This is not encouraging. On Black friday last year, I bought a laptop and AOL was running a promotion that would give me a $250 additional discount if I signed up for AOL service. Since I was planning on starting a trial for dial-up, anyway, to allow me connectivity when I was on vacation the following week, I took it with the "bring your own broadband" account. The catch was that I was/am obligated for 1 year. My logic: $14.95/mo for 12 months = $179.40. They were giving me a $250 discount on my purchase. that spells PROFIT to me. So I took it.
I haven't really planned on keeping the service after the year is up, so sometime around December I will call to have it ended. I hope my call is not this difficult.