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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

#371

Post by Kalium »

ryandrake wrote: post #325
tialaramex wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you've got here is an is/ought distinction. You're telling me how you think the universe ought to be but my advice was about how the universe is .

I suppose what OP is saying is, if an innovative company figured out how to do those things, obviously using the technology/universe we already have, then they'd have him as a customer and/or investor. They'd have me too. These are all great consumer-focused features that would be game-changers for a credit card company. It's simply utterly bananas that all it takes is for someone to get a few numbers from me, and th…

From what I've read, privacy.com is quite precisely this company and offers this product. Their copy claims it's free for personal use.

To what extent they "have it made" is an open question, but I am curious what you have to say about their signup process.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#372

Post by robohoe »

CuriousCosmic wrote: post #324
sytelus wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

privacy.com looks great. I think the only disadvantage is that you lose all the 2-5% cashback, travel benefits and so on. I wish they could produce card while keeping these benefits but still its good card to have for shady websites.

Depending on who your card is through, some companies started offering this. It's often just hidden in the web UI.

Yep, Bank of America and Citi offer the same service. Not sure about others.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#373

Post by arkitaip »

customersmoney wrote: post #322
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.

“Legally speaking, we can’t allow you to cancel via the app. You can only cancel via a web browser but unfortunately that system is down. Please mail a letter to PO Box 937192 or send a fax. We will process your cancellation with 4-6 weeks once we have the legally required paper request. Thank you for being a valued customer.”

“But the plans were on display…”

“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

“That’s the display department.”

“With a flashlight.”

“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs.”

“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#374

Post by sitkack »

For those reading at Netflix, thank you!

I worked for a game company and we had a small number of folks who bought lots of games and never activated them. I lobbied management that it was unethical to keep these peoples' money, it was unethical, I was laughed at.

Now that that is out of the way, can we talk about parental controls?

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#375

Post by criddell »

eganist wrote: post #362
digitalengineer wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ Apple Card has awesome features but the most important of them all, at leasts from a security standpoint, is probably the ability to generate virtual card numbers on demand, which will come in handy for those times when you won’t necessarily trust the recipient.”

it's funny because: 1. Citibank did this for a long time. They still might. I remember using this in the late 2000s for some online services at the time. 2. Apple and Google Pay both do this as well, though these are all one-time-use implementations. It's sold as this pretty revolutionary feature that others have done (in some capacity) for quite a while now.

A feature isn't revolutionary until people use it.

Apple didn't invent virtual numbers, but they have a better implementation than Citibank. It's Apple's MO.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#376

Post by war1025 »

kevinmchugh wrote: post #357
war1025 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well that would be super convenient for me. At this point I'm just slowly transitioning to always using my checking account number directly for payment since that is stable.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#377

Post by sjs382 »

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.

Same story with myself and NYT almost a decade ago. Keep an eye on your statements: they kept charging me and I kept needing to cancel for 3ish more months until it all finally stopped.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#378

Post by antaviana »

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…

This reminds me a case of a large publisher that was under a ISO 9001 certification project.

ISO 9001 requires to implement some kind of customer satisfaction feedback as to assess customer satisfaction for ongoing improvement.

When the ISO auditors/consultants said that they should do something about it such as sending surveys to subscribers to assess their satisfaction, the Sales & Marketing VP said that if ISO 9001 meant that they had to remind subscribers that they had a subscription they do not use, they would rather cancel the ISO 9001 certification project altogether.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#379

Post by unreal37 »

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 have a NY Times subscription and didn't know this.

Shady, shady.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#380

Post by teekert »

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…

I really like it that my bank allows me to refuse payment, or just set the payment limit per company (I would set this to 0). Or I could just delete my virtual MasterCard altogether.

We need to be empowered against these practices.

Btw, Very nice of Netflix to do this!

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