Anti-AOL

Here's a comment left by a visitor on my AOL Customer Service Phone Numbers and Contact Info page, who writes that by calling 703-265-1000 and leaving a voice mail message, he or she was "miraculously" able to cancel AOL:

After reading this web site I was finally able to cancel AOL and get them to cancel the continued billing for AOL. I'd had AOL for years but when my bank account was compromised and I got a new Visa number I was unwilling to give the number to a person in Romania who barely spoke English.

When I offered to give the number to someone in the US they refused. At that time I tried to cancel AOL. I was being billed monthly service fees but blocked from using AOL. As the monthly charges continued to increase the "total due", I was unable to cancel and convince them I had not been using AOL since they had blocked my usage.

Finally thru this site I called ....703-265-1000 and left a message on a voice mail. Miraculously I received a letter canceling all charges and finally terminating AOL.

Never give your full credit or debit card number to an AOL call rep.

You can change the way you pay for your AOL account online; visit this page for instructions. It's better to keep your credit or debit card number to yourself, especially if you don't feel "safe" passing it along to a rep in the first place.

All the same, the US rep should have at least asked for the last four digits on the customer's debit card to confirm the billing method for the account, and from there should have canceled the account when asked to.

This customer was also blocked from using AOL. My take on it is the last call rep knew that the billing was in question and decided the account may have been compromised, too, so the customer got TOSed simply to protect the account.

Since the customer was still being billed monthly for a locked-down, unusable account, there was no choice except to contact someone higher-up at AOL; in this case, that meant calling AOL Corporate (the Corporate headquarters have moved from Virginia to New York in the last year; I assume calls are being re-routed to the new Corporate office).

I'm glad this story had a happy ending - but if you're having your own problems canceling AOL, please let me know.

AOL Phone Numbers & Contact Info for US & International Callers

Updated 6-30-08, 11-10-08, 6-30-09, 7-26-09, 10-20-09 and 11-22-09.

Today (11-22-09) I personally called every AOL phone number on this page except for those in England, Europe and Australia. Once every year or so I call these numbers and AOL phone numbers on other websites to keep this list up-to-date. AOL constantly shuffles their phone numbers around and often disconnects or reroutes them, so this sort of "in-the-field" work, sadly enough, is still very necessary.

If any US or non-US AOL phone numbers suddenly no longer work or if dedicated phone lines for certain departments suddenly reroute to general numbers, or if you find more phone numbers and addresses for AOL that are not listed here, please let me know.

Cancel AOL By Telephone, Online Cancel Form, Fax or Snail Mail in the US

General Member Services in the US, toll-free 8:00 am-2:00 am, 7 days a week:

• AOL Member Services in English
  1-800-466-5463, 1-800-827-3338, 1-800-827-6364, 1-877-773-4462, 1-888-265-8001, 1-888-265-8004, 1-888-265-8007, 1-888-265-8008, 1-888-346-3704, 1-888-849-3200
• AOL en Español (Estadas Unitas soledad)
  1-800-771-7084 and 1-888-265-1111
• Hearing-Impaired AOL Members - TTY Service
  1-800-759-3323
• Cancel AOL US With the Online Cancel Form
  Cancel Form Link and Instructions
• Cancel AOL By Fax in the US
  1-703-433-7283 (VA) and 1-703-466-9225 (VA)
• Cancel AOL US By Snail-Mail Letter
  Write to: AOL LLC, PO Box 65100 Sterling, VA 20165-8800. Cancellations should be processed within 72 hours of receipt. Include the following info: Your full name, master screen name, last four digits of the credit card, debit card or bank account number used to pay for AOL, and day and evening contact telephone numbers.
• Complain to AOL US Corporate, 9am to 6pm Eastern Time, Monday thru Friday
  1-703-265-1000 (an ex-AOL subscriber reports "miraculous" success canceling AOL with this number)

Dedicated Phone Numbers for AOL Members in the US

• AOL Fraud Dept.
  Report Unauthorized Account Use, Unauthorized Billing, Hacked Accounts
  1-800-307-7969
• Mobile Help
  1-866-265-3019
• Reactivate a canceled account - will reroute if you need a different dept.
  1-888-265-4042 and 1-800-381-4006
• Access Numbers
  1-888-265-8005
• Email Issues - Postmaster at AOL
  6-30-09: AOL has redirected the phone number for "Postmaster at AOL" to "AOL Premium Features and Services". The "Postmaster at AOL" department no longer exists, so you can't reach it by publicly available phone numbers or email addresses anymore, which I confirmed by speaking to three different (American!) call reps who answered at the number tonight. If you're a webmaster with AOL email issues, the only form of support AOL provides now is a link-list of online tools. Yippee.

