Was cancelling AOL easy for you?

[karebear1]

I just called to cancel our aol account after about 6 years with them. I had read that others who have tried to cancel with them have had a VERY hard time cancelling, so when the 1000 questions started, I immediately said- I just want to cancel my aol account please- I don't want to play the answer the question game, is there any way we can bypass all these question? She said sure- and there was dead silience on the other end of the line! She finally came back on and said my aol was cancelled as today- right now. Then she said she was going to send me to a recorded announcement about the cancellation. I asked her for a confirmation number, but she did NOT repond. In this announcement they said a letter would come in the mail in the next 7-14 days with a confirmation number.
I know aol has a reputation of being very hard to cancel, so I'm wondering if I should try to contact them again for a confirmation number, or wait to weeks to see if one does come? What would you do?

 

[LBAK]

I had a very hard time cancelling with them. It took months before they finally stopped billing me. Finally I was getting so aggrevated that I gave it to my DH to handle. They're horrible to deal with. Good Luck!

 

[Blondy876]

Yes, it was horrible. After canceling they continued to charge our credit card for months. We would call and get things straightened out only to have it repeat the next month. Despite being sent several conformation letters. I finally canceled the credit card. That was the only way I could make them go away. When they called me to say that we owed them $$ I got out all the confirmation numbers and read them off. The guy told me to forget about it and hung up. I haven't heard from them since.

 

[poohlover]

Oh what a terrible experience we have had with AOL...in MAy my father became very ill was in the hspt for alomst 2 months my Mom found he had 3 different accounts with AOL all on different credit cards I took over & canceled 2 accounts easily without any problems to speak of the last account was different...I called 2 months in a row after the initial time of cancelling the accounts...still it persisted I believe we have finally gotten it cancled we actually had my Dad call & speak to them with my Mom

1 note if you don't get a letter of cancelation CALL again!!! You will continue to be billed without that letter

Good luck hope your experience is better than mine!

 

[ADisneygirl]

I was able to cancel without too much fuss. I was well versed in what they were going to try and do, so I was prepared. I had my firm teacher voice ready, and I simply said I am calling to cancel my aol service. When the questions about problems, free months, give us another try, yadda, yadda started, I said "I have switched to a Road Runner cable connection. I no longer need dial up." Then they tried to get me to keep aol anyhow! They said it was a good browser to have, reminded me how long I was a customer, and told me that they'd give me a few months free, BUT I said "I want nothing free. I am cancelling my account as of today, I do not need aol to access the internet with RR and I am waiting for a cancellation confirmation number from you. You are wasting your time."

Then she went from her friendly voice to a curt one. She put me on hold for a few seconds and came back with the confirmation number saying as of tonight the service is cancelled. I was lucky to get out of it within a 5 minute call. Also, I did not get billed again, so all in all, I got out of it relatively easily.

They are getting a terrible reputation with their cancellation practices.

 

[halestrm]

Send them a certified letter. Make sure you reference your phone call. Let them know you expect your confirm number by (give them 3 weeks from date of call).

When you get your confirmation number, send another certified letter. Put them on notice that each time you are improperly billed, you will charge them a $25 administration fee to process the paper work required to recieve a credit.

Send copies of these letters with the sign certification reciepts to your credit card company.

This worked for us 2 years ago.

 

[debabe723]

I was able to cancel without too much fuss. I was well versed in what they were going to try and do, so I was prepared. I had my firm teacher voice ready, and I simply said I am calling to cancel my aol service. When the questions about problems, free months, give us another try, yadda, yadda started, I said "I have switched to a Road Runner cable connection. I no longer need dial up." Then they tried to get me to keep aol anyhow! They said it was a good browser to have, reminded me how long I was a customer, and told me that they'd give me a few months free, BUT I said "I want nothing free. I am cancelling my account as of today, I do not need aol to access the internet with RR and I am waiting for a cancellation confirmation number from you. You are wasting your time."

This was similar to my experience. I told them I was moving, getting cable access at my new home and no longer needed their services. I did ask to keep the service for 2 weeks so I could get online at Kinko's to check my email while in transit and gave them the date I wanted service terminated. I called them on that date, was told it was noted in their records and would be cancelled at midnight that night. I never got billed again. I was expecting it to be much worse but it wasn't so bad.

They do keep sending me lots and lots of free offers but I just toss them.

 

[GoofieRuthie]

if you have it taken from your account. I work at a bank and I probably have to do 2 or 3 stop payments on AOL a week. My mom had cancelled one account and had another one opened when she moved. It turned out that they had been charging her for the other account for over a year and she didn't realize it because she hadn't been able to access her online banking. (another reason why you should ALWAYS check your bank statments). Good luck, I hope you got off easy. I didn't have trouble the first time I cancelled. Now, I just call ever few months to cancel and get free months. I have cable modem and don't need it, so if they want to keep giving it to me, I'm ok with it.

