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California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

niemanlab.org

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

#301

I've never been confronted with the "can't cancel service hell" but clearly it must be a problem if CA passed this law. I don't have cable TV. Where else besides cable does one experience this?

Gym memberships are particularly terrible at this in my experience

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

#302
Why not just use Privacy [1] when you sign up? It allows you to generate virtual cards on a per-merchant basis anytime you want. You can simply shutoff the card(s) when you want to cancel. No phone calls, emails, or faking deafness required. I’ve been a big fan of it ever since I discovered them.

[1] https://privacy.com

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

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"I'm planning on committing assisted suicide." (Not actually). You're move Time Warner.

We have great offers on caskets in one of our in-house funeral homes - let me connect you with a representative.

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

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bringing up such a minor illegality implies you care about the morality of it. If somebody was speeding and I said “hey, you know speeding is illegal right?” they would rightfully think I have some sort of weird moral problem with speeding.

> Bringing up such a minor illegality implies you care about the morality of it. If somebody was speeding and I said “hey, you know speeding is illegal right?” they would rightfully think I have some sort of weird moral problem with speeding. Huh... that's actually very much the opposite of how I would interpret that sentence, but okay.

Maybe this is presumptive of me, but you should consider not just the the words you say, but also their implication. Most other people will, and if you don't you can't communicate effectively.

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

#306

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…

Side note: If you look at the ADA language about service animals, it's all about what you as a business cannot do, without doing a good job of specifying what constitutes a service animal... So if abusing vaugely defined legislation aimed at protecting people with disabilities is your thing, $50 on Amazon and you can take your pets just about anywhere ;-)

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

#307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can this be solved by using IPv6 and addressing everything publicly?

Probably not: 1. NAT provides a basic level of security for your network. The same could be achieved with a firewall, but it isnt the norm. 2. Even without nat, there would still have to be _some_ computer that does the processing on the raw data from the IoT device. There is no reason that couldnt be your PC or Phone, but the precedent has been set that these tasks are performed on a managed device in the "cloud". 3…

1. It would be the norm with an IPv6 gateway. It's not like it takes anything special to replace NAT with a firewall: allow outbound, allow established/related inbound, and replace port forwarding in the UX with allow rules for (host, port).

2. No argument, does seem odd that it wouldn't be the app though. Figure a door bell wouldn't be all that intensive.

3. Yeah, recurring revenue is pretty much the gold standard.

A device that stands between your device and the public internet, provides security and access control, and is standards based... so a perimeter firewall? But with an API to allow internal devices to punch their own holes. Ehh don't get me wrong I like the spirit, but that would immediately get used by malware.

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

#308

One of the philosophies at Netflix was that it should be as easy to cancel as it is to sign up, because you should respect your customers enough not to annoy them into keeping your service. Honestly, it always seemed to me that it was actually easier to cancel than the sign up.

Agreed! One thing that impressed me recently is how easy it is to cancel Symantec's (rather useless) LifeLock service. Just write a sentence on their online support page and my service was cancelled in less than 24 hours. They even sent me an email suggesting things I can do to prevent identity theft without using their service.

I know Symantec is unpopular here on HN, because of the certificate authority fiasco and a (quite reasonable) distrust of antivirus software, but really kudos to them for handling the cancellation so well.

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

#309
post #264
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…

I suggest creating a form letter where you threaten to file an ADA action against them, as well as notifying your state's attorney, etc. Plus cc: the local TV station consumer reporter. When they give you static, they get a copy of that letter sent to their registered corporate agent, return receipt. Their lawyer has to handle all such legal threats. ADA actions are extremely expensive for corporations. People withou…

How do you generally go about finding registered agents? It's never been super obvious to me that Sportsmans Guide is represented by "Clarke, Whitehall and Rosenstein, LLP" or some equally stuffy sounding law firm, much less where the firm might be reachable by registered mail...

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

#310

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.

This used to to be the trick to use with the 10 CDs for a penny offers to get out of buying the remaining required full price CDs. After you got the promo-priced CDs, you could send in a change of address form with an address where shipping costs made it unprofitable for them to send the remaining purchases. They'd send a letter back where they regretfully informed you that you membership was being canceled because they didn't support your new address. All you had to do was figure out some address in rural Africa or Asia. Everyone in my freshman dorm used that trick to fill out their music collections.
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