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Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

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Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#341

Post by daveheq »

mrspeaker wrote: post #8

If it's harder to leave than it is to join, then I'm not using your stuff. It's mildly condescending and very transparent and so I don't want/need to deal with it. If you believed in your product, you wouldn't do it. I subscribed to the New York Times with a simple one-step "put in your credit card deets". One year later I was going to leave the country so tried to cancel it. After several steps of forms you get the…

I tried to cancel SoFi Money online (after not using it because of terms I didn't like that they didn't mention til after signing up), and they told me I had to call to cancel... this after everything else on their site that I use is online-only.

I told them if I had to call, I would call my lawyer first, who would be calling them... and then they wrote back that they canceled.

So, these companies don't need to make you call, and even if it's inconvenient, difficult, or impossible to call to cancel, some won't budge. This should be illegal; if I sign up online, I should be able to cancel online. Making these artificial steps hampers business, my work time, my personal time... sitting on a phone waiting or slogging through steps or upsells is not a good way to do business and interferes with everything else.

It hasn't bothered the politicians enough, who are corporate shills anyway, so they haven't made it so companies have to be reasonable with this, like they did with CANSPAM.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#342

Post by xibalba »

r3bl wrote: post #135
sxates wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you determine how easy it is to leave before you actually need to do it? Before even signing up?

This tool is highly useful: https://backgroundchecks.org/justdeleteme/ It ranks hundreds of websites from "easy" to "impossible".

Interestingly enough, HN is listed as "impossible".

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#343

Post by pbhjpbhj »

arbie wrote: post #264
warent wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of a service I signed up for once years ago, can't even remember what it was, but I had no idea how to cancel it and it was direct to my card instead of PayPal. What ended up happening was I went to the "Edit payment info" page and just entered my card number as 4242 4242 4242 4242, which is a Visa testing card number. It authorized it as valid and I never dealt with the company again.

You realize this can constitute fraud, right?

Can you explain that, surely fraud requires you to gain something by deception; stopping paying for a service you are no longer using is neither acquisition nor deception.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#344

Post by pbhjpbhj »

ox_cable wrote: post #283
ianai wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if they don’t give you a way to contact them.

Except they do give you a way to contact them. They ALWAYS give you a way to contact them. The fact that you can't follow their cancelation process all the way through is on you, not them, and that's exactly how the courts treat it after your account becomes delinquent and is sent to collections.

Hmm, legally you phone, verify your identity and say you're cancelling. Sure, they want to speak for 20 minutes to wear you down to say you'll accept a deal or try a couple more months ... but you're surely not obligated to listen. Once you've id-ed yourself and said "I'm cancelling" then you're done. Hang up. Sue them if they charge you again.

Companies rely on us feeling the pressure of social conformity.

Indeed legally I expect you can cancel by any reasonable means?

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#345

Post by virtualized »

fipple wrote: post #103
cschneid wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that this is not cancelling, and some companies can and will sell your bad debt to collection agencies. You don't get out of contracts just by ghosting on them.

What PayPal should do is offer a “PayPal subscriptions” product where the terms require cancellability through PayPal. So NYt and others can’t offer PayPal unless they agree, and when a user cancels through PayPal, PP agrees to send an API call to NYT notifying them.

Paypal has recurring payments and I thought it was exactly this. Never tried to cancel via Paypal, so I am not sure how this works.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#346

Post by pbhjpbhj »

scarcely wrote: post #338
rootusrootus wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Happened to me too. Guy actually laughed at me when I refused a six-months-for-free-if-you-stay option. In that instant I committed to never giving the NYT another dime of my money. Another one is the ACLU. Easy to start, damn near impossible to stop without just canceling your card. All I wanted to do is change to a different card, but they ignore me. Great way to ruin your reputation.

Lmao my NYT guy actually switched into a stereotypical Chinese accent when I didn't catch sth he said and asked him could he repeat (my surname is Chinese)

Mimicking an accent can help understandability, fwiw.

Might not apply here, but it's possible they were just attempting to be understood.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#347

Post by harryh »

wlll wrote: post #41

Years ago I needed to cancel a fax service. They refused to allow me to cancel unless I called them up, which I wouldn't do. In the end I just changed all my details to some variation of the phrase "cancel account" except the billing details (which I couldn't change) then did a chargeback every time they charged me. It took them a couple of months to finally get round to cancelling my account (I think it was actually…

Pro tip in this situation:

Send them an email saying that you are deaf and can't talk on the phone. Works every time I've tried it.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#348

Post by pbhjpbhj »

user5994461 wrote: post #172
fencepost wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a contract for a service, quite often simply stopping paying does not end the contract - it just builds up charges and past-due fees. If you stop paying your electricity bill, the utility doesn't cut you off immediately - they keep providing service (availability of electricity, even if you're not using any because you flipped the circuit breakers) and charges keep accruing. Eventually services will be cu…

That's not entirely comparable. For utilities, you always pay much later after it was consumed. At least a whole month usually. It's a fundamental constraint with distributing water and electricity. You're always in debt with the utility provider. For a newspapers subscription, you always pay in advance. They can cut it anytime. There is no reason for them to give you access if you didn't pay.

In the UK the utilities take money to meet an estimated bill; meaning most people are usually creditors to the utility. If a customer doesn't rein it in then the utility will often take stupid amounts to meet an anticipated bill.

I think they were threatened with regulation and so stopped being so blatant, but they make money off holding customer's cash.

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#349

Post by pbhjpbhj »

shereadsthenews wrote: post #244
mrspeaker wrote: post #8

If it's harder to leave than it is to join, then I'm not using your stuff. It's mildly condescending and very transparent and so I don't want/need to deal with it. If you believed in your product, you wouldn't do it. I subscribed to the New York Times with a simple one-step "put in your credit card deets". One year later I was going to leave the country so tried to cancel it. After several steps of forms you get the…

I recently canceled NYT by email in one round.

Perhaps if they know they can retain you by being awkward then they'll try; if they know you won't succumb then they're better saving their "breath".

Re: Cancelling Dropbox Pro is hard

#350

Post by pbhjpbhj »

tedunangst wrote: post #249
jonahx wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just answered a few questions in the chat there is no "just" about that...

They wouldn't let me cancel until I answered the question "how are you doing today?" I said "I want to cancel" but they just repeated the question until I finally said "fine" and then the conversation could proceed. Fun times.

I'm feeling like I just want to cancel?
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