[anderiv]

Amazon rightly is very careful about closing accounts. This is why you have had a hard time thus far. When you say “invalid email accounts”, what do you mean? Are they perhaps addresses on a domain that you control? If so, it’s a very simple fix. You just re-create those addresses, then go through the “forgot password” process to regain access to those accounts.

If the addresses are on a domain that you do not control, well, that’s a lesson learned for you I think. In this case, you’ll need to continue working with support to explore what can be done.

[nicd]

We faced a similar problem with consultants on an old AWS account that had become obsolete. A week of back-and-forth with support ensued as we tried to figure out how to close the account. The process seemed excessively complicated since the only way to remove the consultants, who were merely members and not admins, required them to add a billing method first. It felt unreasonable.

Ultimately, we were able to close the account with the consultants' cooperation.

I get your point that it's wise to remove consultants promptly after their contract concludes, and I agree. However, this doesn't take away from the fact that AWS's account closing policies appear to be less than user-friendly.

[nocoiner]

No they’re not. I once had an unpaid bill of something like $1.36 from AWS. They shut that down and banned the whole account. I can never again use AWS with that email address lol.

[v3rt3x]

It's certainly a lesson learned about who to hire and how to wind things down. I wasn't aware there was any issue until I started seeing these charges keep rolling through and had to roll up my sleeves and do my best to resolve it. Just as magazines and other services are not (now) legally allowed to make it difficult to cancel a service - I don't know how AWS can get away with this. If I establish that I am the legal owner of the business entity (who is not technical enough to deal with the problem), which could reasonably be done, it seems perfectly reasonable that there should be some kill switch available. What if I had a rogue employee who setup a run-away process in order to rack up charges? I can appreciate there is a risk management aspect to it for AWS - but this in my view rises to the level of deceptive business practice.