Canceling a subscription shouldn't be harder than signing up, FTC proposal says.
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“Click-to-cancel” rule would penalize companies that make you cancel by phone
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Completely sensible rule, which is why the Supreme Court will rule it's an abuse of government power and that it must be an explicit act of Congress to be enforceable.
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Are we on the same timeline here? Where are these rational and logical new rules coming from?
It is so refreshing to hear about logical and sane proposals coming from any government agency at this point. I hope this gets approved.
It is so refreshing to hear about logical and sane proposals coming from any government agency at this point. I hope this gets approved.
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I hope it also comes with "The cancel interface must clearly be shown on the account/billing management page" & "The number of steps and complexity of steps to cancel must not be greater than the number of steps and complexity to subscribe"
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Disingenuous. If consumers prefer and enjoy them, they will probably be willing to click an extra button to get them. And I'm sure that button will be very big and easy to find.
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We can all find bad things to say about amazon, but to their credit, if you cancel PRIME, they immediately cancel it for you and refund any remaining amount owed to you. I can only wish that cancelling a membership I have with a car wash, or the gym was so easy....
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Needs to happen and should already be law. Had to deal with Sirius XM earlier this week after we still had in-car service, which was supposed to be on a promo plan that we cancelled back in January via their website.
Except on checking bank statements I found they were still taking money as the cancellation was only for the online/app "streaming service" and not for the in-car service which they consider a separate plan, despite being signed up to both on the promo deal as a single purchase (which was listed a single product). To cancel the in-car service, online isn't an option - even online chat was offline, so talking to an agent over the phone was the only option.
Good thing I can play the "as a Brit, I thought US customer service was supposed to be the best in the world and this.... isn't" card. Really came in useful and I appreciate the refund, but I made it clear to them that unless website cancellation becomes an option we won't be bothering again. And I'm not sure the message got across. If the FTC can force change, then it's better for everyone.
Except on checking bank statements I found they were still taking money as the cancellation was only for the online/app "streaming service" and not for the in-car service which they consider a separate plan, despite being signed up to both on the promo deal as a single purchase (which was listed a single product). To cancel the in-car service, online isn't an option - even online chat was offline, so talking to an agent over the phone was the only option.
Good thing I can play the "as a Brit, I thought US customer service was supposed to be the best in the world and this.... isn't" card. Really came in useful and I appreciate the refund, but I made it clear to them that unless website cancellation becomes an option we won't be bothering again. And I'm not sure the message got across. If the FTC can force change, then it's better for everyone.
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Why is it every. single. time. there's some law or regulation proposed that would actually help consumers, Republicans are always against it? And how is it people don't recognize this and stop voting for these assholes until one of them has the balls (real or metaphorical) to actually serve the interests of their constituents? I mean fuck... If you don't want to vote for a democrat, and think that's your only other option, you could just not vote as a sort of vote of no confidence.
After John Oliver's segment last week about time share agreements, this is a law that I'm sure plenty of people would be overjoyed to have.
After John Oliver's segment last week about time share agreements, this is a law that I'm sure plenty of people would be overjoyed to have.
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I think you mean "Somebody at the FTC is a current SiriusXM subscriber, because they spent 12 hours over the course of 2 months trying to unsubscribe, before just giving up."
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Business concept: one time credit card. You sign up with 1Time and your visa card is valid for one transaction. Once used the company cancels the number and all future transactions on that card and immediately issues you a new card via secure internet protocol.
Should I head to GoFundMe?
Should I head to GoFundMe?
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I think the author just rightly assumes it's a bullshit/disingenuous argument.
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What is this I am feeling? It's like, different...
Is this what having a functioning regulatory system feels like?
Of course as pointed out above, someone will raise a suit and drag this to the supreme court and we will find out that obscure cancellation systems are a fundamental constitutional right because of some random 17th century court case about egg deliveries in colonial Virginia.
Is this what having a functioning regulatory system feels like?
Of course as pointed out above, someone will raise a suit and drag this to the supreme court and we will find out that obscure cancellation systems are a fundamental constitutional right because of some random 17th century court case about egg deliveries in colonial Virginia.
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I haven't had that happen to me personally, BUT completely unsurprising.....
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I had a Chase? card that had that option at one point. You could log into your account, request a virtual number that was good for one time use. I used it a few times but one day that option just mysteriously disappeared.
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In that case, the card issuer could probably just reject the charges. Not a good look if Amazon has to learn the lesson about what happens when you fuck around with other people involved in the payment processing chain.
