diff --git a/guestbook/README.md b/guestbook/README.md
index 2cfb1c34..cbbc5b9b 100644
--- a/guestbook/README.md
+++ b/guestbook/README.md
@@ -622,10 +622,10 @@ For Google Compute Engine details about limiting traffic to specific sources, se
 
 ### Step Seven: Cleanup
 
-If you are in a live kubernetes cluster, you can just kill the pods by stopping the replication controllers and deleting the services.  Using labels to select the resources to stop or delete is an easy way to do this in one command.
+If you are in a live kubernetes cluster, you can just kill the pods by deleting the replication controllers and the services.  Using labels to select the resources to stop or delete is an easy way to do this in one command.
 
 ```console
-kubectl stop rc -l "name in (redis-master, redis-slave, frontend)"
+kubectl delete rc -l "name in (redis-master, redis-slave, frontend)"
 kubectl delete service -l "name in (redis-master, redis-slave, frontend)"
 ```
 
diff --git a/phabricator/teardown.sh b/phabricator/teardown.sh
index 898c0910..40c21357 100755
--- a/phabricator/teardown.sh
+++ b/phabricator/teardown.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 echo "Deleting Phabricator service" && kubectl delete -f phabricator-service.json
-echo "Deleting Phabricator replication controller" && kubectl stop rc phabricator-controller
+echo "Deleting Phabricator replication controller" && kubectl delete rc phabricator-controller
 echo "Delete firewall rule" && gcloud compute firewall-rules delete -q phabricator-node-80
 
diff --git a/vitess/etcd-down.sh b/vitess/etcd-down.sh
index b301a469..42865333 100755
--- a/vitess/etcd-down.sh
+++ b/vitess/etcd-down.sh
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ cells=`echo $CELLS | tr ',' ' '`
 
 # Delete replication controllers
 for cell in 'global' $cells; do
-  echo "Stopping etcd replicationcontroller for $cell cell..."
-  $KUBECTL stop replicationcontroller etcd-$cell
+  echo "Deleting etcd replicationcontroller for $cell cell..."
+  $KUBECTL delete replicationcontroller etcd-$cell
 
   echo "Deleting etcd service for $cell cell..."
   $KUBECTL delete service etcd-$cell
diff --git a/vitess/guestbook-down.sh b/vitess/guestbook-down.sh
index 57a6978c..99d4d656 100755
--- a/vitess/guestbook-down.sh
+++ b/vitess/guestbook-down.sh
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@ set -e
 script_root=`dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}"`
 source $script_root/env.sh
 
-echo "Stopping guestbook replicationcontroller..."
-$KUBECTL stop replicationcontroller guestbook
+echo "Deleting guestbook replicationcontroller..."
+$KUBECTL delete replicationcontroller guestbook
 
 echo "Deleting guestbook service..."
 $KUBECTL delete service guestbook
diff --git a/vitess/vtctld-down.sh b/vitess/vtctld-down.sh
index 0ff1a66c..72e05b8b 100755
--- a/vitess/vtctld-down.sh
+++ b/vitess/vtctld-down.sh
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@ set -e
 script_root=`dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}"`
 source $script_root/env.sh
 
-echo "Stopping vtctld replicationcontroller..."
-$KUBECTL stop replicationcontroller vtctld
+echo "Deleting vtctld replicationcontroller..."
+$KUBECTL delete replicationcontroller vtctld
 
 echo "Deleting vtctld service..."
 $KUBECTL delete service vtctld
diff --git a/vitess/vtgate-down.sh b/vitess/vtgate-down.sh
index 0ac15d6c..404b258f 100755
--- a/vitess/vtgate-down.sh
+++ b/vitess/vtgate-down.sh
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@ set -e
 script_root=`dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}"`
 source $script_root/env.sh
 
-echo "Stopping vtgate replicationcontroller..."
-$KUBECTL stop replicationcontroller vtgate
+echo "Deleting vtgate replicationcontroller..."
+$KUBECTL delete replicationcontroller vtgate
 
 echo "Deleting vtgate service..."
 $KUBECTL delete service vtgate