I seriously doubt calls to the helpline have really fallen, its more like everyone is calling to cancel they so they have to transition resources. Of course the india call centers is where all that is happening. So great job backstabbing your country aol, im sure saving the few nickles a quater is really helping you out.

"According to an AOL spokesperson, calls to its help lines have fallen by about 50 percent. The service says the drop in support requests has a lot to do with the increasing sophistication of its users"

Isn't this funny, as the article continues, I feeling the falling revenue is more the cause. AOL for years has been the so called loan shark of the business with high, less than competative pricing and extremely poor quality and support. It seems that AOL/Time Warner main function is to aquire good internet companies and run them into the ground (ie) Paltalk, ICQ, Winamp and Shoutcast. They need to clean up their own act before venturing into other markets. A good example, look at the new AIM Triton, this is about the most buggiest IM Client I have ever seen. The Aol browser attached with it cannot even recognize your zip code to give you local weather or the ability to change it and shut down of this IM is a 3 step process but only if you can find the icon in your system tray. I feel bad for the employees of AOL and I strongly feel that downsizing should start with Very Upper Management and not the poor people that are victims of their less than desirable business practices.

very nice comment friar tuck.

Times have changed. I'm an ex-employee of both an AOL and Outsource centers in a region division of Florida. I worked out of Maitland, FL Cancelations Dept.(AOL HUB) close to Orlando for over 3months but the drive was getting expensive so I returned home in Lakeland and outsource that was also starting Cancelations for AOL, no sooner than a month later we got news that Maitland was handed the pink slip. Because no warning was given, they all recieved a severance package. Than a month or so goes by my dept phasing out and we end of going to SUBP (Sign up by Phone) or to you known as Registrations. This lasted until March 31st, then it to phased out.. Nobody around the center knew what was happening just said we didn't do anything wrong it was a decesion from higher up. And now with yesturday's change of events, JAX is eliminated. There is only (1) center left in FL and that remains in Tampa, at least for now. I can assure you, if the higher powers that be don't leave this one alone, not only will there be a decline in revenue they will cut of it's last chance of survival. Before things went nuts, back in Dec 05 corp decided to launch the new aol.com for those that don't and do have an account to have FULL access to AOL for free. Yes, FREE. The only thing that a paid member gets for a fee is the Parental Controls, SuperBuddies, and SSC. Hmm, all AOL employees will tell you, we really freaked out when this came to light. This seems like a bad idea to open our service as a Portal don't do this. Too late, not only did it go free but we gave away our most prized position XM Radio and IN2TV. The only thing they wanted was for you the non-user to logon to the site of aol.com and just new account. By giving a small info, you were given full access to the service.

In the end I'm not bitter, but planning ahead. Pulling my resources to GMAIL, Gcalendar and using services like Yahoo Messenger. It's a matter of time, before AOL switches directions again. At present rate, I'm not sure what the future holds for the company. But like everyone has stated, they know what the company is capable of doing and how it reacts. SSC is on the right track, but i only use the free firewall but obtained and licensed the free AVAST security antivirus and use another 3rd party prog "Advanced Spyware Remover".

I'll be continously monitoring my sources, but in the meantime I have email to read and delete.

I think them laying off people is real bad, but what they did was in their best interest. The mail side of it can keep them going, but for the Dialup ISP side, they are losing the battle to cheaper and better customer support locally.(don't take offense to that statement) Local support is more enticing.

At last time I talked with one representative, I was suprised they were allowing non members to keep all their mail settings(in a way)buddy lists and so on.

I know that all AOL technicians are not bad, and I actually had a great experience in talking with the last person. Before, they never let me get a word in and I had a guy swearing at me becuase I was switching over a customer to broadband. Must have been a bad day for him or something.

Yeah thats what im talking about switch to google. It's too bad aol as a company is so clueless. They just don't know what innovation is. They tried to stick with their dying business model and well. Naturally that was a bad decision. Why Google bought so much stake in aol is beyond me. But it will still take another couple of years before aol looses the other 18 million paying customers but I am sure now that the portal is opened up on aol.com and as word gets out the cancellations will accelerate.

