hmph - bring back the gold!
Where's AOL Gold gone?
AOL broadband, recently acquired by Carphone Warehouse, has sneaked in a few New Year changes - most notably the disappearance of its 'middle' product, AOL Gold. This has created a curious and unsatisfactory gap between AOL Silver and AOL Platinum that doesn't sit well with this genie. As if to cover up the disappearance, they've doubled the speed of their entry-level AOL Silver package to 2Mb, which is what AOL Gold used to be. And - no doubt to distract attention - they're now offering people who switch to AOL Platinum an extra £5/month discount, bringing the price down to £24.99/month. But we're not fooled. Hmph.
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Comments
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and if you ask to switch to silver have to enter into a 12 months contract. Pretty poor if you have been with them for 5 years. Helped make my mind up to switch can get sky and broadband for the same money. Offerred me platinum for the same money but since local exchange doesn't go much faster the 488 upload pretty pointless
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Also, since Carphone Warehouse have taken over, AOL have started dropping users speeds between 5pm and 12am.
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Yup, they are ripping off gold customers by charging them platinum prices for the speed of silver.
Decided to switch to Bt - you cant go wrong with the telephone exchange owners, and been voted best 3 years in a row!
Aol also got taken over by carphone warhouse? Aol is going to be crappy because carphone warhouse will drag it down to there free crappy broadband they offer talk talk or whatever crap that is. -
paying for aol gold slow as dial up not pleased
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AOL have apparently offered some users Platinum for Gold price. I tried it on the online help and the best they could do is offer the 12 month silver contract or call their offshore customer helpline. I wasn't taught pigeon English as a language in school so I can't understand a word they said.
I'm moving asap and recommend everyone else on Gold does the same. -
I'm also on AOL Gold and was sent an email shortly before christmas to say that all gold subscribers will have their connection upgraded to 4mb. Still waiting and not happy that I am paying £10 a month extra for the same connection rate as AOL Silver. This is absolutely disgusting.
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same here, ... just noticed how slow this broadband Gold has gone and AOL can't even be bothered to notify their best customers about this, ... I wonder if I can get out of this 12 month contract ? ... after all AOL are in the wrong here, as we are paying for something they don't do anymore, we're going to find out about this.
Martin & Bev -
I have also been looking into this since BBC Watchdog last night, and was also unaware that AOL Gold nolonger exsisted untill I looked on their new customer webb site this morning. I was also offered a future upgrade to 4MG last year and I am still waiting. Also I am losing my connect at night, and it is also running a lot slower that it used to. I am therefore now looking for an alternative orovider
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Thank god, I thought it was just me! AOL Gold has become slower, I am being cut off on a regular basis, and have just gone onto the website to find that I could be spending £10 a month less for the same product! I am disgusted with AOL. I was going to change to AOL Silver, but I am now going to move to a different provider.
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i was just browseing and noticed aol gold no longer exists,then i found this page.
i was horified to see i was paying the same as aol silver for 2mb,and the same amount 24.99 for 8mb,i telephoned aol immediatly i am now on 8mb and also got a new router.aol customer services should notify all its members on gold,i never received nothing,but for customers on gold that were promised 4mb just phone aol and you will immediatly be upgraded to 8mb,same price as gold. -
So, they HAVE limited us? ive noticed my gold connection will not download at any faster than 50kb/s during 5pm until 10pm... if this is happening to everybody.. we should do somthing becasue we are not getting the speed we are promiced.. and they are giving gold customers upto 4meg now. (AOL keyword: Speed Upgrade)
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Yes I thought I was going nuts too,with my lack of speed and constant disconnections.Having also noticed that I am paying £10 per month more than Silver, I know I am gong nuts. I think I can feel BT beckoning.
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here my conversation with an AOL agent, ... what a waste of time they are !
17:02:24SystemWelcome ...
17:02:24SystemConnecting to server. Please wait...
17:02:24SystemConnected to eunadprod01-lux.ops.aol.com
17:02:24SystemInitial Question : i have aol gold why am i getting the same speed as silver but paying more ?
17:02:24SystemThank you for calling into AOL Live Help for Billing Support
17:02:24Systemgsills05 has joined this session!
17:02:24SystemConnected with gsills05
17:03:23gsills05 : Welcome to AOL Live Help. How might I be of service to you?
17:03:46You : did u read the question i just asked ?
17:04:21You: i have aol gold but getting the same speed as silver but paying more ?
17:04:54gsills05 : The speed of Gold is doubling to 4MB over Spring
17:04:59You : how long have i letf before i can cancel my contract ?
17:05:04gsills05 : This can happen anytime over the Spring months
17:05:36You : why have i not been re-embursed as i have been gettin a very slow speed ?
17:05:51You : the same as silver in fact ?
17:05:54gsills05 : Can I have your name please?
17:06:03You : yes its dippity doo da
17:07:44gsills05 : and the account security question is : MONTH YOU GOT MARRIED ?
17:07:57You : ****************
17:09:04gsills05 : Your current contract expires on 05 Dec 2007
17:09:35You : is there any way i can cancel earlier as i have not got the service i signed up for ?
17:10:03You : does broadband gold service actually exist any more ?
17:10:04gsills05 : No, you signed up for the Gold service which was 2MB at the time you signed up, Therefore you are getting the service in which you signed up for
17:10:24gsills05 : Broadband Gold is only available to existing members
17:10:47You : even tho i am only getting hte same speed as silver at the moment but paying more ?
17:11:24gsills05 : Yes, but existing Silver members only get 1MB
17:11:34gsills05 : The speed of Silver and Gold are doubling over the Spring months
17:11:48You : ok can you tell me why the service seems to be very slow at times ?
17:12:05You : seems to be nearly as slow as dial up
17:12:14gsills05 : I do not know this as I am a billing agent. If you want I can transfer you to a technical agent
17:12:24You : ok thanks
17:12:44SystemYou : are being transferred to another queue. Please stand by...
17:12:44Systemgsills05 : has left this session!
