Netflix stops charging customers who never watch • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#431

Post by grompotr0n » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:20 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.

Same with me. And somehow, their online costumer service was always unavailable... What a coincidence! Luckily, in my country there is a service that allows us to create temporary credit cards and I had subscribed with one. It was just a matter of canceling that card.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#432

Post by radu_floricica » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

g_p wrote: post #260

adamtulinius wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually we have such a law in the EU. Not sure what it's called, but I'm sure it exists. I believe the wording to be something like it has to be possible to cancel in a similar way you signed up.

There is a similar sounding provision in GDPR, which requires that it is as straightforward to withdraw consent as it is to grant it (i.e. it must be possible through the same procedure, so preventing postal letters being sent to a dedicated address). Not sure if there's a similar provision for cancelling paid services, but potentially if the service relies on consent for data processing, you could use GDPR grounds t…

It's worth a try, but GDPR specifically excludes contractual information. So if you have pending bills, whatever info they need to charge you is not protected by GDPR. And even after you pay, they still need your name for accounting purposes (you received $100 last year? from whom exactly? will the law ask, and you have to be able to answer)

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#433

Post by jedberg » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #235

Jd wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

I use privacy.com and my regular card. I use my privacy.com cards for sites where I think security is bad (like our local water company) and for recurring subscriptions on sites that I don't think will be easy to cancel.

It's a good compromise between protection and credit rewards.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#434

Post by avianlyric » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

adamtulinius wrote: post #174

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.

Actually we have such a law in the EU. Not sure what it's called, but I'm sure it exists. I believe the wording to be something like it has to be possible to cancel in a similar way you signed up.

I believe there is also another EU law that requires banks and credit card providers to support merchant blocking.

If you’re struggling to cancel a subscription, contact your bank and ask them to block the subscription.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#435

Post by jedberg » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #382

fedups wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Planet money had a story where a similar superficially good idea ended up with Etrade selling a man's Amazon stock and deactivating his account after he didn't log in for a certain period of time. He was able to reclaim about $8000 for stock that would be worth ~$100k today. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/799345159

This is mildly infuriating because the whole point of long term investing is to buy a stock, and well, do nothing -- besides hold it for decades. The stock should continue being held whether a user logs in or not.

> The stock should continue being held whether a user logs in or not.

FWIW ETrade agrees with this. It wasn't their policy that closed the account, it was a law that was in theory to protect consumers... from themselves?

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#436

Post by komali2 » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

elcomet wrote: post #338

t0mas88 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's illegal in the EU. So you could just send them a cancellation email and stop paying.

You can but they won't stop charging your card. They have the credit card number, so the only way would be to change the payment method to an invalid card. Another comment actually says that he managed to create a virtual credit card, change the payment method, and delete the card. Quite clever. It's a shame that methods like this have to be used instead of just the click of a button.

Can't you start issuing chargebacks? Chase is not the most Lawful Good of banks but I have to admit that on the times I needed someone to GTFO my credit card, they had my back.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#437

Post by avianlyric » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC

elcomet wrote: post #338

t0mas88 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's illegal in the EU. So you could just send them a cancellation email and stop paying.

You can but they won't stop charging your card. They have the credit card number, so the only way would be to change the payment method to an invalid card. Another comment actually says that he managed to create a virtual credit card, change the payment method, and delete the card. Quite clever. It's a shame that methods like this have to be used instead of just the click of a button.

In the EU you can ask your bank or credit card provider to block subscription payments from specific merchants. This is something EU requires them to support.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#438

Post by jedberg » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:40 PM UTC

kchr wrote: post #406

bcrosby95 wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife has an old gym membership for 24 hour fitness. She pays $120/year. Never uses it. Figures it's good "whoops, you're homeless" insurance - it's a place you can get dressed and take a shower.

Wow, that's one use of the gym card I never considered. Genious.

I got one of those free personal trainer sessions at the gym once. In chatting with my personal trainer, I discovered that he lives in an RV outside the gym, and uses the gym to shower every morning and uses their bathroom so he doesn't have to spend money emptying/filling his tanks on his RV. A solar panel on the roof covered his electricity.

Basically by being employed by the gym and living in an RV he had no recurring expenses expect car insurance.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#439

Post by jedberg » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:42 PM UTC

_squared_ wrote: post #387

dylan62 wrote: post #177

Netflix impressed me recently with how easy they made it for me to cancel my subscription. It means I will have no hesitation to re-subscribe in future, should I feel the urge. I just wonder how long it will last. It sometimes feels like all the big successful consumer companies become accountancy-driven scumbags sooner or later. Fingers crossed Netflix can buck the trend and stay a nice company to deal with.

Netflix joined the Motion Picture Association not so long ago. I'd recon they are well into the transition from startup mentality to dominant bureaucracy-driven business mentality.

I think they joined the MPAA so they could influence it towards their more liberal views on how content should be released. If anything I think it will mean other companies relax their rules.

Re: Netflix stops charging customers who never watch

#440

Post by Lorin » Sat, May 23, 2020, 5:43 PM UTC

wolco wrote: post #364

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

I tried that with rebel.ca (domain reg) a few years ago. They setup this dark pattern where domains wouldn't expire they get renewed two months before they were due. In my case they froze the account preventing me from moving domains. I called support and they unfroze it. The next night the system it froze again. It became a race, manually moving 200 domains over in 12 hours. They don't allow bulk moves and you can't…

Where'd you move to? Namesilo's been fantastic to me after transitioning from ENOM years ago.