AO-Hell

How can anyone stay on AO-Hell? They suck, pure and simple. You can't carry on a conversation when you don't quote the original email. It's the dumbest damned thing I'v ever seen. What bean counter decided that the 1KB of email would add up to a bonus for some talking-head if they didn't quote it?

If you have 20 conversations per day on auction items and ask detailed questions, how are you supposed to know what question an AO-Heller is answering if they don't quote the original question?

Think of it like this - you call 10 auto parts stores for a price on 10 different widgets. They all tell you they'll call back with a price.

Now after a short wait all 10 call in succession. You pick up your phone, hear someone yell "$10," "$12," "$19," "$11," "$15," and so forth, then hang up.

How in the world are you supposed to know what they are talking about?

Same with AO-Hell - the people are oblivious as to how the rest of the world communicates. You couldn't carry on a business conversation under those circumstances and selling on eBay or JPA is business.

Now if you ask an AO-Heller to quote the original, the are clueless (which is why they are on AO-Hell to begin with). AO-Hell is twice the price and half the functionality of almost any other ISP, which is why they are bleeding subscribers at an alarming rate.

Call attention to the facts above and AO-Heller's get upset and act as if you can't communicate. They expect you to wade through the "sent" mail to see what question you asked (assuming you save sent mail), to remember the 20 questions you asked that day about various items, or to re-look up the item # so you can (maybe) jog your memory!

Same be said of CS, or Compuserve - one of the original ISPs when there weren't many choices. I know a lot of people stuck with CS because that's where they started, but really - are you still driving your original car? Did you keep your dial phone when push button ones became the norm?

Come on now folks - it's 2004 - no flying cars, but make an effort to keep pace with technology. AO-Hell and CS are bound to go the way of the T-Rex. Come on in to the brave new world!