17:12:44SystemThank you for calling into AOL Live Help for Technical Support may be with some other members at the moment, please bear with me and I shall be with you as soon as possible :)
17:12:44SystemAjay Khosa has joined this session!
17:14:05Ajay KhosaLet me check the speed you are getting now
17:18:35Ajay Khosaas per the account details, I can see that you are on AOL Broadband Gold with Wireless Router - 19.99 a month and currently you are getting a speed of 2 mbps . Please note that the speed upgrade is happening in a phased manner through out UK and will be completed by the end of Spring season this year. rest assured you should get the speed of up to 4 mbps
17:19:55Ajay KhosaThis is a valid question, please let me tell you that the speed upgrade depends on the local BT exchange, if it supports up to 4 Mb speed, you will surely get this
17:22:15Ajay KhosaPlease call up our members services at 0870 3 20 20 20, they will check the modem and if it is found to have some issues, they will consider a replacement
17:22:35Ajay KhosaPlease ignore the last statement, it was due to system error
17:22:45Ajay KhosaMy apologies for this.
17:24:46You :why cant i get out of this contract when i'm not getting the speeds i am paying for ?
17:25:06You : i'm paying for gold when it has ceased
17:25:29You : i'm not happy with this at all and am going to seek legal advice
17:27:46Ajay Khosa : we are sorry for this however AOL did mention it in emails of free speed upgrade that it will be completed by the end of 2007 Spring and it will depend on the capacity of the local Bt exchange.
17:28:05You : the speeds i am getting is like when i was on a 56k dial up !
17:29:16Ajay Khosa : sorry do you mean that you are not getting 2 MB speed
17:29:18You : no i'm not, why arn't you listening to me ? oh never mind i can't be bothered with you ! ... your just messing me around, ! -
Well thanks to this site, and all the blogs on it I have solved my "Why am I being charged £10 more a month for gold when I am at the same speed as Silver" problem. I rang AOl requesting my Mac code in preparation for a switch to BT. I was Immediately offered a downgrade to Silver @2mb,same as I am on now,for £9.99 a month. I was also offered 8mb at £9.99 per month if I signed up for the Talk Talk package. So being as the £3.99 monthly charge for talk talk is being waived for the fist year I accepted the deal. So for the first year I am getting 8mb Broadband and free evening and weekend calls for £9.99 plus my BT line rental. So that's £20.99 per month the first year and £24.98 per month thereafter for both broadband and telephone. Now that's what I call a result. Cheers everybody..
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hi ev1 i just found out that aol have been conning me they told me i was on 4 mg and im paying for gold to find out gold is not longer around yet im still being charged for it and im only getting 2 mg which i should be paying £14.99 for but iv been paying £24.99 so as i ahve proof they ahve been over charging me i am going to watch dog about them as aol r really taking the piss and its about time people new how bad they r i will be looking for a new internet serves that dont charge to much i cant believe how over charge i have been for the last 8 months thats like omg total rip off i will be going to to the papers and make it clear to people they r being riped off by aol
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After nearly 10 years with AOL, we finally decided that paying £24.99 for AOL Gold with 2mb was simply stupid. We got our MAC code and started to look around. However concerned with customer service issues and possible loss of service during the change over we decided to give AOL one more chance. We went on line and got a similar response to Martin with the offer of AOL silver for £14.99 at the same speed as we pay for AOL Gold. An email to AOL got an even more remote answer, simply not addressing the question asked. I then phoned the free phone for joining AOL and told them we were leaving unless they could offer better and within a few minutes I have saved £14.90 per month (£178.80 a year) gone on Silver 2MB (which is what we were getting anyway) for £9.99. Worth the phone call. Probably a good price compared to what's available given we can only get 4MB max. on our phone line.
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I too have noticed MASSIVE decrease (From 800 to 50 which is no less than 1600%!!! ) in the day when using AOL.
Quite frankly this isn't on and I will be looking to move my broadband subscription to somebody else who gives you what you pay for.
Cheating scum AOL. -
Hi everybody. I came across this site while enquiring about my download speed and discovered that while on AOL Gold I was still only getting 1Mbps and that Gold was not available anymore. I phoned them and they put me on Silver for £14.99 and said I would get 2mb but in the days since it has not sped up any so after 3 more calls to complain I have been offered Platinum for £17.99 and have been given a £50 discount. I won't have to pay any monthly bill til July, which I'm pleased about.
It pays to complain and after being a long standing customer they don't want to lose, they'll do all they can to keep you. -
I had been with aol for years, and have had gold for a couple of years before I realised earlier this year what a total rip off it all was. I contacted their laughable customer service asking why I was being so royally ripped off, paying more than I should for a rubbish service, but to be honest I dont think they actually understood a word I was saying as all they repeated was that I could upgrade to Platinum (with no special offer) if I wasnt happy with my download speed! Missed the point a bit there I think! Anyway, I am now dumping aol for someone who doesnt try to pull the wool over their customers eyes like this! Aohell!
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I have only just noticed that aol Gold no longer exists. I upgraded from Silver to Gold in april 2006. I do accept there was an intial period of upgrade but had I stayed on Silver I would have the same connection speed now and would be a tenner a month better off.
Can anyone pin down a date when Silver was upgraded to a 2mb connection? I'm in the process of complaining but I haven't received a reply from ao hell yet. I'm hoping to receive t the difference from the date it was upgraded and will use trading Standards and watchdog if neccessary to achieve this.
Regarding speeds I haven't noticed a significant drop between 5pm and 12pm because the speed seems to have dropped 24/7 for me! The slow down was very noticeable from when CW took over. -
A quick follow-up to my above post. I rang AOL this morning (26/5) and they have agreed to change my payment to £14.99 per month and credit my bank account with £30. The advisor claimed that AOL silver was upgraded 3 months ago and they have based the refund on that period of time. Does anyone know for sure when Silver went from 1mb to 2mb?
She told me that the 4mb connection is coming soon but couldn't give a date.
BTW I used the AOL customer services number 0870 320 2020 and I got through pretty quickly. -
De-ja-voi - reading all these comments makes me feel justified in my decision to switch to Sky for broadband... Martins dealings with AOL help mirrors mine of about 20min ago !
