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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

#31

Post by sorokod »

wheels wrote: post #21
_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 ...

At least in Germany, having to cancel by sending a letter (or, amusingly, sometimes a fax works) is still common.

Was cancelling my cell provider and was required to send a fax - hello Vodafone.de

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

#32

Post by cutemonster »

rogual wrote: post #22

I just expect these tactics from periodicals these days. Last time I signed up to one (The Economist) I used a pre-paid debit card for this very reason. Sure enough, they eventually gave me a reason to cancel (popup modals over their online articles for paying customers) and I just emptied the card and sent an email to their customer service saying "I hereby cancel my subscription; you are no longer authorized to cha…

Could they have sued you if they had wanted to?

If, theoretically, there was an unsubscribe button in one's user settings that you hadn't seen, and you sent an email instead and blocked the payment card?

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

#33

Post by nickforall »

I wouldn't get your hopes up too much. It has been illegal in Europe/the Netherlands for years, however it is not enforced at all. Most newspapers don't let you cancel without calling them, having to deal with sales people trying to convince you to keep your subscription.

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

#34

Post by nivenkos »

_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 ...

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

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

#35

Post by pxndx »

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…

the NYT is not a small startup.

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

#36

Post by Gymkana »

aigo wrote: post #28

The Times of London does this, and so does The Telegraph. Most of my subscriptions go via PayPal or Google so I can just cancel the payment and eventually my service will be cancelled for lack of payment.

I've used the Times a handful of times as a student. It's always painful when student discount ends and you ring up and say I can't afford £26 a month. They'll drop it to £10 then £5 but they never match my student price. I've had to leave during bachelors and professional qualifications.

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

#37

Post by microtonal »

Zanfa wrote: post #7

A reasonable legal requirement should be that customers are able to unsubscribe using the same method used to subscribe and the process should not require more time and effort than the initial subscription.

This is the case in the Netherlands and a contract cannot revoke this right (Burgerlijk Wetboek 6:236). If you subscribe online, you should be able to unsubscribe online.

Another thing that helps if you don't want to fight someone who violates this and they require you to send a letter, that an e-mail also qualifies as legally binding. So, if they ask a letter to end a subscription, they must also accept an e-mail.

(IANAL)

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

#38

Post by puyoxyz »

> The new guidelines around “negative option marketing” — which includes everything from automatic renewals to free trials that convert to paid subscriptions if consumers take no action — go beyond mandating that companies offer straightforward cancellation.

No, fuck this! If I get a free trial I want it to auto renew; if I have to take another step to make it renew that’s a waste of time, and inconvenient. If I don’t want it to renew I’ll cancel.

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

#39

Post by texasbigdata »

nivenkos wrote: post #34
_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 ...

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

Which is ironic from what I understand to be a mobile phone operator. Clearly they don’t trust their own network

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

#40

Post by snakeboy »

rogual wrote: post #22

I just expect these tactics from periodicals these days. Last time I signed up to one (The Economist) I used a pre-paid debit card for this very reason. Sure enough, they eventually gave me a reason to cancel (popup modals over their online articles for paying customers) and I just emptied the card and sent an email to their customer service saying "I hereby cancel my subscription; you are no longer authorized to cha…

Good thinking. When I cancelled it (No complaints, I just did one of the 12 week offers as it's too expensive for me in general) they made me go talk to a sales person in their chat room, and they actually put me on hold for ~20 minutes while waiting for the queue to clear. Then they try to sell you on a reduced rate before they'll let you cancel. C'est abusé.
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