sasoony
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posted on March 21, 2001 10:16:15 AM
AOL deleting email from Earthlink. So if you're not getting a response from AOL bidders its not always the AOLers fault.
AOL stated that they were trying to block spam (LOL).
That's funny because AOL makes a practice of suppressing everything that is not AOL related or AOL endorsed.
I wonder if AOLers realize how much of the internet is systematically blocked by AOL.
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Meya
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posted on March 21, 2001 10:35:30 AM
Here is one of the news stories about this:
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010320/16/missing-e-mail
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sasoony
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posted on March 21, 2001 12:03:01 PM
Meya; Thanks I was looking for the article.
The article is sketchy, but anyone familiar with AOL's tactics should find it humorous. Why would a spam filter block Earthlink email? Because the filter was blocking "earthlink", AOL's biggest competitor.
If you're an AOLer look at a web based news reader like google (formerly deja news). Pick a newsgroup and look at the messages. Then open the same newsgroup on AOL. Do you see all the missing posts? A large percentage of posts from non-AOL users never make it to AOL.
If you're an AOLer with version 5.0 or 6.0 try to subscribe to another ISP. Good luck, AOL has messed with your dial-up configuration which can make switching to a new ISP a bigger headache than sticking with AOL's shoddy service.
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fonze
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posted on March 21, 2001 12:54:46 PM
Hello,
I read that article yesterday by chance, until then I was begining to think I had a bunch of flakes when about 4 people wrote to me asking for my address and the total last week that I had already written. One person wrote 3 times, then I emailed her through ebay and she got the message. I guess earthlink isn't going to notify us. Thanks for posting the info.
Mel
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dman3
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posted on March 21, 2001 06:07:26 PM
I am an Earthlink user and I have been haveing a lot of trouble getting My EOAs to AOL users.
Funny thing is that since AOL merged with time warner Earthlink is not there competitior any longer since they will be provideing eathlink users cable modem access as part of the AOL time warner merger agreement 
http://dman.Dman-N-Company.com
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breinhold
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posted on March 21, 2001 07:38:43 PM
i am always amazed at the lack of interest in this very serious problem. every post i have seen drops off after about 4 replies. if you are with aol call them and complain or at least show concern. they will say you are the first to complain...but trust me they know whats going on and that you are not the first. if you are with aol or sell to aol members its just a matter of time untill someone gets a neg because of this problem.
since yesterday i have had no problems but the two weeks prior was a mess trying to contact bidders.
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sasoony
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posted on March 22, 2001 12:10:16 AM
Only a relative handful of AOL's 20+ million customers will call and complain about AOL's service. And even fewer have the sense to cancel their accounts and sign up with a real ISP. After years of shaking my head in disbelief at AOL's shoddy service and underhanded tactics, I've come to the conclusion that AOLers get exactly what they deserve.
*Also...the cable access concession was required by the FTC for the AOL/TimeWarner merger to prevent a monopoly. It supposedly guarantees that Earthlink and all other ISPs are AOL competitors. Judging by recent history, AOL's competitors will have to file lawsuits to get AOL to live up to this agreement.
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abacaxi
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posted on March 22, 2001 03:25:47 AM
Before you blast AOL, Earthlink has known for MONTHS that they have a problem with spammers on parts of their system and have known the technological way to fix it ... but they didn't.
So when AOL slammed the door shut on the spammers it caught a few honest folks whose ISP is doing less than they should to protect the rest of the net against their user base. My ISP has just been taken over by Earthlink, and I am jumping ship after almost six years.
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RebelGuns
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posted on March 22, 2001 07:45:11 AM
Doesn't Earth Link have a lawsuit against AOL? One or more of the providers do over AOL's tampering with the inner workings of user's computers. I recall awhile back everytime I went to use Earth Link or a freebie access a little note would pop-up asking me if I wanted to connect to AOL.
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RebelGuns
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posted on March 22, 2001 07:46:02 AM
In other words...AOL is spamming you from your own hard-drive!!!
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rubylane
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posted on March 22, 2001 08:18:58 AM
"So when AOL slammed the door shut on the spammers it caught a few honest folks whose ISP is doing less than they should to protect the rest of the net against their user base."
ISP's will rue the day they ever got involved in attempting to prevent unsolicited email, just like Yahoo filtering their content, because they are now being held responsible for the actions of others.
When harassing phone calls are made, customers do not say "my phone company is not doing everything they can to prevent phone calls I don't want."
Giving customers the option to block phone calls and email is great. Making ISP's responsible for eliminating mail you don't want (whatever that means) is nuts. ISP's are trying to automate what is a member-by-member choice, and obviously doing a very poor job of it. The harder they try to automate this, the worse it will get.
The crux of the problem, to me, is that there is no enforced identity mechanism on the Internet. People want their privacy and anonymity, but at the same time want others to be identified and dealt with correctly, i.e., anyone sending email you don't like.
Providing customers with tools - good. Trying to ensure customers do not get email "they don't want" - bad.
