LinkedIn: How to Delete your Account

March 24th, 2010

I should preface this article by saying that of the social networks, we like LinkedIn best. They don't try to get ahold of information about you they shouldn't have and they give the account owner very good granular control of what appears in his or her account. On the other hand, sometimes one wants to close an account. And it should be easy.

How can one quickly and easily delete one's LinkedIn account? It turns out nohow.

First, it’s almost impossible to do it without seeking out very detailed documentation. Fortunately you have arrived at the right place.

The received wisdom is that you have to open up a customer support ticket to close your LinkedIn account. That’s no longer the case. Possibly thanks to the direct pressure that celebrity programmer (can a programmer be a celebrity?) David Heinemeier Hansson brought to bear.

In the second round of Heinemeier Hansson’s LinkedIn let me go hell, Heinemeier Hansson wrote:

But two people from LinkedIn has now been in touch and hopefully we can work this out. I’ll try my best to get the quit-account operation to be automatic, not manual. That’s the big problem.

But it’s still not easy.

You have to search for the cancel function deep in the help profiles. What brings it up is “delete profile” here – http://linkedin.custhelp.com/

Once you are there here are the instructions:

Close an account and remove your profile from LinkedIn by completing the following steps:

Log into the account you wish to close.
Click on ‘Account & Settings’ found at the top of the home page.
Click on ‘Close Your Account’ under Personal Information.
Select a reason for closing your account.
Click on ‘Continue’.

Members should only have one LinkedIn account. Multiple accounts can prevent the ability to accept an Invitation. Closing additional accounts should resolve this dilemma. Prior to closing any secondary accounts:

Inventory all connections and identify any that may be missing from the primary account you wish to keep.
Send Invitations to those connections missing from the primary account.
Update any profile information that maybe on other account profiles.

Note: Once the account is closed, a user will no longer have access to the account or the contact information. If an account is closed in error, it can be reopened by contacting Customer Service. LinkedIn will be happy to re-open your account if you can provide a confirmed primary or secondary email address tied to that account. However, LinkedIn does not have the ability to restore any pending invitations or sent recommendations on a re-opened account.

Not so easy. If you are managing any groups you have to delete those too.

You have to go through about six screens to get this done.

One of my clients has multiple profiles. The emails that those profiles were created under are long gone. Let’s see how long it takes LinkedIn to actually respond.

Update: out of three duplicate profiles:

I found the email and removed the account
Wonder of wonders LinkedIn removed this one based on my ticket (logged in as my client from his main account)
This one (a Private profile but certainly my client) is still there.

God help you if you actually sign up for their paid service. Apparently they will not allow you allow to terminate at all in that case. One poor sod had to cancel his credit card to get off paid LinkedIn:

I tried to cancel my $20/month subscription with LinkedIn. They never responded to emails and charged me for months until I finally found a way to stop the billing. Seriously this worked.
Cancel or report your credit card lost or stolen with the number you used for LinkedIn. no new charges occurred after that. And my account was finally set back to the basic status no more $20 fees.

What’s worse, for a business which takes money for its services, LinkedIn does not answer its telephone. Here’s the number in case you need it: if anyone comes across an extension which actually works you can post it and I will send anyone who subscribes here that info. Posting it on the open web would probably lead to the extension being disabled within a few weeks.

Speaking of which, LinkedIn’s pricing is absurd – $400/year for an address book. That’s one pricey piece of software. We pay $100/month for our online accounting package and something similar for project management but there are ten to forty users using those services day in and day out.

Epilogue

With the help of a senior customer service manager (I think the head of the whole shooting works) we were finally able to get some duplicate accounts deleted/merged. It was far too painful and took a matter of weeks. It necessitated giving false information to LinkedIn (if we didn't give false information they wouldn't help us), even though they knew the information was false.

In fairness to LinkedIn, there are people manning support and in extreme cases they are reachable. Which is better than Google (only place you can contact is AdWords, as they are taking your money) and probably Facebook (Facebook is so invasive we won't use it at all).

By Alec

Internet Marketing | Comments | Trackback

27 comments on “LinkedIn: How to Delete your Account”

01

i closed my linkedin account the free one but it is still on the web and they said it was suppose to be removed from search engines

cookie at April 26th, 2010 around 3:52 pm
02

Hi Cookie,

It will take a few weeks/months/years for the search engines to drop the deleted page. The important thing on your end is to check that the URLs in the search engine go to a 404 page or a blank page so that the old page will eventually be dropped. If the page is just hidden inside the internal database but exists on the web still (if you know the address), Google will probably not drop it, at least not any time soon.

alec at April 29th, 2010 around 4:27 am
03

I joined this network and got pop up menu from a dating site Lexa.nl (the Dutch TV program Radar made a topic about them, nasty stuff I cant get it away, till now.
so I closed my linkedin account, the next day it was still active with pictures and all

erik at July 30th, 2010 around 4:03 am
04

I edited every field in my profile with “Not Applicable”, Including my name, prior to deleting the account. Should it persist, it shouldn’t be autolinked to pipl or whatever.

