America Online Customer Service

User Reviews, Ratings and Comments

America Online customer service is ranked #546 out of the 630 companies that have a CustomerServiceScoreboard.com rating with an overall score of 23.71 out of a possible 200 based upon 399 ratings. This score rates America Online customer service and customer support as Terrible.

NEGATIVE Comments

381 Negative Comments out of 399 Total Comments is 95.49%.

POSITIVE Comments

18 Positive Comments out of 399 Total Comments is 4.51%.

Issue Resolution

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Viewing America Online customer service complaints
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Dear AOL,

As an AOL member since 1996, I must express my complete disappointment and total disgust with the recent actions and events regarding my account. On April 21, 2013 I was unable to sign into my account, so on the next business day I began calling to get some resolution, only to find out my account was closed by AOL. No reason was given. I have never been late with my monthly payment. So to have my account closed without warning and disregard to any related billing and important business contacts attached to my email address of 16 years is so frustrating. After calling AOL for more than 4 weeks, no resolution has yet to be performed by tech support or billing, I continue to get the same run around.
I have been promised call backs on many occasions by supervisors and yet to receive one. I'm so disappointed in the lack of concern regarding such and important customer issue. I expected more from AOL and have been let down. I think the situation could have been handled differently. I believe if my account was going to be closed by AOL, they should have provided a warning or given me the courtesy of given my contacts from my address book so that I could inform my contacts of a new way to contact me. Instead now all my incoming emails are bouncing back to the senders.
I know that I'm only one person, one customer but I have been loyal and on time with my payment for 16 years. At this point I'm not sure what can be done or if anyone in the corporation would really care about the bind and aggravation this has caused me. It might be too late for me or my account issue to be resolved, but maybe this could be a learning lesson for AOL for future customer service lessons and ways to retain customers.

GA30034 5/23/13 11:15PM
I hav been on the phone for more than 2 hours, spoke to more techs, and robots and got nowhere. I received a bill for $17.95, since I never ordered anything from aol that cost money. I have been tying to find out, when i ordered the items, and asked for a copy of original proof of such purchase .I am sorry to keep repeating myself but to add insult to injury, I have always paid my bills on time yet i went to a restaurant and the card was denied for also about $17, did they confuse the two issues. If i don't hear from you with an official bill, I shall take this issue further, because I am very proud of my financial record and do not wish to have it besmirched by this problem

flora 489 4/5/13 1:27PM
OMG the tip someone put before actually worked!!!! AWESOME actually on the phone with them right now!

Yami0601 3/6/13 8:15AM
Forget chatting online with or calling the 800 # for aol 'tech' support; it's a joke! I have had aol dial up for 14 years and paid $25.90 for the past 10. I had 2 toll-free internet access lines but on January 1st, it was cut down to 1 line and I had to accept a toll line in place of one toll-free or I wasn't allowed to 'continue'internet access. I wanted to know why I no longer had the 2 toll-free number but when I called,I couldn't get a live person on the 800# so I tried 'live chat' with a tech. Turned out the tech 'Lene' was in a foreign country and 'couldn't understand' what my (simple) question was. We played that game for more than 20 minutes and then suddenly, I got a 'session ended' message. Next, I received an email from someone with a foreign name and the email message was in a foreign language! 2 subsequent emails gave me instructions to jump through all kinds of hoops but never did respond to my question. As of Feb 1st,I cannot access the internet vial the 1 toll-free #; without exception, it switches to the 1 toll to use. Sayonara aol!

tushyantj 3/3/13 3:34AM
never seen such poor and misleading customer service.
i can't understand what is being told to me. i feel that aol is just trying to sell services when i might not need them. one tech told me a hacker is on my computer and another said no.

lfrackman 2/20/13 11:34AM
I am not able to get into my email account due to suspicious activity. Technical support says I need to pay $99 to reset my password and then gives me this "customer service" number where it tells me I may be on hold for a half hour?!?!? WOW. I plan on opening up a new acct with another provider. Phone support only for those that are paying customers. What a joke.

mollyposer 2/4/13 12:29PM
AOL help cuts me off and then they write me this

Dear AOL Member,

We know it can be frustrating to spend your valuable time contacting technical support. We appreciate you working with us to resolve your issue related to troubleshooting our AOL Desktop Software.

