Trade groups told the FTC a simple “Click-to Cancel” proposal to easily quit subscriptions could actually lead customers to miss out on hot new deals.
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This is called a lie, folks.
Yeah they want to make it too difficult to bother intentionally unsubscribing.
It’s clearly a bad faith argument. The real logic is that if they make cancelling easy, frustrated people will do it. If cancelling is annoying or difficult enough, some people will give up and keep paying.
The solution here would be to mandate full symmetry: if you require muliple steps and confirmations to UNsubscribe or cancel, you must have the exact same steps to subscribe too. I think it would fix this problem very quickly
I think one of the worst examples of this assymetry is Microsoft’s Xbox Live subscription.
Using your console, you can easily turn it on and activate the subscription with your credit card. Using the very same console, it’s literally impossible to cancel - you need to log into a PC.
Kaspersky. Back when the russians started getting weird with things, and kaspersky… got dubious… I canceled my subscription and switched to a different AV. when it was about to expire, they sent a ‘we’ll automatically renew’. So I tried to log in- my credentials were invalid- I use a PW manager, so no. It wasn’t a bad password-
the password reset option wouldn’t work (literally wouldn’t send the validation link.)
Called their CS who told me that subscriptions were handled by a 3rd party in the US- Digital River.
Digital river said I should cancel it on their website.
got DR and Kaspersky’s CS on the same phone call. they finally complied and canceled the subscription.
A year later… “Your subsctiption will automatically renew!”called them again. sent a letter. thought that was that until I saw they billed me anyhow.
tried to call them. they were giving me the run around.Called the bank. to report fraud.
They were useless until I told them my next call would be FBI’s financial crimes people. Suddenly, that charge back became super easy.I already don’t like Microsoft or its products, but how in the Holy Fuck is that legal? You can’t at least use the edge on Xbox for that same functionality?
I don’t think that would matter People will rush in with the promise of “free big titted people”… they’ll jump through so many hoops, the hot big titted girl on the screen would egg them on through 45 different steps. Then you sign up and find out it’s guys with gynecomastia and now you gotta do 45 steps to get out.
Give me a fucking break
Let’s say I’m the dumbest person alive and I canceled it without wanting to. Are they saying I’m so dumb that I can’t subscribe again like I once did?
They don’t worry about people accidentally signing up for some reason.
Then just make a prompt that asks “Are you sure you want to cancel our services?”.
What if they accidentally click yes there too? Do you need a double sure confirmation? And a triple sure for that one? And so on?
And 15 confirmations in, once they’ve got the “click OK” rhythm going, we can put one that says “would you like to keep your subscription active?”
And a random screen where
cancelmeans “exit out of this cancellation process” rather than “cancel subscription”
Companies also often try to stop customers from leaving by offering them better deals before they complete the cancellation process. A “call to cancel” mechanism lets some companies personalize a better deal for a would-be fleeing customer, and better understand why customers are leaving, some customer experience executives say.
This is very similar to how AOL operated back in day. The excuses they use for the abuse they give customers is just amazing.
If a company makes it hard for me to cancel I won’t mess around with them I’ll just cancel the direct debit on my side and they can deal with it.
I will try and cancel using the approved method but really it’s their responsibility to let you terminate the contract. After all what are they going to do, not let me open the contract again later on, of course they’re not, so the onus is on them.
I use PayPal any chance I can doe subscriptions. Just delete the authorization and they cry as they can’t bill me again. Then threaten to disable my account, which is like hey, thanks for taking care of that for me
I mean… they’re not wrong.
But it is the right way to do business.
Amazing how we are expected to treat bad faith actors with benefit of doubt…
