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How come AOL is still in business?

Zelenius

Muse
Zelenius
Joined
Jul 8, 2008
Messages
908
And don't just answer "because they are still making money", I want to know the deeper reasons, like why are they still making money, why do they still have paying customers?

This is just too disturbing: 75% of AOL customers don't need to pay

What a scam! They already have broadband or another ISP and they are still paying AOL! This is outrageous. Another outrage is that AOL Signed Up 200K New Customers in 2010. Who are these people?

It was for very good reasons, both technical and ethical, that AOL was rated "The Worst Tech Product of All Time" by PCWorld. I think the government had more than sufficient reason to shut them down due to their extremely difficult cancellation process, and over-charging, among other reasons.

Not counting those who use an AOL email address but aren't paying customers(I still wish they would switch), who still pays for AOL? Very ignorant people? Old people? People in rural areas that have no other way to get on the internet? Actually, even though Broadband isn't available over large areas with little population density, I see no reason to believe that AOL can be the "only" way to access the internet in the most isolated rural areas of the U.S, but this seems to be a common excuse.

While I realize AOL has largely transitioned into a content provider, it still makes a lot of money as an "ISP". And I think it's not even a good content provider.

I look forward to the day this company goes out of business.
 
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AOL owns a ton of content out on the internet, though they keep their ownership subtle. That's where most of their income comes from. Paying for service from them does not make a hell of a lot of sense.
 
A venerable friend of mine still pays for AOL service, despite needing another ISP to access it. He's aware of how silly it is, but that's what he was using at the time he hit his "I'm now too old to bother learning anything new" point, and dadgummit, that's what he's gonna use until he can't use it no more.

Just goes to show you that no matter how terrible a service might be, people will stick by it as long as it's consistent.
 
I use AOL as my ISP and have done for a number of years. I don't have problems with them, so don't feel the need to change.
 
haha AOL - I remember them, my very first dial up internet connection in 1994, signed up to the 4 hours free, then 20p a minute (or whatever it was)

discovered chat rooms at the end of the 1st month's time allowance, got a £680 AOL bill and a £725 British Telecom (phone) bill (usually £40 per quarter) b*****s

£1400 was a LOT of money for a phone/ net bill 20 odd years ago. would buy you a decent used car.

I spent the next 18 months paying it down and as soon as possible (another year or 2 back then at least) and moved provider

die AOL die
 
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psionl0 said:
What? You didn't suddenly realize that because the bank created the money out of thin air that you didn't have to repay the money?
:th:
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lol! I promise you if I had known then, what I know now, things would have been very different in between :D

but no, unfortunately not, with my ******* mortgage at 13% interest at the time too.

all these ZIRPers don't even know what a recession is (yet)
 
Zelenius said:
And don't just answer "because they are still making money", I want to know the deeper reasons, like why are they still making money, why do they still have paying customers?

This is just too disturbing: 75% of AOL customers don't need to pay

What a scam! They already have broadband or another ISP and they are still paying AOL! This is outrageous. Another outrage is that AOL Signed Up 200K New Customers in 2010. Who are these people?

It was for very good reasons, both technical and ethical, that AOL was rated "The Worst Tech Product of All Time" by PCWorld. I think the government had more than sufficient reason to shut them down due to their extremely difficult cancellation process, and over-charging, among other reasons.

...snip...
Click to expand...

I kept with an AOL account long after I had broadband (I was one of their first UK customers and kept an account for about 10 years) and it was well worth paying them for their dial-up service especially when travelling around the world. For a long time they were pretty much the only company you could guarantee to be able to log onto no matter where in the world your hotel was.

And I have to say I never really had any major problems with them in all that time, good company providing a service that did what it said on the tin as far as I am concerned.

I do know one person who still uses AOL over a dial-up modem... yep they still exist. Don't know if AOL still have a comprehensive network of access points as they used to but that could be a reason for some folk still signing up with them?
 
AOL gets a cookie for their ad where a guy called to join, and the rep said he probably already had a disc since they mail them. He picked up his coffee mug, and there it was as a coaster!
 
Darat said:
I kept with an AOL account long after I had broadband (I was one of their first UK customers and kept an account for about 10 years) and it was well worth paying them for their dial-up service especially when travelling around the world. For a long time they were pretty much the only company you could guarantee to be able to log onto no matter where in the world your hotel was.

And I have to say I never really had any major problems with them in all that time, good company providing a service that did what it said on the tin as far as I am concerned.

I do know one person who still uses AOL over a dial-up modem... yep they still exist. Don't know if AOL still have a comprehensive network of access points as they used to but that could be a reason for some folk still signing up with them?
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I think if the only internet access point in an isolated rural area is AOL then that is a legitimate reason to still use it. However, I think there are very few areas like this.

I used to use AOL many, many years ago, so I am strongly biased against them still. I would love to see the company die. I know some old people who have broadband but still pay AOL since they think they still need it. They think they will lose their email address or internet connection entirely if they cancel their AOL.They are too ignorant and senile to understand that AOL is screwing them.
 
AOL is still in business because its users are stupid. Why because they still use AOL.
 
It's been 2 years since I started this thread, and yet - AOL’s dialup business might finally, finally die in 5 years

So although AOL’s subscriber numbers have continued to drop and now stand at just 2.42 million, the company is still making a lot of money from them because average revenue per user for dialup services has continued to rise.
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This is sad. We have to wait another 5 years for AOL dialup to die? Hopefully, all its other divisions will die by then too. Is it really so hard to get internet access in rural areas, or are these dialup users just the most clueless people ever?
 
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