If you have any further questions about our AOL Desktop Software, or would like to review the troubleshooting steps taken when you contacted us, click here to go to the AOL help page for Troubleshooting our AOL Desktop Software.

In case you still need us, our Live Technical Support chat team is available 24x7. To contact a live tech or billing agent, go to bill.aol.com and click on "Contact AOL" at the top of menu. And, of course, you can always contact customer support by calling

We look forward to continuing to provide you with the best online experience possible. Thank you for being a valued AOL member.

Sincerely,

AOL Member Services

Note: This is an automated email from AOL. Please do not reply to this email as this mailbox is not monitored.

fcw486 1/12/13 8:02AM
i have been with aol for 15 yrs ,when they came out with the free version i stayed with paying 11.95-i noticed they charge me 17.95 twice in 2 days- when I called was told the last payment they recieved was in Dec 2012,when i questioned the two payments ,I then was told they didnt recieve Nov. payment ,when i said you just told me the last payment was Dec and this is just January to which they said because you have been with aol for so many yrs and are a valued customer i will give you a free month -well that is nice but still dont under stand why it when up from 11.95 to 17.95 and was told you have a lot of benefits you are using yes and those benefit is suppose to be free and guess what lost connection -now i cant get on at all and aol was my default page grrrr-im done with aol should of listen to everyone that try to warn me over the yrs

gowithflo46 1/11/13 9:22AM
I can't find anyone in AOL to help me settle my late father's account. I've been left on hold for 20min and then cut off. I even spoke to someone who didn't seem to understand that my father had died. Shocking. No training and clearly no ethics!!!
Shame on you.

gisellegunn 11/30/12 4:14AM
First of all let me tell everyone that it is now a new tactic of AOL to get you to pay monthly, they are disabling all free accounts. You will consistently get a message when signing on "Unusual activity has been detected", they want you to reset your password. Once you do and go back to the signon page, you will just keep logging you out each time. When you call the customer service help line, you will get transfered over and over and then put on hold and disconnected. Call back, they say they need to charge you $100 for tech service to see what the problem is. I have had my AOL account for 15 years. You think they would have the decency to to send am email before closing it down so you be prepared. They should be turned over to some agency, but hey, HELLO YAHOO>
Oh and below they want you to leave your email, hello, you blocked it.

dkchitty 11/28/12 1:07PM
First let me state I love aol and if they had dsl I would still be with them instead of just free e-mail--haven't had problems directly with them until today.

i tried today for one hour to ask for a person in the United States to talk to about an issue that I needed information about thinking perhaps I may pay for security installed from aol for tech support and problems--did not want to speak with anyone with an accent (no criticism intended)becauise I cannost understand them. I was told it is impossible and not to call back again with such a question. Hard to believe there is noone in these United States that can't be reached to speak live to. I have just finished reading all the negative reports ragarding aol suppport and feel they perhaps were not the best to speak with even if it were possible to reach them. WHAT A DISAPPOINTEMENT!!!!! lORRAINE

LLEO79 11/24/12 7:02AM
tried calling numerous times and keep getting disconnected!! So frustrating, plus they have charged my uncle who passed away 4 times in one month!!!! Shame on them!!!!