 

[Kaybee]

I just cancelled AOL this summer after going to DSL. I called AOL played the twenty questions as to why I wanted to cancel. Had to yell at the guy finally to say "just cancel my acct". He said "fine" you'll recieve a confirmation letter in 7 to 10 days. Okay, 7 days later I received a letter from AOL thanking me for calling and renewing my AOL. So then I had to call back again, go through another 20 questions...finally told them to STOP there crap I don't want to hear it and cancel my account. Another week later I finally recieved confirmation that it was cancelled, but in turn I faxed them a request to cancel also. Good Luck...they are a royal pain

 

[nativetxn]

I had a terrible time getting away from AOL. They kept billing my credit card and when I would call about it they claimed that I never cancelled. This went on for 6 months. I finally escaped and I will never use them again.

 

[helenabear]

Very hard time with AOL when we tried to cancel! Actually our phone company (who it was billed through) stepped in and got rid of them for us. THey said they were very much used to it

 

[karebear1]

What a nightmare! I was afraid of this. I guess I'll have DH fax them tomorrow morning to make sure that it is cancelled AND contact the credit card company to let them know that we have cancelled AOL as well. Will it help if we contact the credit card company?
I made the mistake of siging onto aol to make sure that it really was cancelled, and a WELCOME BACK screen popped up. I did not click ok- I clicked cancel on 2 occasions, but who know what that little mistake may have made to them! UGH!!!!

 

[illini]

I just had to laugh, this time last year I went round and round w/ aol. I swear I still have nightmares about trying to cancel them. I was finally like WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO CANCEL YOU? I called my bank to stop the automatic check payment and that was going to cost about as much as the aol. The last letter I sent them I said I WILL NEVER USE YOU AGAIN! I too had the experience where I cancelled and then got the letter thanking me for continuing my service. I swear I hate them ( and I'm usually very nice)

 

[Mrs.D]

Sounds like I had an easy time. It took about 45 minutes on the phone with the guy, trying to talk me around in circles and convince me to keep it. However, I never got another billing from them, so we lucked out.

 

[bettyann29]

Trying to cancel with AOL was the most horrible experience ever!!! I finally had to get quite rude with the lady because after telling her over and over that I just want to cancel she kept on and on.. I will NEVER go back with AOL..

 

[escape]

Wow, reading your stories brings back horrible memories for me. To make a long story short, I wanted to cancel with them and got the run-around the first time I tried. The second time I tried I got very rude with them....which is normally not in my character. I was amazed at the stuff coming out of my mouth. I never cursed, I just flat told them I want it canceled without all the questions and if she (girl from AOL) couldn't comprehend what I wanted then maybe she ought to put someone on the line who understood plain English.

Well, needless to say, I obviously hurt this girl's feelings. I felt really badly for the way I behaved. But before I could apologize, the girl from AOL got really rude with me and kept me on hold for what seemed like eternity. She finally came back on and spat out my cancellation confirmation number, a 1-800 number to call for any questions or concerns and told me some other tidbits...all in under a nano-second...or so it seemed. She then promptly hung up on me after that.

I didn't have any more problems with AOL after that night.

 

['Canes Fan]

what's worse is stripping all traces of their software off of your hard drive. get familiar with your registry.

 

[DisneyArk]

I also had problems!! I had to call them 3 times and the last time I demanded that they cancel my service!! I do not like conflict, but I hate wasting money even more. It was a nightmare and because I was busy and didn't call right away, I paid for an extra 6 months that I DID NOT USE.

I will never use AOL again. I hope they actually cancelled your service!!

 

[SideshowBob]

SSB was also warned from here.. and VERY direct... and got done ... but still longer than it should have taken.

My fave, like the Disney Movie Club (and AOL)... you can do EVERYTHING online... but cancel. So stupid...

I just called to cancel our aol account after about 6 years with them. I had read that others who have tried to cancel with them have had a VERY hard time cancelling, so when the 1000 questions started, I immediately said- I just want to cancel my aol account please- I don't want to play the answer the question game, is there any way we can bypass all these question? She said sure- and there was dead silience on the other end of the line! She finally came back on and said my aol was cancelled as today- right now. Then she said she was going to send me to a recorded announcement about the cancellation. I asked her for a confirmation number, but she did NOT repond. In this announcement they said a letter would come in the mail in the next 7-14 days with a confirmation number.
I know aol has a reputation of being very hard to cancel, so I'm wondering if I should try to contact them again for a confirmation number, or wait to weeks to see if one does come? What would you do?

 

[2BigKIdz]

I did not completely cancel because I'm just a big sucker! When I tried to cancel she "talked" me into a plan for 6.95/mo so if my cable service is unavailable I can still use the dial-up. I've just paid the 6.95 per month so I don't know what would happen if I tried to completely get rid of them. (BTW I have never used the dial-up "backup".)