Home › Forums › Archives › Instant Messaging › AIM Support › AOL employee or AIM developer?
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September 22, 2002 at 3:49 pm #7852TonyMember
Does anyone know anyone working for AOL or perhaps an AIM developer?
I have lost my password for one of my AIM accounts (tonysjogren) and I really want this screen name back as it corresponds to my real name. Unfortunately it seems that I have changed e-mail addresses since setting this account up and I am unable to retrieve my password.
So, does anyone know anyone working for AOL or does anyone have any other suggestions?
September 22, 2002 at 4:08 pm #66884rustedtightMemberQuote:quote:Unfortunately it seems that I have changed e-mail addresses since setting this account up and I am unable to retrieve my password.What your trying to achieve is often refered to as a ‘social engineering hack’ and theres no way you could convince AOL to give you the password. The privacy of every AOL IM user is at stake here and AOL for all their faults would not jepardise that privacy, what you seek to do is close to illegal without you provide proof of ownership of the first email addy.
Sorry, that name is no longer available to you.
rustedtightSeptember 22, 2002 at 4:24 pm #66879Jeff HesterKeymasterThat’s the downside of changing email addresses. You’ve probably already tried this, but run through the login with all the passwords you might have used.
You could try to contact AOL customer service, but I have NEVER received a reply from them on ANY of my email messages. But there’s a first time for everything. Maybe you’ll get lucky. Be prepared to provide some proof of identify and ownership of the old email and screen name, and as Rustedtight said, don’t expect much. They’ll probably say “no.”
In the future, it wouldn’t hurt to write down the passwords (and the corresponding email addresses) in a safe place.
Jeff Hester aka “Mister BigBlueBall.com”
September 22, 2002 at 4:32 pm #66890TonyMemberThe thing is, this name is no longer available to anyone. AOL could check their log files to see that I haven’t logged in for 5 years.
Doesn’t AIM accounts ever time out? What’s the point of keeping screen names for users who never log in?
September 22, 2002 at 4:36 pm #66898magistykMemberThats what I think, wouldn’t it be a waste of space or whatever the screen names take up?
–magistyk
September 22, 2002 at 5:24 pm #66883rustedtightMemberQuote:quote: Thats what I think, wouldn’t it be a waste of space or whatever the screen names take up?No, not at all, its in their interest to keep those screen names. After all AOL sell advertising based on the strength of the total user figures, why clean em up and maybe reduce your claimed lead by 30%?
Think about it, would you willingly reduce your income?
rustedtightSeptember 22, 2002 at 5:30 pm #66889TonyMemberQuote:quote:No, not at all, its in their interest to keep those screen names. After all AOL sell advertising based on the strength of the total user figures, why clean em up and maybe reduce your claimed lead by 30%?
Think about it, would you willingly reduce your income?On the other hand, it is probably easier to attract new users if they can use their real name as screen name instead of tony5489798.
September 22, 2002 at 5:39 pm #66897magistykMemberExactly Tony! I mean, and all those three character screennames, the last one was taken in 1999. And I would bet that more that 1/2 of those screennames are inactive now. I want a three character screenname!
–magistyk
September 22, 2002 at 5:48 pm #66882rustedtightMemberQuote:quote:On the other hand, it is probably easier to attract new users if they can use their real name as screen name instead of tony5489798.No, not at all, since when were AOL in the business of doing users a favor?
No, this way the user total increases instead of remaining static. This is about money not doing favors for users.
rustedtightSeptember 22, 2002 at 5:55 pm #66891TonyMemberWouldn’t it be better for AOL if they could say that they have a large number of ACTIVE users, instead of a large number of registered (most of them inactive) users?
September 22, 2002 at 6:04 pm #66881rustedtightMemberNO.
this is a marketing decision, and on this side of the capitalist fence marketing rules. OK?
FYI AOL is not alone in following this method of accounting.
rustedtightSeptember 23, 2002 at 3:46 am #66878Jeff HesterKeymasterTo say that have 50 million active users would be better than just 50 million users, but I doubt that the casual consumer is saavy enought to make that distinction. The reality is, many of their 50 millions “users” are either inactive accounts or people with multiple accounts.
If you could distill that list to the numer of real, live, and active people (not accounts) the number would be much lower. And from a marketing perspective, that would be a bad thing.
Jeff Hester aka “Mister BigBlueBall.com”
September 24, 2002 at 9:25 pm #66888TonyMemberI’ve talked to AOL support!! First line support couldn’t help me so I talked to her supervisor as well.
I found a phone number to AOL Internet support and called them. I had a hard time talking to them. They only wanted me to sign up for an AOL Internet account. Even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to get my old screenname back. I asked them to check that I haven’t been using my old screenname for several years and release it for registration again, but they refused. I also asked (the supervisor) about why they keep a lot of good screennames unusable… No answer, of course… Is that customer support or what?
Edited by – Tony on 09/24/2002 16:26:37
September 24, 2002 at 9:42 pm #66896magistykMemberTony! Must have been hell for you!
–magistyk
September 24, 2002 at 10:05 pm #66887TonyMemberThere is more to the story. I was told that I could sign up for a free month to get my screenname back.
Let’s take the story from the beginning. I searched Google to find AOL Sweden and ended up with http://www.sverige.aol.com/
On the AOL Sweden page there is a phone number for sign up and support so I called them. First of all, my call was transferred to someone English-speaking. Not that strange, after all it is an American company… Until I realized that I ended up at AOL UK. They were really confused when I said that I wanted to sign up in Sweden. I was transferred from person to person until someone knew that they weren’t offering AOL in Sweden anymore. It is strange that they still have their AOL Sweden page and local phone number working…
They wouldn’t even let me sign up at all.
I guess I have to move to England to sign up for a free month now.
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