Well... first day at work at the new job with the Evil Empire

[DiamondDave]

I started the new position at AOL today. I'm a senior manager over a department there.

I'll say one thing. The work environment and the company approach to employees is second to none that I have ever seen. They give you everything you need to succeed and more.

That being said, I am taking over a department that needs SERIOUS work. I have my work cut out for me.

But... a lot more pay, a shorter commute, and a fresh start..... you gotta take a chance when all 3 of those things are in your favor....

[Providence A's]

congrats and good luck Dave. from reading the title I thought you got a job with the Yanks...I really need to escape Red Sox Nation

[HuskerFan2002]

Congrats!

Oh, and could you tell those who send those 1,000 free hours cds in the mail to stop sending them to my house.

Thanks!

[DiamondDave]

Didn't I mention that mine is the department that sends those out?? j/k

[Lynch]

The title alone made me wonder if you'd jumped ship and were now working somewhere within the DNC.

[DirtyKash]

DiamondDave, how are the benefits, vacation time, dental/medical plans, and pension plans with AOL?

[Lynch]

BTW: I used to work for a marketing company that handled I don't know how many AOL C.S. accounts. This was great.

AOL pissed me off to no end with that "Free 300 hrs a month" (or whatever it was 10 or so years ago) because I used it for like 4 days and said "screw it, this sucks", then going back to my local dial-up ISP. Two months later, I get a bill for 3 months charged to my credit card, even though I had emailed a cancellation almost immediately. No, these bastards didn't bill me right off the bat, they waited until it was like $100+ dollars before they billed me.

So from work, I called up AOL C.S. and b!tched about it. I got the usual runaround of "you have to send an email, call us, send certified mail, get approval from the governor of another state and dig two ditches with plastic spoons before we know for sure you are really cancelling your account". Long story short, I got more pissed off. I got put on hold while she had to check with her mgr. I talked my to Sys-admin who was in the room at the time. He said "cancel her account". When she got back on, I asked for her full name. Looked it up in the users file and found out which line she was coming in on. IN the background I suddenly hear ... *click... click ... clickclickclick* "hmm.. my computer is locked up". All I did was terminated her session.

I then berated her for a few minutes with stuff like "it really sucks when something so simple can't work the way it's supposed to, doesn't it?" and "you know, maybe if you people weren't such assholes and trying to screw people out of money, bad things like computer freezes wouldn't happen". I told her I didn't want to wait anymore and to get a manager. I also suggested a reboot or to relogin into her machine (which of course worked right away).

The sysadmin was laughing cuz I had put her on speaker phone.

Anyway, I did nothing but give as much bad press to/for AOL after that for a couple of years. What a freakin' SCAM they were running. I'm sure it's a LOt different in 2006 than it was in 1994 or 1995, but it really ticked me off. I sure had fun with that girl though.

[Saber]

Dave, you sellout!

Now I don't believe in nothin' no more. I'm going to law school!

[General]

Good job Dave.

AOL once tried to steal $400 bucks from me. I hate AOL.

[DiamondDave]

DiamondDave, how are the benefits, vacation time, dental/medical plans, and pension plans with AOL?

Incredible benefits, 32 days off (vac/sick/family sick/floating holidays), all Fed holidays, etc....

And I ain't complaining about the pay, that is for sure