Send Complaints to AOL (US Customers)

AOL LLC
Attn: Heidi Jongquist, Program Director
Regulatory Order Compliance
PO Box 65571
Sterling, VA 20165-8806

Ms. Jongquist no longer has a working public phone number.

Cancel AOL By Telephone, Online Contact Form, Fax or Snail-Mail Letter In the UK

Member Services in the UK

• UK General (including technical support)
  0117 919 1100, 0844 499 5555
• Cancel AOL UK With the Online Cancel Form
  AOL UK Online Cancel Form
• How to Cancel AOL UK Broadband
  How to Cancel Membership - AOL UK Info Page
• Cancel AOL by Fax in the UK
  0870 320 2016
• Cancel AOL UK By Snail-Mail Letter
  Write to: Cancellations Department, c/o Member Services, AOL Broadband, PO Box 387,Southampton, SO30 9AL. Cancellations should be processed within 72 hours of receipt. Include the following info: Your full name, master screen name, last four digits of the credit card, debit card or bank account number used to pay for AOL, and day and evening contact telephone numbers.
• All Callers Outside of the UK
  +44 117 919 1100, +44 117 329 9100

Send Complaints to AOL (UK Customers)

AOL UK Broadband Users
How to File a Formal Complaint

Cancel AOL by Telephone in France, Germany, Australia and Canada

Member Services in France

• 0-800-903-910, 0892 02 03 04

Member Services in Germany

• 0-180-531-3164

Member Services in Australia 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week (Customer Service, Cancellations, Billing & Sales):

• 1 800 265 265

Member Services in Canada

• 1-800-265-4357

Cancel AOL By Telephone Internationally

• All International Callers (toll call)
  1-703-264-1184 and +(61 3) 9923 4861

If you're here to get a phone number to cancel AOL, you may also be interested to know how to cancel AOL online, how to file a complaint against AOL, how to uninstall AOL, or you may just want to catch up on some news about AOL.

All I Know About How to Cancel AOL

Here's everything in the known universe about how to cancel AOL. As of July 2007, US residents can also cancel AOL online (the link shows you how).

How to File a Complaint Against AOL

You might be on this page because AOL won't stop billing you after you cancel. In that case, you'll want to file a complaint against AOL (this link gives you the help you need).

Your best bet is to file your complaint with the BBB. Read how filing a complaint with the BBB helped one of my readers get nearly $1000 back from AOL.

See my How-to Section to find more ways to get AOL out of your life.

Note: If you are trying to access help@aol.com, you might have trouble if you put www. in front of the web address. Try this instead: help.aol.com.

Updated 6-30-08.

Almost any complaint against AOL can be resolved if you keep good records and stay on top of it. Important: Keep a paper trail with notes about what was said during phone calls, hang onto cancellation confirmation letters and/or bills received after you cancel and tape calls to AOL. Your best bet is to then file a complaint with the BBB and with the FTC.

Your paper trail should include:

• Time and date of your call.
• Master Account screen names you're canceling.
• Names, email addresses, clock numbers and/or shift numbers of reps and supervisors you spoke to and brief notes about what was said.
• Your cancellation confirmation number. If you don't have one but you did try to cancel you can still file a complaint.
• Any reason reps and/or supervisors gave you for refusing to cancel your account.

You should also have on hand:

• Copies of letters asking them to cancel your account.
• Copies of any audiotapes of your calls to them.
• Your cancellation confirmation letter. Expect one within 2-10 days of your phone call or letter; if it doesn't show up you can still file a complaint.

The BBB resolves most complaints they get about AOL (see this BBB Reliability Report for stats) but won't enforce law or impose fines or sanctions, so don't contact the BBB hoping they'll file a lawsuit.

You'll see their complaint form asks, "What steps would you like the company to take to resolve this situation?" Tell them you don't want AOL to resolve it with free service, reduced rates, or anything else. State you simply want your account canceled, then list any refund AOL owes you for any sort of over-billing.

The FTC is also good to complain to, but make sure you complain to the BBB first because the FTC won't step in on a case-by-case basis. If the FTC gets enough complaints about AOL, they are likely to file suit on everyone's behalf, as they've done before.

You can (and you really should) also file a complaint with your state attorney general's office. They can get your account canceled and get your money back for you, too. This page gives you addresses for attorney generals in all 50 states. It's come to my attention that any state that gets "enough" complaints about AOL may take action (that is, they may file a lawsuit) in the future.

You can also use this contact info to file a complaint against AOL:

AOL LLC
Attn: Heidi Jongquist, Program Director
Regulatory Order Compliance
PO Box 65571
Sterling, VA 20165-8806

Further Reading: See my How-to Section for more ways to get AOL out of your life.