AOL is the tip of the can't cancel iceberg.

[Swede]

That AOL agreed to pay $3 million to settle complaints relating to difficulties its customers had canceling service and receiving refunds is hardly a victory for consumers in the long run. AOL is just one company in an online sea of firms that make it hard to cancel a subscription service.

I know this first hand. Back in December 2006 PC World I wrote a story Just Cancel the @#%$* Account!.

For the story I signed up for and then canceled 32 subscription accounts, each at a different site. About a third of the services in my sample made the seemingly simple goal of canceling very difficult.

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004881.html

[swag]

1. Nice post.

Doing business with so many entities is akin to stepping in insoluble shit, one wonders what was so bad about the mud huts.

[riverdale]

2. dcy

I read that article! Good to know you are a member of DU. I like PC World, but one thing that bugs me about that magazine is how many articles refer you back to the web. Even some stories say there are longer versions or more details on the web.
I would think that most people reading a magazine are not in front of a computer.
Sorry to complain to you, I know that's the magazine and not your fault. Nice article, nice topic.
Thanks

[ThomCat]

3. I remember reading that article.

It's amazing that they they can't be more easily sued for that kind of behavior. x(

[astral]

4. I remember the horror of trying to quit AOL

It was like being in an effing nightmare. ARGUING with me over it on the phone, acting like they're powerless to grant my request .. AAAARGH anyways I got out of it by closing my bank account thanks to one very rare savvy bright helpful teller who wanted to help me and was smart enough to know how. They sent me threatening letters after that telling me how they were unable to get my money. Un-Believable.

All you have to do is not subscribe to anything that requires automatic payments through your bank account. AOL probably lied to me when they told me that was the only way to do it, too, as I was very stupid about such things back then . . . so stupid I had a dingy boyfriend talk me into subscribing with them in the first place and he didn't even help me pay for any of it.

Aaah, to be young and stupid again . . . .

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. I had no trouble canceling AOL. I just canceled my CC. End of story.

:-)

[truedelphi]

6. I found it so difficult to cancel MCI that I gave up

They let you go to a number and you are forcefed
elevator music for hours and then when someone answers
and you explain you are moving and need to cancel, they ahng up.

[BlooInBloo]

7. Do people still belong to AOL? Guess PT Barnum was right.

[HughBeaumont]

8. Yeah, let's get slow internet with five tons of unnecessary resource-hogging crapware installed.

Sign ME up.