AOL Tries To Prove That Its Dialup Customers Really Are Suckers
from the you've-got-idiots dept
For years, AOL has struggled to transform itself out of a "dialup" service provider. Every few months the company would announce some great new strategy to get people to sign up for AOL's broadband, rather than ditching AOL completely for some much cheaper broadband offering. This has involved story after story after story after story after story about how AOL was finally going to work with its sister broadband provider, Time Warner Cable/Roadrunner. Instead, not much happened. What usually happened, though, was some sort of reversal of course months later. If there were ever an example of a company that couldn't agree on a strategy, AOL would be it. Hell, in the midst of all these reports about the importance of broadband, the company even decided at one point that it was getting out of the broadband business. A year ago, there were reports that AOL had finally recognized that people could get DSL for less than AOL's dialup and decided to lower its dialup prices. This lasted for all of about a month, before someone internally freaked out and quietly raised the prices back up. Apparently, that didn't shake all that many customers off of dialup, so the company figured that if they're stuck with people who like paying more for dialup they might as well jack up the prices even higher and (at the same time) make it clear just how clueless their own customers really are. So, the latest strategy is to raise dialup prices for AOL so they're the same as broadband prices. Yes, it's as if they're mocking their own customers for not moving up to broadband.
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Beautiful
"Lets all jump into the evil corporation's products and services because we don't understand how to deal with change, aka REALITY!!"
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Re: Beautiful
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Re: Beautiful
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Re: Beautiful
Personally, I'd be raising so much hell they could hear me on capital hill.
I've heard of some crazy shit but people living in our capital can't get high speed internet...
Dear Sweet Judas Priest......
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Re: Beautiful
i urge you to never stop pushing, and the more people we get off aol the better,,also i am not high on peoplepc that program is for suckers to as is netzero. the both add there own software. all you should need is a dailup number . not any stupid screen stealling browser.
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Re: Beautiful
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Re: Beautiful
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Re: Beautiful
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Re: Beautiful
Seriously, STFU bitch if you can't post the truth.
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Re: Beautiful
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sick sick, AO'Ls
I knew it would happen but we have definantly seen the last phase (geez I hope anyway) of a shift towards it. The only thing more frustrating to visiting a friend or relitives house and helping solve a bonhead computer problem is finding AOL. Its like you smack your forhead because you left the window down to your car last night and it rained, and then opening the door to find skunks mating...
I realy wish AO'le haddn't captured sooo many of our elderly and computer illiterate, bacause now they have had the chance to do thier brainwashing. On the flip side, thier own brainwashing and evil/unremoveable dail up software will probably keep quite a few from upgrading. To bad they still get the dough.
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AOL
The service could likely remain dial-up for the next ten years and still retain many of its customers, and from the looks of things it would seem they have now realized that. However, to keep existing customers and still attract new ones they need to focus both on reducing costs and expanding the AOL community, which is the core strength of the business.
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AOL's strategy is better than you think!
You are missing an important part of AOL's strategy. You think that people will cancel their expensive AOL dialup account and switch to broadband.
Have you ever tried to cancel an AOL account?
It used to be impossible to do this, except by canceling the credit card. Now it is slightly less impossible. Slightly.
- precision blogger
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Re: AOL's strategy is better than you think!
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No Subject Given
Yeah! Way to get a fast, reliable connection and then totally screw it up with AOL's bloated software. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it.
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No Subject Given
I've been pushing him to go to Satellite for a while now, so hopefully this will push him over theline.
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no aol either
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Brilliant!
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No Subject Given
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Possibly ingenius?
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AOL helps old people
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Re: AOL helps old people
You have a point, indicating ease of use... However, it is not the fault of older generations that AOL wants to raise their prices beyond a fair market value. Do you think that all old people are rich and stupid?
Yes, AOL does take care of many of the common tasks that a regular broadband user either DIY's or pays an arm and a leg for the right software. The point here is that 56kps dialup is becoming similiar in price to actual broadband. This indicates AOL's lack of regard for their customers (not that they ever had any to begin with.)
So, no; it's not a "big deal," but it IS taking advantage of the customer, and that's the point of dissent here.
Just another example of faceless corporate America [I.e. AOL-Time Warner] taking advantage of their own customers. Not that their the only ones...
--Prof. HighBrow
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Re: AOL helps old people
Just because a technology is considered obsolete does not immediately relegate it to bargain bin status.
Ever tried to buy a NEW dot matrix printer these days? The prices are absurd, and often times surpass an inkjet or even some laser models. What about a fax machine or a film camera? Those technologies are considered obsolete as well, yet the prices of both continue to soar.
The issue, I believe, is really just a matter of supply and demand. Less people are using dial-up to access the internet these days, so the cost per user to sustain the equipment and infrastructure already in place must increase to meet that cost. Many of the larger services can usually get away with value pricing, whereas the smaller outfits rarely are able to compete on just price alone.
If AOL had half of its former users, it would still need to retain much of its technical staff to run the place, pay the content providers, and must also still pay rent on the same building it resides and houses its servers in, all on half the income from users. So yes, the cost per user would need to increase in such a case.
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Re: AOL helps old people
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Re: AOL helps old people
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free
aol sux
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Re: free
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Re: free
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Ignorance is bliss.
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Re: Ignorance is bliss.
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Re: Ignorance is bliss.
