I HATE AOL

[Florida_Geek]

Grrrrr <rant on>

I just email a couple friends about some clothes I brought for a cruise cheap at Haband. (two blazers and seven pairs of pants all for $220 including shipping) and email my friends.

I get this mail back from AOL, we do not like Haband and will not deliver your mail...

The fuckers are reading my email and deciding if they want to deliver it.

< /rant off>

[yorgatron]

1. AOL sucks,why are you still with them?

and who is haband anyway?

[Florida_Geek]

10. I am not with AOL but three of the five people on my email

are.

http://www.haband.com/jump.jsp?itemID=0&itemType=HOME_PAGE (cheap clothes)

[maveric]

2. You gotta be shittin me! Is that legal??

Isnt e-mail secure?

[Lena]

50. You gotta be shittin me!

Those were EXACTLY my first thoughts - LOL!

[Orangepeel]

3. what? no way!

will you please post the text of the mail they sent you? I just have to see this for myself.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

9. yeah...and the headers too

this sounds fishy...

theProdigal

[Florida_Geek]

14. they point to a link at their site with this

554 HVU:B1
http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvub1.html
EXPLANATION:

There is at least one URL in your email that is generating substantial complaints from AOL members.

SOLUTION:

If you own all the domains linked to in your e-mail, please contact us to discuss more effective management of your complaint levels. You can start by setting up a free complaint loop through this form. This will allow you to receive AOL member complaints against your domain.

If you do not own the domain, please have the owner of that domain contact us.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

20. so...it isn't that they don't LIKE Haband

it is that they have had trouble with content from this domain in the past. Many companies use email filters to look for this sort of stuff as a protection for their members. This is likely a part of AOL's latest campaign to block spam.

theProdigal

[sabra]

4. UNREAL!!! n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

5. Dump AOL for crying out loud!

I would go without internet before I would ever go back to them. They are despicable.

[frogfromthenorth2]

6. Sure, they have hundreds of people reading emails... yeah... right

[Orangepeel]

11. possibly, it got caught in some sort of spam filter...

but I really want to read what they sent him

[frogfromthenorth2]

18. Spam filters don't send emails back. They destroy the email.

[Orangepeel]

21. but they do generate automatic messages

which seems to be what happened to him (see post 14). It looks like he sent a link that AOL had flagged as a spammer to a bunch of people and they stopped it.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

24. DING DING DING

we have an answer...and not so nefarious as so many people think...AOL may suck, but they sure aren't reading your email...

theProdigal

[Florida_Geek]

31. Oh so if the Free Republic complains about DU

to AOL, and they read one of your emails that has http://www.democraticunderground.com in it you would say that is OK. Sorry I hate Spam but ...

[Orangepeel]

32. For that to happen, DU would have to send out spam emails to freepers

who would then alert on the email as spam. one can't just complain about a site at random.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

35. no...but if sufficient numbers of AOLers complain

about SPAM from DU then, it likely would have adverse affects...I know you don't understand spam filters, but they can be set to block stuff of any and all sorts. Haband must have been spamming some of the AOLers and they reported it...and AOL cut it off...like or not...

theProdigal

If you don't believe me, email support at AOL or call and see what you get...

[Florida_Geek]

38. So AOL cutting off DU because of complaints is OK

in the war against Spam.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

40. if enough of their PAYING members complain

then yes...they can block access to their email servers as they see fit...

theProdigal

[elsur]

37. Good analogy and another excellent reason ...

... not to use AOL. If you're an adult on the internet you should be able to assume the risks of wading through haband.com emails and conduct yourself appropriately.

AOL was originally marketed as making the internet easier and more accessible and I'm not so sure that the "weakest-link" design theory is such a good idea all the time.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

39. not a good analogy

has nothing to do with the reality of the situation...

[elsur]

42. I think it does ...

... the reality of the situation is that he couldn't send an email from his persoanl account to some of his friends because he mentioned a url in the body of the email that some AOL users apparently don't like.

It's not like the frickin email came from haband.com. His friends didn't get the chance to make the determination whether it was spam or not as AOL did that for him.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

43. no...he mentioned FR getting DU emails blocked

not even close to what happened here. I cannot help it if Haband has spammed enough people on AOL that AOL feels the need to block messages that could potentially be from Haband. You know, AOL did not have to send any information as to why this was denied...they could have just left the sender wondering why their email did not reach the intended recipients...

theProdigal

[Florida_Geek]

22. This is the message from Verizon to me

This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason:

Your message was not delivered because the destination computer refused
to accept it (the error message is reproduced below). This type of error
is usually due to a mis-configured account or mail delivery system on the
destination computer; however, it could be caused by your message since
some mail systems refuse messages with invalid header information, or if
they are too large.

Your message was rejected by mailin-01.mx.aol.com for the following reason:

: (HVU:B1) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvub1.html
TRANSACTION FAILED

The following recipients did not receive this message:

[rman]

30. tsk. they have computers for that

filtering on keywords and all that - it's trivial to do really.

[elsur]

7. I'm calling bullshit ....

... no way somebody in AOL has time to read messages.

Perhaps one of your friends created an email address and is just screwing with you?

