I was an employee of American Greetings Interactive for nearly 3 years. Actually, I was working through a temp agency. The reason you could not get concise instructions on how to return your account to functionality is because the company is extremely "gun-shy" about telling you to change your settings, in order to avoid lawsuits. This is a very easy fix, if anyone would tell you what the problem is.
As far as deactivating the account, unfortunately the terms of sale are implicit about the terms of renewal and cancellation. I was never truly comfortable with this and often got in trouble for just cancelling when a person called in, rather than trying to bribe them into staying. However, the company is not at fault if you agree to the terms. By law they cannot cancel your wife's account without her direct autorization.
Here is a small tip, though: when they send you the email to call, reply to it and tell them to cancel immediately. They will comply after the 2nd request, it is a company policy. This is because 80% of their cancellations come back and they don't want to make you mad. The auto-renewal is what I had the most problem with, however it is outlined clearly in the Terms. The lesson: read EVERYTHING before buying online.
Another point: I was let go for various reasons, ranging from petty to total fabrications. They hired temps so they can avoid paying insurance, and so some truly knowledgable people can be hired cheap. I later found out that they had fired everybody, starting with the highest-paid (me among them!), and eventually sent everything to a third party telemarketing firm in Florida where 3/4 of the staff don't speak english. They make minimum wage.
The 2nd lesson: You get what you pay for. Don't use pay sites for eCards. There's pleny of good free ones.