LOL.........Why don,t they fire the people in india first??????.

they cost less to pay.

You people make me sick on with these comments. The subject of this article is that people are getting laid off NOT HOW MUCH AOL SUCKS. These are regular americans who have lives, families, houses, cars, bills, food, children that they need to provide for and now they are unemployed. Have some remorse for these peopel cause now they are going have to financial problems and probably marriage problems becuase its going to be hard for them to find another job that pays well. Everyone complains about the call centers in india, reality check not just AOL is in india but everyone is outsourcing to india cause someone over there is will to do your job for alot less. Dell, Compaq, HP, Sony, Microsoft, Toshiba, and millions of other companies outsource. This is why jobs are decreasing here in the US and all everyone can do and winne like a little baby about it. How about we get off the AOL SUCKS wagon and do something about this and get your state senators involved in issues like this!!!

"How about we get off the AOL SUCKS wagon..."
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Agreed. That expression says absolutely nothing regardless of what it is written about.

"The service says the drop in support requests has a lot to do with the increasing sophistication of its users." rubbish, it's because they've outsourced to India (even their online "live" help) and I and many others can't even understand whoever answers the phone. In AOL UK's defence I never NEED sys support nowadays, a very stable (ADSL) ISP

The comment about the s***ication of users is correct. I can't even remember the last time I even had to call with a problem.

"Most of the affected employees are in the company's customer support facilities, and its Jacksonville, Fla., call center would be shut down completely."

Oh. I guess now they'll rely entirely upon their call centers in India.

And so the downfall begins! Oh yea!

Well, that's what happens when you make a product that sucks and then outsource your support to people in India.

The still have 18 million subscribers??? I DON'T BE BELIEVE THIS TO BE TRUE. Maybe, they meant they have 18 million AIM USERS ???

no that number is closer to 100 million, but aol used to have about 80 million subscribers

What are you talking about dude, the most paying users they ever had in their history was around 25-27 million at their peak. It has been dropping 800 thousand a quarter for the past 4 years. As for aim users who knows, I'm sure it is around that mark though.

they do have 18 million domestic users, confirmed by wall street, and the FTC. As far as AIM users, there are roughly 50 Million of them.

I hope AOL goes under eventually. Sorry to sound so inconsiderate for the workers that were laid off, but they should go work for Comcast--or even Qwest...

AOL suck-s.... million times.

Their service is totally horrid.

Pick other company but definitely no AOL.

By the way, I pulled AOL customers away from it when I meet them in person. And tell them how bad AOL is. 100% of time I got them switched to another company. :) I have been doing that since 12 years ago and I don't recall how many have been saved. haa

"By the way, I pulled AOL customers away from it when I meet them in person. And tell them how bad AOL is. 100% of time I got them switched to another company. :) I have been doing that since 12 years ago and I don't recall how many have been saved."
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Of course you have. LOL. And you sell freezers to Eskimos at the Arctic circle too, don't you? Try another line.

Predictably, the usual AOL haters pounced on this one. Most have either never tried AOL or tried it so many eons ago or heard from a friend of a friend, ad nauseum, that AOL was not good. So, flame away. Personally, I like AOL. If you haven't tried lately, don't knock it.

I'm not in the business of fixing computers anymore but still do so for a few. AOL always causes performance problems even on systems running Pentium 4, core Duo, etc. Several days ago I removed AOL "Security Edition" 9.0 from a friends computer, and their computer increased speed by about 30%. I told them to never use the actual AOL software--just use a regular web browser like built-in IE and go to AOL.com instead.

The AOL software is too bloated and slows down people's computers to a halt. Most users don't even realize how bloated and problem-creating AOL is, until they see the difference between a "clean" system and a tainted system with AOL.

You'll notice that most IT professionals hate AOL with a passion; there is a reason for this...

yep, i hate it, for exactly the reasons you posted. Right on.

ever seen the number of random useless registry entries it makes? it numbers in the 200's

"The AOL software is too bloated and slows down people's computers to a halt."
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I'm glad to hear that you aren't in the business of fixing computers anymore. Giving anyone advice to drop any service is very poor customer service. I'm glad I don't use individuals such as yourself. Routine maintenance on my computer keeps it runnng like a finely tuned car and I've been using AOL for years.
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You'll notice that most IT professionals hate AOL with a passion; there is a reason for this...
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Really? Which ones? What is the reason? Enlighten us, please.

