Should Paying AOL Customers Really Be Upset Over Ads Being Placed in Personal Emails?
Today I got an email from my friend Beth. Beth normally does not email me seeing that we talk more on Myspace and Facebook than we do through our personal email accounts.
Today however she had something urgent to tell me, so she felt it would get to me faster if she sent it to me through email.
I got her email, but noticed something horrendous going on in her personal email to me.
Her email had an ad placed at the top, an ad placed in the middle, and 2 ads placed at the very end of her message.
I was pissed off and disgusted for her... and I honestly don't even think she realizes how pissed off she herself should have been.
AOL was using my friend as a tool. Pretty much using dear ole Beth to send out some advertising, spam if you will; crap that no one wants to see in a personal email no less.
I quit AOL ages ago because I hated their service, hated their customer service, and hated the way the rep talked to me when I went to cancel their shit service.
I got to thinking that Beth should either receive a discount for the ad placements, or get free AOL service. I mean hell, every email she sends contains links, which are nothing more than money making opportunities for AOL, and no one else.
I took my search online to see if anyone else was pissed off by the AOL in email ad placements. I found a slew of angry customers. All of them had pages and pages of non-stop complaining and moaning over these ads being placed in their personal emails, and honestly I was all on board, and on their side... until...
I realized...
I pay close to $100 a month for Cablevision, and I get ads upon ads upon ads all invading my normal programming schedule.
I don't get a discount, I don't get free service. I pay for this shit. I pay to have Cable place advertising within the programs I watch. I pay for the interruptions, the ads and nothing is offered to me.
I guess seeing that ad placements in emails is relatively a new concept to people, it just pisses them off. A lot of things piss people off, but at least with AOL people have the choice to simply cut the chord with their services, instead they find excuses on why they need to keep their shitty AOL accounts.
Where I am from Cablevision is pretty much Monopoly. No Fios, no nothing of that sort. Nothing else but Cablevision is offered... that is unless you want to pay for Satellite which is absolutely horrendous. If the wind blows, the TV goes.
So before all you blokes run out to add your name to some class action lawsuit against AOL for the email ads, realize that every time you turn the tube on, you pay to watch those fucking commercials too.
The world won't ever be free from Ads. I do however think AOL placing them in personal emails is just about as low as they can go. I feel for the customers plagued with this crap, but at the same rate... you have choices... lots of them.
Comments
AUTHORWhen I went to cancel, they told me I was a bad mother for taking away my childrens AOL.
For one, Im not a mother. I was cancelling it FOR my mother... where I then got called a 'bad kid'... it was hilarious, but at the same rate horrendous. After asking to speak with a manager, I was told if I signed back into my account they WOULD charge me. Funny too seeing that I had the whole month paid off... and should have been able to keep my account for the remainder of the month. I didnt give a hoot though, I was glad to have them gone.
The tactics they try to keep you though, my god. If you want your aol account bill lowered to 9.95 a month, call to quit, theyll lower it that much!
Hey Mellas, AOL is bad, and, like you, I ditched them ages ago, and I've heard horror stories about how people got treated when they wanted to cancel their service.
Hotmail puts text ads at the bottom of emails. I'm not sure if they put them any where else, but they suck too. Every time i go to check my mail it takes forever for all the ads to load on the page. Someday soon, they too will be history with me.
Good job as usual! :)
- AUTHOR
Golden, I don't think its possible. Even if you were downright cruel to me, Id still adore you.
MellaV- I hope I never get you mad.
Good thing you quit AOL otherwise, Beth might be harboring a secret hatred towards you, too! LOL Tell her what a paintful experience an AOL e-mail is and maybe then she'll join your cause.:D
Verizon has a new prepay plan-- and since I am with them now an paying (last month 47.50 for one whole minute) I am going to ask for a swapout. Or else I can do without and save $500 a year.
If I die on the roadside with a defunct cell phone in my pocket it will be on their everlasting sense of guilt. Sense of guilt?
- AUTHOR
I had a prepaid that always had a faulty battery. The thing would not hold a chagre for nothing... and on top of it the place I purchased the prepaid at kept selling my number to new pay as you go purchasers. It got too annoying. I suggest skipping on Virgin phones..... they sell the dang number to someone else. : ) it stiiinnkkksss. lol.
I agree with this. I get a few emails from people that have an ad at the bottom. This is not too bad, but some of these are getting out of hand.
I like my satellite TV service-- even if it is a little expensive. I AM getting rid of my cell phone service-- It is wasting a lot of money and I rarely even use it.I'm going for a prepaid-- just for emergency.
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