[BlueEyedSon]

13. I guess it never occurred to you they have programs reading the email

[elsur]

23. Yeah it occurred to me ....

... it also occurred to that AOL is a public company and even if they were reading email there's no way in hell they give a rat's ass about Haband or would ever risk letting somebody know that they had read the email.

The only reasonable explanations are:

1. Somebody is playing a joke on them.
2. There is a rogue, soon to be "ex-employee" screwing around at AOL.

[BlueEyedSon]

26. did this email just get marked as spam....?

[liberalhistorian]

17. They might put them through

a filter, though, that automatically spits out messages based on the presence of certain keywords. A lot of companies are doing something similar, and it wouldn't require much employee time at all.

[Lena]

49. You must be right

It's gotta be a filter. No way in hell is anyone reading AOL mail! The only folks I know who use AOL is either really a dumbass, or else an older person who just got an internet hookup and doesn't know any better. Still, I bet AOL has a huge population, with way too much email to read. It must be a filtering thing.

[mattclearing]

8. Are you serious?

I hate AOL as much as anyone, but that is outright ridiculous.

I find that extremely hard to believe. That kind of thing should be fought. You should be complaining to AOL.

[liberalhistorian]

12. I would cancel my

account NOW, as of THIS INSTANCE! I took a lot of shit from AOL before finally managing to cancel my account AND get them to actually understand that I was, in fact, cancelling my account and no amount of freebies, threats, begging, stalling, or rudeness would change my mind.

But this is the first I've ever heard of them doing something like this, although I must say I'm not surprised in the least as far as they're concerned. What the fuck right do they have to do that? Especially when you're paying them, and not the other way around. Be sure to emphasize that when you cancel your account, YOU are paying THEM, AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! And paying ridiculous rates, too, frankly, especially for what you get. I don't know who the fuck they think they are, but that's total absurd ludicrous bullshit, and I wouldn't put up with it. And be sure to emphasize why you're cancelling, that's important.

There are many, many other ISP's much better and cheaper than AOL. They know that, too, which is why they're so desperate to keep customers. You'd think that that would be reason enough for them not to further antagonize the few customers they have left by pulling this shit.

[Florida_Geek]

15. I am not with AOL but Verizon

:)

[jjmalonejr]

16. Smells fishy

I'm not sure I buy this. I hate AOL as much as the next guy, but I sincerely doubt that they are reading your e-mail to prevent you from making shopping recommendations to your friends.

What exactly did your message say, and what exactly did their response say?

[Florida_Geek]

19. It has a html link to the company

so I had to resend the email with the link like www . haband . com that worked :duh:

[elsur]

28. That message simply means that Haband has been ...

.... flagged by some AOL users as generating unsolicited emails or spam.

[mattclearing]

29. Ahhh...hadn't thought of this. Good call.

eom

[Florida_Geek]

34. is it if the Free Republic complains to AOL about DU

then it is OK for AOL to mark as SPAM any text in a message that has DU's web addy.

[mattclearing]

36. I dunno, but a pre-emptive strike might be in order.

We could get them flagged through several major email providers. Like sign up for their newsletters and then hit the "This is spam" button in Yahoo mail.

[WillowTree]

45. Nothing sinister here

They would have to have received many spam reports from paying AOL users complaining about a given domain for them to block it. I seriously doubt that either DU or FR have anything to worry about.

[Historic NY]

25. I agree, I recently had one of my screen names hijacked.....it was

then used to send out mass spam mailings....AOL froze the account until I changed the password. Funny thing was none of the e-mails were sent to anyone in my address book. There new spam filters are capturing lots of suspicious e-mails, so perhaps this mailing might have been one of those.

[Verve]

27. Is that legal? Aren't they contracted to supply a service for you?

If so they're in breach of that contract. I'm no attorney but if I were you I'd
1) email AOL and tell them that they are in breach of their contract to provide a service to you. Tell them they have 24 hours to re-email your email and that you will be in contact with your state attorney general and the Better Business Bureau about this matter.

2) Look online for your state Attorney General and the BBB. File complaints online with BOTH of them. It's really quite easy online. Make sure to do both. The BBB will be your advocate as they try to resolve the matter for you with AOL. While, your Attorney General likely looks at all complaints about AOL and will take action if there is enough complaints warranted.

I've had great luck with both the BBB and State Attorney General's office on various issues with numerous companies. One internet company that scammed me was finally taken to court a year after I filed my complaint. They were not members of BBB so they couldn't help me. However, the CA atty general called me out of the blue to ask me where to send my check.

Good Luck! It's worth the time to fight companies who think they can walk all over their customers!

[frogfromthenorth2]

44. lol

[Verve]

47. Hey don't laugh! It works! Companies don't mess with Verve.

I become a BIG headache. You should try it. I've always got what I wanted! (knock on wood.)

on edit: I wrote my initial post when I thought the poster was an AOL member. Obviously, this thread has evolved and he's not an AOL member. Therefore, I don't think I'd follow my own tactic on this particular issue.:)

[ktowntennesseedem]

33. I have AOL for a couple of my internets, but not the rest of them.

[Florida_Geek]

41. I like that I forgot about my other Internet

:evilgrin:

[Vektor]

46. What a bunch of freaks...

I never had that problem, but I did cancel my service because they are 100% Repuke.

You should report that, though.

[Be Brave]

48. Oh shit! They censor email? n/t