The "Gold" customers are so being conned... -
I find AOL Customer Service absolutely disgusting. I was having trouble with my broadband some time ago and when I spoke to an agent they told me BT had disconnected me and that I'd be reconnected in 10-14 days. After 2 weeks I called again only to find that nothing had been done. I demanded to know the name of the agent who I spoke to initially and was given their e-mail address.
I sent an e-mail to this agent informing them that I wanted to make a formal complaint against them and I received nothing but abuse from this agent and another agent, presumably a friend of his.
I am now with Virgin Media, and so far I have received satisfactory service.
The Customer Service provided by AOL is easily the worst in the industry. Disgusting -
Sorry to monopolise this thread but this is important.
Following on from my last post. Please beware when calling AOL to request a change to your payment details. At no time did the AOL advisor tell me that she was changing my contract, she said she was changing my payment only and I did ask her to confirm this which she did. I later found out that AOL had attempted to enter me into a new 18 month contract without my knowledge. Consequently I have spent many hours over the last 3 or 4 days sending emails and calling their helpline to sort this out.
I have now left AOL for another provider. -
Last month I contacted AOL as I was paying £24.99 monthly for a 2Mbps service. (It should be £14.99 but AOL make a £10 surcharge as my local exchange has not been unbundled) As soon as I mentioned that I was considering changing my ISP the agent offered me an increase in speed to 4Mbps for £19.99 per month. I accepted this and enquired as to when the increased speed would take effect. Middle of June came the reply. I have since discovered from another agent that AOL have no plans in the near future to unbundle the local exchange and that he had no record of the promised increased speed! I am now locked in to another 12 months contract and am feeling really cheated. I will NOT be with AOL this time next year.
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Hi, just rang AOL and been offered one month free, and 4mbs package £19.99.
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This has been really helpful. I was considering upgrading upgrading my download speed with aol. I am definitely going to go for another provider
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just to let you know...just spoke with AOL.. i am on Gold for 24.99.... they have offered me 9.99 per month to stay on gold package...only exception it's a new contract for 18months!! what should i do..take it as i am saving 15 quid a month ..or walk away as i am not currently under contract with AOL.
help!!! -
I have just come off the phone with aol after being on gold for the last five years. I requested a mac code and when I explained that I could have had the same speed since January on the Silver package, they offered me 9.99 a month for maximum speed on the line without a new contract. Hope this helps other who have been ripped off by aol.
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I am on aol Gold i pay £19.99 a month,I contacted them and they said that we are working on it, the change will be very soon. Now it has been 3-4 months and nothing...
Evil people, very greedy! -
signed to AOL not cpw (want no dealing with )
goodbye cpw
hello BT or Virgin or Orange
Aol has gone
Gold has gone
I am gone
so should YOU -
So i guess the aol slow down wasnt my imagination. been with them since 1999 (dial-up) and now in 2007 have Gold (wireless), or so i thought. i pay £19.99 a month for a 2Mb service but have recently noticed that my download speeds through http (internet explorer have slowed to between 50k and 112k). So all of the bad testermonies of AOL seem to be coming true :(
Just ran a speed test and got 764.3Kps (0.76Mb) @ 22:48 on 1/7/07
screw this i moving to sky
16Mb unlimited
£10 a month!!!
As AOL pisses you about when you ask 4 your mac code state to them by law they must give it to you within 5 days
SORTED!!! -
All very interesting! I was also on the AOL Gold plan and paying £19.99. After reading all your posts I immediately phoned AOL and told them that unless the gave me a Silver Plan at £14.99 under the existing contract (I've been with them for 6 years) I'd need my MAC code within 5 days so that I could approach a new ISP. I was immediately given the Silver plan at £14.99 as of todays date (being my invoice date).
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hi everybody, i love AOL i'm on 8mb/s for £5 a month getting the full speed. shame to all of u out their who get messed around! hahahahah
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Thats really helpful Matt, glad to see people willing to help others NOT !!!!!!!!!
Your about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike !!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, just to let you all know I have just come off the phone with AOL and after telling them they are in fact in breach of contract re AOL Gold and the slow speed, I was offered a brand new package which is just about to be released. Up to 8MBPS and free phone calls etc for only 17.99 GBP a month and no minimum contract time
Funny what a phone call can do
Good luck -
I've been using Aol for years BB for about 3 years, I've had Aol Gold all that time it was half a meg to begin with, and when the supposed speed increases were due, nothing happened, all info for my area about speed upgrades vanished
About 6 months after that we got a letter in the post saying they couldn't upgrade us as all the local slots had been filled (if they'd upgraded on time maybe it'd have been fine) so we got a free Encarta CD and the price lowered to £21.99 for half a meg.
BAck in April or May this year our phone line was completely disconnected after issues with Talk Talk, so we had to get a completely new one put in by a BT engineer and to my surprise we suddenly had 2meg broadband, (the engineer said it was variable) it started at 2.1 connected which was very nice and has slowly decreased to about 1.5 connected which is acceptable compared to connecting at 0.5
Sometimes it refuses to download any faster than around 25k, stays like that for days then goes back to normal after a reconnect, on half meg BB it never once dropped speeds from 57k download, it still uploads full speed which is a bit strange
It just really annoys me, I'm not sure who to switch to because I don't want any monthly limits -
been with aol 3 years, problems started since carphone warehouse took over aol broadband, the speed for silver is NOT 2MB, this is a load of bull, i am yet to get above 1MB, they now have restrictions all because i play a online game, the other night my b/b speed was 58 kb/s, (is this taking the p__) stay well clear of aol or any other company that is connected to carphone warehouse, it's a micky mouse company run by a bunch of money grabing conmen who employ NONE ENGLISH SPEAKING ADVISERS, give you the bull about this & that then once you're in the contract start hitting you with fair use policy, so how is it unlimited? plus nowhere near the 2MB, i'm off i'll take my chances with another provider,
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Stebbo is right i phoned up and got the same deal its well worth it as it saves you alot money i might threaten to leave alot more :)
Btw is your moving more to ADSL24 as they are the best provider.
