AOL escape route needed please

It's a simple and oft-repeated story. A newish BT underground cable; a new cable into the house; a dedicated line to the PC; a good PC; a good router; decent stats @ 7616/ 448; a fairly experienced user. A perfect set up - then add AOL.

Result? A sparkling 6.0mb+ download speed at 0730 and a dire 600kb on a good day at 1930 - which means game over until midnight at least.

Useless, but surely this must be in violation of something? AOL don't fix it presumably because AOL can't fix it. I've got 12 months left on the contract with this lot and they're driving me crazy.

How to get out?

No easy way I'm afraid. Cut your losses and buy your contract out or hope for a material change to the Ts&Cs. I assume you are way past any initial period?

Yep - been with them for must be 12 years now and, in fairness, AOL used to be a decent enough provider.

What really bugs me is that AOL refuse to acknowledge or admit that any problem exists. Their answer is always that the customer is wrong, the equipment is wrong, the readings are wrong, it's a temporary glitch that we're working on etc etc.

Surely by now every AOL consumer realises that whatever package you pay for you will only get minimal peak time speeds - and "peak time" seems to be extending from a couple of mid-evening hours to mid-afternoon up till midnight. (Does this happen with other ISPs?)

No effective regulation seems to be one of the problems.

I too was with AOL for over 9 years ,and like you say they were decent enough .The difference is i am at the end of the line with a 63.5db attenuation so all i ever got was a fixed 576kbps.The final straw came when my download speed dropped to 100kbps most evenings .So i bit the bullet and moved to Newnet( on the recommendation of the guys on this forum ,RobertoS and MrSaffron) on 8MB max .Still on my 63.5db line, i have 1600kbps sync speed and a consistent 1.25 mb profile.Worlds away from AOL.
Bite the bullet and move ,as far as i can see with AOL it wont get any better.

. It's good to know help is appreciated.

Mind you, Newnet may not be the right place for bratters. We would need more details about the type of usage and line stats.

Line stats are BT line, 800mtr from exchange, IP profile 6500, attenuation 10/16.5, SN margin 23/20.5, HEC errors nil , sync 7616/448 steady. Download speed in quiet periods of 6000-6100.

Useage is light with very little downloading, mostly browsing etc. and forums.

Then Newnet Home Lite or Home M is a good place to be, unless you can get O2 LLU - ask samknows. With that usage you wouldn't need the 16Mbps or 20Mbps product though it looks as though your line could easily max out both, so which of the 3 packages you choose depends entirely on what you want to pay for.

A few months at �12.50 or less on O2 or �12.95 on Newnet could soon start to recover any contract buy-out cost at AOL. If you can get O2 then signing up through somewhere like Quidco might get you �25 cashback.

Have you any idea of your monthly usage? Though only relevant to Newnet as O2 is unlimited. Try tbbMeter - download from the Main Site home page.

possibly worth considering Sky, also, if enabled at your exchange. Can be extremely inexpensive, over a year or 2 it could pay for the AOL buyout?!

This is the only business I can think of where you pay in the hope of getting something -and which in the end you just don't get.

Imagine paying �20 for a rail journey described as "london maybe as far as Manchester" then getting slung off at Watford. Or seeing a sign on Tesco's forecourt offering "up to 20 litres for �20" and ending up with a pint? Couldn't happen, could it?

But it's happening here and now in the world of broadband ISPS and someone somewhere needs to get it sorted out.

Thanks for your advice.

too true, someone ought to get onto someone to sort out those darned laws of physics, and right now!

Right then, I'll fetch Galileo...

Imagine getting on a train that says London to Manchester and it might arrive in 3 hours - or possibly 4, maybe 5 - just depends really. But then we might have to cancel it all together because of leaves on the line.

Wow - trains are so much better than ADSL.

Perhaps you haven't travelled much by train. Trains have a schedule. If they are delayed or cancelled you can claim compensation. See http://www.traindelays.co.uk/Faqs.aspx

OK OK guys I know there are also problems for the ISPs so let's compromise:

AOL contracts to supply speeds up to 8mb and I contract to pay them sums up to �20per month.

That sounds about right to me.

Actually the sign-up through Quidco was what the "might" was referring to. You have to be careful to make sure you don't have O2 site cookies on your machine for example, not sure about your landline phone number being used for asking O2 sales for pre-sales info.

Look for a recent post by MKD in the O2 or Be forums on this site and follow the link in his sig to his excellent document.

Lots of info and advice there.

Doesn't statutory law state that the service has to be up to reasonable standards, and if you can compare that the speed is pathetically slow versus most of the market (this site is very useful for that you'll find!) then you may have a good case. If people don't do this kind of thing and take a stand, then companies such as AOL will never be forced to improve...
Do you think it would be cheaper for them to respond to a small claims court action by you, or to just allow you to cancel your contract?
I'd get some legal advice (collect hard evidence of the poor service first), then try it on. AOL deserve everything negative they get, as far as I'm concerned.