This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Fwd: TECHNICAL QUESTION

  Forgive me for being off-topic, but I thought this is revelent. I will give
them one more month and if results aren't satisfactory then it's to another
ISP. 
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From:	techprob@aol.net
To:	seichorn@aol.com
Date: 97-01-15 13:03:10 EST

Dear seichorn,

I am writing to you on behalf of America Online to answer your recent E-Mail
to our staff. 


This letter was written by Bob Pittman our President and CEO of AOL Networks
to our members to try and explain the problem.

I agree with your views!  We take our responsibilities very seriously to give
you the very best service possible--including the ease of phone connections
at ALL hours of the day.  And if we fall behind on ANY part of AOL's
leadership--content, navigation, community, connectivity, search, speed--then
we go into a crisis mode here.

We're in one now!  We're all working day and night to keep up with this
unprecedented demand.  And we are solving the problem.  We're spending $250
million through the spring alone to add additional capacity to meet this
demand.  WE WILL SOLVE THIS ISSUE...but, unfortunately, it does take some
time.  We must physically add new equipment that requires the time and
cooperation of other companies who supply us.  And they're all scrambling to
help us as well.

In spite of that, ADDING CAPACITY--NOW! is the subject of most of our
internal meeting, e-mails and conversations--little else matters right now.
How can we do even more sooner?  We do understand how it feels. I make it a
point to sign on using access numbers from different cities every night in
prime time so that I can personally see how the demand issue feels as a user.
 Although we have a great service, that doesn't matter if you have to work
harder to get online.

What's going on?  How did this happen?  Unlimited pricing HAS increased our
usage...but before you think we're morons for not being ready let me give you
some back-ground.  We DID understand that unlimited would increase our usage
among our members. And we built extra capacity in anticipation of the
December launch of our unlimited service.  

What surprised us was the HUGE increase in demand unrelated to the unlimited
pricing--the sudden increase in popularity of AOL.  You may have seen news
reports of the first decline ever in TV viewer ship--and the speculation that
it was moving to online usage.  Well, I can assure you it is going to online.
 In November, the month BEFORE we launched unlimited, AOL did 60 million
hours of usage--double to 30 million hours of usage we did in the summer!
 THis unexpected usage--compounded with the extra usage from the unlimited
pricing--is causing the problem of getting connected easily in prime time at
 night.

But I want to stress this is a solvable problem...and one that we will solve!
 And we know it's frustrating--it is for us as well because we take our
responsibility to you very seriously.

We also understand you're here at AOL because we have given you a product
that you use and love.  And if we don't fix this problem, you won't stay--and
we shouldn't expect you to.

I'd just like to say thanks for bearing with us and assure you that we do
understand the problem, we do have solutions, we are implementing them, and
we WILL FIX THIS PROBLEM.  Indeed, in some locations it is already better
than others and some weeks are better than others as we roll out our extra
capacity day by day, location by location trying to catch up and pass this
demand.  

As much as we all hate to hear bad news, please do keep giving us feed-back.
 It is essential for us to hear what you're going through.  And as it gets
better, please let us know that as well. It will help us find and focus on
the remaining hot spots.

My sincere apologies for the aggravation you've been going through...and
thanks for your concern and support.



Thank you for using America Online.   

Technical Support Staff

--------------------

Why did AOL not plan ahead for the obvious increase in membership
and usage so there would have been minimal inconvenience to the membership.
Taking over 2 hrs to sign on is ridculous.
I would like an explaination and not an excerpt from Steve Case's Jan letter.
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index