I have been with AOL for several years. I got DSL through Adelphia for $24.95 and they told me AOL would only be an additional $4.95. I called to confirm with AOL and they said yes, $4.95 for unlimited high speed and 3 hours of dial up.

That means if you use dial up you will incur charges. I knew I would hardly ever use dial up with this plan so it was ideal. By the way I had to ask the girl a few times why and she said that is just the way it is.

I recently checked the electronic transfer on my account statement and noticed I had been paying over $100 a month to AOL. I was angry. I called them and they said it is only 3 hours of DSL and dial up.

There is no help at "Live Help." It seems they either have a book with standard responses or have them in memory.

They absolutely refuse to help with or admit to problems on their end.

I just spent four days trying to resolve a specific problem with their Easy Designer area for web pages.

Do not use AOL. They may be the biggest -- but there is no customer service.

I called the 1-800-827-6364 number and got to the cancellation department. I told the girl I wanted to cancel because I was going to try the free trial of Netscape which is 1 month free ~ $9.95 there after.

She was nice at first, but then asked what I used the Internet for. I told her just general use, nothing specific. She then went on to say that I needed to have specific reason to be on the Internet. I said just put down personal use. She then said "this is not a hard question... personal use is not one of the options on my drop down list... So, why do you use the internet?"

I began to get a bit irritated, so I told her to pick a reason and put it down. She then said that there is no reason I cannot answer this question and what do I use the Internet for? I asked why this is prerequisite to canceling my service, and that it shouldn't be this difficult to cancel the service. She responded with, "Well, is it really hard to answer my question?" OK, so now I am upset and asked for a her to give me her supervisor. She said, "no" that's it, a simple no. I said, "Excuse me, I want to speak to your supervisor" and she said, "I said no."

I was dumbfounded. I said what is your name, she said, "Nicole, like I told you." I said, and what is your last name Nicole? She said, "I do not have to give you that information." Ohhh, I was hot, so I said, "I will ask you one more time, let me speak to your supervisor", and she said, "I will tell you one last time, NO".

So, I hung up and I was immediately booted off of AOL "due to cancellation." Hey, she was able to do it without all that information! So I called back and got hold of the complaint dept at 1-888-265-3733 and filed a complaint. The guy I spoke with assured me that some action would be taken. I feel bad it got to this, but I know the boundaries of my job and she should too!

She demanded to know what service I was switching to and berated me about why I would want to give up AOL when they offer virus protection, etc.

I repeatedly told her to just cancel my account and skip the arguments.

She got very loud and nasty with me and kept trying to bully me to stay.

When I demanded a confirmation number, she put me on hold. I asked for a supervisor and she said she was the supervisor. I finally got a cancellation confirmation number, but she said it wouldn't be effective for a month.

I was forced to listen through a recording or my cancellation wouldn't be effective.

Very hateful tactics used to keep a customer/victim by making it very difficult to leave!

Do not trust AOL. After 3 years of annoying, unresolved issues with that company, they terminated my service.

They deleted years worth of saved email, etc, without notice or my consent, because they didn't like my user profile.

I had no warning. Many important contacts gone. I needed to print new business cards etc, because I used AOL email as a business email address.

It is unbelievably frustrating, and I would advise everyone to not use AOL.

Save yourself the headache.

Also, in the years, I had problems which they "resolved" by giving me a month of free service. They did not bill me for a month, but then DOUBLE BILLED me the next month to make up for it. CROOKS!!!