331–340 of 890 posts
Good. 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.
I 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…
Question from a non-American. Is it actually legal to "cancel" a service by having your credit card expire? At least here, if there is a subscription with recurring fees active, you're liable for those fees, whether or not the provider is able to collect them at this moment. This sounds like you risk building up a lot of debt and eventually having a collections agency come after you.
Especially for services that are paid up-front, they sometimes specify in the contract that the service is terminated upon non-payment (my renters insurance is this way).
Many services don't contractually specify this, but they are still in the habit of doing it because documenting debt takes effort, and selling it to debt collectors only gets you a fraction of its value. It's relatively easier for them to just shut down the account and move on.
That said, the terms of most services I've interacted with require you to explicitly end your service via one of a contractually specified set of communications channels (e.g. "call us or send a letter to XYZ address").
So yes, it's also the case here that you risk accumulating debt and being send to collections.
> 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.
But you all had it your way and it is a net negative for the actual humans who have to deal with not having that UI element available. If it wasn't common practice to skip that UI 'option' in the first place, the regulation wouldn't be needed now.
I had to cancel my gym membership because I was moving, and it required me to send a physical letter. I did this, but found out later that somehow I owed like 2 dollars, so they didn’t count my cancellation request because my account wasn’t up to date (should be illegal). They continued to bill me the entire membership fee, but my credit card had changed, so they sent my account to a collections agency. Right when I…
This is one of the biggest benefits of using a virtual credit card from services like privacy.com or Capital One's Eno. Just create a card online specific to the service to pay for it, then cancel the card when you want to unsubscribe. Capital One lets you create an unlimited number of cards at no charge.
Not quite. Now the business can send you to collections.
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…
There's been a lot of talk about how newspapers are dying because nobody wants to pay for digital subscriptions. I think this industry seriously gets to blame themselves for this. I've tried subscribing to a couple of magazines back in the days and with every one of them it was a living nightmare to get out of the subscriptions. Once ending the subscription one even started sending what looked like regular invoices w…
-twice a moth they claim they send premium content newspapers charged at $7 each extra. This content is trivial mass produced garbage. -there is no billing statement detailing monthly charges. You can pay $5 a month to get an detailed billing statement. -if you go on vacation there is no credit since they claim all the content is online. -the newspaper shows up at my house some days at 12:15 am, so it is devoid of most news from the previous day.
I only get this for an elderly family member who reads it cover to cover everyday or I would be long gone.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> Another example is prostitution is legal but you can only advertise yourself. that's an excellent rule - because pimping should be illegal.
Good. 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.
And yet I didn’t need to talk to any employees at all before giving them my money.
I had to cancel my gym membership because I was moving, and it required me to send a physical letter. I did this, but found out later that somehow I owed like 2 dollars, so they didn’t count my cancellation request because my account wasn’t up to date (should be illegal). They continued to bill me the entire membership fee, but my credit card had changed, so they sent my account to a collections agency. Right when I…
Lo and behold, you cannot submit your cancellation form without a Manager present. Okay, when does the Manager arrive? _Usually_ around 9:00AM is the response I got. I have to get home for a meeting at 8:30AM, so is there a mailbox I can drop this in? No. Can I leave it with you (the staff member attending the front desk) to hand to the Manager? No. Will the Manager be here around 5:00PM if I come back after work? No.
Please note that I bear no ill will towards the pleasant staff member that was helping me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Question from a non-American. Is it actually legal to "cancel" a service by having your credit card expire? At least here, if there is a subscription with recurring fees active, you're liable for those fees, whether or not the provider is able to collect them at this moment. This sounds like you risk building up a lot of debt and eventually having a collections agency come after you.
It depends on whether you have a contact that binds you to pay until you cancel. Gyms force such a contact. Most SaaS websites don't. They'll cancel your service if they can't collect and move on with their lives. Some day, someone will offer contract enforcement as a service that makes it really easy for a SaaS to come after you for payment and collect. Or maybe the friction of the legal system makes it untenable an…
My experience is that the actual terms of service don't guarantee that will happen, but rather that it's more cost-effective for the company to block your account than it is to allow a debt to accrue, document that debt, and then attempt to collect on it or sell it to debt collectors for pennies.