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Technology Stocks : America On-Line: will it survive ...? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AAC who wrote (8568)	3/6/1998 3:25:00 PM
From: jack rand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13594

<They were the type of customer they wanted to keep because they were not a business and used the service during non-peak hours.> Total lie. AOL's peak hours are at night. In fact, they've tried desparately to generate daytime traffic from business via special services, and have folded nearly every one. e.g. 'AOL Enterprise' which 2 years ago was touted as contributing $300 million/year by 1998. In fact, one of AOL's biggest problems is a capacity glut due to lack of daytime usage. The economics are like an airline that flies 75% of flights nearly empty and the rest are full or overbooked.

To: AAC who wrote (8568)	3/6/1998 4:38:00 PM
From: Bald Man from Mars	Respond to of 13594

If they start offering defected customer lower rates, no wonder they said the rate hike will not add to the bottom line !!! Short this dude, it is going down ...

To: AAC who wrote (8568)	3/8/1998 1:27:00 PM
From: LoLoLoLita	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13594

OK ALL-- Any ideas on how much it's costing AOL to make those calls and track the responses? Their starting pay for phone reps is $7/hr, and they offer some benefits beyond FICA, so it's gotta be at least $10/hr. And then you have to add in supervisor time, and MIS time to handle the billing and customer service. Gee, could this cost them more than $20 for each "defector" they lure back with lower prices? I sure think so. Reminds me of when I made $50-75 from AT&T, and 5000 + Frequent Flyer miles from MCI every time I switched long distance carrier. But then they stopped doing it. Wonder why.