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Don't Subscribe So Casually

thebestworstcase.substack.com

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Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#41

Post by II2II »

3form wrote: post #18
orsorna wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some don't treat months as discrete units. Uber revokes your membership immediately.

Also a common practice for free trials. Adobe does that if I'm not mistaken. Love seeing companies worth tens or hundreds of billions acting like they couldn't spare a cent from underhanded shit like that. Scrooge McDuck type of behavior, except he also had some redeeming qualities.

With free trials, I can understand revoking the benefits once the subscription has been canceled. While I can understand the consumer's perspective of not wanting to be billed for future months (say if they forgot to cancel), free trials are intended to attract future customers. If a person signals that they are not going to be a future customer, why should the business offer the free service?

Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#42

Post by dominicrose »

umpalumpaaa wrote: post #26
mschild wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you receive your money back? If not, time for a charge back with your card provider.

Charge back usually never works… at least in my case the provider never actually did it because the seller was in good standing.

Maybe you should try Paypal next time, if allowed by the seller

Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#43

Post by MisterTea »

umpalumpaaa wrote: post #26
mschild wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you receive your money back? If not, time for a charge back with your card provider.

Charge back usually never works… at least in my case the provider never actually did it because the seller was in good standing.

The one time I thought it would not work it did. Home depot rental generator that failed to run under load; store manager refused to test the unit under load as it was against store policy. Refused refund and instead gave me a $50 off coupon. I then called Chase, explained the situation and charges reversed on the spot. I took the coupon and bought a nice corded Milwaukee sawzall.

Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#44

Post by dominicrose »

boplicity wrote: post #34
sa-code wrote: post #2

I would go a step further, cancel as soon as you subscribe. It's still valid for a month because you've paid for it! If you ever need to use the service again just re-subscribe (and re-cancel) In fact, what is stopping you from cancelling all your subscriptions right now? You can always buy back in when you like

This is indeed my standard practice. In my head, I just tell myself "I'm buying a month."

The Playstation store subscriptions have different tiers and within each tier different prices depending on the number of months.

These psychological tricks don't need to work every time (or on everyone) to be effective.

Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#45

Post by m463 »

I think costco membership has two reasons...

Yes, the people who "subscribe" to costco are more loyal, etc.

But it also excludes. The general public is probably a lot more labor-intensive for costco, and they eliminate that.

Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#46

Post by GolfPopper »

jerf wrote: post #38
toomuchtodo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also pay ~$20/month for an online locker that'll pull the torrent for you and serve to your devices, if that's within your philosophical tolerances. People need to get paid, but I do not much care of the enterprise value of media conglomerates and the resulting enshittification. I don't mind paying for Nebula.tv (~$36/year) and PBS Passport (~$60/year), for example, to directly support those media creators, a…

I have no problem with anyone just sending money if that's what they want to do; I have a number of Patreon supports also. I do strongly advocate for not letting subscriptions leak out without realizing it, and less strongly for considering whether or not you need something like Disney+ continuously or if you can rotate between it and other services.

I canceled a Disney Plus subscription recently (after ordering it largely to watch a specific show), because when I purchased their "ad-free" tier, I found that after paying they just replace their generic ads with their own in-house ads, which they then pretend are different from ads because they're "trailers".

Yet another example of a media company making the paid service a worse viewing experience. (For me, the money isn't the point. My time is limited. I'd happily pay more for the handful of things I have both time and desire to watch. But charging me extra for no ads, and then shoving stuff in my brain anyway, is simultaneously both petty and beyond the pale.)

Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#47

Post by jonathanlydall »

3form wrote: post #18
orsorna wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some don't treat months as discrete units. Uber revokes your membership immediately.

Also a common practice for free trials. Adobe does that if I'm not mistaken. Love seeing companies worth tens or hundreds of billions acting like they couldn't spare a cent from underhanded shit like that. Scrooge McDuck type of behavior, except he also had some redeeming qualities.

Apple TV free trials due to new hardware (e.g. new iPhone) is like this too, I just set a reminder on my phone and cancel it one day before they’ll start billing me. The UI for cancelling is also painless.

Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#48

Post by everdrive »

orsorna wrote: post #3
sa-code wrote: post #2

I would go a step further, cancel as soon as you subscribe. It's still valid for a month because you've paid for it! If you ever need to use the service again just re-subscribe (and re-cancel) In fact, what is stopping you from cancelling all your subscriptions right now? You can always buy back in when you like

Some don't treat months as discrete units. Uber revokes your membership immediately.

>Uber revokes your membership immediately.

Sounds like a great object lesson -- this a service that is will to take your money. Better to cancel now and not look back.

Re: Don't Subscribe So Casually

#50

Post by everdrive »

winddude wrote: post #7

Kinda' ironic posting a service that promotes two types of casual subscriptions, inbox clutter, and "micro transactions"

It's the most HN technology there is: "Has technology caused problems in your life? Well good news, this additional technology sits at the top layer to protect you from the prior technology."
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