Mmmm, yes, I have had a hellish experience with AOL.
My mom joined in 1998 or so, with the release of AOL 3.0. We finally quit around March 2003, months before the release of AOL 9.0. We watched the prices rise from 419.95 to $21.95 to $23.95. We watched the subscription free trials rise from 100 hours to 250 to 300 to 500 to 100 to 1020 to 1045 to...what is it now?
For the most part, my experience was satisfactory. I spent most of my time on AOL Kids (I was 10 when my mom first joined, remember), chatting, and canvassing AOL message boards. My mom installed severe online timers, email restrictions (only whitelisted people could email me and no attachments), and Parental Controls. I didn't mind that much: I hadn't yet gotten a real game (such as Civ3 that brought me to these boards), discovered GameFAQs (I spend most of my time there now), or registered for Yahoo Mail.
The problems arose when we attempted to cancel in December 2002. My mom tried to cancel at 10PM Pacific the day before the billing cycle, but they said that because AOL ran on Eastern time, it was too late and we'd be billed for another whole month. My mom hung up and called again and we got three free months. But then they charged us for Feburary despite their promises not to charge us. My mom complained, but Discover sided with AOL.
We finally got off two months later on EarthLink. We then switched to Verizon and have never looked back since.