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California law requires businesses to let you cancel your subscription online

niemanlab.org

481–490 of 554 posts

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

#481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Meeting retention rates is their problem, not mine." Do you also maliciously fill out surveys with less than "excellent" ratings even after you are told that constitutes failure according to corporate management? I understand the attitude of refusing to play the game, but that doesn't justify making things worse for other victims.

> Do you also maliciously fill out surveys with less than "excellent" ratings I've started doing this, although I wouldn't characterize it as malicious. I bought a car last fall and that started a ridiculous number of surveys coming my way. I contacted the dealership, the manufacturer, and the survey company asking for the surveys to stop. The dealer and manufacturer both responded saying they would take car of it. T…

It seems ironic to me that I've bought multiple cars from a dealership and I can't get them to update my email or postal address after well over a year. They apparently don't want to send me ads.

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

#482
post #467

I pay for recurring stuff with a CC for this very reason. I had an insurance company refuse to cancel my insurance unless I physically came into their office all the way across town (would have been about two hours of my time when it was all said and done) to show them proof that I had insurance through another agency. I declined that request and explained that they simply weren't getting paid any more. I called the…

I don't have enough exposure to the product (not available in my region) but I really liked the _idea_ of privacy.com where you can create a credit card proxy for every subscription you have. This seems extremely valuable for managing subscriptions, tracking your funds, and of course, some modicum of privacy where your original credit card is only shared with one party. edit: Seems like privacy.com is a direct-to-ban…

Privacy.com is a really neat service. I'm pretty disappointed that all banks don't already have this feature built in (I know some do).

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

#483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I guess it doesn't violate the merchant agreement... ...which makes sense in that a valid debt can't be invalidated by a chargeback. But it doesn't turn an invalid debt into a valid one either. And if you have a contract that you cancel in accordance with the contract (e.g. making the required request to the required phone number then limiting your call to a reasonable duration after doing so), charging…

Yes, if he merchant is not operating in good faith, it’s easy to outmaneuver their collections efforts provided you’ve kept good documentation. If they are operating in good faith, and your chargeback is not legitimate, expect a blemish on your credit until you settle the debt (if sent to collections).

Yup. And a smaller blemish even once paid, for something like 7 to 10 years after that. (That's the retention period for collections information on credit reports.)

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

#484
post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have enough exposure to the product (not available in my region) but I really liked the _idea_ of privacy.com where you can create a credit card proxy for every subscription you have. This seems extremely valuable for managing subscriptions, tracking your funds, and of course, some modicum of privacy where your original credit card is only shared with one party. edit: Seems like privacy.com is a direct-to-ban…

CapitalOne offers the same service on their credit cards with a browser plugin. It also disallows charges to the virtual card numbers from any source other than the site it's associated with.

You can do this with (the awesome) Citi 2% cash back card as well, just use their normal website to generate virtual numbers.

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

#485

I've only used this a couple of times but I think it works: "I'd like to cancel my service. I'm going to say this really clearly for the recording, in case I have to subpoena this for evidence. I want to cancel my service, effective [date]. When I hang up this phone, I want there to be no financial relationship between myself and your company of any kind. None. I don't want any further communication from you other th…

AM I BEING DETAINED?

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

#486
post #476
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It isn't SFW (well some), but yelling a couple random swearwords works surprisingly well for getting a human on the line.

I've found multiple systems that go on your tone of voice. No need to swear or even raise it.

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

#487
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they ask me questions, I usually just reply "for personal reasons".

Seconded on this. It's my favorite answer, because it normally creates enough awkwardness on the call to make the other party want it over as quickly as possible. And getting them on your side is always step 1. Bonus points if they ask "I hope it's nothing we did" and you respond with an extra long pause and "I think it's best for everyone involved if we get this cancelled as quickly as possible."

Why are you cancelling your service today?

Because I have explosive diarrhea...

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

#488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you also maliciously fill out surveys with less than "excellent" ratings I've started doing this, although I wouldn't characterize it as malicious. I bought a car last fall and that started a ridiculous number of surveys coming my way. I contacted the dealership, the manufacturer, and the survey company asking for the surveys to stop. The dealer and manufacturer both responded saying they would take car of it. T…

It seems ironic to me that I've bought multiple cars from a dealership and I can't get them to update my email or postal address after well over a year. They apparently don't want to send me ads.

I know exactly what you are talking about. When my wife bought her last car, I stopped by the dealership after work to cosign all the papers and for some reason they entered my phone number into their database. They started calling me and each time I would tell them to call my wife because it's her car. It took probably 10 or 12 discussions with various people at the dealership to get our record updated. The general manager seemed to be as frustrated with their system as I was because he had to deal with me asking him over and over to fix the problem.

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

#489
post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have enough exposure to the product (not available in my region) but I really liked the _idea_ of privacy.com where you can create a credit card proxy for every subscription you have. This seems extremely valuable for managing subscriptions, tracking your funds, and of course, some modicum of privacy where your original credit card is only shared with one party. edit: Seems like privacy.com is a direct-to-ban…

CapitalOne offers the same service on their credit cards with a browser plugin. It also disallows charges to the virtual card numbers from any source other than the site it's associated with.

Really? How does it work?

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

#490
This is how the internet will get better as a hole. There's no way for companies to track lots of different states requirements, so they implement all the requirements for all the states (and EU). I hope that more small states create laws with giant consequences.
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