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Democrats. It's taken 2 years to just get the regulatory process going again, to install people who actually believe government can improve the lives of it's citizens and have the knowledge and skills to get it to do so.
So when someone complains about the fact that "both parties are the same" remember this, Republicans wants you to have to jump through a hundred hoops to get out of a gym subscription ("negative option features", how dystopian), Democrats wants you to be able to cancel subscriptions easily.
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It still amazes me how many of my progressive friends insist that both parties are the same.
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Yes, please. If I can sign up for something online, it should be cancelable online. I've already spent too many hours of my life on the phone with retention departments and would be glad to never have to do so again. Looking at you, SiriusXM.
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YES, there is no excuse not to. They should also require this for arbitration opt-outs, which often force you to use paper mail, if not phone.
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killswitch1984
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
Cue the Big Gym lobby furiously reaching out to their local congressperson with overly defined arms...
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Or NYTimes crossword. I ended up switching my billing card to a Privacy.com card and set it to $1 max.
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Already exists. It's called Virtual Account Numbers (VAN). Citibank and other CC companies already have this. You can specify and expiration date and a max dollar amount that can be charged. And once used, it can ONLY be used at that merchant. Also, you can shut it down at any time.
This is the reason I don't have a Netflix subscription anymore. One year they tried telling me my CC (VAN) didn't work and the bank was denying the charge. As someone who used to work at a CC issuing bank, I called my CC security team and asked them to monitor the charge. It was clearly Netflix not accepting a virtual account number. At that point I said 'FU Netflix' and have never gone back.
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The X1 credit card currently offers that (it offers single-use virtual cards, 24-hour virtual cards, and long-lived virtual cards that you can cancel anytime independent of the real card).
(I assume there are other companies offering similar things, as I had a different one in the past. This is just the one I use at the moment.)
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Cautiously optimistic about this, because you know corps are already brainstorming new methods.
I've been using separate debit card account for years for anything subscription-based, and only move money into it for a specific payment when that autopay fails. I'd like to not have to do this anymore, but it has become part of my normal routine. I've had to close and open accounts only a few times over 10 years and my bank (USAA) is pretty cool about it.
I've been using separate debit card account for years for anything subscription-based, and only move money into it for a specific payment when that autopay fails. I'd like to not have to do this anymore, but it has become part of my normal routine. I've had to close and open accounts only a few times over 10 years and my bank (USAA) is pretty cool about it.
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It boggles my freakin' mind that one party is mostly pro-consumer and another party is mostly pro-corporation, and it's always a struggle for voters on who to choose come election day.
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God that segment was eye-opening. I knew they were bad but I had no idea how bad. So many times I was stunned that any of it, like saddling your heirs with it was legal.
Like, per the rule that it must be at least as easy as signing up, it probably means you'd have to sit through a 7 hour timeshare cancellation seminar, but it sounds like most people would find that an acceptable price for actually getting rid of them.
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I use Revolut, its free, can be loaded up with Apple Pay or anything else and you can get a single use credit card.
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I like having options, so why not give the consumers a choice?
do you want to:
1. click here to immediately cancel
or
2. call a number, be on hold for 15 minutes while listening to horrible music interspersed with annoying advertisements, and then eventually talk to an agent who will refuse to unsubscribe you until you ask for the 55th time for them to do so and another 30 minutes have expired?
do you want to:
1. click here to immediately cancel
or
2. call a number, be on hold for 15 minutes while listening to horrible music interspersed with annoying advertisements, and then eventually talk to an agent who will refuse to unsubscribe you until you ask for the 55th time for them to do so and another 30 minutes have expired?
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Well a "negative option feature" in FTC parlance means "the consumer gets automatically charged for continued usage." So having a button would remove the negative option for consumers because they'd have to do something to affirm their continued usage. She's suggesting something like this would force companies to get rid of negative options altogether and force customers to go in and affirmatively renew their subscription every time the term ended.
However you're right that it's disingenuous since the mandate is basically "you have to allow people to cancel your service in the same ways you allow them to sign up and you can't make it hard for them to cancel." A business acting in good faith is not going to run afoul of this kind of rule because they are already providing an easy way to cancel your subscription - it's only scummy operations like cable companies and gyms that seem to pull this kind of thing.
I just cancelled my HBO Max subscription last month - a fairly easy to find button in my account management page on the website, didn't give me the runaround, did offer me a lower price for 6 months if I kept my sub instead of cancelling, took no for an answer and cancelled immediately when I declined. It's the same way every time I've cancelled Amazon Prime or Netfix. That's pretty much exactly what the mandate being described here would require. It's not a burden on legit businesses.
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