AOL: A view from the inside (AOL)

Member Name: garrymac

Product:	AOL
Date:	11/07/02 (296 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: AOL has more services

Disadvantages: AOL is not the easiest ISP to setup and it Is quite expensive too compared to some others.

Ok if your reading this your either someone looking to choose/change your ISP or your an AOL employee (well this is a popular site).

If you are the former then I hope you find this opinion useful in making your decision, if you are the latter then I know you will understand/sympathyse as I too am currently an AOL employee.

I work for AOL technical support and let me tell you, the place is more like a concentration camp than a call centre. I got trained in the basics of my job for about a week although most of it is useless to me. The job mainly consists of helping AOL members with any technical problems they may encounter while using the service.

AOL currently charge £15.99 for their flat rate plan and £5.99 for their light usage plan. I currenty use Telewest Blueyonder as my ISP at home as I find the service a lot easier to use and it appears to be cheaper. With the plan I'm on I get unlimited off peak calls for just £6.99 a month. I'm not sure if this a special deal or not as my household subcribes to Telewest as our phone provider and our digital TV provider as well.

I do know for certain though that telewest provide cheaper braodband services though.
Aol currently charge $35 per month for broadband and you are tied down to a minimum of a 12 month contract. Also with AOL you get the broadband modem sent out to you and you have to install everything yourself. The broadband modem is currently £80 so in total you will have to pay a minimum total of £500 pounds for your first year of using broadband.

With Telewest I have been offered Broadband internet for just £25 a month and even though there is still a contract I get a month to try it before I commit to anything whereas with AOL you only have a 16 day cooling off period. There is no charge to have the line fitted with telewest but there is a $40 pounds installation fee as standard.

I can garuantee you that if you are using an ISP for the first time
then Telewest is definently the way to go as I know from the hundreds of calls I recieve every day from people on AOL that are having trouble setting it up or connecting to the service that you will find it much easier to use.

Summary: