AOL Australia – The Final Chapter

At the end of March we received a letter from iPrimus informing us that their internet partner AOL was pulling out of the Australian market and that if we did not find sign up to another internet service provider by May 30^th we would be without internet connection. iPrimus told us that if we chose them we would be able to keep our current AOL email addresses, which is an idea that really appealed to me as I don’t fancy having to tell everyone I know a new email address. It also helps that our phone is with iPrimus too.

 On Monday we contacted iPrimus and arranged our new service with them. We have been assured that by the end of the week our new ADSL modem would be sent out and that within another three to five days our new service would be up and running. I figured that this was OK as we would still have our dodgy AOL service until the 30^th so we could still send and receive emails and surf the net while the news service was being set up.

 Then on Wednesday AOL disconnected our service. Yep, that’s right; ten days before they were meant to they decided to disconnect us. Worse still, the email addresses that iPrimus assured us we would still have no longer existed. I tried in vain to log into my email address from work but it kept telling me that it had been disconnected. In front of me right now I have the letter from iPrimus that says “You will be able to continue to send and receive emails with your @aol.com email address…” but in reality this is just another lie from a company that will do and say anything just to keep our business.

 All of this means that we are now without internet for another six to eight days and that I now have to inform everyone of my new iPrimus email address. I guess I will also have to set up a new email address for Priscilla and she will have to inform all of her family and friends of the changes too, although she does have another yahoo email address that she can use. I am glad that AOL has gone, as their service has become progressively worse since 2008. In the last six weeks the service from AOL has been barely usable. I hope that iPrimus offers us a better service although it could barely be worse!