AOL webmail overpriced even when free

I can only imagine how hard it’s been for Susan Mernit to hold back all manner of snarky remarks after the announcement from AOL that they were planning to offer free email accounts to “compete” with Yahoo, MSN and Google.

While Susan’s never said such things (to me), friends of mine who have worked at AOL have been very vocal about the company’s craptacular email service, and the rather clueless manner with which it’s been managed (as a product line) for the last, oh, 10 years.

Personally, after finally flushing my AOL email account a month or so back (after being an AOL ISP and then email only customer [in conjunction with other email accounts] for 12 years or so), I can tell you that the only way I’d use AOL as my primary email service is if I were forced to as a condition of employment with the company (which seems unlikely given posts like these).

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6 comments on “AOL webmail overpriced even when free
  1. Anonymous says:

    I think it’s a great product. I started using my aol email again after dropping it a few years ago because I just don’t get any spam on AOL and I get it everywhere else. my gmail account is a mess… I could spend two hours a day setting up manual filters to get rid of the shit that comes through that door. the aol account – I am using the new email account they put on the aim names is clean for now. hope it stays that way

  2. Anonymous says:

    I use AOL e-mail as my business address and would I evwer like to chane. I travel quite a bit and whenever I’m in China working with AOL is probably the most frustrating experience I have. Either you can’t get onto AOL or if you can you can’t get your mail. I’ve been unable to do any e-mail for 2 consecutive days and I don’t know if I’ll ever get to it. Time to change!!!!!!!!!

  3. Pankaj says:

    AOL webmail is very nice service. It can compete to anybody around like gmail, yahoo or sh** like hotmail. It has loads of features. I have mentioned in my blog. Oh yes, I also have insider knowledge about AOL and they are good.

  4. Chuck says:

    I’ve been using AOL Email practically since AOL started. It’s worked great, and I have no complaints. I also have Gmail, Yahoo, SBCglobal.net, Hotmail, etc., addresses, and I’m appalled at the amount of Spam I get thru those addresses.

    Chuck

  5. Anonymous says:

    2007 — as an original AOL member, and still “paying” member — I am aghast at how bad the new WEBMAIL suite is — even though copied from others. It is so slow it is worthless, and they insult you with emoticons such as 😛 while waiting forever for your mail to load.

  6. James says:

    1. Will not send PDF files reliably.
    2. No “reply to all” feature.
    3. Does not support custom link tags.
    4. Goes dark for “upgrades” &/or maintenance rather regularly.

    I’m so fed up after just 4 months that I’m looking to switch.