<p>Nice to know that my state AG did not bother to share the proceeds of that suit…after I was one of those who took the time to file a complaint! Gotta love how NYS sweeps everything into the General Fund! I finally got the darn thing cancelled by disputing the monthly charge with my credit card company…sure enough, I got credited for 3 months of service and never was billed again!</p>
<p>Seriously…I still use AOL for my email. There is no charge and there hasnt’ been for at least several years. I never call them…and I don’t get bills.</p>
<p>I had the full AOL, then downgraded to the $10/mos when they no longer maintained my DSL. The free McAfee was worth it. It covered an unlimited number of computers, I used the parenteral controls for a while, and I got tech support and antivirus support. I finally went to the free version when I started using the free antivirus software from my DSL provider.</p>
<p>SodiumFree, you have jogged my memory; I am now recalling how incredibly difficult it was to cancel that AOL account. I finally got it accomplished, after weeks of rude and pushy customer account people, necessitating my being rude and pushy right back and insisting on the cancellation as was my right. Then, when they solicited me to come back with free e-mail, I said sure fine, thinking it would be nice to be able to transition my old correspondence over to my new account. There was a catch, of course: I couldn’t have my old e-mail address back. Ever. It’s not like it was taken by anyone else, they just wouldn’t give it back to me, claiming the system would not allow it. And the new address I had to select was sucky, so it was yet another reason not to use AOL.</p>
<p>I’m so glad that I talked DH out of signing up for AOL. We went with an obscure local provider.</p>
<p>Sirius is another awful one to deal with - it took DH several calls and almost an hour waiting to finally cancel our subscription. And never, ever give your credit card number to Macafee, or they will be automatically renewing your antivirus on your no longer existing computer… :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Just a quick point about land lines, cell phones and numbers. You can now port your number. So if you want to drop your land line, you can port your landline number to your cell phone ( you will lose your cell phone number though). Just fyi.</p>
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<p>Not true. You can access your AOL account from any computer with an internet connection.</p>
<p>BTW, I canceled paying for AOL years and years ago, but I get spam (which, thanks to AOL’s decent spam filters, goes straight into my spam folder) telling me that there’s a billing problem and to please give someone all of my passwords, personal information, etc. </p>
<p>Is it just coincidence that spam rhymes with scam?</p>
<p>Perhaps worthy of its own thread but maybe someone can help me…we’ve had aol since the beginning and I can’t bear to go through the hassle of changing email addresses so I stick with aol. Actually, perhaps because I’m so used to it, but I find aol easy and reliable. Fortunately, I was able to switch to the free option without a hassle. I do have a gmail account that I never use but have always wondered if there’s a way for me to forward my mail that comes into my aol account to my gmail account. That way I could transition very slowly and much more easily. Anyone know?</p>
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<p>I pay for a landline for several reasons. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Because we have terrible cell reception where we live and it’s partly because hilly areas are always bad. Calls get dropped all the time.</p></li>
<li><p>Because I don’t want to carry my cell phone around the house with me. The landline has several extensions and I can hear the phone ringing from across the house.</p></li>
<li><p>A landline allows my husband and I to get on extensions, etc. and talk with our kids (or others) together.</p></li>
<li><p>A landline is far superior for 911 calls. In an emergency, 911 will know where we are as opposed to on a cell call and it takes much longer to get through to 911 on wireless calls. </p></li>
<li><p>I know the jury is still out and will be for a long time, but I have concerns about possible health risks associated with cell phones. Frankly, I cringe every time I see a new mother holding a newborn baby and using a cell phone at the same time, especially since baby’s skulls aren’t completely closed yet. </p></li>
<li><p>I like the fact that there is a household/family line. We are parents. There should be one line that makes us both accessible for schools, doctors, etc. It just seems weird to me for a family not to have a household phone for family business. </p></li>
<li><p>Our carrier does not provide for overseas calls.</p></li>
</ol>
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Try gmail’s Mail Fetcher. See [url=<a href=“http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Organizing-Messages-en/browse_thread/thread/cf33ec7089d4c22c?pli=1]here[/url”>http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Organizing-Messages-en/browse_thread/thread/cf33ec7089d4c22c?pli=1]here[/url</a>] and [url=<a href=“http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=21289]here[/url”>Check emails from other accounts - Computer - Gmail Help]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>SodiumFree, thank you so much for the links. Will check them out but, as a not-so-techie person, I’m slightly intimidated by what I saw at first glance. Maybe I’ll solicit one of my kids to help me out. Again, thank you.</p>