Not Applicable at November 5th, 2010 around 12:37 am
05

closed my linkedin account the free one but it is still on the web

BHAVESH ADAWADE at November 9th, 2010 around 4:14 am
06

Thank you for the article. I was very useful. If I had known before, I would not start to pay for an account. I myself had a problem to fill in the right info. I’m going to change my job so I tried to change info about me and I could not. And they do not allow to set info if you are a freelance, they need a web address of the company.
I wonder if anybody found themselves a job through LinkedIn or established good professional contacts?

Svetlana at April 18th, 2011 around 12:24 am
07

Hi Svetlana,

I’m sure some people have found work through LinkedIn. It’s more a place to reconnect with past contacts which might lead to work offers.

LinkedIn is kind of a Facebook for grownups.

I’m not sure if we’ve had direct inquiries and deals from LinkedIn but we definitely have had from Twitter.

alec at April 18th, 2011 around 5:41 am
08

I have found it a mission to turn off the incessant emails I get every day – which my Thunderbird email client advises me are a scam!

Alison Griffiths at April 22nd, 2011 around 2:22 pm
09

I can’t login because it won’t recognize my email provider. I’m pissed off. It wants all my email contacts to do anything. I’m not a social website type and don’t want this at all. It wasn’t like this when I created this account 5 or so years ago. All I wanted to do was change my email address but all I get is BS. They are evil.
Don

Donald Fauss at May 5th, 2011 around 4:34 am
10

Thank you so much for this advertisement. I have been trying to shut down the LinkedIN or StalkedIN site for days. It has completely messed up my life being on that site.
Thanks again.

Roxanne at May 11th, 2011 around 12:38 pm
11

they are all about data mining. from the faggots at facebook, to spoke.com, and this gay site. I dont know anyone who has gained employment by using one of these sites. stick with what works. it’s called a phone, a resume, etc. it’s bad enough that potential employers have your job history, I for one do not want it out for the world to see. it is not anyones business.

Craig at May 18th, 2011 around 12:09 pm
12

for me is Wikipedia and facebook enough. NO INTEREST with Link in
Sorry it is not my thing !!!!I don`t like head hunting!!!!!!

Please dont`t show my mail account Thanks!!

ulrike at June 1st, 2011 around 5:41 am
13

Hi Ulrike,

That’s funny. I loathe Facebook (I wouldn’t trust Mark Zuckerberg with a $20 loan, let alone all my personal data) but have been reasonably happy with LinkedIn which has allowed me to reconnect with a lot of wonderful people from the past.

alec at June 1st, 2011 around 10:40 am
14

You missed out on a very important part. You cannot delete a company !

Joe at June 27th, 2011 around 10:48 pm
15

Who created the CON ARTIST stuff “linkedin” ?

Help them to hide in the darkest corner on the planet, because -
I am prepared to rip these scam-bags into bits and pieces in front of any court, anywhere in the world!

(I am not updated, but, when did they partner with Mark Zuckerberg?)

Norbert Harms at June 29th, 2011 around 4:08 am
16

Hi
I want to remove my primary mail id from Linkedin.Please suggest me as soon as possible.I am very confused.

Thanks
Jitender

jitender kumar at August 29th, 2011 around 2:14 pm
17

Hi Jitender,

LinkedIn will not give up your primary email address. They will keep mailing you until you die.

It’s unbelievable. Spammers.

I used to have a high opinion of LinkedIn and was quite active, but with the spam filled groups and the non-stop spamming of users, I’ve almost stopped using LinkedIn.

alec at August 31st, 2011 around 9:04 am
18

Pay back time !!! My brother ordered an online accounting package and yearly subsciption from these muppets in Feb 2011, We went ballistic as hes under age to undertake any transactions. We contacted the bank and they put an SO4 on the transaction as it was illegal because of his age.
Good part is we are now getting money paid into our account every mth from a foreign bank and have recieved to date 6 times what their fees were and it still keeps rolling in.

y bank seem to think its a reverse DD which has been misinterpreted by their bank and said I should let them know – but guess what, and heres the good bit – YOU CANT SPEAK OR CONTACT ANYONE AT LINKED IN – he-he-he.

Edward at September 5th, 2011 around 12:18 pm
19

I find Linkedin useless. Please tell me hyow to change a business account with the same email, or how to close this account.

Thank you

Eric

E Bolsmann at September 17th, 2011 around 5:41 am
20

Thanks this worked a treat!!

joanne at October 26th, 2011 around 4:39 am
21

Please remove my Linkedin account completely. D. Mark.

David Mark at October 31st, 2011 around 9:22 am
22

I do not have an account in the first place. All I want to do is unsubscribe so I do not receive any further emails from Linkedin.

Ray

Raymond Allcroft at November 23rd, 2011 around 1:07 pm
23

linkedin have an office in london but there no details of a phone number not even in google ??

andrew matthews at December 9th, 2011 around 4:39 am
24

i deleted my account but profile still could be see. is there any say to delete my profile info?

Barry Wey at December 13th, 2011 around 6:23 pm
25

Thanks for the instructions, I’ve been meaning to get rid of my duplicate acct for some time now.

LinkedOut at December 14th, 2011 around 1:06 pm
26

This is a worthless company…………boycott them folks……..In Ole Wild West we Just shot the sonofbitches…….and that what the internet has become.

RL at January 16th, 2012 around 10:31 am
27

I dont have time to see my account . hence kindly close my account.

shekara s at February 6th, 2012 around 3:29 am