Is nytimes going to go out of business?
“Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
261–270 of 890 posts
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#262Same 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.
The Economist I just didn't renew. Nothing beyond that.
What is true is that, with a lot of magazines, to get the best rate you have to select an autorenew option and then they make it difficult to cancel. (That may be the case with The Economist; don't know.) In general, you're better off just paying a bit more and passing on autorenew unless you're sure you want to keep on subscribing.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone with access to a public library (photo ID will get you a free library card) can access eLibrary services that get updated daily. No need to pay for NYT, for WSJ, or any major national newspaper. By paying taxes, you're already paying for digital access to this media. I applaud the FTC's decision but I wish people realized there's more practical means for accessing media that is more frequently locked behind pa…
This depends on your library system. I am under a provincial library system which is woefully underfunded. We get “flavours of the month” services that are likely trial versions offered to libraries before lock-in. Some of the choices over the years were Freegal Music, Ancestry.com and some sort of language training thing. Our Overdrive tier is probably the cheapest and I occasionally use my parents’ library card for…
Fully agree. My local library system is badly funded (as in, they let a building full of books rot rather than simply move them, and the main library has been closed for several years due to roof and sewage leaks) and we have no easy option to pay for a good one.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#264Good. The worst experience I ever had was with NY Times when I wanted to unsubscribe I had to go through multiple call/chats with a person and it was almost impossible since it was hard to get in touch with one. I am glad FTC is doing something others are afraid to do.
Strange that this hit HN today. 2 days ago I wondered what the cancellation policy was for the WSJ and checked. At the time I did not plan on cancelling but after finding out that it was "call to cancel" I called at that moment. I cannot stand the policy where it takes 3 seconds to sign up online but you have to call in to cancel. If I can help it I wont give money to companies that do it. In WSJ defense (barely) it was a quick process, probably took 5 minutes.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#265Around here (Long Island, NY), Cablevision was notorious for the "crazy, desperate ex" approach.
In order to cancel the service, you had to call them, and they would connect you to a "retention specialist."
They would beg, wheedle, lie, manipulate, even threaten.
I remember when I changed from them to Verizon, I had to hang up on the guy.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Another example is prostitution is legal but you can only advertise yourself. And then serious criminals are out of the advertising business, but can still offer consultation, business and personal protection, and, of course, forced sex labour through human trafficking.
And all that stuff is still illegal as it is in the US. I don't see your point?
GP’s comment makes a whole lot more sense if you assume a big fat /s at the end.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#267In Portugal the law makes it so you can cancel any service using the same means that you used to subscribe it, so if they support subscribing online, unsubscribing also has to be doable the same way; same goes for via phone, personal or whatnot. It makes sense, prevents service providers from making it too difficult to terminate a contract.
Portugal is logical on some stuff. Another example is prostitution is legal but you can only advertise yourself. I wonder what other countries have prostitution set up like this. Or the speed traps that just trigger a red light. Decriminalization of all drugs obviously too.
> Or the speed traps that just trigger a red light.
This sounds interesting. Since when have they been doing this, and do you have a link to photos, video or a more detailed description?
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#268In Portugal the law makes it so you can cancel any service using the same means that you used to subscribe it, so if they support subscribing online, unsubscribing also has to be doable the same way; same goes for via phone, personal or whatnot. It makes sense, prevents service providers from making it too difficult to terminate a contract.
Portugal is logical on some stuff. Another example is prostitution is legal but you can only advertise yourself. I wonder what other countries have prostitution set up like this. Or the speed traps that just trigger a red light. Decriminalization of all drugs obviously too.
> speed traps that just trigger a red light
Much better than what I've seen in my (US) city: speed limit 30 mph, but lights timed for 40-45 mph to get a continuous green light down the one-way street. Either you speed, opening you to tickets, or you stop needlessly on lights that are set for a faster speed than you are traveling.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#269> including an option that’s “at least as easy” as the one to subscribe Weirdly enough this sounds like a loophole. I can already see some companies trying to bullshit their way through an investigation: "Oh sure, we don't provide online cancellation, because our way to cancel is even easier than online:" * presents a way to cancel that is in practice more difficult than online *. I think either mandating that cancel…
> mandating that cancelling must be possible using the same workflow as subscription I'd rather not put into the law that strict a requirement on our UI design.
Other countries do, and it works fine. Why not?
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#270I subscribed to a weekly meal kit. It was very easy to onboard and I liked the service for many months. My situation changed and I no longer needed their service. I wanted to cancel my subscription and it's impossible to do online. It's written in super small to call their happy representative. I didn't like this situation so what I'm doing is skipping the meal kit for the next 4 weeks. Every month I log on their web…
My very limited experience with Blue Apron was that it was easy enough to cancel. But pretty much all the meal services, as far as I can tell,work on the subscribe and then you have to cancel model. Which makes them pretty uninteresting to me.
I might give a service a try for a week here and there but I definitely don't want one week in and week out. And I don't want to deal with signing up and then (hopefully if all goes well) immediately canceling. Dark pattern.