I find the newer versions of aol, with all the fix it for you software a real pain in the arse. Not to mention how buggy, slow and worthless the client is. The only thing I ever really gave aol any credit for is the huge community and the chat rooms. Everything else they offer is junk, I never used any of it. The channels, everything is elsewhere for free, news same thing. Especially with all the free services google is rolling out. Why would you pay anything for it?

Yes aol software is way too bloated, on a older computer it will make it feel that much older. Now if you have someone who had the same computer since 1998 and had aol since that time, they upgrade to the latest version, now while the early versions ran ok, newer versions are worthless.

I used to use aol for my internet, even after I got broadband I kept it. Like I said the community buddies etc were nice. But I would never pay them again for it.

I've used AOL's BYOA plan forever and I don't think they suck at all. Music Videos, Online Radio (CD quality music), stuff you pay for generally along with subscriptions to ET, CNN etc. are included...I can't complain.
The problem is the dial-up pricing. They simply needed to jump onto the DSL bandwagon faster.
Earthlink/Mindspring etc. used to charge the same but Earthlink wised up. Verizon went ahead and provided MSN with their DSL - AOL should have partnered in this way.
And I do have to agree that if I was introducing someone to the net' for the first time, I'd probably stick them on AOL for a year or two, till they knew what was up - the net' isn't a 'safe' place, and AOL does help.

I can't speak to the software provided from AOL, or to the folks affected by this but I will say this: they are changing. Dramatically.
AOL is in the process of opening EVERYTHING up. Haven't seen the magazine ad with someone pulling back the curtain? Didn't notice the Weblogs Inc. acquisition? Or how about the MySpace competitor they're brewing? AOL brought the internet to the masses (and still fills a need there), and now they're going to bring things like blogging to the masses... We'll see what happens in a year or two. And yes, they charge more for dial-up because the numbers just don't work as well for them at a lower price point.

Wow... 1299 more employees than users? no wonder they're hitting hard times. ;)

Dead Weight. Time to clean house. A lot of these are not financially motivated, its management issues with people, especially in call centers, because they get stuck in a rut, and don't want to follow directions or get up to speed on new procedures.

LOL...looks like little People PC is kicking but hahaha..good riddance..AOL for idiots is the title of my latest novel...

I would guess it's broadband taking majority of the subscribers not other dial up services. When it comes to content and the aol community they are ok. Now that the price for basic dial up is 25.90 a month, why would you stick to them when Verizon dsl is only 17.99? Now that you have broadband, why would you pay aol 14.95 to use their crappy client software?

Good for AOL. Just another couple hundred thousand to go!

I feel remorse for the unemployed, but they'll be better off anyway.

When will AOL admit that they are destined to be just another online mail service? I don't see this as the only service that will sustain them for too long. They are going to have to change their way of business as more and more customers move to the broadband.

AOL got rich off of people back in the day, but they haven't changed with the times and they are old news. They have to offer something more to the customer in order for them to stay, and right now, AOL themselves are pushing their customer base away from them.

There is nothing wrong with AOL. For the new, unexperienced users, its a good place to start. They have monitored rooms, chat rooms with moderators, they have their own content, and its private and secure. You and I may not like it, but AOL does serve a purpose. There is nothing wrong with AOL.

They really didn't get rich quick, they became big because, like Google, AOL was the buzzword du jour, and everyone "had to have it". So you are contradicting yourself by saying they haven't changed with the times, they are probably the most aggressive and up to date of ALL ISP's, because of their full time staff of people that change their proprietary content.

They offer plenty to customers, when was the last time you had an AOL account? Sounds like you haven't used them since "back in the day" so you should give them a try before you ASSUME they haven't changed. They have plenty of people that use, and like them, just because everyone doesn't feel the way you do, doesn't mean there aren't loyal AOL customers.

Its easy, cheap, and you get everything you need. Its like the Walmart of the online world.

