I am angry about subscriptions

[andrewducker]

When I rule the world the mechanism for cancelling a subscription will have to be at least as easy as the mechanism for setting one up.

So, for example*, if you can take out a subscription to the Financial Times online in about 30 seconds online, by clicking on a few options, then you should be able to cancel your subscription by clicking on something on your subscription details on their site. And they should not require you to email their support desk, reply with a second email explaining why you don't want it any more, and then answer a phone call wherein they offer it to you cheaper and then have to insist that, no, really, you don't want it any more.

The rule shall, instead, be that if ten random people take longer to unsubscribe than they did to subscribe that your home page will be replaced by a big flashing sign reading "We will treat you badly in the hope of holding on to your money."

Secondary rule: No introductory offers. Free trials are allowed (but must be easily cancellable, as above), but you can't offer new people a better deal than your existing customers. Introductory offers are a way of tricking people into signing up, and then hanging onto them when inertia stops them from cancelling/moving. Instead you must offer a good deal in the first place, which is sustainable, and which is easily compared to your competitors. I know this makes life harder for companies who are trying to hide long-term costs from their customers. I really, really, don't care.


*Or, possibly, exactly what happened to me at lunchtime.

Comments

[jack]

You for God-king!

In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest, you can offer free trials, but you must offer "and automatically cancel after that" not only "and automatically incur a recurring payment after that" and get money from people who actually want your service, not people who failed to cancel in time.

[lilysea]

Agrees with you.

I would say more but am typing on iPad as laptop died suddenly

[rmc28]

I had a similar experience, except I used the online chat service to avoid the first email round trip. The moment the guy started offering me a discount I was OUT. Nope, not having it.

[aldabra]

I paid £1 to get past the Times's firewall once. They phoned me up to ask why I cancelled it afterwards. I told them they were the only broadsheet that had charged me for access to my father's obituary and that I wasn't expecting the situation to recur.

[andrewducker]

Doesn't seem terribly likely...

[agoodwinsmith]

I never let companies take auto-money from my money because I know they will never let go, and they will have inserted a clause that says not only do I have to continue to pay them until death, but that I must arrange for my heirs in perpetueum (can't spell) to continue to pay them. Nope.

Yes, I miss out on some things I would have liked to enjoy, but: nope.

[ciphergoth]

When I rule the world, you'll be able to cancel subscriptions from your credit card website.

[andrewducker]

Good point.

[ciphergoth]

Seriously, the whole problem is that it's up to the people who take our money when they stop taking it. The power to say "no, you may not keep taking my money" should be in our hands, not just legally but technically.

[andrewducker]

I can see that if you've signed up for a year's contract then you shouldn't be able to stop paying that instantly.

But possibly the answer there is that you should bee able to, and then they'd have to take you to court for not paying up.

[hilarita]

Ditto for direct debits - cancelling the direct debit should allow you to cancel the contract.

[aerye]

Dear god, yes. Thank you.

[lisbei]

Hi there!

I'm sorry to butt in, as you don't know me, but I'm exactly in this situation, and all I did was sign up for the Sunday Times / The Times (UK) to be able to read some articles. I didn't even sign up for any payment services.

Now I'm getting emails on a daily basis, even though I I've been back to my so-called account more than once to untick the options, and nothing works. It's not money, no - but I've been recently diagnosed with an illness which gives me enough to cope with and I can't face the steady barrage of horrible news appearing in my inbox every day.

Today I find out I'd have to actually phone them to cancel my 'subscription' - and I don't live in the UK! I'm so furious right now! I ended up marking the latest email as spam and instructing gmail to send all the subsequent ones to the spam folder too. Hope it works, because no - I'm not making an international phone call to cancel a subscription.

Long story short - regarding your campaign for world domination: I approve your manifesto.

[hilarita]

Oh yes - you should absolutely be able to do this without phoning. It's almost certainly a contravention of the Equalities Act 2010 (because people with some disabilities will not be able to use a phone).
Dear companies: it's our money. We should be able to choose what we do with it. Therefore, we should be able to unsubscribe trivially - via an 'unsubscribe' button that actually works, via our credit card or direct debits. And the most that you can do it send us one (1) email, confirming our unsubscription (and optionally, directing us to a form where we can tell you why we unsubscribed). That way, we won't end up telling all our friends that you're unscrupulous bastards, and that they should never ever ever do business with you.

[andrewducker]

Always happy to have people comment!

(And sorry it's taken me 5 days to reply, I've been in the highlands with almost no internet).

But yeah, the last thing that people should have to do is verbally justify the ending of a subscription! Or, in this case, not even the end of that, but just not wanting to recieve emails!

I hope that sending them to spam helps.

(And good luck with the illness. I hope there are things that can help.)