California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online • Hacker News Board

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#151

Post by aninhumer » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:53 PM UTC

tothrowaway wrote: post #147

Another way to get out of subscriptions is to change your billing credit card to one generated by a service like Privacy.com. Then just close the card out. Some sites/services are getting more savvy about pre-paid cards though (DigitalOcean won't accept one). I tried to use a burner card on a snail mail advertisement offering a $50 gift card to sign up for a trial of a magazine subscription. Didn't work.

This means they can't process the payment, but it doesn't necessarily cancel the subscription, and if not, you still owe them the money legally, even if they can't get it easily.

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#152

Post by kstrauser » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:54 PM UTC

mehrdadn wrote: post #59

rspeer wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like that at all, because it encourages more services for people with disabilities, instead of taking them away. Every site should be more prepared to accommodate people who can't or don't want to talk on the phone.

> It's not like that at all, because it encourages more services for people with disabilities, instead of taking them away. I mean you could argue the same for parking right? If everyone parked in the disabled section then you'd encourage having more such parking. And this also requires paying a representative more hours to deal with emails etc. It's not like there's zero cost.

> And this also requires paying a representative more hours to deal with emails etc. It's not like there's zero cost.

Generally, if I'm cancelling a service, I could not possibly care less about how much it costs the company to process my cancellation. That's completely their problem, and I'm not about to make it mine.

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#153

Post by surfmike » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:57 PM UTC

I hope this forces the NYTimes to allow online cancellations too.

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#154

Post by mehrdadn » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:58 PM UTC

kstrauser wrote: post #149

mehrdadn wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finally! It's nice to see an attempt at a level-headed response, and from the person it was actually directed to (and that you had actually put thought into this). Funny enough, though, no one's actually answered the question I actually asked, which I still have... which is whether this is legal?

No, it's not illegal. First, under the ADA they can't actually ask you to verify any disabilities: that's between you and your doctor. Second, you don't have to be explicitly diagnosed as having a disability to have one. I've been to too many concerts over the years, and while no doctor has diagnosed me, I can truthfully say I have a hard time understanding people over bad phone connections.

> First, under the ADA they can't actually ask you to verify any disabilities: that's between you and your doctor.

Wow, that's interesting. They can't even require a doctor's certification of some sort (without any details)? How does that work for companies that give discounts (say) to the disabled? Can everybody lie to get them legally then? This doesn't sound right. (Note that it doesn't have to necessarily be the ADA outlawing this, so I wouldn't just rely on that.)

> Second, you don't have to be explicitly diagnosed as having a disability to have one.

Do you mean to have one medically or legally? The former is obvious to me but the latter isn't.

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#155

Post by mynameisvlad » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:59 PM UTC

s73v3r_ wrote: post #135

mynameisvlad wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that actually be illegal? Deafness is a medical condition and I doubt "get a friend to do it" would be a suitable accomodation.

Well, if they're scammers, do you think they'll care?

This whole thread is about companies that don't support self-serve cancellation and require you to call in, so the "scammers" here would very much care considering it's companies like Comcast and the like.

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#156

Post by xirdstl » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:59 PM UTC

gnicholas wrote: post #150

tothrowaway wrote: post #147

Another way to get out of subscriptions is to change your billing credit card to one generated by a service like Privacy.com. Then just close the card out. Some sites/services are getting more savvy about pre-paid cards though (DigitalOcean won't accept one). I tried to use a burner card on a snail mail advertisement offering a $50 gift card to sign up for a trial of a magazine subscription. Didn't work.

Some cards also offer virtual card numbers, which you can put a time and dollar limit on. I have a 2% back Citi card that happens to offer this handy feature.

I have a Bank of America card with the same feature.

In some ways I’m glad it’s not more widely used, or merchants might start banning the BINs the virtual cards use.

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#157

Post by erichurkman » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:59 PM UTC

jopsen wrote: post #91

mygo wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually have a speech impairment (a stutter) and you’d think people would be willing to accommodate. I can speak just fine when I have complete agency over the words I choose to say, but it’s the absolute worst when I have to read out some long specific access code or account number and say it 100% correct. Stutter even once and they think I meant 2 P’s when I just wanted to say a single P. And then it becomes thi…

When I lived in the US I would follow the phone menu for 30s or so, but at some point I would always a get annoyed enough and just hit random keys until the robot says: I don't understand let me connect you... Often hitting # repeatedly did the trick. But lot always.

GetHuman has most companies' information online on how to get a human the fastest and alternate ways to contact them.

I learned the other day that the CA Franchise Tax Board has a live chat via GetHuman [0] which saved an insane amount of time on hold. I was originally just trying to find alternate dial in numbers to actually talk to a person, not a robot.

[0] https://gethuman.com/phone-number/California-Franchise-Tax-B...

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#158

Post by yellowapple » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 10:59 PM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #44

fishbone wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please listen closely, our menu options have changed

We are experiencing higher than normal call volume. Every. Single. Day. I would like to give executives the option to stop this or go to prison for this never ending nonsense. I think most would choose to stop.

Relatedly, I've been flying a lot more than usual in the last couple of months.

Every single flight, the boarding announcements start with something along the lines of "this plane is going to be more full than usual, so we're going to need to check some of your carry-ons".

Well guess what, United? Maybe if you didn't cram passengers into the fuselage like sardines in a goddamn tin can, you'd have enough room for everyone's carry-on luggage in the bins.

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#159

Post by wiseleo » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:01 PM UTC

fishbone wrote: post #19

danso wrote: post #8

I recently had to cancel an ongoing subscription I had with Equifax, which requires you to call by phone. Unbelievably frustrating. I had to dial the service at least 10 times. Each time, the automated responder would make me go through a very slow menu selection process, only to randomly fail to acknowledge either my correct SSN or zipcode or street number, which I entered using a keypad. As a consumer, I've had to…

Please listen closely, our menu options have changed

Wouldn't it be nice to have that message say "Our options changed on July 1, 2018"? :)

Re: California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

#160

Post by mehrdadn » Thu, Jul 05, 2018, 11:02 PM UTC

kstrauser wrote: post #152

mehrdadn wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not like that at all, because it encourages more services for people with disabilities, instead of taking them away. I mean you could argue the same for parking right? If everyone parked in the disabled section then you'd encourage having more such parking. And this also requires paying a representative more hours to deal with emails etc. It's not like there's zero cost.

> And this also requires paying a representative more hours to deal with emails etc. It's not like there's zero cost. Generally, if I'm cancelling a service, I could not possibly care less about how much it costs the company to process my cancellation. That's completely their problem, and I'm not about to make it mine.

>> And this also requires paying a representative more hours to deal with emails etc. It's not like there's zero cost.

> Generally, if I'm cancelling a service, I could not possibly care less about how much it costs the company to process my cancellation. That's completely their problem, and I'm not about to make it mine.

This was not the point of my comment. The point wasn't to sympathize with the company for their costs. The subjects of concern were other people with disabilities who may have otherwise been helped by the same representative (who probably also couldn't care about the company's costs either). The point of mentioning the costs was that the costs imply they can't just instantly add representatives to avoid affecting other such customers.