(A reader asked me today why I hadn’t posted anything about AOL’s consumption of Huffington Post, given that it’s a new media story and that I’m also a HuffPo blogger. The reason is that I immediately tossed up the following piece into my HuffPo queue, curious to see if they’d publish it. Well… its been languishing for more than 24 hours, so the answer is probably “no”… so here ya go:)

I know what this is really about.

I was an aol subscriber a long time ago. I don’t even remember how long ago – at least 12 years or so. But I do remember what it was like when I tried to cancel my account. Aol wouldn’t let me.

At the time, I thought I’d just wandered into crazyland. Since then, of course, there were the media reports and lawsuits over the incentives and elaborate schemes within the company to keep subscribers from cancelling and even billing them fraudulently, so I was hardly the only one engaged in that particular dance.

In my case, I’d tell the fellow on the phone I wanted to cancel, he’d make offer after offer to keep me, but I was done. No hard feelings, it was just time for something else. But he was having none of it. I’d ask to talk to his supervisor, and get left on hold for vast stretches before the desperate-sounding fellow would return and tell me his supervisor wasn’t available. One time, he tried to pretend he was the supervisor, as I recall.

At any rate, it took a lot of calls, threats, and minutes of life wasted, but we were finally off the hook. Our relationship was over.

Or was it? To what lengths are they really willing to go to get their hooks back into me?

I know what this is really all about. This is all part of that master plan, spreading into its third decade, to keep me from cancelling.

Well it won’t work, I tell you.

Arianna, I want to talk to you supevisor.