AOL is complete bo||ocks i'm afraid.
We had a disaster with AOL cutting us off, slow download rates etc etc. When I finally convinced the parents they were being ripped off they decided to phone to cancel the account, with a view to switching to BT.
My poor dad got passed from person to person, number after number.
'You need customer support'
'You need billing'
'You need our BB support line'
'You need customer support'
...and around it went.
Finally a chief technician phoned up and wanted me to move my whole PC downstairs into the lounge so i could connect straight up to the main socket.
Well excuse me but
1) the PC isn't in the lounge, and we don't want it there.
2) Even if that did improve the connection, see point 1)
We eventually got through to someone who could terminate our account before being told we couldn't due to the minimum 12 month contract we were tied into. We tried using the 'we're paying for a quick connection and not getting it so you're breaking the contract not us' line on 'em, but to no avail.
Apparently it's our area.
Solution must be to move house then! In the end gave up, sat quietly in the corner downloading at 10-15 kb/s.
Avoid AOL... don't go near them.