It's not cheap. They have the most expesive dial-up plan around. (Yes, you can use it over someone else's broadband, too, but AOL doesn't offer any of its own, and then you'd basically be paying extra for AOL when you probably get at least some things, like e-mail, from your other ISP.)

But I'll agree that it is easy and does have some good attributes. And it's proprietary content isn't bad ... although lately they've been moving more and more of it to the web anyway. In any case, I'm just saying price isn't one of the good things. :)

Its cheap when compared to a Full tank of gas.. :)

unless you only have a 10 gallon tank...

cause then that would equal about what they were still charging me months after i cancelled my account, which is about $35.

yeah they are hell to get away from, they keep trying to sign you up for s*** and dont cancel when you tell them to and keep billing you anyway and you end up having to call your credit card company to have them handle aol...

Wow, back up please. My feelings towards AOL are grounded in fact and that I have to spend time with customers each day fixing their computers due to AOL. You're right, they do serve a purpose. Like anything, there is some good if you look for it, and AOL is banking on the user being inexperienced. With regard to security, sorry they are not cutting edge or even moderately safe.

AOL got rich, because of timing. Through their marketing and being the most widely available ISP, is what made them rich. Not just because people thought they “had” to have it, for most, AOL was all they “could have.” Not to mention a little program called Instant Messenger.

rijp, one does not have to be a soldier to dislike war. You don't have to have cancer in order to know you don't want to have it. But, I do work with AOL and their customers several times a week. Not changing customers to new ISP's, but to solve problems with AOL software.

You see, we(techs) tend to forget that we can get anything to work correctly, because we know computers and how they operate. For the general public, they are clueless. Not their fault. These aspects of computers, ISPs, browsers, security, etc are being thrown on the consumers and there are many that just don't know what they mean, but will do so because they are told - no other reason. Why someone would pay more for less is beyond me. AOL, Netscape, PeoplePC, Earthlink .... the list goes on.(but this is another point altogether and I digress)

Until recently, AOL has bullied customers into staying with them rather than giving them alternatives. Though I have seen the new commercials of this suite you talk about, but I have to ask myself why would anyone pay for this when their are so many free alternatives? Well, the answer is, they just don't know. Which one to use? Another topic all together and another one that the consumer doesn’t know anything about unless told by some tech(which in case you haven’t read here, are pretty biased and opinionated)

In my opinion(that is really where it is)AOL's track record has not even proven worthy of trusting them with my personal information. Then when customers ask me for this opinion, I give it to them. Not in any fashion to sway them for or against their use of AOL(sometimes they don’t have one), but so they are better informed at making their own decision. Some people are perfectly happy with them and refuse to change - some want to, but cannot.

Again, empowering the consumer with the knowledge to make their own decision is what I am for, but I have seen too many instances of deceit(not just AOL) in order to get customers to switch ISP’s. All for branding rights on a Windows PC? In a money conscious society, why pay 17.00 – 23.00 for AOL dialup when you can get broadband for the same(mostly cheaper). Without consulting a tech, the AOL installer is not removable on new PC’s.

I say in a final comment, that if you like them continue to use them. Your knowledge allows for the program to run smoothly on your computer and those you support. The same is true for me. I have used AOL in the past and left them for the very reasons I speak of here. It would be hypocritical of me to push them onto someone else, but I will support them.

Don’t take this as an attack on you but only that you have not convinced me that AOL has changed or is secure. They think nothing about the OS on which they operate or how they do business. They force their content(software) upon you without your permission and only tell you to upgrade when you do have problems.(What is it with all those darn downloads?) They have too many processes running and accessing the Internet which leads to instability and resource issues.

Well with everything that kept aol users with them. Including locking down your email, screen name etc and now making that all available free of charge via the web at aol.com and instant messenger services apps, why wouldn't there be massive drop in subscribers? Especially if aol costs 26 dollars a month. They are also encouraging you to leave the dial up service and get broadband, now really why do you need to pay for the bloated, slow and buggy client when everything is free now and not to mention there are free much better alternatives.

they must of dropped price since i canceled them about 2 years ago.

i dont care what people say about you AOL, i never thought you sucked.