After being a member of Airplane Owner and Pilot’s Association for more than 12 years, today I finally got around to canceling my membership. I first joined AOPA when I started seriously considering taking flying lessons in the early summer of 1999. Of course, I began my lessons later that summer and got my license on April 3, 2000. I flew on and off until 9/11 after which flying became more complicated and I couldn’t fly frequently enough to stay current. I maintained my membership over the next decade because AOPA is a good¬†organization, but also because I worked hard to get my pilot’s license, and being a member of AOPA was a reminder of what I had achieved.
But the truth is, I almost never use its services any more. They produce a great magazine that I receive monthly and end up tossing almost right away because I have no time to read it. (The last few months, I’ve been giving the magazine to the Little Man because he likes the pictures of the airplanes.) So I called them this morning, expecting the customer service¬†representative to talk my out of my cancellation. In truth, the conversation went much like this:
Customer service: How can we help you today?
Me: I’d like to cancel my membership as of my next renewal.
CS: Okay, are you no longer flying?
Me: Not for ten years now.
CS: I understand. I’ve taking you off automatic renewals and your membership will end at the end of July.
Me: Great, thank you.
CS: Have a nice day.
It’s bittersweet, of course. I was (and am) very proud of the fact that I became a pilot. But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.
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Are you required to “call” to cancel membership/auto renewal? I have looked and looked and looked and looked for a way to do it on the member site and they have kept it hidden or haven’t even provided a way to cancel memberships. I’d rather do things over an email or the web but they do not provide any email support what so ever.
You would think they would make it available on your member account such as “Cancel Membership” or “Cancel Auto-Renewal” but I guess they want to make it as difficult as possible so hopefully you just give up and they keep deducting $70 annually.
Thanks
Ha,
I actually just looked up a bogus credit card account and updated my credit card on file so that it doesn’t point to my direct debit account any more. That way, next time they go to auto-renew……take THAT suckerrrrs!!!
I’m sorry I had to resort to this, but I cannot stand incomplete customer service. Every other web resource on the net, provides easy to use links for canceling their services. I don’t understand why AOPA is behind in that aspect.
Chris, I did call because I couldn’t find any other way to cancel my membership. But they were very friendly on the phone when I did call.