I have been with AOL for several years and when it works, it is very good. But when things do go wrong, be afraid. Be very afraid.

I came home from work and was looking forward to use Skype to chat to my girlfriend, but I got no connection. The internet light on the router was out. Tried rebooting the router, swapping filters/cables etc but to no avail. Phoned up their customer service (if you can call it that) and got fobbed off with numerous excuses, plus it takes forever (as long as 15 minutes on hold) to get through.

Eventually I got through to somebody with poor English as their call centres seem to be based in India. After waiting another 15 minutes for their 'line test' (whatever that is) they instructed me to take apart the phone socket! I refused to do so but luckily the service came back at that point so I hung up and managed to use Skype for the time being.

Lo and behold, it went off again. Went through the torturous process of calling them. This time they said it was router being defective but in fairness they sent me a new router for being a 'loyal customer'. New router arrived. Set it up. STILL no service. You can imagine my frustration at this point. Phoned up OFCOM and threatened AOL with court action.

The next day I got a text from AOL this time blaming BT for faulty exchange equipment and the day after that I got a text from BT saying the fault has been rectified, so probably in fairness to AOL it wasn't really their fault. But this doesn't excuse the amount of stress I have suffered from AOL's shoddy customer service.