When I called AOL's customer service line, I had to go through a short authentication exercise before being connected with a representative. However, I didn't have to listen to a menu to be connected with an agent. There was a short message that let me know my call would be recorded, then I got a dial tone. My wait time was relatively short; I waited less than a minute to be connected with a representative.
Some of the routine reasons that people may call this number include purchasing an AOL product or getting help with an account. This number is most frequently used by members to resolve issues with their products or accounts. In order to do this, you'll need to give the agent some basic information about your AOL account and the products you use.
If you call during off-hours, you'll be asked to call back between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Pacific Standard Time. I was not given the option to request a callback or leave a message.
The agent who answered the phone had a friendly tone, spoke English fluently and were very easy to understand. This was welcome, as I had a lot of questions about AOL products and their compatibility with each other.
I'm not sure if the answers I received were poorly scripted or whether there were misunderstandings between me and the agent I spoke to, but it took a while to get my questions answered. I had to ask the representative to repeat themselves a few times and I also had to rephrase some questions to get the information I was looking for. The agent did, however, offer to connect me with the sales department, which they said could better answer my questions.
Overall, I found the experience to be somewhat frustrating and I had to remember to exercise patience. Despite my wait time being short, I was probably on the phone for around 15 minutes to get answers about how AOL's mail products, security software and user accounts could be combined. This could, however, be because I was asking questions about products to someone who didn't seem to be in the sales department.
When I asked about support for these features, I was informed that it wasn't free and that I would need to pay a fee for live technical assistance with AOL's products. The agent informed me that this was the line to call if I needed to troubleshoot one of these matters in the future.
It's a point in the AOL customer service line's favor that it doesn't try to overwhelm callers with automated menus or redirect them to an online chat. Based on my experience, however, it would seem that the expertise of the customer service reps is uneven. It's a good idea to be mentally prepared for that if you're going to use this number.