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California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

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

#231
post #198
post #184

As long as it's not a Spotify subscription :)

Spotify lost me as a customer when they forced me to use some ridiculous chat to explain why I was cancelling my account. I was actually cancelling to re-sign-up using a non-Facebook account as a paid subscriber.. Add silly friction and you get -1 customer.

When did this happen to you? I've been considering the same, but switching accounts hasn't yet been worth the hassle.

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

#232
post #205
post #133

This was already required in the Visa Merchant agreement. If you signed up online. The merchant must provide an online way to cancel which could be email, webpage or chat. If they don't just call up your card issuer and file a "canceled recurring" dispute as the merchant doesn't provide a visa acceptable way to cancel the subscription. https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/about-visa/15-April-2... Section: 5.9.8.2

so the solution to having to call a merchant to cancel a subscription is to call your card issuer to cancel a subscription?

If your vindictive this is a great way to increase their card processing costs.

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

#233
I hate calling and going through the hoops and even then what proof do you have you cancelled?

I called a place recently and asked to cancel, first question was.

"Did you read the cancellation date!?!"

Yeah I did and I know you aren't because you didn't even ask my name yet...

So they look it up and ask again what I want, I tell them to cancel it again....

"Ok I updated it"

Damn it....word game city population me.

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

#234
post #205
post #133

This was already required in the Visa Merchant agreement. If you signed up online. The merchant must provide an online way to cancel which could be email, webpage or chat. If they don't just call up your card issuer and file a "canceled recurring" dispute as the merchant doesn't provide a visa acceptable way to cancel the subscription. https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/about-visa/15-April-2... Section: 5.9.8.2

so the solution to having to call a merchant to cancel a subscription is to call your card issuer to cancel a subscription?

My bank doesn't make me sit on hold for 20 minutes and isn't staffed by min wage employees who are incentivized to retain you including lying to you or hanging up on you. I don't blame the employees, they are just trying to make rent.

Also chargebacks penalize the merchants both in fines/fees but if they rack of enough, they'll pay higher processing fees.

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

#235

My trick to avoid the long retentions go around is to tell them I'm leaving their service area. Why are you looking to cancel your phone plan? Leaving the country. They know they can't win me over and so they don't even try.

I've done this several times with Comcast, but it failed with Time Warner when I moved out of NYC. They demand to know why you are canceling and have some sort of way to extract money out of you for every scenario, including moving out of their service area. In that case, they transfer you to another phone system that helps you find a provider at your new address and, presumably, nets them a referral fee of some kind…

Leaving out of the country is generally more effective than leaving the service area - the arrangements you're describing rarely cross international borders, certainly not within North America (EU might be different).

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

#236
There's this company that offers internet service on flights also claims to offer secure hotspots, (it's a gimmick) around cities all over the US they're based in Los Angeles: Boingo Wireless. The only way to cancel the service is to call in, that's their whole scheme. When you they treat that as if you were doing something extremely complicated and that takes time. One of the customer service representative told me that he would have to contact the engineering department to cancel my account...Like that would be necessary. I was getting impatient, on the phone for about 40 minutes. This new law will be the end of them.

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

#237
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some merchants have it in their contract (for subscriptions) that any chargebacks will go to a collection agency, which dings your credit.

Do you have a link for this? I’d like to read more.

http://blog.credit.com/2015/06/think-you-won-your-credit-car...

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

#238

Simply telling the merchant I will do a chargeback has worked every time for me (provided it's a credit card charge).

Some merchants have it in their contract (for subscriptions) that any chargebacks will go to a collection agency, which dings your credit.

It's probably disputable as in violation of their merchant agreement, but yeah most people will just suffer under the consequences instead of pushing back.

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

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The ADA also covers cases where there's a record of you having a disability - even if the record is wrong! - or where you have been perceived to have a disability. Not only cases where you really do.

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

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some merchants have it in their contract (for subscriptions) that any chargebacks will go to a collection agency, which dings your credit.

It's probably disputable as in violation of their merchant agreement, but yeah most people will just suffer under the consequences instead of pushing back.

“However that doesn’t stop them from trying to collect payment directly from consumers. A review of some merchant agreements found online were silent on the issue of whether they can subsequently try to collect from consumers. And when we asked the major card companies whether their merchant agreements restrict this practice, only American Express responded, saying in an email that, “American Express has an established charge dispute process in place that takes into account both the Card Member and the merchant perspectives. Our policies do not prohibit a merchant from seeking to collect payment from a Card Member for a transaction that is charged back to a merchant.”

http://blog.credit.com/2015/06/think-you-won-your-credit-car...

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