I finally won my battle against American Online. I called them today and had about a 15 minute argument with the sales guy as he tried to argue that since I wasn't paying for the account for one month I should wait until OCT18th to call and cancel. However, if I waited until the 19th, I'd be billed for the next month. I just kept repeating over an over "I don't care if it is free. I'm not using it, I don't want it, I want to cancel my account." I think the highlight was when he told me "Don't get upset. Have a glass of water. Have a glass of water." In reality I found the whole thing both frustrating and amusing. The other highlight was when I told him "I go to a school that is like a prison." I think that finally conviced him to allow me to cancel the account. Afterwords, Alyson said the whole conversatin sounded like a nightmarer, and she couldn't believe they were doing that to me.