )
Problems may amplify an ongoing exodus to local internet services. Ziff-Davis News cites Forrester Research reports that internet services averaged a growth rate of 100 percent in 1997.
www5.zdnet.com
In fact, last week analysts told the New York Times AOL spends $77 for each subscriber added -- adding that "dissatisfaction with the company is reflected in myriad anti-AOL Web sites, mailing lists and several class-action lawsuits, both from disgruntled consumers and from publishers."
( nytimes.com )
Monday's outage will almost certainly fuel discontent. Last week industry observer David Simons had already told C|Net that "the price hike will increase members' sensitivity to all aspects of service quality."
( news.com )
Confirming his remarks, one subscriber reacted angrily to an e-mail problem. "Is this the type of service that has prompted America On Lies to raise the monthly
fee," they wrote in a letter to Steve Case, "with no real justification, other than GREED?"
Price hikes aren't AOL's only money-generating scheme. Recently AOL grafted ad banners onto every subscribers' member profile. On Valentine's Day, Reverend Ruth Jensen found a greeting card advertisement barking "Laugh, Love, or LUST with Online Greetings" below the part of her profile reading "Occupation: Minister".
aolwatch.org
Ironically, the word "lust" appeared in an internal memo outlining AOL's "Vulgarity Guidelines" for staffers enforcing AOL's Terms of Service in 1995.
( aolsucks.org )
Some subscribers are furious. "If you see an ad in this space, please boycott the vendor," one user added to their profile. "I have not been consulted or compensated."
But AOL's quality of service has even affected their responses to complaints about the ads. "AOL put ads in profiles!" one subscriber complained in a letter to AOL's technical support. "Take em out!" "Ads in what profiles?" AOL responded. "We do not put ads in profiles. Please elaborate."
"Thank you for your use of America Online," the e-mail ended. "We hope that you will continue to enjoy the service."
The quality of responses is also affecting AOL's users. Several AOL Watch readers report AOL ignores complaints about troublemakers using chat room-harassing software. Even the New York Times noted that AOL's Guide Pager "is hopelessly backed up. Many users report waiting half an hour or longer for a monitor to respond."
( nytimes.com )
"AOL just spews out form letters and never does anything," one subscriber told
AOL Watch.
In fact, AOL's form responses sometimes result in unintentionally humorous
answers. "While you're at Steve Case's house this Christmas Eve, would you mind beating him about the head and neck with a blunt instrument?" one subscriber wrote to AOL's Santa Claus e-mail address.
"Merry Christmas!!" Santa Claus responded. "Thanks for letting me know what you want this year!"
aolwatch.org
AOL's commitment to form responses is apparently unshakeable, according to another AOL Watch reader. "I even titled my message 'AOL Tech lies and spews random garbage instead of reading their email!'. And look what they did. They spewed more random form letters in response!"
But more serious problems hit AOL's internal mailing lists. AOL's beta-testers receive announcements through a mailing list which apparently wasn't password-protected. "Because of this event, I've changed some things on the ListServ," a beta-program official announced last week. Without the protections in place, a prankster had gained the ability to send mass mailings to all the beta-testers. An apparently star-struck intruder interrupted official announcements with a personal greeting. "Hi," their unauthorized message read. "I just thought I would say hi and
stuff!!!. Bye, ;)"
Since the mailing-list software had been fooled, that message -- and another -- appeared to originate from the official's correct e-mail address. The next day he issued a lengthy apology. "I want to assure you we are ever conscious of your trust in us keeping your private information private..." it read -- "we will be vigilant to ensure no breach does occur."
But two days later, troublemakers applied the same tactic to a mailing list for AOL's Community Leaders -- this time with more serious consequences. "This letter is to inform you that your services as a Community Leader are no longer needed," a fake announcement stated. "We at America Online thank you for the time spent helping to improve and maintain the online environment..."
One of the affected staffers described their reaction. "I was upset," they told AOL Watch. Believing they had truly been fired, they contacted their co-workers to explain their departure. "Then I found out it was a hoax, so I wrote everybody back, saying I'm sorry, I got misinformation..."
Ironically, this Community Leader was also employed at a paid AOL position, and received a legitimate lay-off notice the next day.
The ultimate irony? "The faked message was much nicer than that one my manager sent me!"
One beta-tester summed up their experience. "This service has turned into a complete joke." AOL appears to have lowered expectations for security as well as quality of service. Just last week Robert Pittman, the new president of AOL Networks, adopted an apologetic tone. "Are we perfect?" he asked the Washington Post. "Are we doing what we should be? Probably not."
washingtonpost.com
("But remember that we don't have 50 years of building quality service..." he added -- "...we're still trying to find out what works best.")
In fact, Pittman describes himself to the Post as a technology "moron". "He opines that many of the techies who work for him believe he's 'a complete idiot' around computers," the paper reports. But they attribute the modest appraisal to an "aw-shucks manner". (Though the article also notes the AOL executive never received a college degree...)
With so many problems, why don't subscribers simply leave the service? It's not easy, one user reports. After a thirty-day free trial, they attempted to cancel their account. "I tried to do it on-line, but they don't let you anymore," they complained. And phoning 1-800-827-6364 didn't offer much of an improvement. "I called, but if you choose the option to cancel, you are put on permanent hold."
After two days of unsuccessful attempts, they'd reached a customer service
agent -- who offered to give them free service for a second month. After the subscriber declined the offer, they'd realized the two days had pushed them over the 30-day limit. A charge for the second month appeared on their bill.
"If I had taken the second month and then cancelled, I would've paid nothing -- but by cancelling I had to pay for a month."
THE LAST LAUGH
After AOL's outage Monday night, subscribers logging on received pop-up
advertisements. But the ads' pitches fell into an unfortunate pattern.
"STOP TYPING" read the first one -- leading to information about voice-enabled software.
"Hang up," read the next ad, "on MCI and Sprint."
David Cassel
More Information
aolwatch.org
biz.yahoo.com
aolwatch.org
bbs.msnbc.com
news.com
<<<<<<<<<< eom.... |
