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“Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

niemanlab.org

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Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

#131

Post by Epskampie »

bojan wrote: post #23

A lot of charities in the Netherlands do the same thing, where you can't just give a one-time donation, but have to subscribe to a monthly contribution. That is horrible enough as it is. But then to unsubscribe, you have to call them (during their and your office hours) and endure another couple of pitches to keep you subscribed until you are finally allowed to cancel. And then some of them even have a cancellation t…

This is the reason i have a label next to my doorbell that says: "Donations only without subscription and to volunteers". Since then we've not have a lot of charities ring the bell, and the ones that do I actually want to give to.

Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

#132

Post by csee »

kieloo wrote: post #18

Same thing with The Guardian. Subscribed online and was then told I can’t cancel via email and have to endure a pushy sales call if I want to cancel. Similar experience with The Economist except it was via live chat instead. These experiences honestly make me want to never subscribe to a newspaper again.

Don't subscribe again. You can read all these articles for free via archive. If they're going to be doing abusive things to you like that, you have a duty to pirate their content.

Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

#133

Post by forgotmyoldname »

sokoloff wrote: post #19
adrianmsmith wrote: post #6

If they do something like this, it shows such complete lack of confidence in their product. "The only reason why people would continue to use this product is... if we make it sufficiently difficult to cancel". When signing up for a product, if it uses tactics like this, I assume the product is no good, and even the producers of the product know it...

I also dislike this business practice, but I don’t think the only way it comes about is from lack of confidence in product/service. Let’s say you were building a startup and had to prioritize limited resources on everything that sucked about it. You’re talking to users, tracking various metrics, trying to get people to use it, and your backlog of things you wished you could do is 3+ years long. You’d build easy sign…

Employing people to handle phone cancellations is way more money and effort than a cancellation script.

I’ve never encountered a small startup that relies on call to cancel—only big companies that actively know they’re making it hard to leave.

Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

#134

Post by Macha »

lode wrote: post #65
yessirwhatever wrote: post #8

Someone tell NYT.

These days you can cancel yourself via myaccount.nytimes.com. Go to Subscription overview, and at the very bottom click "Cancel your subscription". You can also use this to get a better deal. Just start the cancellation, choose "My subscription is too expensive" as reason, click Continue a couple of times and they'll give you a reduced rate to keep you. I now pay 2 euros a month for a digital subscription.

My understanding is this is only available in certain jurisdictions which mandate symmetry between subscribe and unsubscribe options. Others direct you to phone or Web chat.

Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

#135

Post by Ekaros »

tremon wrote: post #107
texasbigdata wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn’t the company bear the burden of that cost, not the consumer? That’s kinda silly. Oh you require it by certified air pigeon? Great, happy to; pay for it.

The recommendation for using a certified letter is that you (as customer) have an independent paper trail to make your case should it go to court. At least in NL, a certified letter should not be required by the company itself.

In Finland cancelling rental contract can be fun, if you don't manage to contact your landlord. Your regular certified letter technically isn't enough. You need even more expensive version "registered with advice of receipt". Which is probably only way to prove in court that person received it...

Though I haven't had issues in cancelling stuff. Online services work nicely for all other stuff.

Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

#136

Post by jfk13 »

School-Cotton wrote: post #113
t0mas88 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's illegal in Europe. You have to be able to cancel via the same means as you signed up. So if you can signup online then you must be able to cancel online.

I subscribe to Der Spiegel (German weekly news magazine) and as far as I can tell it can’t be cancelled without e-mailing them. This is unfortunate because although I can read German, I can’t write or speak it, so figuring out how to write that e-mail would be a headache. Edit: Thanks to aboalarm.de, which I learned about from this thread, I have learned the correct formula to use: > Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, >…

You could email them in English. Der Spiegel is large and international enough that it's reasonable to expect them to cope with that.

Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

#139

Post by odiroot »

nasir wrote: post #64
nivenkos wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just as bad in Europe! Signed up to O2 Deutschland - had to send a fax or send a physical letter to cancel.

You can instruct your bank to stop the direct debit payments and they'll cancel your subscription.

I had to do exactly that with o2 Germany. They continued to charge me after the contract expired. And they even tried to charge for the router that I actually sent back.

Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says

#140

Post by jgb1984 »

neya wrote: post #59

Fuck New York Times, I had to go through this chaos once and promised to never ever use any of their services ever again. I even went to the pain of making sure all my ad blockers were in full force when visiting the NYT. I developed a strong sense of hatred after realize what kind of slimy tactics they used to stop you from cancelling a subscription. One day, I found a loophole. I would email them requesting a cance…

Why would I want to read their woke hysteria anyway...
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