Just for fun, I recently signed up for an AOL account through one of those ubiquitous free CDROMS, and now that I’ve poked around a bit, I’ve decided to shut it down. It’s time to return to the real Internet. But I’m a bit stymied. How do I cancel my AOL account?
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 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…
Additional helpful AOL tutorials, in case you decide to stay with them:
• Get rid of AOL popup ads!
• How to create new AOL screen names
• How to delete an AOL screen name
• How to change your AOL account password
And a final tip: if this feels like too much hassle, you can also cancel your aol account by using the cancel wizard service. Just click on “cancel your aol account” to learn more.
Okay…AOL sucks. What do you do if you made emails/screennames under ur granny’s master account but then she closed it but yours still worked, and you would really like to shut your email acct down, but you see Granny has NO CLUE! that his grandson made these accts under her. Agh my husband is so mental! Im this grandson’s wife and ready to delete his infamous acct which is on every po.rn website there is, although he doesnt use it and wants to shut it down he cant is there any other way?
Please help, we’re desperate, and since he’ll do whatever it takes to make me happy, he needs to end this!
I don’t know who you are but I love you, lol.
I picked up one of those “free” disk that you find at the supermarket and downloaded or whatever, used what has to be the slowest damn service I’ve ever experienced in my life and then decided that this is not for me. Left it alone and forgot about it till I looked online at my credit card transactions. Those bastards charged me 26.90 for something that I did not agree to have. Granted AOL didn’t just pull my credit card information out of the sky as I did imput the info obviously but trust me when i say it was totally under false pretenses. I cancelled out before actually completing whatever form they wanted online and they used my info anyway to tie me to their sorry ass service. I was so pissed this morning. Especially when I searched the internet and read other customers’ complaints by people who have tried and have been trying to cancel service to absolutely no avail. Most of these pissed off people weren’t even able to provide a good telephone number. It almost looked hopeless. Then I came across this article and let me tell you. I took the number to “customer service” that you provided and was done with AOL in all of 11 minutes. I will be watching my bill closely from now on. If I see anything even related to Aol on it, there will be problems. Believe me. I’m just glad I caught it in just three days and not three years down the line like some. That’s the thing about being broke, it’s noticable when my bank account is even 2 bucks off.lmao. I was so happy to have the service cancelled that I told the gentleman on the phone that I don’t even care about the 26.00 bucks I’ll pay that I just don’t want to be charged anymore than I have been already.
BTW, you are so right about the thick ass accent. lol.
AOL must be getting better at takeing cancelations, it only took 6 minutes…..and the Indian guy, well, I could understand him, who knew !!!! well the I tryed to cancel my home telephone service with VERIZON,took much longer(27 minutes) thanks for the help Dave !
When I cancel my dial up service will I’ll still be able to use my aol.com email address? We are switching to comcast but my husband has many business contacts still wants to keep his aol.com address?
Thanks
Jean
I have been with AOL for about 10 years. Called to cancel account because I now have gone to Comcast what a joke!!!!!!! They told me they could not cancel my account because I was not the account holder so when I finally got to the account page what the hell do I see my name in fine print as the account contract. I had tryed calling days before they say I can’t do anything our system is down our system is updating call back that is all you hear. The funny thing is when I was finally on the phone with somebody he told me to go to myaccount.aol.com and this is where this page popped up and I was reading this to him how AOL makes it so hard to cancel. Also the first time I called I could not understand the person. Shame Shame
i having alot proplem loging in.also web site to solw.thank you abe
Hi Dave– Thank you for the cancellation phone number to AOL. I was able to cancel my membership with AOL in 8 minutes and 22 seconds. It went smoothly and without difficulty. Jeanine
Amazing! I’m cancelled.
First, thank you for the phone number and suggestons – all worked. I get a friendly lady who spoke clearly. An incentive deal was offered. No long legal message. I got my confirmation number and I was done in less than 12 minutes. Of course, I have yet to see if they actually stop billing my card!
