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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

#451

Post by jjk166 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #410
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it’s a form of slavery. Or a protection racket. Or just fee for protection. Depends on the specific situation in question. There's a wide variety of schemes that fall under the definition of pimping.

Those are variations of slavery. "You work or I will make you suffer" is slavery.

Big difference between "I will make you suffer" and "I won't intervene when someone I have no affiliation with nor obligation to interfere with makes you suffer."

Mall cops certainly haven't enslaved mall owners.

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

#453

Post by LanceH »

criddell wrote: post #278
emdowling wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having dealt with The Guardian and others like them to cancel, I say "I will not explain why I wish to cancel nor will I reconsider my decision. Please cancel my account. My account number is x, my email is y and my address is z." I usually have to repeat it 3-4 times before they finally give in and do it.

In the past when I've had to deal with a retention person and they ask why I'm leaving, I usually just say personal reasons . I've had pretty good luck with that.

In the good old days of paper delivery I used, "I'm moving to Zimbabwe." They never had a checkbox for Zimbabwe and the call ended there. Now, I guess they'll just pitch the online edition.

Maybe I'll try, "I'm about to winter over in Antarctica and won't have the internet bandwidth for your paper. Do you guys deliver there?"

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

#455

Post by bicx »

Axien wrote: post #352
strenholme wrote: post #344

Since I live in California, which has a “click to subscribe means you must have click to cancel” regulation, this isn’t an issue for me. After the New York Times published their inaccurate hit piece attacking Scott Alexander and Slate Star Codex/Astral Codex Ten, I was able to cancel online just clicking my way through. I now subscribe to The Wall Street Journal, which looks to be the most neutral newspaper right now…

That is crazy. I spent 20 minutes trying to cancel the WSJ. It is infuriating.

WSJ was the first service I thought of when I saw this headline. For such a revered publication, WSJ's customer retention tactics are scummy.

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

#456

Post by anticristi »

t0mas88 wrote: post #77
lagadu wrote: post #29

In Portugal the law makes it so you can cancel any service using the same means that you used to subscribe it, so if they support subscribing online, unsubscribing also has to be doable the same way; same goes for via phone, personal or whatnot. It makes sense, prevents service providers from making it too difficult to terminate a contract.

Not just Portugal, this is a European thing but apparently Germany hasn't implemented it yet and will do so starting next year. That's the weird thing with some European "laws", they give countries 1 or 2 years to implement it and some countries abuse that to go and implement it on the very last day.

EU regulations take effect directly and are roughly equivalent to national law (see GDPR).

In contrast, EU directives stipulate the desired outcome and let countries draft their own national law to achieve the directive's desired outcome.

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

#457

Post by 3guk »

kieloo wrote: post #18

Same thing with The Guardian. Subscribed online and was then told I can’t cancel via email and have to endure a pushy sales call if I want to cancel. Similar experience with The Economist except it was via live chat instead. These experiences honestly make me want to never subscribe to a newspaper again.

I was kinda shocked by The Guardian to be honest with you - I had a similar experience when I came to cancel my subscription to The Guardian Weekly, which is an excellent magazine.

In the end I just told my bank to stop the direct debit - I had a few what seemed like automated payment emails from The Guardian telling me that my payments had failed and to update my payment choices - but other than that I considered my subscription over.

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

#458

Post by logfromblammo »

rolandog wrote: post #221
xg15 wrote: post #167

> 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…

It should have been stipulated that unsubscribing should be offered immediately after the option to subscribe.

I think "unsubscribe" should only be offered after a customer has been charged. Before that, it should be "cancel" or "annul".

For instance, if there is a "free trial" period, wait until after that expires, and the customer has been charged, before offering an "unsubscribe".

But aside from the hair-splitting, yes, you are absolutely correct. If I have instant buyer's remorse, I should be able to click it away just as instantly.

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

#459

Post by nunez »

This is amazing.

I wanted to delete a bunch of services I had passwords for in 1Password. A significant number of them couldn't be cancelled online. You couldn't even call. You had to email to ask for a cancellation. This, in effect, meant that they held your data hostage.

Of course, this means nothing if fees aren't associated with non-compliance.

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

#460

Post by MaXtreeM »

strenholme wrote: post #344

Since I live in California, which has a “click to subscribe means you must have click to cancel” regulation, this isn’t an issue for me. After the New York Times published their inaccurate hit piece attacking Scott Alexander and Slate Star Codex/Astral Codex Ten, I was able to cancel online just clicking my way through. I now subscribe to The Wall Street Journal, which looks to be the most neutral newspaper right now…

After reading the article on Pewdiepie I stopped thinking about WSJ as a serious newspaper.
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