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Let the buyer beware about AOL and Fleaflicker! (1 Viewer)

kethnaab

Footballguy
After what just happened, I am VERY wary of AOL’s new takeover of Fleaflicker due to the screenname issue. I like fleaflicker. It's free, it is customizable, it's easy, it runs pretty well. Out of the free services, I thought it was the best, so I've been moving most of my leagues to fleaflicker aside from my one splurge on MFL.

Anyway, I sent my buddy an invite to a league I created on fleaflicker. No big deal. He logs in, creates his new “AOL screen name” thing, and voila, he’s in, just like that.

Except…he was now logged into my account. He had access to all of my teams, leagues and commssioner settings.

Let’s make sure we understand that one. I sent an invite to a league. He accepted the invite (4 other people had already accepted the invite into that league successfully), created his account, but when he created his AOL screen name on my computer, his account became mine, and I lost ALL of my leagues.

But hey, at least he had access to them all, including my teams and my commissioner settings! What was really interesting was clicking on the “Adjust account settings”. Sometimes it took me to my settings, sometimes it took me to his settings. You just never knew. We wiped cookies/internet temp files clean, started over from scratch, rebooted, and then guess what?

He was stuck in my account, and I was locked out of it. I could access MY account using HIS username/password, but there was no way to change it.

After spending several hours on the phone and speaking with tech support, I got the bottom line:

1) You should always clear your cookies before creating new usernames (WTF?) and that might be what caused the problem

2) There are bound to be some problems with the port over of AOL’s fantasy site to fleaflicker and to be patient

3) Because I’m not a “subscribing AOL member” I was ####-outta-luck and there wasn’t anything she was going to do about it (she was more polite, but that was the bottom line)

So let the buyer beware.

EDIT - also understand, He used his computer initially, it wasn’t until he came over afterward and tried it at my house (him on my son’s computer) that we figured out that the accounts were tied in. He signed in and was like “wow, i have all these leagues, where’d these come from”. We emailed and he mentioned that and I thought “what are the names”…that’s when I shat myself.

and it wasn’t just fleaflicker, we had “joint access” to each other’s screename information, each other’s AIM stuff, our AOL email accounts (not the subscriber crap either)

so yeah. the port over happens in July. If I had a league on fleaflicker, I'd consider getting it the hell off of fleaflicker before AOL does their port over. After the ridiculousness that I just went through with AOL and their tech support, only to be told, "yeah, your problem is a real easy fix" (all it was was a pair of AOL screen names that were crossed up) but you're not a paying subscriber, so piss off", that's what I'm saying to fleaflicker and, more directly, AOL.

PISS OFF.

ESPN, here I come (yahoo has ######ed IDP settings)

 
Honestly, I think AOL was labeled as “Buyer Beware” years ago; in every aspect of it's business model. Unfortunately it is a remnant of the Internet dark ages, dilapidated and begging to be unceremoniously taken out back and shot. It's customer support makes Dell look good. It seems painfully obvious that AOL hires the scraps left by Google, Yahoo, and even Microsoft.

 
Honestly, I think AOL was labeled as “Buyer Beware” years ago; in every aspect of it's business model. Unfortunately it is a remnant of the Internet dark ages, dilapidated and begging to be unceremoniously taken out back and shot. It's customer support makes Dell look good. It seems painfully obvious that AOL hires the scraps left by Google, Yahoo, and even Microsoft.
:goodposting:We used AOL for our fantasy football hosting for 2 different leagues I'm in for the last 3 years and other than one hiccup with the draft a few years ago, they were great. But that was when they were on the Fanball platform. It remains to be seen how things will work on the Fleaflicker platform. But this early problem is definitely a concern.
 
"small" problems are just that...small problems. I wasn't concerned.

This was a massive problem that resulted in me losing access to all of my leagues and resulted in another person GAINING access to all of my leagues.

How?

By sending out an invite!

I just can't WAIT until the port over begins of all the AOL stuff later on. It would be one thing if there were problems, but it's another entirely when I'm told by their customer support (via telephone) that, essentially, it's an easy problem to fix, but since I'm not a paying subscriber, I don't get access to "real" support, so she can't help me.

She was a very polite sounding young lady. Sounded kinda hot, actually, but I'll be damned if she didn't tell me "yeah, I COULD help you, but unless you pay for an AOL subscription, you don't get our help, even though our buggy software is causing a security flaw"

Screw AOL. Sorry fleaflicker, loved you while you lasted, but it is time to move on.

 
When do the leagues get transferred over? Because I just checked and it says I have no teams or leagues.......

 
When do the leagues get transferred over? Because I just checked and it says I have no teams or leagues.......
Originally it was mid June, but now it just says "soon" at this point there is no telling when it'll be available.
 
Well, the AOL Screen Name Service is, in itself, extremely old and clunky. They've laid off or lost most of the developers that wrote it, so in all fairness to FleaFlicker, they are probably just not integrating it right because the product itself stinks (SNS that is).

 
Here is the most recent update (within the last hour):

Don't be affraid, I am working on it and it's under control.

I have the data for every league, team, roster, transaction, message board post, etc.

It takes time to convert it into Fleaflicker's format but it will be done.

 
Oh and in before the MFL Fan Club.

(I understand it's the best service but it's also slightly more complicated which is not a great thing for the non-technical folks in my league)

 
Well, the AOL Screen Name Service is, in itself, extremely old and clunky. They've laid off or lost most of the developers that wrote it, so in all fairness to FleaFlicker, they are probably just not integrating it right because the product itself stinks (SNS that is).
Are you no longer over the site?
 
Isn't it only "Buyer Beware" if your buying something? I thought that AOL/FleaFlicker were free. It still sucks but at least your not loosing money.

 
Isn't it only "Buyer Beware" if your buying something? I thought that AOL/FleaFlicker were free. It still sucks but at least your not loosing money.
Except for your valuable time as commissioner and reputation among your friends and fellow FFL members, that to me is sometimes worth more than money.And to answer the other questions, no, I have not been with AOL for over 18 months now. Sorry folks.
 

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