AOL to cut 5,000 jobs

About 26 percent of company's work force will be laid off as a result of restructuring.

The story "AOL to cut 5,000 jobs" published August 3, 2006 at 10:46 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[thedreaming]

I hope it works

They are taking a major gamble, I hope it works for them. Personally, I think they should just find a new isp for all their dial-up business, sell off all that hardware that they don't need no more, get rid of their stupid client software and their pathetic attemps at security software, and simply become another google.

[Psycloned]

Hear hear!

I am frankly surprised that AOL has survived this long with the likes of peoplepc and netzero offering their cheap dial up service. And with broadband, I see no reason whatsoever to use AOL. A standard browser can get you anywhere that AOL can on the internet, you just have to know how to find it.

I fail to see any real value in AOL other than for dial uppers and those who are not technically savvy, AOL is the fisher price of the internet.

Many folks just haven't figured out that you don't need AOL to be on the internet, for many of them AOL IS then internet. My in-laws use compuserve which is essentially identical to AOL and the amount of advertising that you are subjected to for a paid for service is unbelievable.

[Harold_Kerr]

AOL Making Its Service Free - Result in Poor Customer Support?

While I applaud AOL for making its program free, I worry that as a result of its cost cutting initiatives, customer service and technical support will be adversely affected. (I wonder what percent of the 5,000 positions eliminated are customer/technical support positions?) To remedy this, I think AOL should have a tiered service plan, where folks still willing to pay a monthly fee for the program can have access to dedicated customer service/technical support. Because if making the service free leads to degraded support, then it's not worth it. Case in point: MySpace.com is absolutley free, and there is almost absolutley no customer/technical support.

[Harold_Kerr]

AOL Becoming Free Results in Poor Customer Support?

While I applaud AOL for making its program free, I worry that as a result of its cost cutting initiatives, customer service and technical support will be adversely affected. (I wonder what percent of the 5,000 positions eliminated are customer/technical support positions?) To remedy this, I think AOL should have a tiered service plan, where folks still willing to pay a monthly fee for the program can have access to dedicated customer service/technical support. Because if making the service free leads to degraded support, then it's not worth it. Case in point: MySpace.com is absolutley free, and there is almost absolutley no customer/technical support.

[gggg sssss]

How can it be worse

You woudl have to try hard to provide worse support than now.

Just another screwup

Instead of letting people change their plan from pay
http://www.techknowcafe.com/content/view/622/43/
to free via online. They make it difficult by forcing people to have to call to make the change.
This is why AOL is tanking. The whole operation is a scam.