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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

#211

Post by the_snooze »

jmyeet wrote: post #125

Whenever this subject comes up I'm disheartened to see how many are willing to blame the victim: the consumer. We have allowed businesses to exist whose only really business model is duping customers into a subscription and then making it difficult or impossible to cancel. Just go look at timeshares [1]. I would dearly love to give money to some quality news publications to support their work but I don't. Why? Becaus…

>Speaking of gyms, it's an anti-user business model. The perfect gym customer is one who pays for a membership and never uses it.

My gym managed to find itself in a great little niche by being the complete opposite: they'll call you if you haven't been in for two weeks, then bug you to either start coming in again or pause your membership. The result is a dedicated membership base of regulars who seriously want to be there, which sustains itself on word-of-mouth referrals.

Of course, this is a small-time operation and not a national chain like Planet Fitness.

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

#212

Post by paulpauper »

marcrosoft wrote: post #3

Use virtual credit cards and privacy.com. It really helps with peace of mind that you can really have a free trial and not worry about it.

no, this is bad advice . Credit cards are better because the dispute process is more favorable to buyers and longer dispute window. A debit card has worse buyer protection.

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

#213

Post by Buttons840 »

Unbefleckt wrote: post #202
Buttons840 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You suggest that spending 30 minutes a month can improve someones financial situation. In those 30 minutes they could cancel unused subscriptions and maybe save $50 a month. $50 a month isn't bad, but it's not going to be the difference between retiring comfortably and not retiring. Or they could spend those 30 minutes updating their resume and applying to a job; if they apply for a better job every month they could…

Luckily we have many waking hours in a month to do both.

If you do both, then you are spending at least some of your time sub-optimally.

Education, applying to jobs, entrepreneurial ventures, etc, all of these have higher expected value than cancelling subscriptions.

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

#214

Post by Alupis »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #191
Alupis wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

We have different mental models, that's all. Is that incredible? No, we just have different life experiences that have led us to this point and how we think.

[flagged]

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

#215

Post by paxys »

janalsncm wrote: post #195
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…

> No one is looking out for you This is literally what law enforcement and consumer protection is for. Otherwise we could make the same argument about pickpocketing victims, which is frankly what this is more akin to.

So willingly going to netflix.com, picking a plan, entering your credit card info, hitting subscribe and watching TV for the next month is the same as getting pickpocketed?

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

#216

Post by smallerfish »

I'd like to call out ZenBusiness on this one. They allowed an LLC (which to be fair we weren't using actively) to enter a delinquent state, but continued to charge the registered agent fee for 2 additional years until we noticed; each year we'd get a "your XYZ LLC is going to automatically renew" email from them, with no mention of the fact of outstanding annual reports due. After that they had the gall to charge penalty fees to reinstate the account, on top of the state fees. Definitely moving to a competitor at end of year when it comes time to renew again.

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

#217

Post by nunez »

I can't wait for services like Privacy to enter the mainstream. It's coming. (I'd like to think that it's coming.)

When 90% of your user base is using super-easily-createable disposable credit cards from valid BINs that self-destruct after your free trial's over, the way free trials work will have to change.

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

#218

Post by PaulHoule »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #135
darth_avocado wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of these are valid issues though. I'd consider myself in top 1% when it comes to financial health and I still pay for stuff I forgot to cancel. Some of the reasons: > They make you call between 9 am and 5 pm, and hold for hours to cancel, sometimes even disconnect forcing you to start over, while not offering a callback option. Sometimes there are weeks I absolutely cannot afford to do this because of work. > Yo…

> They make you call between 9 am and 5 pm This is customer service. A written notice of termination works for any consumer contract. > but you paid for the year Unpay for it. This is the utility of credit cards.

There ought to be some legislation to modify the credit card system such that all your recurring subscriptions are managed through your payment provider (say credit card web portal) so you can see a list and cancel them with one click.

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

#219

Post by paulpauper »

tppiotrowski wrote: post #207

I think subscriptions are a "dark pattern" on the web. Often they start after a free trial with minimal knowledge. This could be one category of subscriptions that are not cancelled. Personally on my projects I never auto-renew anything. If you find value you'll take the time to come back and pay again. I wish by default subscription services like Netflix would not charge you for months you don't use the service (I.e…

Obviously, if Netflix adopted a pay-per-use model, earnings would crater. AOL made so much $ from ppl forgetting to cancel.
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