Here’s a tip: I didn’t remember my (old) phone number and the phone robot didn’t recognize my screen name. Maybe – just maybe – that got me to a domestic operator instead of Bombay. So, try giving bogus info to the phonbot and see if you also get good service. Good luck!
I did my battle with AOL again this morning. I have had a battle for several years trying to stop the AOL billing. I signed up with a free cd for a dial up account so I could find out was high speed service was available in my area. I canceled within 30 days after battling with the Indian guy, this is in 2003. All is good for several months then I start seeing AOL billing my charge card. I call up and complain. I get a song and dance because I don’t know the screen name or anything about the account, so nothing happens. I check with the wife, did she sign up? No, so I call them again and say make it stop. Again the song and dance sales story etc. I tell them you have my information make it stop. Six months later, I’m reviewing the bills, my wife usually does it, and there is AOL again. Wife says she will take care of it. We are both working and spend more at Starbucks each week than the AOL bill, but here it is another year later and I’m reviewing bills for Taxes and AOL is on the bill again. So I scream at my wife, she’s the one with an MBA and wants to manage the money. In October 2008, our mail is stolen by some local meth-heads some we get new charge cards. This morning I get a call from some Indian woman threatening to report me to a credit agency. It went something like this:
What for?
You haven’t paid my AOL bill since October.
I said I don’t have AOL. I canceled it in 2003, 2004, and 2005.
We sent you a letter. Do you have a cancellation number?
Not from 2003.
I don’t believe you canceled it. What about the letters? We sent several.
Why would I even look at junk mail from AOL, when I don’t have an account?
When can we expect payment?
I’m not paying, Good bye.
Needless to say, I’m also canceling my wife’s money management program.
I just went through the same thing. Thought the account was cancelled several years ago. In fact, the first person I talked to said the account was cancelled in 2007; the second said “oh no, it’s still active.” I am guilty of not paying enough attention to each transaction on my statement but I am not sure how my account is cancelled one minute and active the next. I have put my cancellation number in the cloud so I don’t lose it. We will see
Oh and I tried that 877-77 whatever number and it was disconnected… too many people calling to cancel this crummy service!
I want to delete my entire AOL email account and AIM messenger. How in the HELl do I do that? I been trying to do this for 3 years now! I have too many email accounts and I can;t keep up with them all. I just want to delete them and start over!!!!!!! PLLLLEEEEEEEAASSSEEEEE HELP ME!
i actually canceled my account and after i thought it was all cancelled i received another bill. i called them and they said to forget about it and to my surprise i get another bill the next month and when i called that time they were asking me for a cancellation number and if i could not get them a number i would have to pay them. so the account is not payed, finally canceled i hope and logged a complaint with the better business bureau. good luck to the other suckers that sign up for this bad service
Thanks to all of your experioences I was able to cancel my aol with no trouble at all.
I cut right through the red tape and I am free again!
We just finally consolidated our phone, cable and internet with Time Warner. I had AOL for 5 years and today after reading the above I cancelled our service. I was polite, but firm with the representative. I received a confirmation # cancelling our account and it took approximately 12 minutes in total. I find that firm politeness works every time. When asked why we were cancelling I simply stated “I am cancelling the account”. I might add that by consolidating our phone, cable, etc. I am saving $7 per month – and gained caller ID on my phone which we didn’t have before. We also have free long distance. Our cable stayed the same – basic – all that we need. By making this change, re-evaluating car insurance needs for our 3 cars, changing my regular hair-cut/color from 4 weeks to every 5 weeks, not renewing 2 magazines that I haven’t been enjoying – we are saving $700 a year – not a boatload, but when you are retired every bit helps.
plz delete my aol account because i am tired of my aol account .
i sign up with some one eles
plz plz cancel my account on aol as soon as possible.i cant pay u no more thnx a lot
I would like to cancel my aol account as of today. I signed up years ago and now all my kids are grown and moved out. Therefore please close my aol account and stop the automatic debits that your company has been doing from my account.
