While I’m on the topic of brain-dead ISP’s, it appears that AOL’s cancellation tactics have finally gotten it into hot water.  They are now agreeing to mend their ways:

Under the agreement, which was filed by Texas and 48 other states, AOL must provide its customers a simple online cancellation method (http://cancel.aol.com). The attorneys general took legal action after AOL customers complained about difficulty and confusion when they attempted to cancel their AOL paid services. In the future, AOL must record and verify telephone calls between AOL customer service representatives and customers calling to cancel their accounts. AOL must also resolve outstanding customer complaints and provide refunds to consumers who complained since Jan. 2005 of unauthorized service charges or improper billing.

I suppose it remains to be seen if this actually pans out.  But then AOL is getting out of the ISP business anyway, so perhaps they anticipate lots of cancellations and would have done this anyway.