Americans are spending billions on stuff they forget to cancel • Hacker News Board

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

#541

Post by randomdata » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:40 AM UTC

wolverine876 wrote: post #469

lazide wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck with that. Continuing to provide someone a service isn’t scamming them, even if they aren’t using it. Assuming you aren’t making it hard to cancel or anything. And doing all this work in the middle of a high inflation environment…. Do you have a death wish?

[flagged]

> You know they don't want the service or to pay for it; you are just taking advantage of their mistake.

Get this: In this jurisdiction, as an employer I have to legally continue to pay for the services of labor for another two weeks (at minimum, more if the worker has been around for a while) after I no longer want the service. That's thousands of dollars, possibly even tens of thousands of dollars, for a service I don't want.

Curiously, I have never yet met anyone who has politely declined or offered to pay it back. I suppose all workers are scammers by nature.

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

#542

Post by srinivasan » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:46 AM UTC

The number is likely larger than the article suggests, because both Visa and Mastercard will share updated payment information to merchants who had recurring charges. The paper treats this as a "possibility" (and uses a small lambda factor to adjust for it) rather than the norm that it is in 2024.

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

#543

Post by nktrnk » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:47 AM UTC

Loughla wrote: post #428

anthomtb wrote: post #411

I do a pretty good job of keeping only the subscriptions I use. Thankfully my S.O. has a severe allergy towards those kind of bills. Did you cancel HBO Max? We haven't watched it in 2 weeks. Are you still using Apple Music? Why do we have three music subscriptions? Is this really the cheapest mobile plan around? It can get naggy but man does it save some $$$. What drives me nuts are the subscriptions that we actually…

Pandora is my favorite subscription. I have paid $3.99 a month for years, for all the music I could ever listen to. It is literally always on in my house or office.

Try FIP radio. Free, no ads, and really good music picks to my taste. Beats Spotify and everything else I’ve tried in terms of finding new music or listening to something in the background.

TBH, I still have a Spotify subscription for listening on demand.

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

#544

Post by intellix » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:48 AM UTC

the typical auto renewal scam. Some reason it's common and i'm happy to see it getting some light. I wanted to order some science stuff for my kids for Christmas by ordering them 6 months of packages, one per month. They wouldn't let me only order 6 but I had to order them with a rolling subscription that automatically renewed. I emailed them and said I don't want it to renew automatically, I want 6 and then I will personally decide whether to order more, to which their system didn't even support. They're obviously banking on people forgetting to cancel, which I can't believe is legal. In this case it's not as bad cause they actually deliver a physical product.

Once I looked at my bank account and noticed that i'd been paying for ancestry for the past 6 months... WTF! So I logged into my account, canceled it and requested a refund stating that I didn't even know I had it and didn't login once. They told me they don't offer refunds despite me never logging in. You basically sign up to a free trial by placing down a credit card to get access and forget about it. Total scam and I can't wait for it to be illegal.

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

#545

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:50 AM UTC

intellix wrote: post #544

the typical auto renewal scam. Some reason it's common and i'm happy to see it getting some light. I wanted to order some science stuff for my kids for Christmas by ordering them 6 months of packages, one per month. They wouldn't let me only order 6 but I had to order them with a rolling subscription that automatically renewed. I emailed them and said I don't want it to renew automatically, I want 6 and then I will p…

[deleted]

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

#546

Post by bluedays » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:51 AM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #228

> Their average response was $62. When they were given more time to guess again, they increased their estimate to $96. They were still way off. The correct answer was $273. I have been in rooms at SaaS companies where the fact that people forget to cancel the subscription was described as an important benefit of the subscription model, and a reason to set the price at something easily overlooked. People are terrible…

I just cancel my debit card instead. It’s quicker, and then when I have to add my card to sending that needs it again I have a much deeper understanding of where my money is going.

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

#547

Post by raz32dust » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:52 AM UTC

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…

In the elderly neighbor and shovel example, I don't see what's wrong, as long as it was communicated. It depends on the agreement really - for example, if the shovel guy was charging a little less for subscription than what it would otherwise cost the elderly in a regular year of snow. The elderly is getting the benefit of always having a shoveler ready and available, and the shoveler is getting the benefit of more predictable income.

I am as frustrated about everything turning into a subscription as the next person, but the solution is not to put the onus of cancellation on businesses. It is to prevent monopolies (so that there is a true free market) and dark patterns (i.e, cancellation should be easy and terms should be very clear when subscribing).

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

#548

Post by madhatter999 » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:57 AM UTC

intellix wrote: post #544

the typical auto renewal scam. Some reason it's common and i'm happy to see it getting some light. I wanted to order some science stuff for my kids for Christmas by ordering them 6 months of packages, one per month. They wouldn't let me only order 6 but I had to order them with a rolling subscription that automatically renewed. I emailed them and said I don't want it to renew automatically, I want 6 and then I will p…

Absurdity aside, I set a reminder for any trial end, preferably a couple of days before.

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

#549

Post by CJefferson » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 4:59 AM UTC

cryptozeus wrote: post #182

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.

Why not send a message reminding them of the service, and giving an easy one-click way of cancelling? You could include some info on how they can use your service as well of course.

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

#550

Post by cryptozeus » Sat, Jan 20, 2024, 5:02 AM UTC

tppiotrowski wrote: post #225

cryptozeus wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

OP doesn't say remove subscription, just charge $0 for months where users don't use the service.

And charge more than agreed bill if you use more ? This is not how pricing work