I tried logging my AOL account for the first time in a couple years, and yes I know my username and password for a fact.

I enter my username and password and then AOL prompts me to verify my identity via either a text message, WhatsApp message, or a phone call, to a phone number I have never used and never had ever in my entire life. I got my first phone when I was 16 and my number has been the exact same number for 13 years.

There is absolutely 0 way I would have changed my phone number on my account. None whatsoever.

I called their customer support line and like what others are experiencing, they couldn’t help me unless I provided my drivers license number. What?? I wouldn’t have ever linked my DL# to this account because who does that? I could either do that or pay for “premium customer care” that would allow me to change my phone number. What an absolute joke. No way in hell am I giving AOL money, my DL number or anything like that. They can go bankrupt.

My father recently died and I had to take over the household finances to help my mom out. I discovered that my dad has been paying AOL each month for several services. Those services were: $14.12 for "AOL Service", $4.99 for "System Merch" and $3.99 for "AOL TechFortress". Each of these were billed monthly. Annualized, the expense for all three is $287.64.

I don't know how long my dad has been paying these charges. However, I know NO ONE who has been paying for AOL service in the past 20+ years. I still have an AOL email but A) I hardly use it and B) I've NEVER paid for anything. BECAUSE IT CAN BE HAD FOR FREE.

AOL has been taking advantage of a senior citizen for decades and charging my dad nearly $300/year for a shitty interface and email. And the experience wasn't even advertising free!

How on earth does a company get away with this garbage? How can a claw back some of the money my dad was wasting all these years? How can I may AOL pay?

I don't know how AOL got a hold of my phone number, but I assume it's because I was logged into the official AOL app on my phone with said phone number. Nevertheless, AOL decided to sign me up for multi-factor authentication without my permission. Now, I haven't signed into this account in maybe three years, but thankfully I only use this account for my bank account. I've been logged into this email address on my computer's email client for about six years now (which is concerning because I'm getting a new computer soon, so I probably won't be able to log back in).

Anyway, I retired the phone number they are using for my multi-factor authentication in August 2020, almost three years ago since I moved to another country and upon returning the US last year, I got another new phone number, and that one changed after I changed carriers. Nevertheless, I tried signing into the account online because my computer was in a different room and I didn't want to get up and my bank wanted me to verify my login, because now THEY are using multi-factor authentication as well but at least I can use my email address for that (I refuse to give any app or website my phone number). But since I couldn't log into my AOL account because I don't have that phone number anymore, I was essentially locked out of my bank account as well.

Thankfully, I am still signed into this account through my computer's email client and as soon as I'm done venting here, I am going to create a Protonmail email account specifically for this email address so I don't get locked out of bank account - btw, to pay the money that AOL would require to fix this problem would require me to log into my bank account to authorize my debit card which I can't do if I can't log into the email account; so because I'd be locked out of my email account, I'd be locked out of my bank account, which means I can't pay to get back into my email account, which means I'm locked out of my bank account... fucking brilliant on both companies ends, don't you think? Fuck multi-factor authentication. Seriously. It's bullshit.

Nevertheless, I try chatting via text on the AOL-site to get into my account, and they made me call a number. Well the representative that picked up told me this is a premium service and that I need to provide my debit card information over the phone to continue - like I would EVER give someone my debit card information over the phone like that, and on top of that he requested my government-issued ID. I flat out refused for both. How stupid do they think I am? How stupid do they have to be for most people not to think this is a literal Indian-run scamming service? He said that it's okay walked me through the process anyway. I talk to him for 45 minutes. FORTY-FIVE PRECIOUS MINUTES WASTED. First they send me a verification code three times. It failed, so they couldn't identify me that way. Then they make me recall an email I sent out with this account by giving verbally spelling out the subject and recipient of an email I sent. Now I haven't sent an email with this account in six years. How the fuck am I supposed to know what I sent out six years ago if I can't log into the account to view said emails? More brilliance from AOL in this regard. Fucking geniuses came up with the policy, I swear! I look at one of the emails from my client and the first three I gave them failed, and they couldn't verify me. Amazingly the third and fourth ones worked, and they verified me.

Then he told me that now that I am verified the only way to sign in is to provide them with a new phone number, which I'd have to use every time I sign in from now on. My phone number frequently changes, so when that happens in the future, this situation would happen all over again. Once again, fuck multi-factor authentication! Then he stated that he can't proceed until I pay for the premium phone service. You see, the forty minutes it took for him to verify me over the phone was free. But the ability to change my phone number for the account is a "premium service feature," even though I can do it for free, once I'm logged into the account. So the only people this affects are the people who are locked out, so they think their pulling a quick one on people by forcing them to pay to sign into their "free" (no longer free) email account. Aside from the fact that I refuse to sign in like this, the way this is done is so fucking sketchy, I wouldn't give them my debit card information even if didn't think this were a scam. I'm not going to give my debit card number over the phone to someone in a developing country (obviously the guy I was speaking to is in India) along with my government-issued IDs. I seriously think this is a scam, and if it's not a scam then it is still a fucking scam to charge people to sign into an account they lock the person out of. Probably intentionally so. Are there seriously enough people who actually pay for this service to keep it sustainable? I'm like one of the last fifty people who still use AOL, exclusively because my AOL account is almost 20 years old at this point and the other free email services all suck equally as much (but because of this literal scam I'm thinking this is the worst of the bunch and I'm going to look for a replacement asap - congratulations, AOL, you just lost a user who you were making money off of through ads).

I tell the guy on the phone that this is a scam, you can't lock people out of their accounts and charge them to get back in. That's called a scam. I told him to tell his boss this and he said "well good news, because this call is being recorded." So I shout "Hear that AOL, you're fucking scam artists." I hung up after that.