Now just to try and get rid of my fair usage policy.... -
Hi there I appear to be in a similar position to many of you. I've been with AOL for about 8years and I am paying £24.99 for 2mb under the Gold package which appears to have vanished. A couple of questions
1. is there any point in complaining to Ofcom (or whatever the regulator is)?
2. is it possible to leave AOL and keep the AOL email address? -
pleased i found this site.i never knew any ofthis that ive read on here.phoned them straight away.got through to an irish bloke.explained i never knew about aol gold vanishing.ive been paying 29 pound a month i pay yearly.found out it should be 25 pound.he said am on gold family.dont know what hes on about.he said i also have a dial up and broadband connection.always been on broadband.asked about why i was geeting same service as silver package but paying 14 pound a month more.ive been with aol for 4 years.what a HORRIBLE person he said i am on dial up an broadband.i did get a message i must have forget.i asked about a refund from the time silver was upgraded till now.and also next three months till my payment due want gold reduced.he said cant do that then told me it was my fault for not phoning them.well hows it my fault i knew noneof this.i lost my temper and told him to **** off.phoned again.got trhough to an irish women.complety different.giving me a refund for the last 4 months.thats 48 pound.reduced my gold package to silver straight away.another 60 pound saving.shesreduced it ti 9.99.sheagreed who ever i spoke to was well out of order.i dont understand he done nothing for me.yet shes saved me over 100 pound.i dont know if this 9.99 wil continue if i continue my subscription.i think ill phone again.
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Wow this is really interesting and helpful. I've been struggling for ages as my connection just suddenly drops off - only in the evenings though! When I contact AOL for help they told me is was my pc - which I've done everything imaginable to sort it out. Hmmmm wonders if they were fibbing?
I've been on Gold a couple of years and just tested mine - which isn't even 1 MB.
Was trying to work out what kind of download cap would work for me and discovered all of this - so I don't really care now - gonna dump aol. -
Been on AOL for around four years, well not online for that long but with them but I was using dial-up first for the third quarter (from August) of 2003 with BT though with them charging around £15.99 per month which I think AOL was also at the time for dial-up and only allowing 150 hours online per month incurring extra charges for further usage I decided to go with AOL since they don't have any download limits. Well I got 150 hours free with BT anyway for that month because I gave them a recently invalid account as I transferred my money from my savings account into a bank account. I stuck with AOL dial-up all the way until near Christmas 2004 and I decided I wanted to go AOL Broadband being Silver is all I could afford. Before then instead of paying £15.99 I was paying about £13 because AOL said they put me on a special price plan for whatever reason but as soon as I was on broadband I was paying £17.99 per month with a 12-month contract. Then it came to around March/April 2005 and they upgraded my broadband to 512k which I've been on ever since. There was supposed to have been another upgrade last year to 1mb, but I never got it so I asked them why at the time and they said something along the lines of my line couldn't take it or it can take up to six months to get around to it. There was also supposed to have been an upgrade this year, but I haven't been getting it and I got a phone call from a quick talking indian to say that if I stay with them for 18 months I can get up to 8mb though I haven't been seeing 2mb let alone 1mb. I guess the work is still being undertaken, but I would've wanted to have seen at least 1mb first before I can trust them because I don't want to enter into an 18-month contract and still seeing 512k. I blankly said yes because I thought it was such a good deal as I received an e-mail about it earlier that day but why they wanted to phone me I don't know as surely an e-mail is enough to make your mind otherwise to me it feels like you're being force-fed words especially from a quick speaking indian. I was caught out of the blue and I've changed my mind now because why should I when I've been receiving 512k and to be trapped for 18 months using a sub-par service, but she said I'll be sent an e-mail to confirm which I'm going to ignore because I don't want to be tied down speaking to representative.
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I must be thick, stupid or otherwise challenged. I have noticed just recently a drop in speed and difficulty keeping connected. I thought my pc was nearing its capacity, so cleaned it up but it made no difference. Anyway it was fine all along. Found this blog so I can do something about it now. Have been considering changing anyway, 25 gbp for even 2mb is a rip off today. Been a customer of aol for five years from dail up to broadband and I must admit I do like them, or rather I did. I will probably try bt see what they can offer. If silver is as bad as this I am not interested at any price and I won't pay for platinum, I don't need it.
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I too am glad I found this site
I got through to AOL, and glad to say they were in the UK so I could understand them. I explained my situation and was put through to cancellations.
After an offer of a free wireless router and a reduction from 19.99 to 14.99 on a new contract was rejected, I was offered a free Dell laptop if I stayed at 19.99 on a 2 year contract, this I also rejected. Speed upgrade offer is pointless as the line only supports 2mb and the best I get is 970kbps
I can't have the 9.99 some got, something to do with AOL, BT and the area I am in but I finally settled on a non contractual reduction to 14.99 plus a month free all in writing. I'm happy with that as all the other internet providers are charging way above that price after 3-6 months and on contract. -
this page is perfect for anyone wanting to leave AOL!
I have been an AOL customer for 3 years, for 2 weeks now i have not been able to stay online, when i do manage to enable a broadband connection AOL says "goodbye" and logs me back off after a couple of minutes of web browsing!
Customer services are of little use, tech support must be some guy stuck in the middle of nowhere with an AOL Handbook for the stupid as they are of little use!
I explained to Level 2 Tech support that i cannot get on line, they offered me a link to download an AOL update! thick or what! if i cannot get online how can i expect to download the update!
I have just signed up to virgin, 4meg connection £17.00! -
Wow I can't believe how many people have the same problem I'm having! I have AOL Gold and its a total rip off. My speed is 2mb but seems to have slowed down and I was promised an upgrade 6 months ago !!!!! That's is, I'm switching to BT first thing tomorrow. AO HELL!
