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Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

bbc.com

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Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#161

Post by anonymoushn »

safog wrote: post #32
sneak wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don’t do the same with EC2.

Early days of EC2 were chock full of stories like this - Of kids / engineers running up their CC bill because they screwed up in some way they didn't anticipate and Amazon CS would bail them out. I don't think this was a cynical marketing ploy designed from the top down either, it was a very natural thing for the company to be customer obsessed and trying to do right by them.

At the request of an EC2 support staff, I left some machines running to help them debug an issue where machines became unreachable within minutes of being created. I was erroneously charged for this. Throughout the years Amazon has variously said that they could not refund me because they had no records from this time period or offered me AWS credits. I expect to the situation to never be resolved.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#162

Post by jpalomaki »

nodesocket wrote: post #80

If you don't follow you finances and continue to pay Netflix for a year of service without use, I personally don't think they have any obligation to cancel your account. As somebody who has run SaaS services and seen countless baseless e-mails (even worse chargebacks) come in from users who "forgot" to cancel service and then were irate about it, this doesn't help the customer "entitlement" problem I see. Let me expl…

Maybe this is why it makes financially sense to automatically cancel forgotten accounts at some point.

You would avoid some of the support costs, some chargeback costs and cost with negative publicity (people complaining about ”fraudulent” charges on social media).

On large enough scale you can likely do some calculations and eventually A/B testing to figure out what does this mean financially.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#163

Post by reificator »

amelius wrote: post #153
reificator wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It sounds as if you are not worried that they would sue you? Netflix subscriptions are prepaid. What on earth would give them the idea to sue if your card is declined? If your current month runs out and your renewal is declined, they just don't authorize you for a second month of service. There's no breach of contract, there's no debt for services rendered, I can't think of a single motivation to sue for this. What…

They could leave your account open, wait 10 years, then sue you for not paying your bills.

They could do that, yes. They could also open an account automatically in your name and then sue you over it. I expect both would be equally successful.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#164

Post by globular-toast »

goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

The insurance company I worked at operated on a similar principle. It was well known that older customers brought in a huge amount of profit because they tended not to claim, nor do they care about getting the best deal. So while younger customers were targeted with new deals and features, the older customers were left alone and would stay on "legacy" policies for decades sometimes.

Interestingly at some point they modelled what would happen if the premiums of the older customers was increased and they reckoned they could charge some customers double and they still wouldn't switch. This could have been used to offset price cuts for younger customers and generate much more profit overall, but it was decided to be unethical so they didn't follow the model.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#165

Post by rogual »

trevyn wrote: post #144
KajMagnus wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens if you block them, or your credit card, so they'll get no money? Is there any risk they'd sue you? Or other auto renew services, what do you, or others, think — do they sometimes sue their customers whose credit card expired? That sounds annoying b.t.w., having to call them etc.

It’s uncommon, but some will send your account to a collection agency, which has automated the process of causing you enough trouble that you’re likely to just pay if it’s a small amount.

This happened to me, but I had to laugh when I discovered that the agency's tactics were limited to a few stroppy letters and a couple of phone calls that went:

"Hello sir, this is (collections agency). Can you confirm your address, please?" "No." "I'll have to end the call then." "Okay."

I would feel awful if I caved in and paid money I don't owe just because a company told me to.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#166

Post by adav »

In the UK at least, Netflix is often used by fraudsters to check stolen credit card numbers. I bet Netflix were fed up with expense of dealing with all the fraudulent transactions. Or if not the expense, Netflix doesn’t want the negative press that they’re profiting from all these unsuspecting victims.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#167

Post by heyoni »

ganstyles wrote: post #77
goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

The Economist did this to me. $5/mo and then auto renewed at something like $250/yr. All my credit cards are just auto pay full balance every month, and I don't check them as often as I should. Noticed the charge last month, found out they had been charging me for years for their digital subscription.

Same here with NYT cooking.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#168

Post by mywacaday »

sytelus wrote: post #143
goodside wrote: post #55

Years ago, I heard of a dating site doing the opposite of this. They normally sent periodic digests and newsletters to their users to try to increase engagement, but if a user went a certain number of months without logging into their account, but still allowed monthly fees to be charged, they were labeled as a “sleeping giant” in the database. Once in this state, they would not be contacted by the site for any reaso…

I'm getting charged by rhapsody.com every quarter for no apparent reason. I used their service like may be 8 years ago. They have a phone number in their merchant line which is invalid. When I filed request to void the charge to American Express, initially they declined! Then I filed appeal with angry comments and they finally voided it. It took over two months for the process. I just saw new Rhapsody charge again. T…

Companies that make it difficult to unsubscribe should be penalised, I live in Europe and got the New York Times on a 12 month trial for €4 a month. Trial just ended and it's now €8 a month, only way to cance is to ring them, have tried once so far and was on hold for 20 mins before I hung up. There should be a law that if you can sign up online you can cancel online.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#169

Post by gear54rus »

mav3rick wrote: post #158
gear54rus wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the reasons subscription model is cancer: they hope you'll forget it's on.

Virtual Cards with set expiry numbers will end this game

Do you think someone who forgets their subscriptions will take the time to set that up?:)

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#170

Post by input_sh »

Jd wrote: post #159
sytelus wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting charged by rhapsody.com every quarter for no apparent reason. I used their service like may be 8 years ago. They have a phone number in their merchant line which is invalid. When I filed request to void the charge to American Express, initially they declined! Then I filed appeal with angry comments and they finally voided it. It took over two months for the process. I just saw new Rhapsody charge again. T…

I started using privacy.com for this reason. You can spin up a separate card number for each transaction type with its own limit (e.g. $100/month or $200). You can also just turn them off at will.

Note: US-only at the moment, Privacy.com isn't available anywhere else.
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