how to cancel a free AOL account
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| Tue, 01-19-2010 - 8:23am |
Some of you might know my story - which is, in a giant nutshell - My xAP and I did not have a bad ending, we just ended it. I was unfamiliar with the rules of NC, but suggested that we take a NC break of three months to sort out our lives and then see if we could reconnect and hopefully be non-A-having friends. Yeh, right. So, my three month mark is Feb 1st - the the date hangs over my head and stresses me out to no end. I no longer desire contact with X, not for an A, not as friends, no way no how. I just want him and this A to be behind me. I have mourned the lost of that so-called 'friend' and I am no longer in a the A fog. But, I think and think and think about "what if he contacts me"? I wonder if I'll have the strength to ignore him. The only way he'd contact me is through our secret AOL account, which I tried to close but had no luck! I looked online and found this gem. How To Close Your Free AOL Account. Whoopie! Anyway, I assume I'm not the only woman on this board with an AOL account lurking in the bushes, waiting to snare us, so I'm posting what I read online. Hope it helps some of you. xoxo Dee
Dave's Answer:
My first words to you are: good luck. My experience in this regard has been terrible. For what are obvious reasons AOL doesn't make it easy for you to quit their service. For example, there's no "Cancel My AOL Service" option on the "Help" menu. Probably too many people would use it!
To answer your question, I thought it would be fun to share exactly how I tried to cancel my own AOL account. Fair warning: it's not a pretty story...
I started out by logging in to my AOL service. The logical next step would be to try Keyword "cancel" or "quit", but "cancel" pops up a "not yet available. Come back soon" message (which is weird) and "quit" produces a full blown search of the Web.
Buried in those search results, however, is what I seek: Cancel AOL Account. Click on it and -- amazingly -- "The area you have reached is not yet available on this version of AOL. Please try back again later."
Which leads to the question: how do I cancel my $#&@*$(& AOL account??
My next attempt at a solution is to use AOL Help, then click on "Chat With Us: Billing Support".
Five minutes of seeing a "Loading Java Applet..." message later, I'm convinced that it's another dead end and quit.
So how about the "Billing" area? Nope. No way to quit through that avenue, but I am prompted to create a "security question" which I do so by indicating my favorite film.
To heck with it! I'll call them on the phone and cancel my account the old-fashioned way, since it appears there's no way to accomplish it electronically. But that's not so simple either. Look at how they cunningly word their phone help information:
To contact AOL by telephone
To speak to a customer support consultant or use our automated telephone system, please choose a toll-free telephone number from the list below. Selecting the most appropriate number will help you get the support you need as quickly as possible.
To get an access number to sign on to AOL: 888-265-8005
Help with your AOL account, connection or other technical issues: 800-827-6364
Customer and technical support en español: 866-885-5117
AOL TTY service for the hearing-impaired: 800-759-3323 (to use this service, you must have TTY-enabled equipment)
What don't they tell you that they offer? You guessed it: billing support via telephone.
Since I don't need an access number, I'm trapped having to call the second number, 800 827-6364. I call in at 7:07pm and meet their automated attendant. First step: I have to state what I want from a small list of options (access numbers, billing, support, cancel, ...). I say "cancel" and then get a 60 second advert for all the new AOL features, then it asks me for my phone number, my account name and the answer to my new security question (which I had to set up while logged in, trying to cancel in the first place. Makes me wonder what would happen if I didn't have a security question set up). After all that "your wait will be greater than ten minutes" for a task that should take their operator about 15 seconds once we're connected.
Ah, welcome to the electronic age.
While I'm on hold, I'll observe that smart companies recognize that a departing customer is still a potential customer and that if you make the cancellation process easy and offer a final "don't leave us" special bonus then maybe they'd be able to hold on to more customers. If an operator came on 20 seconds after hearing this terrible hold music and said "Looks like you've only just joined AOL, Dave. We hate to see you go. Can I offer you an additional three free months of service?" I might well say yes. But if I have to just sit on hold for ten minutes, I guarantee that they'd have to pay me to stay a member after wasting this much of my time doing something that should be pretty darn easy, all in all.
Ah, an operator! 7:24pm. He has a thick, difficult to understand Indian accent and the first thing he asks for is my screen name. Typical lack of information coordination: why did the automated attendant ask for all of this information if I'd be asked for it again as soon as I was connected to a customer service representative? First and last name, and my security question. Asks from a script "What is causing you to give up this account" at least four times. I finally say "I don't want to go through your questions. I want to cancel my account." and he skips ahead and gives me the all important cancellation confirmation number: "426167951-43".
I'm not quite done, though: "To finalize your process, please listen to the following legal disclaimer about canceling your account." and I'm off to one final waste of my time, a recording that informs me that "We're sorry you have chosen to cancel your account. Your cancellation is effective as of today. You are responsible for all accumulated charges, however, and we'd love to welcome you back to AOL. For a limited time you may reactivate it, keeping your current screen names, by clicking on AOL and signing back on. Thank you for choosing America Online"
Done. Elapsed time on the phone: 22 minutes. Time actually talking to someone: 73 seconds. Overall elapsed time including trying to cancel my account through AOL's software or help system: 50 minutes. Likelihood that I would reinstate my account after that terrible customer service experience? 0.
And that, my friends, is how you cancel your America Online account. Save yourself the effort and just don't sign up in the first place...

dee,
Unbelieveable. I'm sorry you went through that. Thanks for the heads up on AOL. xAP and I have accounts through AOL and that is how we communicated. I have other emails now coming in through that account, so I can't cancel. dee, we didn't have a bad ending either, but it had to end before there was one.
One thing I did in my AIM/AOL email account was to put a "vacation hold" on my account. In the beginning of the "end" I did it just to buy some time from his emails, then I did it for extended periods. His emails would bounce back to him or that is what I understood. I always got great pleasure knowing he knew I wasn't reading his ego-driven dribble. I wanted him to think I was way too busy for him. Of course if anyone uses this hold on their account, you have to check the other incoming emails, but it was worth it to me.
Hi Dee,
I'm so sorry Dee! I've read similar horror stories on-line. This info. is too late for you but maybe it will help someone else that has an AOL and wants to deactivate it.
I also had a free AOL account that I had used exclusively for xAP during the affair. I deactivated my account over a year ago and back then when I called customer service they said that
Whether you think you can or you think you can't you are probably right. A parrot can repeat what it has learned but the mark of true intelligence is applying what is learned.