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Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

wsj.com

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Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#181

Post by paxys »

tehjoker wrote: post #165
paxys wrote: post #106

It's bizarre to me just how many people in this country ( especially the ones who can least afford it) simply do not take charge of their financial health. Even in this very thread you can see all kinds of excuses ("it's too hard to log in and check credit card statements every month", "they make you call or chat to cancel so I don't bother", "they should cancel subscriptions automatically if you don't use them", "it…

Well that's a dismal way to look at it. Regulations should be in place to prevent these kinds of business practices. For example, if a user doesn't use a service, perhaps they should get a refund for those months.

This is exactly the problem I am talking about. Why is the first instinct to always externalize blame? Why is big government the default solution to everything? How about – if you are not getting value out of a subscription (that you signed up for), go and cancel it. And if you choose not to, don't blame the rest of the world for your money problems.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#182

Post by cryptozeus »

wolverine876 wrote: post #64

The blame falls also on businesses which take money for services they don't deliver. They often know, and otherwise often could know, when subscribers are not using the service. If you're a business, you should earn your revenue, otherwise you are frauds. This particular behavior is little better than taking money and simply refusing to provide service. Don't tell me it's unintentional - you know what's happening and…

What would you want business to do ? See that customer is not active then go ahead and remove their subscription?? Lmao then you will have customers asking why did you stop my account. Clearly you have not faced customers before.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#183

Post by bjourne »

paxys wrote: post #106

It's bizarre to me just how many people in this country ( especially the ones who can least afford it) simply do not take charge of their financial health. Even in this very thread you can see all kinds of excuses ("it's too hard to log in and check credit card statements every month", "they make you call or chat to cancel so I don't bother", "they should cancel subscriptions automatically if you don't use them", "it…

Same "advice" can be given to fatties too. Your health and your problem. I put advice in quotes because it doesn't work and isn't that easy in practice.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#184

Post by AlexandrB »

vdaea wrote: post #160
paxys wrote: post #106

It's bizarre to me just how many people in this country ( especially the ones who can least afford it) simply do not take charge of their financial health. Even in this very thread you can see all kinds of excuses ("it's too hard to log in and check credit card statements every month", "they make you call or chat to cancel so I don't bother", "they should cancel subscriptions automatically if you don't use them", "it…

>It's bizarre to me just how many people in this country (especially the ones who can least afford it) simply do not take charge of their financial health. I've seen it first-hand how those with the biggest financial problems earn as much money as anybody else, but they simply can't handle it. And the rest of us are supposed to bail them out of course.

While that's true, there are multi-billion dollar industries built around exploiting financial ignorance. Payday loan companies and gambling are top of mind for me here. Who are we really bailing out, the financially unhealthy or the corporate parasites?

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#185

Post by wolverine876 »

lumb63 wrote: post #179
wolverine876 wrote: post #64

The blame falls also on businesses which take money for services they don't deliver. They often know, and otherwise often could know, when subscribers are not using the service. If you're a business, you should earn your revenue, otherwise you are frauds. This particular behavior is little better than taking money and simply refusing to provide service. Don't tell me it's unintentional - you know what's happening and…

A subscription service is an agreement between a consumer and a business, where the consumer agrees to provide money in exchange for access to some service. That service might be something that they regularly receive, e.g. meal kits, or it might be something that they can choose to access, e.g. Spotify. In the former case, where there is a definite agreement that some item will be delivered, I agree with you; not pro…

Taken to a logical extreme, it might mean all that. That discussion is interesting philosophically (I mean that sincerely), but in this case I'm just speaking practically, and in that context it's easy to see the solutions IMHO.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#186

Post by wolverine876 »

lazide wrote: post #126
wolverine876 wrote: post #64

The blame falls also on businesses which take money for services they don't deliver. They often know, and otherwise often could know, when subscribers are not using the service. If you're a business, you should earn your revenue, otherwise you are frauds. This particular behavior is little better than taking money and simply refusing to provide service. Don't tell me it's unintentional - you know what's happening and…

[flagged]

Taking all legal free money is wise, or even just non-idiotic?

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#187

Post by tedchs »

Fwiw, when I've forgotten to cancel something, I've had success saying something like "I was checking my credit card statement and was surprised I'm still paying for X. I haven't used it at all since Y date. Would it be possible to have a refund, perhaps partial, since then, for $xx?". Basically I make it easy for them to say yes.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#188

Post by janalsncm »

gedy wrote: post #142
rectang wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rapacious corporations agree with you — no matter how deceptive or even illegal their practices are, no matter how much R&D money is brought to bear in designing innovative user interfaces and bureaucratic frameworks which systematically exploit human weaknesses (particularly those of vulnerable populations such as less-tech-savvy elders) to bleed the populace dry... it's all the fault of the individual victims w…

I think you are misrepresenting OPs point. We all know many people who are extremely sloppy with their personal finances, and sign up for things they can't afford, debt they are unlikely to pay back, etc. Am I sad for companies who take in these people as customers? No, but let's not canonize people who are reckless with their spending, even when warned.

Of course in any population there will be a long tail of people who are bad at finances, for example leasing cars they can’t afford or using buy now pay later plans for clothes they don’t need.

That's not what this is about though. In those situations, the person is consciously choosing a bad option. However this is materially different, because with auto-pay people are being charged without their knowledge. The first situation involves making a bad choice, but this is being unaware of a bad thing, which companies are exploiting.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#189

Post by yedava »

Subscriptions should have a time based expiry option. It's trivial to implement from a technology standpoint and not providing that option is an anti-consumer tactic. The fact that all businesses are so anti-consumer is a testament to the dystopian times we live in. Technology is being used to actively harm us.

Re: Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel

#190

Post by Modified3019 »

paxys wrote: post #106

It's bizarre to me just how many people in this country ( especially the ones who can least afford it) simply do not take charge of their financial health. Even in this very thread you can see all kinds of excuses ("it's too hard to log in and check credit card statements every month", "they make you call or chat to cancel so I don't bother", "they should cancel subscriptions automatically if you don't use them", "it…

That's a lovely and idealistic view of humans.

Unfortunately bad actors have realized that what we actually are is just meat computers with unpatchable security vulnerabilities, so demanding that people just stop having problems and fit your nebulous definition of competence with unlimited and unwavering performance, has predictably not panned out.

What is the more moral solution then? Recognizing and placing systematic limits on exploitation behaviors, or is it continuing to demand super-vigilance from the victims?

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