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‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

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Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#81

Post by srcreigh »

zja wrote: post #19

Not to excuse companies that make you jump through hoops to unsubscribe, but is there any reason you can't just call your credit card/bank and cut off transactions to a company that's giving you a hard time? I've heard horror stories about people trying to cancel gym memberships, and wondered why they don't just stop paying, and let the gym figure it out.

One local gym chain in my area doesn't accept credit card for monthly membership. You have to give them direct access to your bank account

EDIT: Fit4Less is southern Ontario

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#82

Post by gruez »

steanne wrote: post #50
conroy wrote: post #6

Surprisingly, the proposed bill exempts gyms and health clubs, which have some of the worst cancellation policies.

as i recall pennsylvania already has some protections against gyms. they're probably just not doubling up. edit: Pennsylvania Health Club Act

A quick search suggests that the cancelation provision in the Pennsylvania Health Club Act requires certified mail or delivering (personally?) a letter. That's definitely a worse experience than "click to cancel".

[1] https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/US/PDF/1989/0/0087....

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#83

Post by metadat »

dhzhzjsbevs wrote: post #80
dheera wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing you can do is just tell them you're deaf, cannot do a voice call, and need to cancel by e-mail.

Or you can just say if you don't cancel by email you'll issue charge backs.

-1, this is ridiculous and shouldn't be necessary.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#84

Post by hackernewds »

jamesmishra wrote: post #31
zja wrote: post #19

Not to excuse companies that make you jump through hoops to unsubscribe, but is there any reason you can't just call your credit card/bank and cut off transactions to a company that's giving you a hard time? I've heard horror stories about people trying to cancel gym memberships, and wondered why they don't just stop paying, and let the gym figure it out.

That is not guaranteed to terminate your obligation to pay a vendor.

Why should it? If you have an obligation to pay for a gym membership, does the gym not deserve fair payments?

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#85

Post by grog454 »

webmobdev wrote: post #54
hn_user2 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That stops the payment from happening. But it does not stop your contractual obligation to pay. So it really depends on the business and how much information they have about you, and if they are dirty enough to send you to collections for it. A gym is likely going to send you to collections. An online SaaS is more likely to just cut you off and cancel the account.

> But it does not stop your contractual obligation to pay. Can't you Americans just send a certified letter informing a business of your intent to cancel and asking them to send you a final bill (if any) to settle payments within a specified time limit? That should cover you legally?

I had to do exactly this to stop a company from delivering heating oil to my house. This increases the amount of time required to cancel by at least an order of magnitude.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#86

Post by hackernewds »

QuikAccount wrote: post #4

Fully in favor of this. I recently had to cancel a subscription that had no "cancel subscription" button and instead forced you to contact customer service so they could try to sell you on discounts and etc. No, just let me cancel and get on with my day. Unfortunately, it seems health clubs(and I assume gyms?) are exempt from this when they are like 80% of the problem.

ClassPass has a very lengthy flow for this, where you have to talk to a live agent after a long wait that tries to upsell you to stay. Poor those agents much have the worst interactions.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#87

Post by hackernewds »

klabb3 wrote: post #73
slvrspoon wrote: post #29

there's already something like this (no surprise) https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/statutes/restore-on... i'm guessing pretty much only CA enforces it and generally to make $ the way police do from ticketing. credit cards are the market solution here. they work. virtual cards are even better. more effective and efficient legislation would be to simply enforce processors to accept and not differentiate virtual…

Credit cards have worse privacy than bank accounts, and not everyone can or want to get one. They're also very popular for fraudsters. But yes virtual ones are a lot better.

What is a virtual card?

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#88

Post by bombcar »

datadata wrote: post #79
bombcar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We already see this - have you read the disclaimers on loans? Many will have a call out for California, Wisconsin, and South Dakota if I remember correctly, as those states have certain things required or prohibited. Any online store dealing with gun or gun-adjacent stuff already has been dealing with variations of these for years; knives that are illegal in certain areas, etc. Home Depot has to block shipping gas-po…

Are these frictions good for either businesses or consumers? What is wrong with the desire that a good consumer protection protection be rolled out nationally rather that state by state?

It's a good goal but it's also surprisingly hard to pass, much of these things are actually handled at the state level and for the feds to step in requires exercising the commerce clause, which always causes a fight.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#89

Post by tylersmith »

winrid wrote: post #10
conroy wrote: post #6

Surprisingly, the proposed bill exempts gyms and health clubs, which have some of the worst cancellation policies.

The result of lobbying, maybe?

Maybe the result of lobbying, and undeniably the result of the politicians putting forth the bill.

Re: ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation introduced in Pennsylvania

#90

Post by kwertyoowiyop »

LegitShady wrote: post #22
QuikAccount wrote: post #4

Fully in favor of this. I recently had to cancel a subscription that had no "cancel subscription" button and instead forced you to contact customer service so they could try to sell you on discounts and etc. No, just let me cancel and get on with my day. Unfortunately, it seems health clubs(and I assume gyms?) are exempt from this when they are like 80% of the problem.

I've had issues with gyms and also a cable internet provider where the employees say they've processed your cancellation but I found later that for some reason it hadn't worked and I was still subscribed. A cable provider sent me a bill for $300 of equipment I had returned three months earlier and I was only lucky I kept the receipt from returning the equipment that I could prove I had done it. Since the items had be…

Or both.
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