<p>I also don’t understand how people get by with just a cell phone when they have to carry it around to every room–maybe it’s mostly the younger set with small apartments that finds it practicable.</p>
<p>Other reasons to hang onto that landline–</p>
<p>The voice quality/clarity on cell phones doesn’t come close to that of landlines, especially if the call is cell phone to cell phone. The difference probably doesn’t mean much to a 20-year old, but as one gets older and hearing acuity starts to fade, it means more and more.</p>
<p>Power failures. My landline has never failed me, even when the power’s gone out for days. I’m very uncomfortable with the idea of being housebound during a storm with only a cellphone that I can’t re-charge. </p>
<p>The less than stellar reliability of the phones themselves–it seems everybody I know has had at least one experience of having to replace a lemon, and the more sophisticated the cell phone, the more likely it is to have problems.</p>
<p>I also use my landline to send faxes–I know I could work around this with a scanner and computer, but it’s just much easier to use a fax machine. And I remember how useless cell phones were in NYC on 9/11 because the volume of calls swamped the capabilities of the system, though perhaps the capacity has much improved since then.</p>
<p>^^ One doesn’t need to carry the cell phone from room to room any more than they have to carry a land line from room to room. </p>
<p>The only advantage I have with the landline is for long conference calls but even then I have so many ‘rollover minutes’ that I could do it on my cell phone as well. </p>
<p>I know some people still want land lines and some people might need land lines if their cell phones just can’t meet their needs but I think for a lot of people, maybe most people, a cell phone is adequate. Supplement it with things like Skype or other free internet video calls and the land line can quickly become a wasted expense - like mine. I’m still hanging onto it for now, mostly because of the conference calls, but if I ever moved I wouldn’t replace it and someday I’ll probably get rid of it anyway.</p>
<p>I’m, not worried about power failures since we have hardly any of them here (not many lightning storms) and even then I don’t really need ot call anyone and if I did, the cell phone would work.</p>
<p>I think many of the next generation, our kids, will forego land-lines for the more flexible and less expensive alternatives.</p>
<p>Next month we are switching to a new service Verizonwireless is offering that will add our landline as an additional line for $9.95 (it will still be a landline and keep the same landline phone number). We’ll be able to cancel our separate landline and long distance service. Found out about this over the holidays while we were upgrading all the family’s cellphones. Sounds like the best of both worlds, I just hope it isn’t too good to be true :)</p>
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I don’t understand that last part, which I bolded. The cell phone would work initially, but at some point the battery would need to be re-charged. At that point, in a power failure, the cell phone would not work, right?</p>
<p>You’re welcome, college1! But I encourage you to give it a try yourself. If it doesn’t work, you won’t have messed anything up; you just won’t have managed to accomplish the goal. In that case, call one of your kids in. But it is pretty straightforward, and I think you can do it!</p>
<p>Add me to the list of people in the next generation who don’t have a land line. I very very rarely talk on the phone however I do text people. I have the smallest minutes plan available at like 450 for non verizon and unlimited calls to verizon and of that I don’t know if I’ve ever used more then 30 minutes total in a month (most of which go to my mother). I do have unlimited data and unlimited texts to any network and all in all I think my plan is like 50 or 60 dollars and then I get 20 percent off through work. I miss the old 60 minute plans which were much cheaper back in the day.</p>
<p>If i have the ring turned on, I can hear my cell phone anywhere in my house… which is about 1600 sq foot. My one friend has this docking station where you plug your phone into it and it forwards your calls to a normal phone. He has three cordless phones in the house and if his cell phone rings, they all ring so he can answer it anywhere. I thought about getting one of those but since nobody ever calls me it seems like it would be a waste of money. I think he said it was about 80 dollars or so.</p>
<p>UCLA Dad, I don’t carry a landline from room to room. I have enough extensions that I can hear the phone ring all through the house. That is not true of my cell phone. One other downside of a cell phone is that sooner or later it can get lost or broken and you might be without a phone. Also, in emergency situations, a cell phone is less likely to work as the system gets overwhelmed. That can happen for landlines, but it’s more likely to happen with a cell phone. Whoa, Orchestramom, I am going to check that out. I’ve been saying for a while that the phone companies had better find a way to make having a landline a lot cheaper in order to keep business.</p>
<p>I’d ditch my landline and the costs in one second…but we do NOT get consistent or good cell service at our house. Too many hills, and we live in the vale.</p>
<p>aol is free for me too. Only dial up costs. That what I have to use when I visit my dad. Cant get wifi at his house.</p>