Anonymous 11/19/12 4:17PM
I'm having trouble accessing both of my free email accounts on AOL. I have two accounts,and both of which I cannot access. It says that both of my accounts have been canceled. I don't understand how that is possible because I haven't checked my accounts since Tuesday on my iPhone. There must be some kind of error. I've had my email account since the 90's and it has all of my accounts and emails in there. I'd like both of them to be reactivated please. If I cannot get access to them, I will lose all of my data. This has never happened to me and I hope this is just some kind of maintenance problem.

jt2cute4u 10/25/12 9:20PM
I am seeing a pattern among the comments about AOL. It says that AOL is not helping.
My e-mail is not working from my computer. I do not receive incoming e-mail. I can access it from other computers, so that means there is probably a setting on my computer that is doing this.
I e-mailed AOL Help and was told I would get a phone call back.
Guess what? Riht! No phone call.

FranchiseT 10/23/12 8:52AM
I just cancelled SafeControl,

I have been an aol customer for 30 years. I have never encountered such poor service. The software download did not work; I spoke twice with a SafeControl agent who has no inkling what to do. He said he would area nee a phone call from his "supervisor" for this morning -- and there was no call.

You really need to clean up this act.

Victor Hao Li

vhl2727 10/20/12 9:13PM
Your customer service is perhaps the worst that I have ever encounter.

First and formost I can only reach some foreign person in India or some other 3 rd world country.

It is clear you do not care. I am in charge of a computer support group at our church and over the years I know of over 23 individuals that I encourged to use your service. Starting today I will do all I can to get them to move to another web email service provider.

You company is failing and has been for many years... I now know why....you do not care.

Quincyyes@aolcom 10/17/12 11:32PM
So I'm traveling abroad & left US just last week. When my companion & I try to log onto our AOL emails which we have had for years we are denied access because of some unspecified reason & asked to reset our passwords which it doesn't allow us to do. No way to contact them other than toll free which is almost impossible from abroad. The worst online email experience ever! Thanks for nothing AOL

ganderegg 10/16/12 3:28AM
I have been trying to log on to my aol account for one week. Customer support was not able to help. Now they want to charge me $180 to fix the problem. When I said cancel this account he said that will be $180. This is insane. I have been an AOL user for many years and they want to charge me. I am done with Aol. Unhappy customer

lolo2811 10/7/12 7:06AM
I am having the same problem with Aol since July as the other users have mentioned. Constantly being asked to change my password...questioning me like I am invading someone else's email. I was out of the country in August and unable to reach my family as Aol refused my entry into my aol. Aol is going to lose their clients if they do not straighten out the glitch soon.
PGR

alemap 9/30/12 8:31AM
I am totally locked out of AOL and have no idea why. It is a password issue. I put in right password and it tells me it's wrong and so I try to reset it. Enter new password and it tells me it's wrong. Now the access is closed because of security issues and it's only me trying to be able to see my AOL mail. No other email provider has ever caused a problem like this for me. Looks like a hopeless situation because I have no way to contact them except by using my password which does not work.

sooz 9/29/12 3:58AM
when i signed up for aol, i used them as an internet provider and i have been a member for years.but now i have been using dsl and not dial-up and have comcast as my providor and aol sees this and since switching my providor i use their virus protection so why would i keep using aol virus protection. i know aol sees all of this, so why am i still being charge as a customer using aol as a providor? I guess they just knowingly do this to keep charging me since i dont have aol as my internet providor. i have called without any satisfaction at all and no option of reimbursement except giving me a free e-mail account. what about those years i paid? there must be a legal law for this and a business bureau for ratings and complaints.

glen32560 9/13/12 3:07PM
Absolutely the biggest sucked a.. company for customer service on the planet. I have been jacking around with my email account al day. I finally got a number to call as you cant email if it don't work. Was on hold forever to get hung up on before I talked to a human. Called back was on hold forever before someone answered and gave me a different number to Call. Once again hung up on before anyone answered. I got a third number and after 20 minutes on hold gave up. About 18 years with Aol and now want to leave.