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i have just been told that gold is only allowed to exsisting customers ,so i have been paying for gold and grtting silver ,talked to them today not happy with carphone lot useless ,but offerd me free phone calls for 6months and line rental on silver and new 18month contract i dont think this is fair
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I feel a right idiot here, been off line for a few months not bore you all with details but got to thinking about how much AOL are charging £24.99 per month and was thinking of changing provider. So searched on AOL for the Gold package and found Lord Lucan instead clutching a dodo!! Did the search here and found this site and now I am furious, in fact I'm ready to blow a gasket!! The robbing toe rags grrr!! (sue me for that I don't care!!).
I am now getting ready to phone these Dick Turpins (sorry thats an insult to Mr Turpin) and Gawd help any script reader who stands in me way. I can feel a "no win no fee" coming on here, specially since my mates a top notch lawyer who specialises in contract and provision law hohohoho.
Keep u posted and good luck to all you who have been duped by these chaps grrr -
Hi guys
How can I check my speed, to see what I am getting compared to everyone else?
I was on Gold and was having problems in march i rang them and he said he could upgrade me to platignum for the same price, but when my next bill came it was £5 more. Now I have read all these different experiences I feel like doing something like you lot. -
I got so fed up with AOL, after they were ripping me off on Gold, while I was paying double (£19.99). Plus the drop outs every evening made my mind up.
I am cancelling my account with aol. Only thing is, that I have kinda been using my email address as a primary. So not sure if anyone knows how to keep the email address while cancelling broadband?
Ill be reading below for help - and good luck to everyone else getting ready to take the plunge. -
I was also on AOL Gold paying £24.99 a month & noticed how slow it had gone. I rang AOL they immediately offered me 9.99 per month to stay on the gold package.
Glad I found this site. Gold customers are being riped off. -
After getting the reduction to £14.99 as posted above, I found Supanet offering the same for £9.99.
I requested a MAC code again, gave the reason why and now I am on £9.99 a month plus free evening and weekend phone calls at no extra charge. Now I am really happy. -
Hi Folks
I too am paying over the odds for AOL tarnished gold...
I am impressed with the deal Bob has negotiated and I would be happy to get this same deal.
From your experience, which is the best number to call to negotiate a new deal?
Thanks in anticipation.
Terry -
I am on aol Silver, aol were supposed to upgrade users on 1 meg to 2 meg for free. I never got the upgrade, talked to half a dozen live help staff who told me half a dozen reasons as to why i never got the upgrade. In the middle of septmeber i was told it would be upgraded to 2 mb. September came and went I no upgrade, contacted them again, they said there was a 5 day delay. SO i contacted them by email instead, they reply stated the product was rejected. This was unclear so i contacted live help for the rejected reason. The reason they gave was because of a fault on the line. So i did a BT line fault check via bt's website, the next day bt phoned me and said there was no fault on the line. I contacted live help again and asked them to confirm there was a fault, they never answered my question. So after much hassle with the guy who never answered my question he eventually offered for tech support to call me, he then put me through to tech support live help. Tech support live helpp had no idea of the problem, I briefly explained and he said someone from tech support would call me today. I have not had that phonecall from them, I have been mislead by them, lied to by them. On top of that im still paying 17.99 for my connection even though customers of over 6 months on the new tarrif are paying 14.99. I was offered to be moved to the 14.99 package but it would have to be an 18 month contract. Absolutely no chance of me doing that, MAC code I shall ask for by the end of today, anyone wanting to join aol be warned.
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Hi there,
I am thinking of moving to AOL. I have have been offered AOL Wireless 8 mb for 9.99 unlimited Talk. I know its an 18 month contract. So I seem a bit iffy. some of my friends have AOL and never really had any probs. I kno CPW have taken over them but i also know that they are runnin stand alone. I need some help to decide if i really should take the offer up. so, if could you could be so helpful and maybe jot down bout 5 things why i should not join then i would grealty appreciate it. and maybe a few cons aswell. i have just moved into a new address and want bb badly! so the sooner the better! -
I have just this evening phoned AOL for a MAC code as my gold account has been so slow recently. I have been with AOL Broadband for 3 years from the time our local BT exchange supported it, so no longer committed to a contract. They asked me why I was leaving, and I said because my connection was going really slowly, when previously it had worked fine. She asked for my telephone number and then informed me that my account only permits 2MB speed when my exchange supports 7MB. The lady said that she could now upgrade me to a Platinum contract for a minimum of 18 months, for £14.99 for the first 6 months, thereafter, £19.99 and get a free wireless router. I said that was fine if it improves things, but my main concern was that I commit then am still not satisfied. She said that I am allowed 7 days trial in which I can cancel. After the trial period, I will be sent the router if I have not cancelled. I may as well give it a go - if it works, then great, although I'm not happy that I've been paying £24.99 for Silver account speeds. I'll give it a go, and stay with AOL if I'm happy with the upgrade, but once the contract period is up, I'll be keeping a regular watch on the package prices, to make sure I'm not paying more than I need.
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I agree with everyone they told me the email i got in spring i should of never got it bit late now for telling me they have even got picky on screen names they wont let me have ghostrider becuase the think people will be hurt be the name how bad is that and as for my speed it has got slower since carphone warhouse took over they said to me when i first ask about them taking over nothing will be change but everything has aol has lost its own welcome screen its the same as the websites the chat rooms are not monitored so people can say what they wont and when you do call help they dont do nothing just join in this is not aol anymore and i dont see why carphone warhouse should be allowed to have the name aol because its not aol its carphone warhouse aol that we all loved has gone forever
And i know aol will be reading this because i have told them about it so aol if you want to know what we all wont its aol back how it was and kick carphone warehouse out of the window before they mess aol up so bad that nobody will wont to stay come on aol you dont need them you where better on your own dont let them do this -
ive been with aol for 11 years ,they used to be great but since jan 07 when they got taken over the service has been terrible, speed capping so many people(just search the many forums online)paying 24.99 for gold what a joke getting a 2 meg service with the promise of an upgradeto 4 mb ?? ive been capped since august and the service is just unusable getting dial up performance. dont ever bother with the indian call centres they will use any excuse to get rid of you, check modem, virus, reibnstall software, and denying i was even subject to the fup. basically misinformation and lies.its all so sad really, in dec 06 i recommended aol to my best friend, luckily he went elsewhere.the worst thing is they wont even tell you your allowed download limit or how much yyou have downloaded? so how the hell can anybody keep within the (unkowkn ) limits?can you imagine running any business where no one knows what the rules are or how much you have bought/used???? absolutely insane.
