All I wanted to do
Was order broadband. I had a look at a few of the major suppliers and I discovered that only AOL provided broadband with unlimited bandwidth. I had already been using their broadband service for a few months whilst I decided what I was going to do.
In mid-October a friend decided he was going to get AOL broadband and asked me if I wanted to join as well to get £25 each as he was inviting a friend. I was also to recieve a free wireless router so I was no longer forced to stay in the living room if I wanted to use the internet. I decided to accept and on 16th October I recieved a letter stating that my order of broadband had been recieved. the letter said to wait up to 3 weeks to recieve the router.
As I had previously had dial-up I was still using it until my router arrived. After a few weeks I had not recieved it and my dial-up had ended (my friend had his modem after about a week) so I gave them a ring.
I was informed that my router had been sent and that I should already have recieved it. I found this piece of news rather frustrating, but accidents can't be helped. Plus. Because of this they said they would send out another router and it would arrive within 2-5 working days. this being a tuesday, the router may not come until Monday, theoretically speaking. to tide me over AOL gave me 10 free days of dial-up, more than enough to see me through.
Monday arrived, but the router didn't. I phoned once again to find out where my router was. My router was still in the warehouse. they hadn't sent it out. Needless to say by this point I was starting to get quite irritated, but I waited non-the-less. they said to wait 2-5 working days once again.
I then phoned AOL on the following day to make sure they had actually sent out the router this time, which they assured me they had.
thursday (day 3) had rolled around and there was still no sign of my router and my free dial-up had expired. So I called AOL once again and asked for a couple of days of free dial-up until my router arrived. He said ok and said it was connected. Because this happened in the afternoon I didn't really have time to use it as I was popping out for a bit. Whilst I was out I recived a phonecall from m mother (at 3:25pm) that my router had arrived. Hallelujah!
Later on I went home and set it up, there was a little kerfulle with the wireless, but that was easily sorted.
For the next seven days I enjoyed the full benefits of wireless broadband and my joy could disconnected itself for no apparant reason. I reset the router and tried a number of different things to get it working, without any hint of sucess. So once again I phoned AOL, with whom I should now ave my own personal hot-line.
It turns out my account has been cancelled. Why this occur? Because I cancelled my account apparantly. When was this? thursday, the day I requested some more free dial-up, which was coincidentily the day I recieved my router. After much debating with the woman on the phone I resigned myself to the fact that it had happened though I don't know how, seeing as even a misunderstanding with the guy on the phone when I called would have left me with a dial-up account and not with no connection at all. Apparantly the reason I had been able to use broadband for the last week was because it hadn't been closed from when I had ordered it.
So ok, fair enough just reconnect me please. She told me that the line had to be 'cleaned' and that I could not be reconnected for 5-7 days. At this point I was on the cusp of an explosion but I kept my temper as screaming a list of expletitives down the phone would neither reconnect me broadband nor would it make up for the sheer in competance of these people.
I am now back on free dial-up for the week and and back downstairs and am increadbly unimpressed.
I shall now be making an official complaint about AOL, their employees and the completely unprofessional manner in which I have ben dealt with. Where can I do this?
I also wish to find another broadband provider, who has unlimited bandwidth. Where can I get this?
this whole episode has just been one more farce in the unfunny, unrealistically absurd comedy that is my life.
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The 20th century has been characterised by three developments of great political importance. The growth of democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.
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