janethuggard - 9:33 pm on Apr 5, 2005 (gmt 0)

Well, I didn't mention that in our etail and ewholesale business, especially the wholesale end, every instance of fraud came from an aol email address. Not one, not two, every. They lied about getting packages, when we had confirmation on delivey, they claimed orders were short when ups weight confirmed that all items had been packed, and then they claimed the box was sealed and never opened, yet short over 100 items,which ups weight did not support. I am talking about consumers and retailers, so this is a wide problem.

In one case, an AOLer ordered from three different sites I owned. We had delivery confirmation on every one, signed. Within a week of delievery of this mass of orders, she filed claims with us, saying she didn't get the packages. I think the level of stupidity with that customer alone says something. It was not just her, but many, many instances. We don't just shut out a sector of society, due to our 'ignorance'. I have been at this online for 13 years, and for 11 years we had addresses that problem.

They didn't read the terms, couldn't read descriptions, (oh gee didn't know I was going to get red, even though the image was red, description said red, shopping cart said red... )and this problem goes way back to the days we sold on ebay as well ...where we began to notice the aol trend.

I don't know what you are selling with such high success rate to aolers, but obviously it wasn't the hundreds of product lines, both new and used, we sold. Ignorant? No. Smart yes. When your losses come from a specific cross section of society, you either shut them out, or move to a more profitable location. I think the decay of many inner cities, and destruction of their retail base, and subsequent exodus of the retailers, is proof that my thinking is not IGNORANT, only realistic. You can not run a business, when a few customers, who contribute very little to your revenue, take up 80% of your timea nd resources. We are not here to make nice. We are here to make money, and hope to be nice doing it. But, making money is first unless you are living free of charge on planet earth.

If it works for you, fine. But, suffice it to say it has not worked for me, nor any of my ecommerce tech support clients. I am not alone in finding this problem, or addressing it by cutting off the AOLers.

We just delete their emails unread. You think that is ignorant? Try reading the paragraph right directly above our contact submission form. We placed that paragraph there, because apparently AOL users thought we were a manufacturer. We thought it was more than obvious from our site we were not a manufacturer. But, obviously, if you are an AOLer, it is not. So, we beefed up the wording on the contact page, to clearly outline what we do, and what we do not do. It says:

1. We do NOT ....
2. We do NOT ....
3. We do NOT ....
4. We do NOT ....
5. We do Not ....

Yet, every email from an AOLer requests one or more of those five things. Rude on our behalf? You bet. If they can't read those instructions, and ask me for what I already said I do not have, or do not do, why would I want to do business with them? Would you do business with them? I hope you are saying "no" right now. So, we thought we were being nice, by saving them time, and telling them up front, don't waste your time filling out this form if you are doing so for one of these 5 reasons. Seems nice to me.

If I were hiring, and I am not, and #5 instruction on the contact form says I am not, why would I hire an employee, like the one who submitted a resume yesterday, an AOLer, who can not even read the paragraph above the contact submission form, that says:

"We do not respond to resumes sent from people wanting to work for us. We are not hiring, and we do not accept resumes. We delete them unread."

This is an ongoing example of what we put up with from the aol user base. Could I have been more clear? Is it just me? lol. Oh yes. lol. Please...

When you see numbers like 95%-100% of bad apples in a bunch, I think common sense tells you to throw out the entire truckload, and don't buy from that supplier again. So, we cut off the AOL truckloads.

I was an aoler once, for about a month, 13 years ago, at 10 cents a minute. That alone was clue to me that aol was not for me, and would hinder my knowledge. It was obvious back then that AOL was nothing more than a social cesspool. Had somebody shut me out back then, I would have deserved it.

I guess you don't need vision, when your user base is full of people who have no idea what 'vision' is. If aol wants a plan for success, they need to completely rework their marketing plan, and cater to savy users, which are on the increase as the internet grows, and users learn. The day will come when there are no internet newbies, for aol to prey on.