well i finally got thru to an irish call centre god knows how after DEMANDING to speak to a manager i n finally got thru to a pleasant lady who said the fup was automatic and yes no one could tell me how much bandwith customers had used it was only known by the computer. just insane !! she agreed completely that is was not a good situatuon.but credit to her she a/ increased my speed to 4 mb !! and b/ got me off the fup . however she has stated that this might only be temp as apparently the fup is a month in arrears so my speed might be cut back to a snailspace any day now in nov!! i stated if this should happen then i will immediately ask for my mac code and tr to adsl 24.cost if reasonable is not an issue to me. i need a reliabvle service where if im slightly over their unknown limit i just pay a fee. apparently the unknown limit on aol is either 40 or 60 gb depends on who you speak to !!.on my reckoning im prob dl about 30 gb a month max.However if youve been capped and they say they cant remove it they are lying as the lady certainly removed my cap within 2 days and e mailed me to confirm.. Im just so angry with the AOL service it used to be excellent but is now based on misinformation,ignorance and a complete lack of customer care for long standing customers..
rant over.. lets see if they cap me this week again athen im off for good -
I used to be with aol and they were great but this sounds like everyone is being ripped off one word of advice everyone never go to TALKTALK what a nightmare i had, aol is prob gonna get worse as they have been taken over by the idiots at talktalk.
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Hi to everybody. Unfortunately I transfered from AOL to talktalk. Frying pans and fires I think. Talktalk help line useless. When using their disc to load the software sent my pc into a restart loop. Help line said take my PC to PCWorld to sort it out.
I am still sticking with it. Talktalk did say that I could transfer my AOL e-mail address to talktalk but their help line does not know the input server code to add to outlook express. Can anyone help?
Thanks -
Just received an Email today from AOL telling me I can upgrade to AOL Broadband Gold for nothing. Thought I would check their site for more details of Gold and surprise, surprise no such thing as Gold. I think I'm off to another internet provider, oh has anyone heard or had any experience of Greenbee Braodband? (run by the John Lewis group)
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reading this forum i have just noticed my aol platinum has gone down from 8mb to under 4mb and i am still paying £29.99 a month
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I am an existing AOL gold suscriber, they are still charging me £24.99 and it has a speed of 1MB! so much for upgrading it! I have contacted them to ask why, and to refund me. But I either get fobbed off with 'theres nothing I can do, this is billing' or they blame it on the fact that it is cable broadband not ADSL. Well if that is the case than speeds should be much faster as it does not matter how far you live from the exchange!! They are the worst company I have dealt with for customer service, they do not have clue what they are talking about, and they are robbing off me every month without even providing the service they promised.
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I did recieve the 2mb free upgrade this summer, but in the last 5 days i've had speeds of less than 1mb.
I called live help and they said work would be completed by yesterday 6pm. I contacted them this morning since it was still slow and they then told me it was being upgraded to 8mbps for free, with the same package as before.
I was wondering if anyone else lately has been having problems with the slow speeds? I mean on games sometimes its fine then I get constant lag spikes for a good few minutes which it seems like I can't do anything about. Webpage browsing has gone slightly slower, download speeds are more than 50% slower now too. -
I've just found this website and I am already livid with AOL. We pay £27.48 for Gold and Macafee. How is it they didn't get around to telling us Gold was extinct.
With all these downloads masquerading as upgrades that have been flooding my computer from AOL I have crashed several times - blue screen which I never get - and had to reload AOL twice and now my address book has gone has gone completely in the latest reload and we pay all that money a month for the privilege of using a BT Voyager 105 - they wouldn't entertain giving us wireless when I asked about it some months ago. Trading Standards should become involved I think. -
Hi we have been paying £24.99 a month for AOL broadband for about four years to discover that for the last 12 months aol GOLD no longer exist only been running on 1mb.So after reading some of the comments on this Genie blog site i made one simple phone call and told them that i wasn't happy with the deal that i was getting from them and straight away they offered me wireless broadband at £9.99 per month the first six months and £14.99 thereafter.Well worth a phone call don't be ripped off GO FOR IT !!!!!!! Good Luck.
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I`ve just seen an advert on tv for a SKY package,so i had a browse on the net to look into it.
Then i thought i would compare my package to the SKY package.
I spoke to live help enquiring about my contract and notification required to cancel.
One good thing is that i`m out of contract and can cancel at any time.
Then i get an E mail saying..sorry you`ve decided to cancel...
So on the phone to AOL,was told to ignore the E mail,
so then i enquired about the `GOLD` package not existing anymore(only found that out after find this page).
Was told even tho the gold package doesn`t exist we still have the same download limits.
Currently on Silver the download speed is the same,but the download limit is restricted to 10 Mb.
Also enquired about the upgrade E mail i received before xmas..
after a few BLAH BLAH BLAH sentences,there wont be an upgrade.
BUT like most people have said..they forgot to mention the removing of the gold package...
Like you all,i feel let down after 4 years with AOL
But whilst on the Phone,it didn`t seem to bother them that i might want to cancel.
SKY looks a good deal at the moment,it means getting the TV & Phone & Broadband for the price i`m paying for AOL -
What a brill site this is, read through it all, got myself armed with what I needed, then I have just phoned AOL.
I was paying 19.99 amonth for AOL Gold, plus £7.49 a month for AOL talk unlimited.