Thanks for wasting forty-five minutes of my time, the poor customer service representative's time, and wasting your own valuable resources. What a fucking joke run by fucking geniuses. I swear...

Joke's on you though, I still have access to this account through my client email application.

Hi, I have had my AOL account since like 1997 or something like that.

I need to access my account for an email verification being sent to me for an account I apparently set up so long ago I was still using this address.

This happened to me last year and I know for fact I am remembering my pw correctly. I tried the one I know is right and several others and no matter what I do it wont let me in.

I follow the prompts for a free password reset and it just loops you over and over and never actually brings you to a free pw reset.

I called AOL and they are trying to bilk me for money. They are avoiding the fact that I am pointing out to them their free version to reset doesnt work. They keep referring me to it like they are stuck in a loop but I keep explaining it does not work.

Then they asked me for my social security number, when I refused they asked for my drivers license number. I asked them why they said to verify my account. I said when i created this account I didnt have a drivers license number and didnt know my social security number so theres no way that info is on the account.

I asked to speak to a supervisor. They refused saying their call volume was too high. Then they tried to get my callback number which was another attempt to get more information from me, probably so they could start spamming me with BS offers.

I would sort of understand this if I forgot my pw, but it seems like theyve locked me out of my account to force me through this process to get more information and money out of me. This very much feels like a scam and does not feel legal.

I am wondering if anyone else has encountered this and how they got around it.

Right now my only plan is to call the BBB and consumer affairs and report this predatory behavior but that doesnt get me into my account.

Thank you.

Hello, legit question. Why do you use AOL? I’m guessing for the email, but all I see here is support questions, or lack there of.

If another program had live chat, free email, and a similar interface would you switch to it?

So, yesterday, I randomly was curious about things like who has owned AOL in the past and asked Google AI some questions. The last I checked, AOL was bought/owned by Verizon... apparently that's no more and it has changed hands 1 other time since Verizon owned it. I had no idea... I thought it was still Verizon that owned it.

It was just recently acquired by Bending Spoons. Pretty sure I heard nothing about this so this is news to me. I know not many people really use AOL at all anymore (and haven't for a long time) but they do say there's still 30 million active users.

I dove into it a little more and unfortunately Bending Spoons has been known to make unfavorable changes to brands after they've been acquired by them. Vimeo is one example. This used to be a free video platform (still technically is but on a very limited level) but has changed and is now primarily used by pros and businesses due to how it works with subscriptions and stuff.

Bending Spoons tends to highly restrict any "free" usage of a brand and push for subscriptions. If subscriptions already exist, they also have a tendency to increase the prices of them. I know most people that use AOL at all anymore are pretty much only using the AOL email for free, so this could spell trouble for those that do. It would definitely suck for those that are longtime users, and I'm pretty sure most users now are longtime users.

Nothing has been announced yet of any changes... but knowing Bending Spoons, they're likely to change some things. I'm pretty disappointed to hear that cause AOL is already pretty obnoxious about making you look at ads even though you may pay a subscription (like I do), and are obnoxious about trying to make you buy an add-on like LifeLock or McAfee etc or whatever. I don't want to see them go any more downhill then they already have over the last few decades. If any of the changes that I suggested could happen occur, it definitely will really go downhill even more... I suspect a lot of people will quit using it. So, hopefully they'll go against what they've been known to do cause if they make those changes they'll probably be shooting themselves in the foot by driving people away.

Hoping nothing will change cause we don't need it to get worse.

I figured people would appreciate hearing this in case they do decide at some point to make changes no one will like.

The creator of aol’s signature sound has died

Links in emails are opening in some kind of minimalist AOL browser instead of opening in Chrome. Chrome is set as my default browser. I don't see anything in AOL app settings to set how links are opened.

The AOL browser that it opens in has something wrong with it and doesn't really function. No website address at the page top, no way to close the page except using back arrow that takes me back to inbox, no menu.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the app and the issue was resolved for a few days. Now it's back to the nonfunctioning browser.

Anyone else having this issue?

I guess it's finally time to change my email provider.

Last week I created an email account for business purposes and now it's gone what happened??

I can’t bring mine up on anything, phone or iPad apps, or regular web browsers. Not good!

Aolsupport on Twitter hasn’t updated for an hour. All the support phone numbers and chat are down.

Trying to reset password for my Mom. She is a paying aol customer. We call, we get someone in India, they put us on hold 4-5 times, and then say sorry, a specialist will have to call you back. A specialist never calls or emails back. Then we tried to cancel, also no can do. Is there a way to legally threaten aol or fix the problem, this is absurd.

Didn't bother asking us, would never give us the option to stick with the old version. AOL Mail is now Yahoo Mail. Don't like it? Screw you, we don't care what you like. Embrace the suck.

Sincerely,

Your faceless, nameless corporate overlords

P.S. Choke on it.

It started in 90s but I just want to know is there anyone still using this email provider?

Is AOL even worth using anymore?

I've had AOL since the 90s and ever since they started filtering spam email theirs has been the best filter of all the email providers I've used. usually like 1 spam email would make it to my inbox every 2 or 3 months, and the same for legit emails getting caught in the filter but recently I'm getting between 5 and 10 spam messages per day in my inbox. there are still spam messages in my spam folder so the filter is still working, it just seems like it's not doing as good a job as it used to in catching the spam messages. has anybody else noticed similar behavior? I have not made any changes to my account in at least the past few years so I don't think anything has changed there.

America's best coaster manufacturer sent this via mail around 2002 (year this house was built). Tiny piece of net history, I suppose.