AOL's takeover of Fleaflicker - let the buyer beware

[kethnaab]

After what just happened, I am VERY wary of AOL’s new takeover of Fleaflicker due to the screenname issue.

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. The invite you send to someone as a league owner ended up inviting him right into my account!

Let’s make sure we understand that one. I sent my bro invite to join a league I created. 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 overwrote 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)

We did this on multiple different computers (his at his house, me at my house, then him coming over with me on my system, him on my son's system, then I tried my wif'e ssystem, etc, each with a cookie/temp file wipe/reboot

So let the buyer beware. AOL hasn't begun to port over their leagues to fleaflicker and they will be requiring everyone to create an AOL "screen name account"

Personally, I'm just worried that I'll lose my leagues to someone else if I create another league and send out invites!


mod edit - please watch the language

[dream_017]

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

My guess is that it is a pretty big process. This looks like an isolated incident. Until I hear of many issues like this, I will stick with them. Oh, and fleaflicker is free...so I'm not buying anything

[kethnaab]

well, found out another dude that this happened to.

If you want to weather the storm, go for it. I'm going to ESPN.COM's free fantasy site. Yahoo and Foxsports are just terrible.

Just make sure you save all your league settings and such. If they haven't even started the main port of AOL yet and they're already having some issues (another dude in an MFL league of mine who is commish is having issues with fleaflicker, lots of issues )

it's not fleaflicker so much as the AOL screen name service. One would hope that sending out an invite would not result in that person taking over your account, but that's exactly what happened.

Also, note sure if anyoen else has had problems with the screen name service, but in a bunch of my leagues, people have been asked to create AOL screen names (out of nowhere, just recently) so they can log into fleaflicker, and in many instances, they're being told "username/password incorrect", so they use the email to get the password sent to them, and they get told "email address is incorrect", yet they were getting email addresses from league transactions and such. So they've had to abandon their leagues.

I figured it was the standard error that exists between the keyboard and the chair, but this time, I can vouch that it was not.

anyway, good luck. Hopefully it works out for you, but after the bottom line that the tech support chick gave me "dude, your problem is easy to fix, but you're not a paying subscriber, so you're hosed", to AOL I say "phooey"

[Guru13]

I have serious issue with logging in, sometimes it will log in and none of my leagues seem to exist and other times it just won't log in....and then some times it works jut fine.

[kethnaab]

i'm presently recreating an entire league due to one of the commissioners for a league I'm in who lost access. It's that AOL screen name thing. It tells him that his screenname/password won't work, so he types in his "forget password"?

so he clicks on that, and it tells him "enter your email" so it says "email not found"

so he goes to recreate using his email and it says "that email is already taken"

just found out another dude who was supposed to sign up for the site has been trying for like 2 weeks, hasn't been able to get on, and was afraid to say anything because he was embarassed.

[eagles21]

Wow, I haven't had any problems, but it seems that a lot of people are. I'm sure it will get better though. I've been reading the forums, and the administrator pretty much is focusing on transferring the leagues from AOL. Hopefully the problems will be worked out after the all the leagues are transferred.

[dream_017]

i'm presently recreating an entire league due to one of the commissioners for a league I'm in who lost access. It's that AOL screen name thing. It tells him that his screenname/password won't work, so he types in his "forget password"?

so he clicks on that, and it tells him "enter your email" so it says "email not found"

so he goes to recreate using his email and it says "that email is already taken"

just found out another dude who was supposed to sign up for the site has been trying for like 2 weeks, hasn't been able to get on, and was afraid to say anything because he was embarassed.

Again, they are going to have some issues. For fleaflicker, they had their own ID/password and now are changing to AOL - because they were bought. Since it is AOL, they want to get AOL screen names.

Could they have done things better? - Yes
Is this a big deal? - I don't think so

[mikus]

Tell your guys to use the email they used to sign up for AIM. That worked for my guys who could not get in. And if they have an AIM account, they can use their screen name to log in.

[eagles21]

According to a forum post over at Fleaflicker, regarding the transfer of leagues from AOL:

I am working on it and your leagues will be here no later than the end of next week, likely sooner.

[kethnaab]

Could they have done things better? - Yes
Is this a big deal? - I don't think so

not a big deal?

Okay, cool. Hand over the username/password to every league that you're commissioner of. Give them to me. Then delete your account that allowed you access to those leagues.

It's not a big deal, right? Because that is what happened to me.