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Sooner or later we just knew it had to come to an end.

In a story that was first broken by Albuquerque Tribune Reporter Erik Siemers on Oct. 18, AOL's announcement that it was laying off 900 local call-center employees came sooner than expected.

For about the last 17 years, AOL has been charging for e-mail service and Internet access through its portal. In about a decade, the company went from cutting edge to over the edge in terms of how well its business model worked in the face of intense competition, where customers found the same basic services everywhere else for free.

I've been a paying member of AOL since the early Õ90s. Sooner or later I knew I would stop paying the monthly fee and end my membership.

Two months ago I canceled the credit card that was the automatic vehicle for my monthly AOL membership. I started using Google's free Gmail service, which is superior to AOL in many ways. I never signed a contract with AOL, so I just assumed my membership would end when payment stopped.

So I was a little surprised when an odd-looking telephone number showed up on my cell phone. A man with an unrecognizable accent, who was barely able to converse beyond the English cheat sheet that was obviously in front of him, identified himself as an AOL collections representative and asked when I was going to pay the $19.90 outstanding balance on my AOL account.

I told him I closed the credit card the company had access to for billing and that I wanted to cancel my membership. He told me I was eligible for free AOL service, but I needed to pay my balance. We argued. We fought.

"OK, I'll pay it!" I finally said.

"I need a credit card number," he said. "No way. You called me, and I don't know who you are," I said. "Then I need your check routing number," he said. "No way," I said.

He finally agreed to send me an invoice and gave me another number to call to cancel my membership. For the next 6 minutes and 49 seconds, I battled with an electronic voice for the right to talk to a real person in the cancellation department. I finally was released from the audio maze only to be told, "I'm sorry, sir. I can't cancel your membership because there is an outstanding balance on your account."

I was given another number to call. This time I would be dealing with a member of the AOL Care Team. I explained the situation with sweat pouring from every gland, breathless from exasperation, hoping I had finally reached the highest level of this seemingly endless, insane nightmare.

"Cindy" (I think it was a fake name to give the impression she was in America) informed me in the most polite broken English possible that she had the authority to waive my $19.90 outstanding balance because I was eligible for AOL's new free basic e-mail service.

"Thank you, oh, thank you," I cried. The only condition of course was that I continue on as an AOL member - for free. "Yes, yes. I'll do it," I begged.

If anyone knows where I can find an AOL abusers support group, please let me know. Maybe someday I'll have the strength and conviction to try and quit again. I tried to quit once. I really did. Oh, how I tried!.

Bullington is a senior policy adviser for the Brownstein, Hyatt and Farber law firm. He welcomes comments at jdbullingtongmail.com.