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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

#571

Post by [deleted] »

Alupis wrote: post #115
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…

> 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. I disagree. I routinely go months in between using some of my various subscriptions - be it Netflix, Hulu, Audible, etc. I would be very upset if they cancelled o…

[deleted]

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

#572

Post by PakG1 »

andrew_eu wrote: post #564
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…

Long ago I used to be a regular customer at a massage therapists office and paid dues into their sort of "subscription service" program. They charged a monthly fee about equal to a 1 hour massage, but would give a substantial discount when you actually get massages -- it broke even after about 2x per month which worked well enough for me. The incredible part was that they tracked whether you got a massage that month.…

I suppose the cynic would argue that if they didn't have this billing practice, they may have survived. Which the other cynic would say is the problem, are businesses being too subsidized by unethical billing?

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

#573

Post by safety1st »

vasco wrote: post #566
1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It should be shame that also falls on them, but somehow we give businesses a pass." I have always viewed the push for "subscriptions" as a business model by so-called "tech" companies with suspicion. Looks like it was warranted. Forgetting to cancel is part of the scheme. A friend of mine once worked briefly for a direct marketing company many, many years ago, pre-www. He said they knew a certain percentage would fo…

Gym membership model is the power of SaaS.

Yeah I'm extremely critical of big tech in general, but calling tech companies criminal because people subscribe for stuff then don't use it sounds like a double standard to me. This is the way we are able to have nice gyms at reasonable prices. It probably contributes to making other subscriptions cheaper too.

If you want to make the world better you have to focus on the correct things. One of those is that deceptively advertised, difficult to cancel subscriptions should not be allowed. Another is that monopoly/oligopoly leads to price hikes and should also not be allowed. But people remaining in voluntary transactions which don't make sense to your personal sense of frugality? Honestly not the right bone to pick.

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

#574

Post by maxioatic »

MenhirMike wrote: post #568

One of the many reasons to do household accounting. It's not even about making/keeping a budget, but simply about knowing where your money goes. It's a shame that many solutions are in turn also subscription based, so I don't have any good recommendations (I use YNAB Desktop, which was killed off a few years ago and replaced with a SaaS solution that's always increasing in price). But having insight into how you spen…

Happy to see YNAB mentioned. I actually had no idea they used to have a desktop app!

I’m a happy subscriber though and to me its yearly cost is easily made up by how much money I save using it.

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

#575

Post by redrove »

madhatter999 wrote: post #548
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.

I typically cancel the subscription right after signing up, it’s more practical.

99.9% of services keep your account alive until your trial/paid for period runs out. The other 0.1% I never sign up to.

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

#576

Post by redrove »

ksd482 wrote: post #14
mysterydip wrote: post #4

Forget to? Or involve so many dark patterns it's nearly impossible to?

I think it's both. To counter the dark patterns, I now use privacy.com. It's far easier to just cancel a virtual credit card.

US only…

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

#577

Post by ozim »

robertlagrant wrote: post #452
ozim wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s wrong with people who have no legs, can’t they just put their adulting pants and start walking? Cool that you are mentally and physically fit, I am as well. But there are lots of people who struggle with range of mental disorders or disabilities. Some might have depression some might have ADHD, some might just be much more forgetful so they might think it is good to check account balance but 30 mins later they…

If you think that services should start unsubscribing people just in case they have ADHD, that seems a very odd way round to think. They're just businesses. I don't think it's reasonable to assume they can know what you want or intend.

They don’t have to unsubscribe automatically, they could refund the money but keep subscription if someone wasn’t even opening their page in like 3 months.

I would say they don’t even have to refund automatically but maybe send an email at least - “Hey are you still with us?” - after they see no activity on account for a month and we also know for sure they track user activity very closely.

But we know - no one will even propose implementing such an email because it will be loss for the company. So that would be action for government to enforce.

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

#578

Post by cwbriscoe »

sakopov wrote: post #555

I use a service called Privacy [1] to generate virtual card numbers, which I than use with all of my subscriptions. All of the virtual cards are tied to a physical credit card used as the funding source. I get a notification every time a card is charged or a charge is denied (if it's above the set limit or no longer active). This has saved me from fraud where a single-use virtual card # I used to pay for airport park…

I started using privacy about 6 months ago. It is a great service. I have changed all of my subscriptions over to them and I set a monthly or yearly limit depending on the subscription type.

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

#579

Post by cwbriscoe »

rwbt wrote: post #24
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.

How does one get virtual credit cards? I remember some banks like Discover offered them, but I don't see them anymore.

privacy.com
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