cseithers 8/28/12 12:03PM
useless service as a loyal customer they just flog you off rubbish service i was put on 24mps as a 8 yr old customer i still get the same 8mps as before iv had nothing but trouble especially the phone service my god your there forever i wont say more other than thank god im going to change. service customer service rubbish total rubbish going to virgin a.s.a.p

gordan 8/24/12 12:15PM
For hours I was so frustrated. Couldn't sign on and don't know how I lost my password. Ikept signing to a new password but to no prevail. Then,finally, I called AOL and the problem was solved in not time. I couldn't believe it. Next time I will call immidiately after I encounter any problems if ever. I hardly have problems with AOL and have had this service for so many years. I was so happy to be able to sign on after so many hours trying to figure it out myself by following directions. Sometimes we just need Tech support LIVE. Thank you, Lissette

ldernier 8/21/12 5:06PM
I am traveling out of the country and my aol email account has been frozen due to unspecified unusual activity. I have tried to contact aol via telephone but cannot get a live person. I have heard that aol is terrible and now I have learned the hard way. No access to my email s for two weeks. Unbelievable !!!

Lmarrigo 8/20/12 6:14AM

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I just spoke with"Pat" an AOL tech, about not having a password box on my Desktop 9.7. Pat was very nice and helped me solve my problem promptly. Thank you, Pat.

rbcatdad 5/7/13 9:00AM
i JUST WANT TO COMEND AOL FOR GREAT SERVICE I AM NOT THAT GREAT WITH COMPUTERS BUT HAVE HAD AN ACCOUNT WITH AOL FOR YEARS. I HAVE BEEN ON YOUR FREE MAIL ACCOUNT FOR FOUR YEARS AND HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH YOUR MAIL . I AM A VERY SATISFIED AOL USER.

tavybell 5/5/12 6:23AM
I got good service from this Toll free No :- 1800-280-7961 . It's a paid service but they are professionals .

Kris 2/26/12 8:00AM
I had to call AOL and got wonderful service. No problem explaining why I called and talked to an English speaking person.
All was handled with excellent efficency

Anonymous 2/16/12 12:00PM
The suggested tips worked. I got through within minutes and cancelled the account. The tech tried to sell a load of options, but gave me a confirmation # and let me off the hook.

LDPNY 10/27/11 8:00PM
Just got off the phone with someone who very helpful. Used the routine suggested to get to that person.

JJC 7/11/11 7:08AM
Never had a problem. I must be lucky

Anonymous 4/19/11 5:31AM
FIXED MY MAIL PROBLEM FAST...THANK U

Anonymous 3/25/11 3:35AM
I also had my account suspended and was very upset because I use my email all day, every day. However, I feel I need to share my GOOD experience with AOL customer service, if for no other reason than to give people hope!! When I called, I was passed immediately to a live person named Mary. English is most definitely not Mary's first language, but she spoke slowly and enunciated her words so clearly that even my old-lady, southern ears were able to understand her perfectly. She was very polite and friendly, helped me get into my account & reset my password, and even stayed on the line while I closed out and signed into AOL several times to make sure everything was okay. I was happy and more than satisfied with the whole experience. Go figure.... now if I could only have such luck with AT&T!!!

mbwetw 11/30/10 1:31PM
The recorded system fixed my problem and i was only on the phone for less than 5 minutes. Was not bad considering i hate those things. But it worked so I'm happy, thanks AOL

genuinebarbie 8/6/10 6:46AM
This is the Fraud Department , I got through right away and AOL did not try to Charge Me for Tech Support ...

Thank you
veras5th

(I got my mail up and running AGAIN! Here is the number I used to get the help I needed. 1-800-307-7969 GOOD LUCK!)

Anonymous 4/8/10 1:59PM
I followed the instructions under the phone number and pressed 0 several times. I received an operator that was enthused to help me. I have had a free email account for 5 years and my password was not working. AOL said someone was hacking into my account so they changed my password. They reset my password over the phone and I was able to access my account. YEAH!!!!