I want to cancet my aol account and stop paying the monthly fee…asapwe’ve had this account for years so i do not know the personal info as my son started it and is now married and left us the computer..as of this date please…12/23/08
thank you
nancy and robert lentz
I will like to cancel my aol screen name and email it is fredrickbrysjr password is melina
please close this account
i want to cancel american online i got another internet service so can u please deleted of my account thanks
Thanks to Dave for his instructions…..AOL must have changed some of its instructions to phone reps…called at 12:01 PM, went through the prompts and got a rep in 10 mins…gave her the right answer to the security question and asked to discontinue my service (11yrs, 5 mos at $23.31 per month!….boy am I dumb!)…no big hassle…just asked why i was changing and no hard sell to stay…gave me my confirmation cancellation number and thanked me for my membership.
Does anybody know a CURRENT phone number (preferably 800) that I can call to cancel my
AOL service? Thanks.
RE: “Posted by: Paul at September 14, 2008 9:19 PM”
Paul, I hope this works. Seemed too easy…
I have had AOL since the beginning. When I tried to cancel about 10 years ago, they said I could stay on as a charter member for 4.95 a month. They just raised that to 9.95. I don’t mind having the AOL address (use it for IM and iTunes rarely), but I much prefer the free part.
I’m optimistic.
can somebody blow up the aol building wherever they are based i shallbuy you a beer
No wonder this country’s economy is slipping. I called AOL 3 times and spoke to three different accents each time. I wanted to ask them what country they were from but didn’t have the nerve.I probably would not have know the country anyway. KEEP JOBS HERE STOP OUTSOURCING
closing your account is simple. Just delete everything personal on your page, and then change your email address to your worst enemys email address, and solve two problems at the same time.
Please cancel my account asap. I no longer want aol. please cancel it now.
Thank you
I can get high speed from ATT for 14.00 a month
I still have a free account w/ AOL because it has been my e-mail address since 1995. I signed up for aol greetings, but decided to cancel it. An hour ago I was able to get online tech help who was not helpful and said here’s a link so you can cancel aol greetings online, I said ok thx and when I clicked on it, I got booted off aol and now I am no longer eligible for online help. I did get the session #, but does anyone know how to cancel greetings without totally cancelling my e-mail account? The phone #’s and times are totally restrictive and inconvenient. Thanks,
Nancy
Thanks, your 50 minute effort and additional time to write about it and post on this website made my cancellation process a total of 5 minutes. Thanks a million!
Hi,
How do i cancel my AOL screen name on the internet so i don’t need to call them to cancel it for me. I have just recieved a email from AOL saying that i have been subscribed but i don’t remember doing it. I think that someone else is doing things like this to me by using my email accounts that i use. The email i recieved this morning went to this address: mhickie2@hotmail.com. I have contacted AOL by email, but i will have to wait for them to get back to me. I have even told my dad but he said that i will have to phone so they can cancel my screen name that has beeen registered..
Please can you tell me that else i can do.
Thanks
Marin Hickie
I’ve forgotten my screen name and also not sure of which card I used to set the free trial up – still charging me…..how can I get around this?
So, the new rep, said that if I don’t access the email for 4-5 months, it should be pulled from the system. Definitely worth a try.
Still so frustrated though. Why can’t they just delete it on their end?
Okay, so now I’ve sent 3 emails to local media agencies and one to my local member of parliament. If AOL thinks I am going to sit quietly and let them bully me, they are wrong!! Am on hold now (for past 25 minutes) waiting for AOL to pick up the phone. I’ll let them know what I’m doing and see if that makes a difference. If not, then tomorrow when my various emails get answered will be a completely different story. By the way, the email address is for a law firm. Mentioned this in my earlier call to rep “Steve” at AOL today and he wasn’t perturbed. Ahhh, but he should be. Certainly his supervisor will be interested in what he had to say. Sure hope they recorded the call (as their pre-recorded message indicated was possible before he answered). Oops Steve, should’ve watched what you said and canceled the account like I asked.
Still on hold…
AHHHHHH!!!
