Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard • Hacker News Board

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#121

Post by xster » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:21 PM UTC

wlll wrote: post #41

Years ago I needed to cancel a fax service. They refused to allow me to cancel unless I called them up, which I wouldn't do. In the end I just changed all my details to some variation of the phrase "cancel account" except the billing details (which I couldn't change) then did a chargeback every time they charged me. It took them a couple of months to finally get round to cancelling my account (I think it was actually…

I think it costs them a transaction fee from the credit card company each time too and affects their future ability to use the merchant network when they get too many chargebacks.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#122

Post by arendtio » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:24 PM UTC

Recently, I have noticed that I use the colorless buttons more often than those '.primary' ones. Especially when it comes to GDPR layers.

Next time it might be better if the lawmakers would ask someone to design a proper API for them and the browser vendors should care of the GUI instead of the website providers. Otherwise, we will end up again with this superb user experience where every website tries a new pattern to convince you to take their tracking cookies.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#123

Post by michaelt » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:25 PM UTC

artursapek wrote: post #114

p2t2p wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've recently paid for a VPN subscription using BitCoin. When you do BitCoin there is no auto renewal and I consider it to be a good thing. EDIT: s/now/no

It's a pita for the service provider who is implementing the subscription logic, but as the customer it's pretty sweet.

Isn't the logic the same as a gift subscription? Just at the payment stage you send them to BitPay instead of Paypal?

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#124

Post by fartcannon » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:26 PM UTC

Similarly, trying to disable google services on your account is a gigantic pain in the ass. Thank god for Lineage OS.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#125

Post by tobr » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:26 PM UTC

_bxg1 wrote: post #76

svv wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've cancelled by NYTimes subscription just a few months ago. Didn't have to do any phone calls-- just answered a few questions in the chat, right there on their website.

They "generously" let you use an IM chat now, yes. But there's no excuse for it not being a simple button. The only reason is so they can raise the effort barrier just a bit more.

Had a similar experience when I left my previous ISP. I didn’t even have a choice to keep the service as I was moving. Upgrading the service was an easy click, but cancelling consisted of reading through their help pages to find a number to call, which of course was only open a few hours per week. It explicitly said that this was the only way to cancel.

Instead I simply sent them an email insisting that I wanted to cancel, and that I refused to talk to them on the phone to do it. They replied with a “great offer” to reduce the price. In my reply I simply insisted on cancelling. I didn’t hear from them again, except for a confirmation by post a while later that the service had been cancelled.

Of course, this is much more effort than it should be, especially an emotional effort because being treated like this is very upsetting. But it might be worth trying.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#126

Post by winduptoy » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:26 PM UTC

glitcher wrote: post #106

This seems like standard fare at almost any company. Cox communications offered me $10 lower per-month Internet when I was cancelling. I told them if they retroactively paid me the $10/month they were over-charging me for years I would stay. This finally ended their attempts to change my mind.

Cox is the worst. The prices magically increase every few months and it always takes a phone call to get them back down to what you originally thought they were.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#127

Post by PerfectElement » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:26 PM UTC

xster wrote: post #121

wlll wrote: post #41

Years ago I needed to cancel a fax service. They refused to allow me to cancel unless I called them up, which I wouldn't do. In the end I just changed all my details to some variation of the phrase "cancel account" except the billing details (which I couldn't change) then did a chargeback every time they charged me. It took them a couple of months to finally get round to cancelling my account (I think it was actually…

I think it costs them a transaction fee from the credit card company each time too and affects their future ability to use the merchant network when they get too many chargebacks.

With Stripe, it's $15 for each dispute.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#128

Post by kuschku » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:27 PM UTC

distances wrote: post #59

kuschku wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s harder to leave than to join, then it’s also illegal in the EU. You have to be able to cancel through the same medium through which you can subscribe (so if you can subscribe through email, then unsubscribing only through snail mailing a letter is illegal), and it can’t be an unreasonable effort. I’m very interested what the consumer protection agencies in the EU have to say about this.

This is definitely not the case in Germany, unless there has been a very recent change in legislation. There are lots of scummy companies in Germany that make you fax/email copies of official ID to unsubscribe, even if joining was possible with a click of a button.

They simply violate the law and don't care about it, it's that simple.

It wouldn't be the first time they did that.

I've been waiting since November to try and switch ISPs cause Unitymedia is as reliable as RFC 1149.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#129

Post by amingilani » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:28 PM UTC

I use Privacy[0] for all internet subscriptions. I mentioned this on HN before but it gives me purpose-generated cards for specifics d services like Netflix and Google. When I want to cancel, if the process is even marginally difficult, I just turn the card off — which I was going to do anyways.

[0]: Referral link: https://privacy.com/join/S5U7B

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#130

Post by ohnope » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 11:29 PM UTC

I signed for Dropbox pro through their iOS app, which means canceling is super easy because the payments are handled by Apple. You can cancel your account by staying entirely inside iOS system preferences menus.

And ironically, it may lead to 1 or 2 more clicks than what was shown in the video, but at least there are no dark UI patterns.