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‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

pahouse.com

211–220 of 253 posts

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#211
post #167
post #166

I can't advocate privacy.com enough for these shenanigans! Issuing a credit card for each vendor - with spend caps or close the card whenever. If I can't find your cancel service page within five minutes of searching; I just close the card and am done.

They are allowed to send your bills to collection. They probably won’t, but don’t count on it. Not paying your bills is not a legally protected way of cancelling.

> Not paying your bills is not a legally protected way of cancelling

In normal relations, when you pay you get the goods or service, and when you do not pay you do not get it, without presumptions. If you buy a carrot - or more relevantly, newspapers - everything but the cash is redundant: not everyone would accept to subscribe to a different model, if not on very exceptional services.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Privacy.com and delete the card when you want to cancel. Screw these people, I may not be able to cancel but I can sure stop paying.

I started signing up for privacy.com, right up until the point where they asked for my username and password for my bank. Why can't they just do electronic funds transfer like Paypal? Seems like a strange user experience.

Same here. The whole point of my interest in privacy.com was privacy.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started signing up for privacy.com, right up until the point where they asked for my username and password for my bank. Why can't they just do electronic funds transfer like Paypal? Seems like a strange user experience.

WTF! ? How does anyone sign up for a service that asks for that, especially anyone here on HN? Are banks OK with this?

I use Mint.com to track my finances. I granted it read-access to all my bank accounts (access that I can revoke at any time from the bank's side). Yeah I'm the product, but it's free, saves me a ton of time, and actually syncs with literally all my accounts, from credit cards to my 401k to utilities. That's something I can't say for the privacy-focused options I tried before it.

Also I think HN and the technosphere in general is a little blind to the cost/benefit analysis of privacy for most consumers. People here have intimate knowledge of the technology and what can be done with information, so that's where they focus. Simple fact is there's a lot theoretical damage that could be done, but relatively little damage actually being done on an individual level for most consumers. Unless you're famous/important enough to be targeted by someone with resources, odds are even with zero privacy protections you'll get lost in the noise, or at most suffer trivial damage (having to cancel a stolen credit card or something)

I went through a phase where I tried to lock down my identity as much as possible, installed anti-fingerprinting browser extensions, forbade all cookies I didn't explicitly approve, individually selected sites to approve in NoScript, etc. It chewed up a ton of time, and when life happened and I was forced to re-prioritize my time and stopped maintaining it... nothing happened. It was the digital equivalent of installing steel shutters/doors and reinforced door frames so you can withstand a SWAT team with a no-knock warrant. Simple fact is the odds of encountering a SWAT team with a no-knock warrant are so low that it's statistically not worth the effort unless you're actually an outlaw.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started signing up for privacy.com, right up until the point where they asked for my username and password for my bank. Why can't they just do electronic funds transfer like Paypal? Seems like a strange user experience.

WTF! ? How does anyone sign up for a service that asks for that, especially anyone here on HN? Are banks OK with this?

Privacy is using Plaid[0] to connect to bank accounts. They also allow you to simply use a debit card so you can avoid using Plaid.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaid_(company)

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SaaS is an absolute cancer. I know a lot of those fat six figure salaries are contingent on people paying $9.99/mo for a grocery shopping list app, but its getting out of hand. Sorry HN.

Who are you apologising to? You're being more than a bit hyperbolic & disingenuous. I pay $15/year for a grocery list app that solves several problems for me. That is, I pay money for concurrent access, web-scraping that works, and an organisational system to help me feed my family. This is a great value to me: the $1.25 a month that I pay for my grocery list app has made my life easier.

I'm not sure whether this a joke or not?

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health clubs rely on 90% of their members never showing up. If they all cancelled, there'd be no more health clubs.

That shouldn't give them a pass to provide scummy cancellation practices. Most people I know who don't use their gym membership have also never tried to cancel.

I'm guessing people who pay for a gym subscription but don't use it are similar to people who smoke but intend to quit some time very soon?

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#217
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ooo I just had an idea: Uber but for lobbying

Most features apply: a map to select available lobbyiees nearby, lobby sharing, low cost lobbying. Even price jacking for peak lobbying hours!

You have a bootstrap problem though: how do you lobby for the erosion of worker's rights in the lobby gig economy without first creating the uber for lobbying app?

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#218
post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most features apply: a map to select available lobbyiees nearby, lobby sharing, low cost lobbying. Even price jacking for peak lobbying hours!

You have a bootstrap problem though: how do you lobby for the erosion of worker's rights in the lobby gig economy without first creating the uber for lobbying app?

Prostitution is already illegal in most areas of the US; there are no rights to erode.

(/s, just in case)

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That stops the payment from happening. But it does not stop your contractual obligation to pay. So it really depends on the business and how much information they have about you, and if they are dirty enough to send you to collections for it. A gym is likely going to send you to collections. An online SaaS is more likely to just cut you off and cancel the account.

> But it does not stop your contractual obligation to pay. Can't you Americans just send a certified letter informing a business of your intent to cancel and asking them to send you a final bill (if any) to settle payments within a specified time limit? That should cover you legally?

I don't think it's as common in 2022, but in the early 2000s to probably 2015, health club memberships were generally a 1 year contract meaning you were on the hook for a year. You can't just cancel. There were always month-to-month plans but they are usually a few more dollars ($10-$20) a month, but people are bozos and sign on the dotted line.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#220

Fully in favor of this. I recently had to cancel a subscription that had no "cancel subscription" button and instead forced you to contact customer service so they could try to sell you on discounts and etc. No, just let me cancel and get on with my day. Unfortunately, it seems health clubs(and I assume gyms?) are exempt from this when they are like 80% of the problem.

sign up with a one time generated credit card?
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