AOL was a scumball operation in 1995 when I had them for 3 months and it cost me about $900.
They were a scumball operation when they merged with Time warner and all their bogus bookkeeing came to light.
They were a scumball operation when they said they were surprised by what "John" did here, and said they fired him.
It's just what they are.
I never used AOL. I immediately knew what they were like when they came out of the gate. The cheesy interface, the hypocritical "parental controls" that block important sites but leave the real hardcore sites alone. MY BS meter went into overdrive and I went with a local ISP for dial-up.