MySpace Won’t Let Me Delete My Account

All I wanted to do was delete my MySpace account.

I never use it any more, and most everyone that is my friend on there is on Facebook.

I seriously have absolutely no need for MySpace.

The only thing I ever get from MySpace is spam in my inbox, and spam friend requests (stupid promotion things, you know what I’m talking about, bands and tv shows).

Every time this happens, I get an email. Every time I get an email, my phone says “You’ve got mail”.

Even at 4am.

I have to leave the volume on the phone turned up for emergencies, since it’s my only phone. I need my emails on there because I work in the IT industry, and instant emails are required for my job.

So I’ve decided to cancel my MySpace account, and in turn, have entered the seventh circle of hell.

Let me walk you through a pictorial of what is happening for me.

Simple enough, right? One button. Cancel.

Ok, let’s do this.

I click.

It asks me why.

Ok, it doesn’t really matter why, if I want it, give it to me. I try to answer truthfully. Click cancel again.

Then, the popup.

Yes, I’m aware. I still don’t want it. I don’t want to deal with the account any more.

I click cancel again (3rd time clicking cancel, keep track)

Ok, now you want me to physically type out my reason for leaving? Didn’t I just answer this? It won’t let me cancel without typing anything.

I answer honestly. Click cancel again. (that’s 4 times now)

Ok, it looks like we’re getting somewhere now. This should be as simply as clicking a confirmation link in the email they sent me, right?

Ok, there it is. Clear as day. It says just click to confirm, and it’s gone within 48 hours. Can do!

Ok, it wants me to type and confirm my email address. I don’t see the point, but ok.

Wait, what? Doesn’t MATCH?

What part of it doesn’t damn match?

I proceed to attempt the same process another 4 times. Every time telling me that my email address is not my email address, when it clearly is. There is no alternative emails or contact methods on my account, only this.

Finally, I decided to contact MySpace help and support, which was hard enough on its own to track down. Of course there is no help online for my solution, so I am forced to email them. I do so unhappily.

I am very clear and concise about my demands. It is clear I am unhappy. This should get them off their asses, right?

Time to go to bed and relax. I’ll worry about it tomorrow when they email me back.

—————

8:50am, Friday morning – Phone goes off… You’ve got mail!

I awake to the sound of the phone with a massive headache still left over from the night before of attempting fruitlessly to delete my MySpace account. I check my inbox, and it’s from MySpace, it appears to be an answer!

Ok, I don’t get why they couldn’t just send the message in the email instead of making me click a link, but ok, I’ll click. Note the line about their assumption the issue is resolved if they don’t hear back from you…

Ok, clicking link, let’s move on with this…

…

…..

…….

Really?

So now, I am stuck in infinite loop hell trying to delete my MySpace account.

Instead of just raging and destroying something, and ranting to my Facebook friends about how much I hate MySpace, I am doing something productive.

I am documenting the fact that it is, in fact, IMPOSSIBLE to delete a MySpace account right now.

This is a violation of something, and I know it, so I am making it public with my proof. I am sending this article to anyone who might be willing to run the story or link here.

And especially, I am sending it to MySpace.

UPDATE 3/18/11

After writing this post, putting around the web, and notifying MySpace of it, they actually came through and offered to manually delete my profile, but only after jumping through some hoops to do it. (They asked me to log in to my profile and erase all the text content, to “prove” I had access to it…)

They tell me now that it will be removed within 72 hours. Let’s wait and see.

UPDATE 3/22/11

A big thanks to “The Consumerist” for posting this story, I love what you guys do, and yours is the RSS feed I pay the most attention to.

MySpace has finally deleted my account, for good.