Anonymous 4/2/10 10:20AM
Got through on the 1st call with less than 1 min wait. Smooth and easy.

egonza3286 12/23/09 5:07PM
Spent almost 45 min. with Jake of Customer Service. Mentioned that he was in the Philipines. I just want to say that he did an excellent job telling me how to reinstall 9.1 as I had had notes saying that my email needed to be installed, due to bad corrupt files. Everything went smoothly

Thank you,
Mrs.Ed Lavin

eplavin@aol.com 8/6/09 7:15PM
Ok support, not always english. Company around for a long time (since 1985). I have been a satisfied customer since 1991 when I had DOS still on my packard bell.

Neckername 5/23/09 9:04AM
What are you people talking about? I have been a satisfied customer since 1995 -- well, dissatisfied occasionally but a phone call to tech support always repairs the problem ... as long as the tech speaks English.

EBIRDWELL 5/10/09 3:19AM
I HAD A WONDERFUL TECH SUPPORT HELP ON THURSDAY, THE MARCH 26TH - 7:30PM PDT. I THINK HER NAME WAS RENEE AND SHE WAS IN MANILA, PHILLIPINES. I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE HER RAVE REVIEWS.

CORKYFRANK 3/28/09 8:47AM
I was just assisted by the greatest Customer Service Representative & wanted you at AOL to know about it!! His name is Chai & he helped me with everything I needed & was one of the nicest people I've dealt with in a very long time! It was so refreshing to know that "real" customer service people still exist!!! You (AOL) should be very proud to have him as an employee/part of your team!! Do whatever it takes to keep people like him!!! Thanks for everything & Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!

ckacsorvegas 11/21/08 8:35PM

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Let me tell you people something. I used to work for AOL in the billing department. I simply quit because the customers were unbearable. Yes, AOL has nasty procedures which I did not approve of and were PLENTY. But let me explain how it works.

To cancel an account you need to reach BILLING. You need to verify the account because otherwise it is considered fraud to take action on an unverified one.
You need to be a paying customer to get tech support. No company whatsoever can take your money UNLESS YOU PROVIDE BILLING INFO. If you did not, it means that someone STOLE your info and made an account. AOL [or any other company] does not go around searching for poor bastards to bill and does not steal credit card numbers. If you owe money to a company, it's because the payment did not go through, in which case you call the BANK. The company sends the request but the BANK provides the payment.

Yes, the company sucks, the employers treat the employees like animals, but the clients are simply unbearable sometimes. These are the procedures and it is not the agents fault that he/she has to follow them. Sent an email or a letter to the corporate office if you want to complain, people. There is a fine line between being pissed and being plain stupid and not having any good manners.

Idiotic customer care reps are EVERYWHERE, in EVERY company and all american companies are trying to branch outside of the US because the labor is cheap in other places. So get over yourselves, if you owe money, pay up and if you are unconfortable with having to pay for a service, just cancel it. Techs need to eat as well, you know.

I know, they are awful, I've been on the inside, and boy, am I glad to be out!!!!
leushtean_trist 6/26/11 3:26PM
I am a former AOL employee, and can thouroughly explain to you all why you are being charged. You all probably used AOL discs saying "90 day FREE service" and didnt call to cancle the service after the prohbationary 90-day trial period. You skipped reading the Terms and Conditions section on the set-up screen, therefor causing you to be charged for time accrued. If you contact AOL's Customer Care division they can check the usage and if there isnt any, then they will credit your money back to you. There was a massive lawsuit in 2005-06, The state of New York vs. America Online, in which alot of consumers were charged for time accrued they didnt use. AOL had to pay damages, but in turn won the ruling because it was a "Term and Contion" error by the customers for verifying information and then stating it was AOL's screw up for over-charging them. In half those lawsuits, only 1 of them was paid restitution to.

Important Life Lesson:::

READ BEFORE YOU AGREE!
AllenBicNC 3/16/09 4:57PM