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Re: Ignorance is bliss.
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Where art thou Felony?
Oh and by the way, where is it written that a person can't share bandwith that they've paid for? I know some ISP's have IP constraints, but not all. Where art thou Felony?
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Re: Where art thou Felony?
It's an offense that is prosecuted pretty regularly, and pushed by the cable companies - have you ever seen one of their ads for amnesty periods, where you can have the cable guy legally connect you without them charging you with a crime?
It may not be a felony where you live, but there is probably a fine and some jail time coming if you get caught - unless you make a sweetheart deal with your neighbor. Then they are probably going to pay a fine - for reselling their service without a contract from the original provider.
Happy surfing!
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Re: Where art thou Felony?
Not quite. This one is DEFINITELY a big gray area for a very simple reason: when it comes to wireless, the person making use of the open network hasn't done anything proactive. In fact, it's the person who failed to secure their wireless network who has let their wireless radio waves travel onto the other person's property.
When you steal cable, you are actively going onto their property and taking the cable.
When you're on your own property (or public property) and wireless signals come to you you can make a very credible claim that there's no theft of service at all. The service came to you. You did nothing to go and take it.
So, no, it might not be a felony. Nor, honestly, should it be.
As someone pointed out in the past, if you have a streetlight on in front of your house, but the light reaches the street, and I use that light to look at a map, have I stolen any service from you?
What if you set up a sprinkler system, and the water waters my grass as well? Have I "stolen" your water? Under your definition, I have.
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Re: Where art thou Felony?
In the late 80's and 90's, it was decided that it was legal to intercept cordless phone traffic, because the interceptor was simply receiving radio waves that were traveling through the open air, and into his/her body. The courts famously decided that the individual had no control over that. In response came the first cordless phones with basic encyption.
The difference with wireless (at least, so far), has been that instead of simply receiving that radio signal, it is being actively used, modified, and returned - hijacked, if you will.
The sprinkler and streetlight analagies don't include the active harnessing of that signal. If your sprinkler happens to water part of my lawn, that's the price of doing business. If I go and adjust your sprinkler so that it waters my lawn, that's theft of service. If the streetlight reaches the map I am looking at, that is the cost of doing business. If i take that streetlight and adjust it so that it illuminates my front porch for a party, that is theft of service.
By actively setting up your wireless car, casting about for an open signal, requesting an IP address (or reconfiguring your network settings) so that you can use that signal - these are all active actions, a deliberate attempt to get service for nothing. Also known as theft of service.
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from blessing
Thanks and God bless.
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from blessing
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Search for a Local Internet Service Provider by ZI
I hope this can help someone...
http://www.dslreports.com/gmaps/localisp
^^^ Search for a Local Internet Service Provider by ZIP code ^^^
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No Subject Given
The world is chaning, but living in a suburban area myself, bording on outright rural, there are a TON of these people out there. More than most technical folks could possibly fathom. I know a number of people who don't have broadband, don't know what it is, and thrive on AOL dial-up.
There's a blue-collar class of people out there who just won't catch on. And not because they're stupid, but because they don't care. Technology doesn't interest a professional carpenter with a passion for hiking and ice-fishing. He just wants to work, play, and occasionally get online in the absolute simplest way possible, which of course is AOL dial-up, since they sent him 295 CD's already and he has a working phone line.
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AOL Rates
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Most people
What ISP do 95%+ of the people use here? You guessed it, AOL dial-up. Most of them couldn't figure out anything else. High speed is avaiable too, just nobody cares.
Makes it tough for me, being into computers in an area where nobody else is, having people look at me funny when i mention something like a "USB drive" or an "LCD monitor", things people around here don't know about. People around here consider a typewriter "high tech gadetry" and consider you a "computer hacker" if you can change the desktop wallpaper.
So I know about this blue collar class of people, Im around them every day and every night. I feel grateful to have highspeed in an area like this, because if I had to live on dial-up, I would go crazy.
I am in Fort Smith, Arkansas by the way.
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thegattaca
Seriosuly, I hope you die thegattaca, lol. You're an idiot.
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The Regular dialup barely works!
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Re: The Regular dialup barely works!
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Direct TV users with AOL service
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AOL Slow Dialup Are We Duped?
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Re: AOL Slow Dialup Are We Duped?
People haven't mentioned much about the other thing--not a sucker thing--that can keep people hooked. That's the difficulty in accessing the personal filing cabinet (pfc) files outside the aol browser. Done manually, it's no wonder that some would concede to overpaying...when, even valuing one's time at, say, $15/hour, one might easily "lose" the annual aol subscription cost, just trying to "recover" access to "favorites" stored in pfc files.
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i cannot get connecitvitiy to aol
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aol cheaper dialup really cheaper?
Now aol is offering a dialup...for $9-and-change per month. But kinda vague on specifics. Now on version 9SE. But I wonder what I'd be giving up...that I'd have to purchase elsewhere? Like anti virus? Anti spam? Anti-spy? Etc? I wonder also if I'll be relieved from connecting to local servers many times over, insisting on higher connection speed--while AOL host seems intent on dynamically downgrading fast dialup speeds to make space for broadband connections? What the real scoop about the new under $10 dialup pricing by aol?
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SLOWERTHAN--
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aol slower by the day on purpose
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AOL
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radio aol
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