AOL, advise on ending membership

[tealady]

i have been a member of AOL for 10 years, and i have changed to a new provider, how does one end the membership????

 

i understand you can keep the E mail address, which is fine, but if i had to give that up also, it would not be a problem.

 

does one just call them?

 

thank you for your help, i know someone here will have the answer.

[Guest Merlin]

I did it several years ago. I don't remember how BUT I have the confirmation back from AOLAccountMgmt@aol.com. It says to learn about the free service go to Keyword "Discover AOL"or daol.aol.com

Or call member services at 1-800-381-4006.

Some or all of this may have changed by now.

[fedssocr1]

if you are using the AOL software you should be able to just go to keyword "billing" and there ought to be an option there to cancel. Or you can just select the "free" option which allows you to keep your email address and pay nothing. I switched to that plan a long time ago.

[Samai139]

If you can't find "billing" on your AOL homepage---go to Help---last on the right on the toolbar---if you open that up, billing will appear. I would suggest you do it that way. Phoning AOL and canceling your account can take a while--maybe it has changed in the last two years, but when my brother tried to do it after his wife died, it took him forever---AOL reps didn't want to be the ones to end an account---not sure why.

[Guest Tristan]

You can go to the billing page and switch to a free membership. You can still keep everything - email screen names, favorites etc. You can also continue to launch your AOL software. The free membership will begin on your next billing date. I did this about a year ago with no problem.

 

The only thing you lose is access to free tech support, phone and online. Most people would not consider that a loss!

[+ Lucky]

Let us know how easy/or not it is to cancel. Years ago AOL was notorious for making it hard to cancel, and employees were judged by their retention levels. When I called, I just told the guy flat out that nothing he would offer would keep my business, so it went smoothly for me.

[OneFinger]

Good Luck Canceling

 

Let us know how easy/or not it is to cancel. Years ago AOL was notorious for making it hard to cancel, and employees were judged by their retention levels...

 

My nephew used to work at AOHell and I can confirm that they made it difficult (almost impossible) to cancel.

 

Just be careful not to be too caustic with the person on the other end of the phone. My nephew told me he knew co-workers that would tell the customer anything and then NOT cancel the account if they pissed them off. They were nice on the phone but stuck it to you later.

 

A local TV station recently did a consumer advocate report on AOHell. They received several complaints from viewers that couldn't get their account canceled. The news reporter eventually got them canceled but warned people to get all cancellation notifications in writing. In one instance, the viewer actually had to close her bank account because they kept taking out the money after the account was supposed to be canceled.

 

Good luck.

[ted]

I thought I cancelled in January, but they claimed I didn't. Ended up doing it on the phone and getting the credit card company involved. As of right now I should not be paying anything to aol. I did keep my aol email accounts as I've had them forever and that seems to work well. But using anything else of theirs is not in the foreseeable future

[+ ArVaGuy]

One more thing, after you get your AOL cancellation in writing, hold on to it and file it with your important papers. AOL is infamous for turning legitimately cancelled accounts over to collection agents. This happend to me in the mid 1990's and it was a headache getting the mess straightend out with the credit agencies. AOL still engaged in this practice as recent as 2006 when a friend of mine went through the same rigmarole.