I spoke with the lady who was very hard to understand, but she offered me 2 deals, both were very good, compared to what I was on..... but I refused both and insisted for my mac code. On this she came back with a third offer, which to me was too good to refuse! I just got myself, the platinum package totally free for 6 months, plus AOL talk unlimited totally free for 6 months, then it goes to 9.99 a month thereafter for the broadband and £7.49 for the talk package, which she said I could lower the talk package if I wanted after my free six months. So quite a saving over the year! Not bad for a quik phonecall, it pays to talk! good luck to everyone else -
P.S
The phone number I used to ring AOL was 0117 919 1100, its a lot cheaper than the 0870 number. Oh and just keep insisting on your mac code, they don't want to lose you! -
I've been with AOL since early 2001...I have been payin £19.99 for what I thought was the gold package but after finding this page I just gave them a call to request my MAC code...the guy in the call centre came out with all the usual spiel about been a good customer for years etc and I will see what I can do for you...best he could offer was the £14.99 package with 3 months free which I refused so my MAC code should be here within 48 hours...Thanks for nothing AOHELL and SKY broadband here I come!
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I am an OAP and have been paying AOL £24.99 per month for over 6 years and was led to believe that I have AOL GOLD (until I read the above messages). I now realise that I could have been getting a cheaper deal elsewhere and had money left over from my hard earned pension all these years.
My Internet is very slow, sometimes taking 15 minutes to get just the Welcome page, 10 minutes to open a website or email etc. When I do manage to log on, the PC often crashes and I have to begin the whole proccess again.
I recently had a call from my phone provider - CPWhs, informing me that they had joined with AOL and that I was now eligible for free broadband and evening calls etc. Instead of being billed seperately for my Internet and house phone totalling £36 monthly , I would be sent just one combined bill totalling £16.99 which I thought was a good deal. I have had no probs with CPWhs as my phone company so took on their offer because they said I wouldn't have to do anything, they would take care of everything including stopping my £24.99 Direct debit payments to AOL and drawing up a new price plan for the £16.99 per month to CPWhs. They said my AOL email address and internet account would still work the same except that my speed would now be the fastest you can get once their engineer had done my connection (which carried a one-off fee of £29.99).
I have NOT got a faster speed so far, I've have got connection problems worse than they were before and although I have recieved my first bill from CPWhs, the old AOL direct debit payment has also still been taken from my husbands bank. When checking at AOL Help (getting nowhere as usual) I see that it may turn out that because AOL renewed my agreement with them last December for an 18th month term, I may now be expected to pay for the remaining 16 months of the AOL contract. How was I to know this when CPWhs didnt tell me anything about honouring the rest of the old contract. I thought I was dealing with the same company since they had 'joined up' and that they were both jointly in control of any agreement I took on. Can they hold me to this old contract seeing as I was misinformed. I havnt been sent anything to sign? It was just over the phone (but no doubt recorded). -
I am in the same boat and really pissed off. AOL are ripping everyone off, they offer up to 8 meg for a bargain price if you sign up for a further 18 months then slow it down and down until its so unbearable that you leave but you still have to pay for the rest of your contract, money for nothing, typical car phone whorehouse tactics, offer something for a bargain price knowing they can't supply it.
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i have just read these threads and im absolutly disgusted to find out that we are in the same situation as others especially so man of us,
i have loads of friends that are experiencing the same as us including my father,
so what do we do ,
i noticed that someone mentoned legal action earlier as we are having our contracts altered without warning or our agreement, or that is how it looks to me,
so if any one is serious enough to really consider legal action let me know, as the more of us that join in one legal case against aol/carphone warehouse the better chance we have in persuing this, because im fed up to the back teeth of struggling to understand foreign people telling my its my physical connection,
i hope to hear from you soon,
lets make a stand,
do yourself a favour keep records of all contact with aol/carphone warehouse -
Speeds have definitely reduced under the new CPW regime. I was getting close to 4mbps on Platinum, which is what was AOL promised. Since Carphone Warehouse, I get 2.6mbps. Can they deliberately reduce the speed of a package on which they've promised 4megabits? Surely there are some rules governing providers???
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As soon as my rip off contract is up I am leaving and I suggest everyone else do the same, and dont be swayed to stay by promises of good service if you sign up for 18 months, its all lies. I used to have quicker and more reliable dial up than this so called 8mb broadband..
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Same problems re speed as you AndaD, since the CPW takeover I can barely watch a youtube vid without it pausing every couple of seconds.
My ex has Virgin media @ 2mbps and we did a comparison downloading a copy of Eastenders from BBC iPlayer, results:-
Her: took about 2 minutes @ 450kbps
Me: was going to take about 3 hours @ about 30kbps.
Goodbye AOL and good riddance...... -
I recently noticed the reduction speed with my broadband (formerly AOL). However, when I rang CPW I was told that my computer must have virus or spyware – what a complete nonsense! I guess, this is their way of fobbing you off.
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I have also been paying AOL £24.99 per month since it first start and was led to believe that I have AOL GOLD
I was even told by a girl on the help line that i was paying £24.99 for a £9.99 service!
Is there any way we can get a refund for over payment. -
I was on aol gold 2mb service @24.99 a month and then got it for 9.99. I have been happy with the service until the recent change over of the server as my line connection has dropped to a low 576kps max and takes forever to download anything. I am very dissapointed as the customer service agents don't have a clue and tell me to clear my browser history, cache etc which is nothing to do with the actual line connection. I will be requesting my mac code this week and will go to sky or 02 as they offer a far better service.
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Just came across this, and thought I'd leave my comments about the great AOL Broadband Gold rip off.
I'm on 'Gold' and have ben paying £21.99 a month for a good three years, probably longer, and have been with them for around 5-6 years now.
This week I decided to have a look into what I should be paying for braodband, and checking broadband speeds I should be getting since it's been a year or two since I've looked around.
Conclusion:
AOL are ripping off their long term 'valued customers' by continuing to collect these extortionate monthly fees for 'GOLD', and are doing absolutely NOTHING by way of contacting these customers, in order to offer them a better deal, improve their speeds, and comepensate for these massive monthly overpayments.
After speaking with them on the telephone, I was offered AOL Wireless Broadband for £9.99 for 6 months and then £14.99 thereafter with a speed of upto 5meg in my area.
I accepted this at the time thinking that it was a special deal they were offering me to make up for being such shysters, but now realise what they've offered me is in fact just a typical deal for new customers, which, in a way is even more insulting.
