Credits to go fucking australian news site adelaidenow.com.au
They want it to be difficult to cancel. Shit like this should be illegal.
this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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Mildly Infuriating
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California in the US has a law that says if you signed up online you have to be able to cancel online. The rest of us need that law.
It doesn't work on every website, but sometimes you can change your address to be in California and then magically a cancel button will appear.
This is still the case with the New York Times. Change your billing address to a Californian one and it'll let you cancel online.
Pro tip, tell them you want to end your subscription immediately. Don't say anything, awkward silence. When they ask an another question to goud you into staying repeat the first statement. If they ask rando questions, silence.
They give up in under a minute. Be polite but obstinate.
“No thank you, I’d like to cancel immediately.” Rinse repeat
Use a service like privacy.com. Cancel the card they charge monthly... no phone call needed. Added benefit is if the vendor is compromised there is no loss...the cards can be locked to only allow charges from 1 business. Steal the credit card info... can't use it anywhere else.
I don't know how well it would work in practice, but every time I see something like this, the darker, more childish part of my brain wants me to send a human shit to them in the post, with a note saying "Thank you for subscribing to Post-me-a-poo (Daily)! To cancel your subscription, please add a 'Cancel Subscription' button to your website!".
Excellent idea though I imagine you might get in trouble for sending biohazards by post!
Just send them invoices for your time to their AP department to see how tight their payment controls are...
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Maybe this is a little European, but just cancel the Direct Debit or block the recurring payment with your bank?
That would make you default on the payment and they'll pass it to debt collection. Only do this if you reasonably tried everything else (and documented your attempts) before using that option.
Maybe rules are again different, but a simple subscription here wouldn’t cause a default as there was no credit agreement. Interesting to see how things differ.
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Yup, this is why you should always sign up using a credit card, never your debit card or bank. You can issue a chargeback online pretty easily with most credit card companies these days, it won't affect your credit, and the money never leaves your bank account.
Australia is moving to a pay management system like this soon but as of right now this shit is still valid.
Of course. It's a Murdoch newspaper they're the shittiest of shit tier capitalists.
it reall ought to be illegal to not be able to cancel a service on the same interface and ease at which its joined.
I believe it is, in European countries at least.
Yup. Cancelling a subscription has to be just as easy as singing up for it.
Source: am eu citizen
I had a local paper do this to me a few years ago. Turns out I can ask my credit card provider to block payments to them at 2am on a Saturday and I still get access to the paper for another two months.
It's on purpose I think. I've been trying to cancel my alarm system for a house I no longer live in, and every time I call I wait on hold 1-2 hours minimum.
If I get through, I get transferred for some reason, five times once.
Twice now they just hang up on me.
I can't issue a chargeback to the bank because they said they'll just send me to collections.
They claim there is no way to cancel via mail or email, even though I know there is, the thing is you have to navigate the shitty tree and escalate it in a way where they will allow you to cancel that way.
Fuck companies that do this.
If you're in the US: https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/11/tried-cancel-service-couldnt-learn-steps-take
If not, maybe your government has similar steps?
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Could you please name the company, so we all can avoid them in the future?
Once things are settled with my current legal crap, I'll gladly share it. But I'd rather not right now, just in case.
Stop paying
Did you read my comment? I tried and they threatened to send me to collections.
But that same person couldn't cancel my account, but they could transfer me! Rinse, wash, repeat.
Send them a certified letter, wait a week and then call. Record the call, tell them it's recorded and mention the letter. Tell them that your account is cancelled and you're no longer paying. Then don't pay, and or charge back. If they threaten to send you to collections, let them. If they actually do, just tell the collection agency the debt is invalid and send them proof.
Just don't pay. I have had to do this a handful times in my life, and it has never hurt my credit score or went anywhere, never even needed the evidence I collected. Collections will just give up after a while, and if it somehow ever does become an issue you have all the proof you need to show its not valid debt. But, it likely won't actually go anywhere.
I did have one really annoying collection agency one time that really didn't seem to want to let it go. So I started generating invoices for my "research time" and send it to them. When they would call I would start the call by saying "by continuing this conversation, you agree to pay for research fees". Not sure if that did anything or they just coincidentally gave up... I was kind of hoping their AP department would just blindly pay the invoices for my time haha.
That sounds like the kind of conversation worth recording and taking to a lawyer. I can't imagine a call that goes "Hi, I'd like to cancel my service. What do you mean you can't do that? No one at the company can help? I've been on the phone with 4 different reps. Fine, I'll just call my card to stop paying. What do you mean you're going to send me to collections?!" wouldn't get done kind of positive movement.
Absolutely. I'm actually working with a lawyer now and am involved in correspondence with the company. Hence why I haven't named and shamed them (yet). It's progressing slowly, but positively in my favor. It's just annoying that it had to come to this.
Some gymns make you cancel by certified mail, and still deny they got it even after delivery.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
If you can help it - sign up for nothing with a direct bank withdrawal or debit card. Use a credit card, because it puts an important barrier between you and your purchases. It's way easier to get help with stuff for credit cards, and it's easier to cancel than getting a new bank account. Bonus: charge backs punish these assholes.
Dear everyone: please educate yourself on the beautiful treasure that is Privacy.com. I never sign up for any subscription without it now. I do not miss all the bullshit and you won't either.
Working as intended
It's not that it's too difficult, but having it this way is more inconvenient to the customer leaving them less inclined to make the call. Scummy behaviour all around.
My local newspaper had this, i changed my credit card to a fake card number that developers use for testing.
Now i can physical mail every two months saying they cant properly charge my card.
So theyve spent $10+ on mailing me after I paid my $2 promo rate to them
I made an account on a news site once just to test Firefox relay and my custom domain. Can't for the life of me figure out how to delete the account. Had to set relay to just block all the emails. To the tube of like 400.... In less than a month
I can increase my cellphone plan with the click of a button.
If I want to decrease it that same button redirects to a live chat where I have to talk to one of their agents.
Their agents will genuinely give you a better deal, but for some reason can't change your plan to a lesser one without breaking your contract, causing hundreds of dollars in extra fees.
The brick and mortar agents can do it in 2 minutes with no hassle. You walk in and say I want this plan, show your id, sign the change request and you're done.
I don't even think they are doing it on purpose. Why would they have a button that connects me to someone they are paying to convince me to give them less money per month? They cut my wife's bill in half because she is month to month.
It's just Hanlons Razor. Supreme incompetence.
But it's not Hanlon's Razor, it is absolutely malicious. They want to make the process complicated and frustrating so you give up.
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For some reason the preview for the image on this post is a bunch of colorful squares.
try zooming out more. I find that when zoomed in too far, all of it looks like colourful squares! ;)
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Just try getting your card removed from Adobe
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