Netflix stops charging customers who never watch • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#351

Post by heavenlyblue » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

virgilp wrote: post #321

Reason077 wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "In France, Le Monde (most famous daily newspaper) requires you to send a paper mail (and not a regular mail, but a registered mail, which costs around 5-10€) to cancel your subscription." What is it with French companies? BlueCity, the UK arm of the French "Autolib" car sharing service, had this same ridiculous "send us a letter in the post to cancel" policy. Since they charged to a credit card rather than use dir…

Can you not call the bank to block the card on account of fraud and get a new one? The subsequent payments would surely be declined...

In the UK, last time I did this my bank themselves have shared the updated details with which they could charge me again.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#352

Post by hwerehqrw » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:14 PM UTC

kemitche wrote: post #344

mywacaday wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe it's different based on how you signed up, or what kind of subscription you have, but for me at least there's a "cancel subscription" link when I go to manage my subscription online on this page: https://myaccount.nytimes.com/seg/subscription I remember it didn't exist when I signed up a few years back, and they made a big deal about announcing that I could now cancel/change my subscription online when it launc…

You're probably in California, or your account is tagged as being in CA.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#353

Post by wolco » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:16 PM UTC

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…

Let me guess AshleyMadison.com?

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#354

Post by Klathmon » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:16 PM UTC

bschne wrote: post #300

ukoki wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just one theory: If I go to a restaurant I expect they'll give me to-go box if I ask for it; If I accidentally buy they wrong size shirt from a high-street retailer, I expect to be able to return it. If a business doesn't meet these generally-agreed on "consumer expectations" they may be complained about viciously. If Netflix can successfully normalize "only charge me if I use the service" into a basic consumer expec…

Interesting argument, I am curios though why this would hurt other streaming services more than netflix? Is this based on an assumption like "netflix has more content so less people will not watch anything for a few months than on [other platform]" or something like that?

It could also be an attempt to beat the innovator's dilemma.

By putting a policy in place like this they're internally much more incentivised to ensure they are putting out consistently good content.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#355

Post by wolco » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:18 PM UTC

mywacaday wrote: post #168

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…

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.

I didn't know they locked you into this dark pattern. New York Times has lost a lot of quality recently. They keep afloat from past reputation.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#356

Post by mathewsanders » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:19 PM UTC

danlugo92 wrote: post #345

lucasverra wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, when i saw that i got so mad that I created a virtual credit card, changed the billing method, and then deleted the card. You can not imagine the big smile on my face when i received the email "we cannot charge you".... Reaaaaaally big smile on my face

How can i create such a virtual card?

There a few options for virtual cards. Ive been using https://privacy.com/.

I’ve been using this not only for subscriptions, but also when I’m making an online purchase at a store that I think may not have the best security in place.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#357

Post by kevinmchugh » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

war1025 wrote: post #337

KMnO4 wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the problem with credit cards. Once they have your number, it’s very difficult to “stop paying”.

Do people really have the same credit card number for that long? I feel like every year I end up with a new card for one reason or another and suddenly I have to track down all the places that can no longer process my payments. I learned that you can request a replacement card with the same number, which I was initially very excited about. But when you get the new card it has a different expiration date, so it still…

There's a process for some card providers by which merchants can automatically update their card details for recurring purchases. Visa calls it Account Updater and at least Braintree has had support for it for over a decade.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#358

Post by jdxcode » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

kemitche wrote: post #344

mywacaday wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Maybe it's different based on how you signed up, or what kind of subscription you have, but for me at least there's a "cancel subscription" link when I go to manage my subscription online on this page: https://myaccount.nytimes.com/seg/subscription I remember it didn't exist when I signed up a few years back, and they made a big deal about announcing that I could now cancel/change my subscription online when it launc…

Try clicking it, I see this when I do: https://imgur.com/a/zbVvCgj

Also, I live in California.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#359

Post by jdxcode » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC

varjag wrote: post #249

cpv wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason I try to never give my card to lots of websites. If they have paypal, good. Or playstore subscription, sure. A one time/non recurring payment via a platform/provider/bank, ok. But never the card. Reading such user horror stories, or Terms & Conditions, makes me turn around and never come back.

I use a separate credit card for paying on dodgy services. Restaurants and small stores abroad, online payments not via PayPal, things like these. Relatively few monthly statements on it make anything funny stand out, and it's easy to just report/cancel the card.

check out privacy.com

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#360

Post by klyrs » Sat, May 23, 2020, 2:25 PM UTC

harimau777 wrote: post #248

mywacaday wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It would be interesting to see a credit card company differentiate on this. Have an internal team which works through the various companies (presumably in order of popularity) and does the leg work of figuring out how to subscribe. So the customer would be presented with: Go to these locations and upload this information. Or even: Enter your username and password and this information and our scripts will unsubscribe…

Some credit card companies do allow you to generate extra CC numbers. You can use one per service, and nuke the card to unsubscribe