Jim
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paintpower
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posted on March 22, 2001 12:21:46 PM
Actually this is sort of funny, because I just cancelled my AOL account about a month ago because of all the spam that I was getting. I only used it for access to one of the horse related message boards that I enjoyed visiting. My regular ISP is Earthlink and I get very little spam in my mailboxes because of Spaminator. It probably filers out 100 spam emails a week that never make it to my computer. I check through them for any that might have gone there that didn't belong (have only ever found 1 that should not have been there) and then delete them all away.
Also, when I upgraded my AOL account to 5.0 and tried to use the Bring Your Own Access it would crash my whole system and Earthlink access would not work.
In fact I just got a letter today from AOL begging me to come back. Fat chance!!
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sasoony
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posted on March 22, 2001 01:03:59 PM
"Before you blast AOL....My ISP has just been taken over by Earthlink, and I am jumping ship after almost six years."
LOL....I don't need to blast AOL. I told them where to stick their useless service long before the string of lawsuits.
This issue has nothing to do with spam. AOL is using the same tactics they've always used.
Try using AOL for a few weeks. You'll wish you stuck with Earthlink.
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breinhold
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posted on March 22, 2001 06:38:43 PM
i might as well throw this in. i was downloading software for web design and it installed the new netscape (aol)and took everything over. (i use internet explorer) it changed all my icons and nothing worked. i couldnt get my ebay page to work aw or anything else. i called my isp and they helped me uninstall it. it was like a cancer. typical aol tactic. aol makes microsoft look like boyscouts.
earthlink is way behind them in members but earthlink is the closest behind them in the race and they have targeted them.
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paintpower
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posted on March 23, 2001 03:16:41 AM
Maybe we should put in our auctions that all AOL high bidders will need to contact us Earthlinkers cause we can't contact you!
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mishnocker
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posted on March 23, 2001 04:17:31 AM
WOW! And I thought I just had a batch of jerky bidders. After having had AOL for three years I got sick of their tricks too. Ever try to get an AOl Customer Service Rep on the phone? They have an auto system that sends you in circles till you're so PO'd you give up and keep the lousy service. I was finally lucky to perservere and get through and told them to shove it and they (LOL) asked me why I would leave after so long! Just about everything you download now has the " free trial" for AOL. It's in the stores, the mail, kinda like a plague. Earthlink was a basic ISP with no frills, just a way to get to the web and geez when I called their customer service I could talk to a real person. That was big! AOL has a lot of bells and whistles but I think it's a cover for an otherwise lousy service and most new users to the web just don't know any better. As they say "Ignorance is bliss".
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abacaxi
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posted on March 23, 2001 05:37:56 AM
Jim -
When an ISP has been NOTIFIED by numerous other ISPs that some of their customers are spammers, AND that ISP does nothing about it for several months, blocking email is one way to get their attention.
Not all Earthlink emails got blocked, only those from certain sectors of Earthlink that were being abused by spammers. It was a "surgical strike", not a total blockade.
A more common problem with AOL is that the members often set their spam filters to maximum, without considering that they may be blocking emails from eBay sellers.
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jujudee
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posted on March 23, 2001 06:18:16 AM
FYI: I use a different auction mgmt service (not AW) and AOL there is INTERMITTENTLY turning on a spam filter that blocks WBNs from going out. It blocks them because they come from one email, (the auction service's email), but it says it comes from the user's email (my email). I was outraged to hear that AOL was not delivering legitimate mail. If it's happening at one service, it could be happening at others.
They are only turning the filter on during PEAK hours, which makes it seem that they are not really concerned about spam as much as they are trying to control traffic.
In the meantime, some sellers are getting complaints from not contacting the winners, when in fact it is AOL not delivering! Compuserve is doing it also.
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RebelGuns
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posted on March 23, 2001 06:40:38 AM
Also be aware that we have had e-mail going to and from our account to AOL users vanish. Things seem to be working fine between all other hosts. However, some, sporadic AOL mail being sent to our Yahoo account, and visa-versa have just not been getting delivered. Not just customers, but family! So I know it's not a buyer excuse.
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sasoony
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posted on March 23, 2001 02:03:56 PM
RebelGuns writes: "Doesn't Earth Link have a lawsuit against AOL?"
Earthlink and many others. The lawsuits are endless. I was using 3.0 when I tried to discontinue my AOL service, so this was not a problem for me. My only difficulty was getting AOL to terminate my service and quit charging my credit card. Their customer service rep hung up on me when I told them to close my account. So I started posting my complaints and warnings on AOL's chats and message boards. The next day they closed my account.
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sasoony
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posted on March 23, 2001 02:11:34 PM
http://ispworld.com/bw/jul/Welcome_AOL_Hell.htm
http://www.BusinessToday.com/techpages/buy03142000.htm
http://www.bostonherald.com/bostonherald/lonw/aol03152000.htm
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/buy06122000.htm
But the Herald uncovered an even more damning accusation. "Customers
calling to cancel memberships with AOL are frequently met with
telephone representatives who use deceptive tactics or blatantly lie
to keep them from leaving the Internet giant, a former employee
alleged." Reporter Robin Washington cited scripts provided by his
source, as well as a California class action attorney who argues that
AOL knowingly allows the misrepresentations. When read the script, a
spokesperson for the Iowa Attorney General called one line "an
outright lie."
