Hedge fund dweebs: "We kill newspapers intentionally." Everyone here: "Fuggin NYT"
“Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
41–50 of 890 posts
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#42Also a common practice in Europe (Germany, France, Switzerland...), but frequently even worse: click to subscribe, send a fucking letter to cancel it. Le Monde and Der Spiegel both do it. I'm a news junkie, I think paying for news is important, but I don't have even 1/4 of the subscriptions I would have if it wasn't for scummy tactics and/or the fear that I will be subject to them in the future.
To be picky, at least here in Italy, not "send a letter", but rather "send a registered letter with delivery receipt", which plainly means that you have a non-trivial cost (several Euro, I believe in Italy it is now 10 or 12 Euro) and you have to physically go to the post office to send it. Recently many companies are (finally) allowing to use the PEC (which is a form of Certified Electronic Mail) which has the same…
Shouldn’t the company bear the burden of that cost, not the consumer? That’s kinda silly.
Oh you require it by certified air pigeon? Great, happy to; pay for it.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#43Living 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 ...
Wall Street Journal does the same thing. It's completely mad.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
No, they just want it to be as hard as possible.
Although I was surprised how relatively big faxes are in Germany. I never had sent a fax before I was in Germany.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#45A 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. (…
T-Mobile Thuis literally delayed the end of my subscription by two months, and only cancelled it when I called back. There wasn't ever a way to cancel online. In practice they've really been truly garbage, lawful or not.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#46Living 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.
Still better than waiting hours on a "support" phone line
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#47Living 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 ...
Wall Street Journal does the same thing. It's completely mad.
Tip: when you’re ready to cancel, change the physical address in your account to one in California. Magically, a cancel button appears (to comply with California law).
I did this the last time WSJ decided to jack my rate to something obscene.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#48Living 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.
This is not all of Europe, though Germany is known for this shenanigans (but on the other hand this gives you a confirmation of when you cancelled it if you send it Advice of Receipt)
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#49How would one go about trying to get this law enforced on a company? I live in California where this tactic has supposedly been illegal for 3 years already, but when I go to cancel my AT&T internet subscription, I still can not do it online and am forced to call.
Re: “Click to subscribe, call to cancel” is illegal, FTC says
#50Should not you only use anonymous / pre-paid / virtual / revocable credit cards for those operations?