If you're stuck with the problem now, at least we can try to help you avoid having the same problem again.

By far, the most important thing when looking at an ISP is to check out who they are. Many ISPs (including those listed in this directory) are nothing but one guy working out of his home, with a virtual ISP account who runs the charges through a merchant account.

Checklist:

• Does the ISP show a business address on their web site?
  If you don't have a business address and a way to make his life miserable until you get your account closed, it may be a long time before you get the situation resolved

• Does the ISP have a toll-free number?
  If the phone call is on their dime, they are motivated to get you to stop calling. If you're paying long distance charges, they'll have no problem putting you on hold for an hour until you get tired of waiting, and burn up more in phone bills than the ISP account costs.
• Does the ISP have an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) or a TOS (Terms of Service) document online?
  If not, they may make up the rules as they go along and hit you with cancellation fees or other fabricated charges. Are you given the opportunity to view this document BEFORE you had to give them your payment information?

Reading the TOS/AUP:

Okay, you're used to just clicking "I agree" to those software licenses when you install new programs, so you figure all ISP contracts are alike, so it is just boooreing to read the document. If you don't read it before you agree to it, you can be sure the ISP will hold you to its language, and if your situation ever gets to small claims court, the ISP will raise the language in the TOS/AUP as their defense and will probably win.

Some ISPs present the AUP/TOS text in a small scroll box that only shows a few lines at a time. This is a major warning sign as it both prevents you from printing the document (which you should consider doing), and from easily reading the text in its context. The obvious reason an ISP presents the TOS/AUP in this fashion is to discourage you from reading it.

On the cancellation topic, the most important thing to look for is the paragraph describing the requirements to cancel an account. Here are some real life examples with the important text highlighted in red.

Example 1:

Your [ISP] account(s) will be considered delinquent if your credit card company refuses payment of amounts billed to it and if not received after thirty days of the next billing cycle. Account(s) are also considered delinquent if payment is not received in full by your billing date. Accounts which are delinquent may be suspended, archived or terminated from the [ISP] system. Suspended accounts will continue to accrue late charges until reinstated or properly cancelled, even if the account is not being used by you, the account holder. You are responsible for any account opened by you until payment is made in full.

Example 2:

"If user has prepaid on the account then user understands that prepayment constitutes a contract and [ISP] will purchase services for that user for the prepaid time. If user cancels prior to the renewal date then user understands and accepts that the prepaid amount is forfeited to [ISP] for services purchased on behalf of User.
[...]
If cancellation is processed via telephone or email, User understands it is User's responsibility to request a cancellation code. This cancellation code is your guarantee that there are to be no more charges made to your account. User understands that if User does not have a cancellation code then attempts to charge back or dishonor any legitimate charges will be treated as a returned item and processed accordingly.

If User abandons account, charges will continue to accumulate until [ISP] discontinues the account or until cancellation procedures have been followed."

The second item is related to the first - in many situations, the paycheck or the continued employment of the person you will be talking with may be based on the percentage of people that talk out of canceling their account. Be prepared to receive offers of freebies or upgrades. Especially with the big guys (like AOL), they would rather let you use the service for another month for free, rather than lose a subscriber from their books.

Assuming that you really do want to leave, and are not just fishing for freebies, it's important to make sure that you have a record of the cancellation transaction. Otherwise, it could be a matter of your word against their word. There have been examples in the past where an ISP "forgets" to cancel your account, hoping that you aren't watching the credit card bill. Here is our recommended method to cancel an ISP account:

1. Always ask for a confirmation number. If they say they don't give such things, ask that they email you a confirmation of the cancellation request. (of course, if they are immediately closing the account, they'll have to send the email to another email address)

2. If they won't give you a written confirmation, ask for the name (or employee number) of the person who took your cancellation request to help document your request in case there is a problem. Note the date and time you talked with the person. If they refuse to give you a name or ID number, ask to speak to their supervisor. If there is no supervisor (They're all in a meeting, it's their day off, blah blah blah) and/or nobody at the ISP will provide any identifying information, that's a big red flag, and at that point you should no longer give them the benefit of the doubt of being honorable business people. Assume the worst.

3. When you're hit with the counter-offers, be very clear that you DO want to close the account. If you try to be overly polite and respond with a vague response like "Hmmm that's interesting" or "Well, I'll have to think about that", you're leaving open the defense that they "misunderstood" what you wanted.

4. Unless you really have a strong need to keep the account open until the end of the billing period, ask that the account be deactivated immediately. Most ISPs have the ability to terminate the account online. Once the account has been disabled, send yourself an email and make sure it is returned to sender as "No such user". This will prove that the account was disabled on that date at that time.

   If you go with the suggestion "We'll keep the account open until the end of the month", you risk having them "forget" to close the account or someone come along later and reopen the account. If you decide to keep the account open until the end of the billing cycle, check one more time when the account should have been canceled to confirm that they didn't "forget".

5. If you did everything right, and the ISP still charged you beyond what they had a right to (Be sure to read the Terms of Service - you may have agreed to a 30 day notice requirement), ask your credit card company to reverse the charge. By now, you should have the documentation of when you called, who you talked with, and a confirmation number as evidence of your position. Contesting a credit card charge must always be done in writing.

   An ISP with a pattern of many chargebacks will quickly have problems finding anyone who wants their credit card business. If you paid by debit card, you may find that your bank will not reverse the charge. If your bank cannot block future charges from the ISP to your debit card, you may have to ask the bank to issue you a new card with a new number. If the bank refuses to help you, you might have to end up closing the account and switching to a new bank. Keep this in mind before you sign up with a debit card.

6. Ask if the ISP will forward your email after you close the account. Some ISPs will do this as a courtesy to avoid the disruption to your email, while you're notifying your friends and contacts. The smart ISPs know that some portion of the people who leave will discover that the grass isn't really greener at that other ISP, or that "bargain" ISP had a few problems that you didn't anticipate, and that you may want to come back in the future. It doesn't pay to make your ex-customers angry, and forwarding email is simple and inexpensive to do.

   Even better is to open a bigfoot account - you just forward your email to your new ISP and don't have to reprint your business cards.