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Impossible to cancel AWS – must pay them forever for zombie services?

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Impossible to cancel AWS – must pay them forever for zombie services?

#1
I had a business that used AWS which shutdown over two years ago. I am NOT a developer. I've tried repeatedly to shutdown services on AWS and stop the bleeding. I've contacted support and they give me the run-around. One of the key issues is that there is a sub-organization linked to my account which has some invalid user email addresses linked to it. However, AWS policy is that I must migrate these accounts and provide a valid credit card for them! This is impossible because they aren't real addresses. AWS under no circumstances will shut down my account on my behalf, but it is impossible to satisfy the conditions of cancelability... I asked the support rep then if I must pay monthly charges forever and got the standard BS response. This seems like a criminal racket... Anyway, I canceled my credit card and am wiping my hands of it. The monthly bill is down to $30 or so. Will they come after me for this? Somebody should start a class-action lawsuit to end this crazy practice. They literally make it impossible to cancel an account under some circumstances.

Re: Impossible to cancel AWS – must pay them forever for zombie services?

#4
Amazon rightly is very careful about closing accounts. This is why you have had a hard time thus far. When you say “invalid email accounts”, what do you mean? Are they perhaps addresses on a domain that you control? If so, it’s a very simple fix. You just re-create those addresses, then go through the “forgot password” process to regain access to those accounts.

If the addresses are on a domain that you do not control, well, that’s a lesson learned for you I think. In this case, you’ll need to continue working with support to explore what can be done.

Re: Impossible to cancel AWS – must pay them forever for zombie services?

#6
post #4

Amazon rightly is very careful about closing accounts. This is why you have had a hard time thus far. When you say “invalid email accounts”, what do you mean? Are they perhaps addresses on a domain that you control? If so, it’s a very simple fix. You just re-create those addresses, then go through the “forgot password” process to regain access to those accounts. If the addresses are on a domain that you do not contro…

We faced a similar problem with consultants on an old AWS account that had become obsolete. A week of back-and-forth with support ensued as we tried to figure out how to close the account. The process seemed excessively complicated since the only way to remove the consultants, who were merely members and not admins, required them to add a billing method first. It felt unreasonable.

Ultimately, we were able to close the account with the consultants' cooperation.

I get your point that it's wise to remove consultants promptly after their contract concludes, and I agree. However, this doesn't take away from the fact that AWS's account closing policies appear to be less than user-friendly.

Re: Impossible to cancel AWS – must pay them forever for zombie services?

#7
post #4

Amazon rightly is very careful about closing accounts. This is why you have had a hard time thus far. When you say “invalid email accounts”, what do you mean? Are they perhaps addresses on a domain that you control? If so, it’s a very simple fix. You just re-create those addresses, then go through the “forgot password” process to regain access to those accounts. If the addresses are on a domain that you do not contro…

No they’re not. I once had an unpaid bill of something like $1.36 from AWS. They shut that down and banned the whole account. I can never again use AWS with that email address lol.

Re: Impossible to cancel AWS – must pay them forever for zombie services?

#8
In the parent org account go to https://us-east-1.console.aws.amazon.com/organizations/v2/ho... and you can delete the child account and you should just be on the hook for the 90 days closure period. I think you can also just disassociate (revoke the invitation or similar) the account from the same place.
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