Been trying to cancel our AOL account for the past couple years {since June 2006). It’s an old business account and people still send us the occasional important email. Wish it would bounce back to them so they’d send it to the account we use and check regularly.
Overall I’ve spent 5-6 hours trying to cancel this.
I just got off the phone with them (800 827-6364)and they advised me IT IS NOT POSSIBLE to cancel your account. I mentioned it is an old email address for a law firm and that we need the account canceled and are prepared to take legal action. “Good luck” I was told.
Thanks dave
Why would anyone write something like, “Could you please cancel my account?” on this comment board? ? ?
Thanks to you all for providing your info. Today I cancelled my AOL. I called one of the #’s listed above, 800 827-6364, and they told me I was cancelled. they tried to sell more, but I had already signed up and was receiving service from another. In addition, I printed off the sheet for cancellation of service, typed up a little note formally telling AOL that they are no longer authorized to pull ACH or electronic payment from my checking account. I faxed oth sheets to the # provided. I may be niave, but so far, so good. I believe I am good. Thanks for your info.
I want to cancel my aol account
Thanks
I am not happy that you raised your fees. Also the rates Have gone up from $9.99 to 11.99. Plus I also have free Broadband through my cable service.
Cordially yours,
Terry D. Moss
oh a question if i delete my aol account will i lose all my old emails and saved things…its four years of highschool memories….that were forced to be on aol??? any info would be appreciated
if i delete my aol account will i lose all my old emails and saved things…its four years of highschool memories….that were forced to be on aol??? any info would be appreciated
wow you people who received actual billing statements are lucky. i regret ever getting aol as a teenager. They would only allow me to put it on my dads credit card bill in 2004 and since then they have been charging him despite the fact that in 2005 i did not have internet service for close to six months. I tried to call them and there was never an answer to the number i had been given. Now i have finally called again thanks to this site i hope it goes well. 29.95 down the drain for 4 years….i guess i deserve it for letting them bully me around
I don’t want this e-mail account anymore i don’t
know the password.
I hate AOL. OMG. I spent 2 hours on the phone with them they kept telling me I dont have an email when I do!!!!!! This is impossible. I called the automated number and none of my info would would so I just kept saying HELP HELP finally I get to a live person who is even worse than the automated machine! AHHHHHHH! I have never been so frustrated! Finally after 2 hours on the phone they told me to call this number because I actually have a AIM- free aol account that does not show up on their computers….
1 800 279 3192
pLEASE CANCEL MY ACCOUNT i THINK AOL DOES NOT MEET MY NEEDS THANKS PLEASE CANCEL
Thanks for the info! I called the number, talked to a really nice guy and my account was cancelled within 11 minutes. (Well, I guess it wasn’t cancelled outright… sounds like it was switched to the free aol, so I get to keep my aol email address, which I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t used in about 2 years).
Cancel now – it’s so much easier!
I’ve just been able to cancel my aol on line, I think. I went to my home page & signed in, then I went to “contact us.” It led me to a live tech support window that I clicked on & I got a live operator. I’ve copied the instructions I was given which I’ll now paste here.
1. Please launch another external browser such as Internet Explorer and go to cancel.aol.com (If this address doesn’t work, try cancelling from your home page.)
2. Under Frequently Asked Questions, please select number 4 Question (or Number 5 Question).
3. A new window will appear, and you just need to click the HERE Link under “Click here to send an electronic Cancellation of Paid Membership and Conversion to Free Service request.” statement.
4. Please log in by entering your AOL screen name and password.
5. Provide the answer to your master screen name Account Security Question. (I didn’t have to do this step, but I did have to type in my name, st. address, city & state, my evening telephone # & type in my signature at the bottom of the form.)
6. Lastly, fill up the form and click on SUBMIT.
Those are the steps that you need to perform. You should be all set. (After I hit “submit,” I got a notice telling me that my cancellation request was submitted & that it takes 72 hours to process. We’ll see what happens. I did all this in about 10 minutes.)