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FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

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Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#491

Post by malfist »

rootusrootus wrote: post #326
cortesoft wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I remember when Amazon Prime first started, I signed up for the free trial to get free shipping on something. Of course, I forgot about it and didn’t cancel, but then I got an email from Amazon saying, “hey, you didn’t cancel your prime subscription but you also haven’t used it at all, so we are going to not charge you and cancel it for now. Here is how you easily restart your subscription if you end up needing…

Early Amazon was pro-customer in a way that I think most people have forgotten. Maybe that was always the strategy? They were losing money for years, and maybe that was investing in the company, or maybe it was allowing really large losses to keep customers happy, planning all along to eventually clamp down when people were addicted. And here we are. Their return rate is still pretty terrible, IIRC. I bet they are tr…

It's part of the leadership principles at amazon. "Earns Trust" is a strong guideline, with the saying that trust is hard earned and easily lost.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#492

Post by ethbr1 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #461
hgomersall wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you propose political engagement could work if nobody were willing to provide contact details?

Hold the bad actors accountable, as easy as that. Make the fines so painful that even the billion dollar campaigns notice.

Given how little the ecosystem is regulated, post Citizens United / PACs, I'm not sure that'd be legally scalable.

An elegant weapon of a more civilized age (the early internet): if they're pushy in requiring one -- just lie.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#493

Post by consteval »

seizethecheese wrote: post #406
xracy wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We gotta stop giving SCOTUS credit for bad decisions when they make unpopular opinions. SCOTUS is not supposed to make legislation, and if they are going to try and override Chevron from the bench without legislation, then we have to ignore them. SCOTUS' power/respect only goes as far as they're actually listening to the will of Americans. This is not representing Americans if they override. Same for abortion (just l…

This is insane and wrong. The Supreme Court is explicitly not supposed to represent the will of the people. You’re advocating nothing less than a type of coup. And against my best judgement, I’ll add that in it was roe v wade itself that was essentially judges creating law (shoehorning abortion rights into a right to privacy is a stretch).

> shoehorning abortion rights into a right to privacy is a stretch

I disagree fundamentally, but this is where the textualists and others diverge. I absolutely believe our fundamental rights extend to the modern era.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#494

Post by bjoli »

Bjartr wrote: post #356
inetknght wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I often think about how unreasonably great the regulations around “Unsubscribe” links in emails are. The sheer number of comments that think the state of "unsubscribe" is good is... saddening. I should not have to click a link to "unsubscribe" from something that I did not subscribe to. There's no recourse for me against these thieves.

The state of Unsubscribe is good. Imagine how much worse things would be if legit businesses had no reason to make it easy to unsubscribe in such a consistent way like we do today. That other problems also exist doesn't mean this solution for this thing isn't good.

I Had an issue with sixt (car rental). To unsubscribe I had to send a copy of my friggin passport to an address in Germany.

I instead used GDPR to request a removal of all my data. That worked.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#495

Post by antonyt »

ARandomerDude wrote: post #123
Workaccount2 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This is why you shouldn't let ChatGPT do your thinking for you. Skimming is an important art. Her basic points are: 1. The FTC doesn't have the authority to make this rule, and in government there must be a hard line between "I want this" and "this is legal" unless you want a dictatorship. 2. The reason the FTC has so many Congressionally-enacted laws to follow is because of a history of overstepping its legal author…

I think this is just the form that "typical pro-business grift" takes these days. "This [entity] has no legal authority to do [obviously good thing]" is a favorite justification for obstructionists in power at every level of government to ensure nothing gets done. They seem to conveniently drop this position when the action in question is pro-business.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#497

Post by consteval »

invaderzirp wrote: post #179
nerdjon wrote: post #56

> will require sellers to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up. I am very curious what exactly this means? Is it the number of pages or forms you had to fill out? People you had to talk too? So if for my internet I had to have someone come out to install it before service would start could they argue that they require someone to physically come out to turn off service? Or a ca…

You're overthinking it. If there's any confusion, it will go to court, and reasonable humans will decide that, actually, the form being in a filing cabinet in the basement isn't actually reasonable.

> it will go to court, and reasonable humans

We have an epidemic of overly-textualist, conservative courts living in an alternate reality.

Now only are these people unreasonable, they strive to be as unreasonable as possible, in order to project their political will of stopping progressivism, whatever that may mean to them.

Plenty of them are in the business of stopping regulation purely for the sport of stopping regulation, meaning regardless of what the regulation is.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#498

Post by consteval »

InitialBP wrote: post #417
beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you setup a "payment agreement" between yourself, the gym (or any similar service), and your credit card, you should be able to cancel that agreement and the subsequent services that agreement entailed through your credit card . The byzantine and manipulative things that gyms do are, in part, because we basically let them control the cancellation process.

It may be different now, but Planet Fitness used to ONLY allow you to set up ACH payments (e.g. bank routing and account number) and then only allow you to cancel in person. You can't dispute because it's ACH.

It's the same now, but actually worse. For me I had to mail-in a cancellation request. They can't cancel it at my gym.

Re: FTC announces "click-to-cancel" rule making it easier to cancel subscriptions

#500

Post by Schiendelman »

FireBeyond wrote: post #464
cortesoft wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man, I remember when Amazon Prime first started, I signed up for the free trial to get free shipping on something. Of course, I forgot about it and didn’t cancel, but then I got an email from Amazon saying, “hey, you didn’t cancel your prime subscription but you also haven’t used it at all, so we are going to not charge you and cancel it for now. Here is how you easily restart your subscription if you end up needing…

Amazon today won't even remind you that they are about to charge your card $150ish for an annual renewal, unless you specifically opt-in.

They still remind you automatically. I just got one.
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