For two-three years my b/band speed has been 576Kpbs, I've been overpaying by around £13 a month, and tey've amnde no efort to contact me atall to arrange a better deal.
I'm gonna call them again today, and request some form of reimbursement for overpayment, and a few free months service as an apology.
Maybe it just boils down to Carphone Warehouse who bought out AOLUK, generally not giving a fuck about their long term customers.
Scumbags. -
I pay AOL by credit card, but like an automatic debit every month. If I tell AOL that I'm leaving how do I ensure they don't try and take money from my card again ? Particularly as I'm in a 2 year contract I think.
(I'm fed up with the slow speeds etc as well)
Thanks
Stu -
After 12 months they forgot to activat the 9.99 and charged 14.99, so now i am due £60 refund. I,m pushing for compensation but don't hold your breath.
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I spoke too soon, I now have another free month broadband by way of apology.
The moral to this story is.......Stand your ground, demand to speak to a supervisor if you are not happy, and demand compensation for the amount of time you are kept on the telephone. They will eventually back down.
Good Luck everyone. -
I've noticed we are also on AOL GOLD. Was the AOL GOLD unlimited? or was there a limit like 10GB or 40GB?
I think I'm gonna move to O2. -
THE BOTTOM LINE Give It Time!
Charles Dunstone, 'big boy' of carphone warehouse, has a vision of his business that most of us are too indifferent to understand, or accept. He wants to be number 1, better than everything else. That takes time to implement. Two businesses with different business models, with many hundreds of thousands, of different customers who want different things from their telecom/isp provider. One thing common to both, is that people want something for nothing, or as 'cheap' as possible - if not entirely free. Well, ask yourself this, what exactly do you do for nothing in return?
In his firm, "staff who get married or have a baby are given £200. Employees are given the day off on their birthday and are sent a cake. On the last Friday of every month the company pays for its staff to go out for a drink."
Try catching bees with vinegar and see how far you get. Honey ALWAYS works better. Carphone Warehouse will succeed with everything broadband, but FIRST, IT needs to listen, look, test and see what's best, for the company and for the customer, it's called a win- win. Charles appears to have an interest in making things work between people. He's only human, albeit a very rich one, but he can also make mistakes just like all of us. Give him a little time, this bloke seems reasonable. Don't just hate everything carphone warehouse for the sake of it, why not send him a Christmas card, wish him luck for the new business model and of course all the very best wishes for new married life approaching?
AOL UK broadband defintitely seems like its been choked, especially P2P, but wait until the new pipes are laid and then perhaps it will make the speed of light seem a little ordinary. Remember Noahsark was not made in a day!
Whocareswins (sometimes!) ;o) -
Stumbled across this site this morning (1st jan) and it became clear v.quickly that my current 'Gold' tariff at £24.99 for a real world service of between 1 and 2 Mbps was not good value,
So
Phoned up AOL and after speaking with someone in India, was put through to the cancellation team (an Irish feller) who was very helpful - explained the 5 day issue re MAC code and how to use it (and confirm back to AOL if I did) so I would not end up getting billed twice, then offered me an upgrade to 8Mbps (exchange will only handle about 3.9Mbps though) with a reduction in billing from £24.99 to £9.99 pcm (as I didn't want their free router having paid £69.99 for a very nice Netgear one like theirs only last month). Dependant upon confirming an 18 month contract but cancellation fees would be £2 pcm so if ai cancelled it after 1 month, the fee would be 17x£2 - ie £34 - so that's a positive result saving me £15pcm - £180 per year!!
Oh and download 'capping' is at 40GB but his advice is that beyond that usage there would be no cost implication, merely a drop off in download speeds.
Thanks for the advice!! -
I was also a victim of AOL Gold after phoning and complaining, now on silver £14.99 instead of £19.99 no contract and a new router thrown in and promised up to 8mbs instead of the 2mbs i have been on. Just got to wait and see if it happens so at the moment i'm £5 a month better off with a spare router and i can still walk if line not upgraded
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AOL seem to be getting their act together at last for customers on AOL gold, but you must ring them, I phoned 0800 988 4555 today and changed my £24.99 contract to a £9.99 (1 year contract), which includes unlimited calls and an improved download speed of 8Mbps, savings to me are £180 p/a on my broadband cost and my phone calls with BT at about £100 p/a, no hassle whatsover, suggest you go on the AOL Broadband website where all the packages are simply listed,
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I have AOL Gold Broadband costing £19.99 per month including VAT on Direct Debit.
First, with the VAT decrease they have not reduced the charge.
Second, it is impossible to find out from AOL what speeds etc the AOL Gold provides.
Third, can anyone advise whether one can keep an AOL email address but use another broadband provider? -
Great questions I am looking for answers for as well, hence I found myself here!
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The story of the disappearing AOL Gold package is fairly typical of the broadband market, as providers are constantly changing/renaming/re-branding their packages in what is a very competitive market. Sceptics might say that it's also a tactic to confuse us poor consumers and make us all think they've come up with the best-ever broadband package to hook in new customers. The danger for existing customers is that we get left on 'old' packages which may no longer give the best value, and it's not easy to find out what level of service you should still be getting - as many users in this forum have discovered.
My advice would be to make sure you keep an eye on what your provider is advertising as their current packages. If the package you are already is costing more for lower speeds, fewere inclusive extras etc, then phone and ask for an upgrade. If you're a long-standing customer, your original minimum contract term has probably already expired, so tell them that you've used Broadband Genie's comparison tables to find yourself a better deal and are thinking of switching providers. It's amazing how nice most providers will be to you if they think they are going to loose a customer – customer retention is amazingly important to them in revenue terms. If you don't ask, you don't get!
You might have to sign up to a new contract, but with AOL if this concerns you there's a 1-month flexible contract which costs only an extra £29.99 set up fee compared to AOL's 12 month package. Currently you can get either AOL Wireless Broadband or Wireless Flexi for only £4.99 for the first 3 months, £14.99 per month after that. And the 12-month Wireless Broadband package is completely free for your first month for online orders.
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