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To Aol6 or Not to Aol6 Part2 Written by: Dan Daily
Hi Gang! It's time to follow up the Aol6 page; To Aol6 or Not to Aol6. I've been buried with mail on the subject. Almost all very supportive of the column. Some hate mail, but not much. This time, I'll show you just a fraction of the mail I've received; so you can see for yourself how wide spread the Aol6 problem is. I've divided this into several categories below. What's interesting to note: Look at the people who claim no problems, even they; almost everyone of them, list problems with Aol6. So, I have "Thumbs Up"/ "Thumbs Down"/ Supporting Mail/ and even a section from other Beta Testers. Those are interesting. I'll insert comments where it seems appropriate. Again, this is only a small fraction of the mail I've received. It ran more like 80/20 against. But those without any problems would be less likely to write; I hope. As far as my beta status goes, as you know, it's gone. I'll tell you one thing about it; at least my computer doesn't whimper and break into a cold sweat every time I come home. Geeze, it might have rusted out from all it's tears! LOL .
"Danny ...your name is a household item now.....i must have gotten 10 copies of your letter from different lists......they all say the same..."if Danny says it, its gotta be true"...I want to thank you for being so painfully honest...good luck and thanks again....Dot" Thanks Dot, household item certainly wasn't expected, or the point. But I'm glad the word is getting out.
"Sorry you lost your "job" with AOL. We need the likes of you to tell it like it is. Hope you liked my insert yesterday. Lots of "thank-you's" from those anticipating a change. Bet you feel just like Ralph Nader !! -Art-" Well Art; I think I know how he must have felt. Not a great feeling; which brings up the only response I'll make to that hate mail I've received: If you people think I enjoyed writing that column, you're crazy. That was the hardest column I've ever written. I knew the price I'd pay for my honesty. But, my responsibility is to my readers, not Aol. I pay Aol, and I don't pay them to trash my computer. I stand behind my column, and will never recommend Aol6 until it's cleaned up. And that'll be tough, as I no longer am allowed to test it. If you want that changed, then you know what to do; all 30,156 (and counting) of you. Enough said. At least they don't sign my paycheck; if they did, the column would still have come out; it would have just taken another day. The extra day would have been to find a new job. Frankly, I thought it was a fluff piece, compared to what I really wanted to say. I encourage you all to read the problem letters, there is a very good indication how tech support will handle you in there as well. I will have final comments at the bottom of this page. But before we go on, this is Aol's answer to all you people that are having problems with Aol6, this is your sole remedy. Click Here
This is a typical Thumbs Down letter, hold on to your socks gang; Hi again Danny, You can see below another victim of 6.0, This is very upsetting for me cause she had a lot to lose. I hope you can help her. I told her about your site but unfortunately she can't view it. To Everyone,
This is a typical Thumbs Up letter I have read your comments about the new version of aol thats out I have the download as I speak, I have not had any problems with it YET I just hope not. But then again I had to wipe my puter clean because I had my daughter take a bad upgrade for the 5.5 browser... It wasn`t pretty... I lost even my socks in the wipings my puter was cleaned, scrubbed and even vacuumed. Anyway this all was to tell you that I so far have no problems... (Sounds pretty problem free to me?)
This is typical Hate mail You apparently have a junked up computer that cant handle good stuff. As far as I can see, you know nothing about what you are speaking of. 6.0 works great and has some really good features. I did lose my address book but all I had to do was put the names back in and it stays the same, does not change or add anything to it. Also I don't appreciate the links you have included that I have to get rid of before I can even read your writings. Get a job. Maybe manually adding your addresses is no big deal to him, but I have well over 1000 in my book; no thanks. Since junk computers were brought up here: A few stats from the hits I've gotten: Aol5/6- 98.3% of all the hits. Windows 95/98- 97.16% 800x600 resolution or greater- 83% 16 bit high color or greater-91.79% Doesn't sound like your typical junk computer to me.
Typical Mail from a fellow Beta Tester Danny,
Before We Go Any Further An excellent article on Aol 6 can be found at www.observers.net. And another from PCWorld Magazine. Aol6 Wreaks Havoc It's seems I'm finally starting to get the vindication I deserve. Whew! This PcWorld article came out after I published this. They might be late to the party gang, but at least they're here now. Criteria: These letters are just as I received them. Exception: I cut out the headers, and footers, and only took the body's of the mailings to save space. I didn't edit content, or take anything out of context. I'm not trying to deceive anyone. (I don't have to; the truth stands on it's own.) Also; No correspondence between Aol techs and these folks are reproduced unless it gets out of hand. That wouldn't be ethical, as these were private emails between the sender and Aol itself. I would be third party so to speak. It wouldn't be fair, Aol is not here to speak for themselves. I didn't correct any grammar, or spelling; some are a little tough to read. I filtered out all letters that I felt were operator errors as opposed to actual problems. These; except for category, are in no particular order. Remember!!! You must use your browsers "Back" button to leave these sites! If you "X" out, you will leave my site!
Ok, here we go: First the "Thumbs Down" mail; Page One; Click here Page Two; Click here Page Three; Click here Page Four; Click here
And here is the "Thumbs Up" mail; Page One; Click here Page Two; Click here Check out the first one on this page, it's cute. Page Three; Click here
The mail I received from fellow Beta Testers; Click Here And mail from readers giving moral support; Click Here
Comments: As you can see, it's a pretty mixed bag, quite obviously slanted to the negative. This fact doesn't represent any bias by me on this matter, just the actual proportion of mail received. Agree or disagree, the question still remains, after reading the crash and burn stories, do you still want to download Aol6? I don't recommend it and that was the point. As far as tech support goes:
A True Story A couple of weeks ago, I was doing some warranty work on one of our homes. (We build them) It was out of Warranty by a year, but we stand behind our work. Try that with Compaq by three months. Anyway, the folks just got a brand spanking new Gateway, with all the trimmings. (Really, wow nice) They got their free one year Aol, had it installed. (Aol5) The problem was, Internet Explorer wouldn't run stand alone. They kept getting error messages stating they had to sign up for Internet access, which they so obviously had. He is a bank vice president, and had to have stand alone IE. They had just spent four days on the phone with Aol and Gateway. Each blaming the other. Four Days! I had IE running is less then 10 minutes. (Oh, and by the by; it was a Gateway problem.) Tech support is a mixed bag. Basically what it is, is a script. They read this thing to you and go step by step. This allows pretty much anybody to do the job. (as a result I'm sure it's very high paying, LOL) In all fairness, this is really a good way to do it. Especially when you have such a large department. and the employee turnover they must have. I mean how long would you stay with any job for $7.50 an hour; I believe that's what they make. So take note you Stock Brokers, Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians: These are the people you are calling on the phone. The problem actually lies when your trouble is outside the script. Also; take it from me, there is no substitute for having your hands on the machine, it goes much easier that way. (You can feel it, REALLY!) What Aol should have, are actual people to go onsite. Maybe call it premium service, and charge for it. Whatever you call it: I don't think the present system is very effective. And email support is even worse. Anyone that has ever used it already knows; the answer they send you, usually doesn't have anything to do with the question. But Aol is not alone in this regard. All the big companies are set up this way.
Finally; This is a very well written letter from a knowledgeable man. He disagrees with my assessments on this subject. Which is fine, but his letter is very well written. Extremely well written, and I wanted to include it. I will comment as I see fit, as we go. Click Here
So there you have it Gang I hope this helps you on your road. Your Road? Yes, Your Road To Computer Sanity Danny
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Murphy's Top 10 Laws of Computing See Ya Next Time Gang!!!
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