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

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

#141

Post by ClumsyPilot »

type_Ben_struct wrote: post #110
rich_sasha wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few times I found it was easier to cancel a card than to cancel a subscription. I still find it insane that the "normal" way to pay for goods and services is to pass full details of your payment card, sufficient to make any future payment, and just trust the merchant. Surely the sane way is you generate some token they can redeem against, but you can e.g. expire it or modify it. It thankfully is now more of a thing…

I had to resort to cancelling a card once too, but it didn’t fix the problem. My Credit Card Provider (Barclaycard) implemented the Visa Account Updater service with no way to turn it off so my new card details went straight to the merchant. Ended up cancelling the account I was so frustrated, lost a customer of 10 years. https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vau

Typically you can call your bank and ask them to block transactions from a particular merchant that you have an issue with, I have done that before, once on credit card and once on a current account.

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

#142

Post by misnome »

Reason077 wrote: post #91
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.

> "That's illegal in Europe. You have to be able to cancel via the same means as you signed up." Unfortunately I don't think that's true. I'm looking at you, beer52.com! [1] (And yes, they were doing this long before the UK left the EU, and are still at it today) [1] https://ibb.co/r4LfK5F

Yes, beer52.com is atrocious for this also. I tried over a couple of weeks in lunch breaks and never got through.

Eventually I sent an email to some random customer support email I found complaining and they actually did it.

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

#144

Post by Xelbair »

rich_sasha wrote: post #30
_Donny wrote: post #5

Living in Europe, I couldn't believe that if I wanted to unsubscribe to New York Times, I would need to call one of their hotlines which operated in US time-zones. IIRC the open hours were after midnight in my timezone, and their local hotline was out of order. I seriously thought that I had signed up for a phishing site ...

A few times I found it was easier to cancel a card than to cancel a subscription. I still find it insane that the "normal" way to pay for goods and services is to pass full details of your payment card, sufficient to make any future payment, and just trust the merchant. Surely the sane way is you generate some token they can redeem against, but you can e.g. expire it or modify it. It thankfully is now more of a thing…

>I still find it insane that the "normal" way to pay for goods and services is to pass full details of your payment card, sufficient to make any future payment, and just trust the merchant. Surely the sane way is you generate some token they can redeem against, but you can e.g. expire it or modify it.

That's kinda how Blik payments work in Poland. They generate one time code that is used to purchase goods, you also have to confirm it on your device(usually a banking app).

That code is one time use and expires after 2 minutes - and it can be safely told out loud. You also get transaction details before you confirm it on your device.

Expanding this system to a token that allows recurring subscription would be pretty convenient.

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

#145

Post by mejutoco »

zorked wrote: post #2

Also a common practice in Europe (Germany, France, Switzerland...), but frequently even worse: click to subscribe, send a fucking letter to cancel it. Le Monde and Der Spiegel both do it. I'm a news junkie, I think paying for news is important, but I don't have even 1/4 of the subscriptions I would have if it wasn't for scummy tactics and/or the fear that I will be subject to them in the future.

Check the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. They do not even allow to subscribe by credit/ debit card, only by sharing your bank details. What a joke.

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

#146

Post by [deleted] »

revax wrote: post #99
hnarn wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't "Europe", it's Germany. Germany is still well known for using fax for government and corporate communication, and there was heavy criticism for how the Covid pandemic was initially handled because faxing records was so common which meant they could not be easily digitized, collected and searched. In Sweden, sending a fax or physical letter to a government instance or private companies rather than an e-mail…

You have to call or send a letter to cancel your subscription of the French newspaper LeMonde. It's not just Germany.

[deleted]

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

#147

Post by School-Cotton »

jfk13 wrote: post #136
School-Cotton wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You’re probably right. I haven’t tried.

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

#148

Post by hnarn »

nivenkos wrote: post #112
hnarn wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't "Europe", it's Germany. Germany is still well known for using fax for government and corporate communication, and there was heavy criticism for how the Covid pandemic was initially handled because faxing records was so common which meant they could not be easily digitized, collected and searched. In Sweden, sending a fax or physical letter to a government instance or private companies rather than an e-mail…

Yeah, I live in Sweden now too. I think Sweden is the exception here really though (and the other Scandinavian countries, and possibly the UK).

To me, that’s enough exceptions to not generalize about “Europe”.

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

#150

Post by _Wintermute »

revax wrote: post #99
hnarn wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't "Europe", it's Germany. Germany is still well known for using fax for government and corporate communication, and there was heavy criticism for how the Covid pandemic was initially handled because faxing records was so common which meant they could not be easily digitized, collected and searched. In Sweden, sending a fax or physical letter to a government instance or private companies rather than an e-mail…

You have to call or send a letter to cancel your subscription of the French newspaper LeMonde. It's not just Germany.

I had this same issue with a number of French companies. Couldn't figure out why they weren't cancelling my contract despite repeated letters until someone told me you have to send the letter with proof of receipt otherwise they just ignore it.
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