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/buy07032000.htm
The Herald's story prompted angry users to come forward with their own details on
dishonest AOL answers. "I greatly appreciated your article," one
reader wrote on the paper's message board, "having been told several
days ago by an AOL representative when I tried to cancel my account
that AOL would refuse to cancel the account unless I agreed to submit
to a 5-10 minute, highly detailed exit interview. When I refused, for
both privacy and time constraint reasons, the representative refused
to cancel my account and I was forced to hang up with my account
active."
http://www.bostonherald.com/guestbook/rwashington/guestbook.html
A controller at a South Carolina university, already upset AOL
wouldn't let him cancel online, says he experienced both problems.
"Upon contacting AOL by phone, and giving termination instructions,
they blatantly try to manipulate you into staying with AOL" -- and
after clearly instructing them to close his account, "AOL continued to
bill me and did not terminate my service." Dozens of former
subscribers have contacted AOL watch complaining they'd been billed
after cancelling their accounts, and the billing problems may be much
larger. One credit card company calculates hundreds of thousands of
credit card transactions may have been processed without
authorization. According to Reuters, a lawsuit filed Monday charged
AOL with breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, and even a
pattern of "racketeering activity...for the purpose of obtaining
unauthorized monthly fee payments."
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sasoony
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posted on March 23, 2001 04:44:14 PM
A C|Net columnist noted
that in April, AOL blocked some web sites with their family filters,
but not others.
"Children could view web pages for the Republican
party's site, but not the Democrats', and they could pull up the web
sites of conservative third-party candidates, but not Ralph Nader's
green party.
Sites promoting gun ownership were also available, but
not gun safety sites. The online world is headed to a future where
AOL picks and chooses what users see.
While AOL can argue
they mis-configured their filters, the incident reminds users AOL can
block any sites they choose."
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thedewey
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posted on March 23, 2001 04:57:07 PM
I've had to add a note to my auctions that if they're with AOL or Compuserve and don't receive their total from me within 24 hours of the auction's end, to please e-mail me.
Plus I've been sending a duplicate copy of my EOA to my HotMail account, and then forwarding it on to AOL bidders from there.
Boy, it's frustrating!
Before I was aware of what was going on, I had an AOL bidder e-mail for a copy of her total, which I re-sent immediately. A few days later I got a lovely message titled "unhappy bidder - 2nd request", again asking for her total and that she was upset that I hadn't responded (even though I had e-mailed her TWICE by that point). She wasn't getting my mail. I sent her copies of all my messages through my HotMail account so she could see I *had* answered her. That calmed her back down, but if she'd been trigger-happy with feedback, I very easily could've gotten a negative ... and I wasn't even aware there was a problem. 
...sigh...
I sure hope it's fixed soon. Sometimes the messages go through, and sometimes they don't. If I had a quarter for every total I've re-sent over the last couple of weeks, my piggy bank would be full!
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celebrity8x10s
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posted on March 23, 2001 05:15:10 PM
Just had another aol'er ask me for an invoice that I sent out thru goto a few days ago. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we all start getting negs from AOL bidders looking for info. What really makes it worse is that AOL customers make up about 30% of my bidders.
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sasoony
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posted on March 24, 2001 01:15:39 PM
30% sounds about right. And about 66% (2 out of 3) of my non-payers are AOLers. I wish I could block all AOLers from my auctions. My competition is welcome to them.
AOLers STAY AWAY. I DON'T WANT TO BUY FROM YOU. I DON'T WANT TO SELL TO YOU.
I DON'T WANT TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH AOL OR THEIR USERS.
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breinhold
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posted on March 24, 2001 08:08:34 PM
the main problem is most aol members dont know they have a problem. every one on aol that i have contacted starts off saying "i am getting my mail" . how would they know if they are not getting mail until someone tells them. please keep this thread going. just think if ups ripped off your mail from the post office. its the same thing.
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breinhold
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posted on March 24, 2001 08:23:53 PM
"you've got mail!" ahhhhhh no ya dont.
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jujudee
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posted on March 25, 2001 06:01:42 AM
My emails being sent from my auction management service are still intermittenly being blocked. It's an invasion of the AOL users privacy and an infringement on my rights. How can they do that? Breinhold is right, what is the post office just decided to throw out your junk mail for you, and also started throwing out money orders because they "looked" like junk mail. Something has to be done, what can we do? I posted in another thread about this also, but I also want these threads continued. People need to be made aware that this is happening.
It doesn't sound like it's happening to all auction management services. Anyone with AW having a problem with their WBNs?
My AOL buyerss don't seem all that upset about this, why?
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