Guess who’s suing the FTC to stop ‘click to cancel’ | Companies fight back to make subscription services harder to cancel (www.theverge.com)
from trespasser69@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 18:19
https://lemmy.world/post/21261070

#technology

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trespasser69@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 18:24 next collapse

How to cancel 750$/week subscription service in 2069 (easiest method):

  • Pay 69,420$ for cancellation fee
  • Write long 10K word essay
  • Give or your goverment-issued docuemnts as well as your relatives’ ID
  • Give your DNA sample
  • Insert Neurolink to read your mind
  • Let our 69,420 partners to track your activity for “personalized ads” (Basicly manipulating you to buy crappy stuff you don’t needed)
Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee on 25 Oct 18:50 next collapse

European version -

Click

elvith@feddit.org on 25 Oct 19:05 next collapse

Nah, it’s at least two clicks - the first in the cookie banner to decline all cookies and tracking (which won’t save that setting and ask again on every page load/click on the page as you might want to be tracked in two minutes) and another one to cancel.

rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works on 25 Oct 19:35 next collapse

The only way to save that setting would be with a cookie, so it appears to be working

elvith@feddit.org on 25 Oct 22:19 collapse

Somewhat - some site just don’t set a consent cookie if you deny cookies. First, they didn’t set Cookies as you requested - second, they can easily ask again on your next page load!

WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works on 25 Oct 20:04 collapse

the first in the cookie banner to decline all cookies and tracking

that’s rarely a single click

elvith@feddit.org on 25 Oct 22:22 collapse

Depends, I’m from Europe and there are many local sites that allow that. You might need to search for a bit (e.g. not a button but a link in some fine print). But yes, there are many sites that just don’t have a “decline all” button and that ask you to deny every one of their 937.726.193.372.129 partners (most of them double, as you need to deselect the partner and their “legitimate interests” separately…

PunchingWood@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 07:01 collapse

Wonder when they’re gonna do that for Adobe products in Europe. Has to be one of the most scummiest subscription services present day. If you cancel too early you have to pay up a “cancellation” fee for remaining time of the month, or sometimes even more I believe. If you do it too late you’ll have to pay for a whole new subscription, and pay for the cancellation fee. I don’t even know why they’re allowed to pull that shit on consumers.

massive_bereavement@fedia.io on 25 Oct 19:00 collapse

You didn't drink the verification can though... Now you would have to dance (and sing) the next three ads and start again.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 25 Oct 19:23 next collapse

Companies fight back to make subscription services easy to cancel

Maybe I’m misreading, but that seems backwards in the title. Companies are fighting to make subscriptions harder to cancel.

trespasser69@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 19:30 collapse

Well l mistyped it, now l fixed it

PunchingWood@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 19:38 next collapse

Guess who’s not bothering with subscriptions.

trespasser69@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 06:26 collapse

ME

sunzu2@thebrainbin.org on 25 Oct 19:50 next collapse

FTC is interfering with corpo's constitutional right to fuck the peasants!

NOT IN MY AMERICA!!!!

lolola@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 25 Oct 19:55 next collapse

Some of the companies involved that are mentioned in the article:

  • Service providers (Comcast, Charter, Cox)
  • Entertainment (Disney, AMC, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery
  • Those connected to advertising (Google, Netflix, Amazon, Meta, Vizio, the NFL)
  • Home security (ADT)
schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business on 25 Oct 20:10 next collapse

Oh look, a list of shitty companies everyone should avoid.

How nice of them to make it for us.

zewm@lemmy.world on 25 Oct 20:12 next collapse

That absolutely no one will avoid.

MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net on 25 Oct 22:41 collapse

Hard to avoid the local cable monopoly for internet.

Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee on 26 Oct 17:23 next collapse

I’d love to see the USPS bring back basic banking and then double down by providing internet AS A SERVICE.

It would bring in two solid revenue streams for the Post Office, and cut a lot of cancer from our economy.

[deleted] on 26 Oct 18:24 collapse

.

dditty@lemm.ee on 26 Oct 19:23 collapse

Also hard to boycott all the major media companies and tech companies as well

Blackmist@feddit.uk on 26 Oct 17:37 collapse

Without even looking at the list I know Amazon, Disney and Netflix will be on it.

They know exactly how much they take every month from account that barely use them and they’d like to keep it.

I think they should go one further with the rule. Anybody not using the service for a month gets to have it cancelled automatically, and only resumed when they use it again.

schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business on 26 Oct 18:16 next collapse

Amazon

For as awful as Amazon is, I’ll give them this one.

Cancelling prime is shockingly easy compared to what most places drag you through: account settings, prime, cancel, yes I’m sure, done.

Requiring that from everyone would be a huge step forward. Also let’s make sure it forces gyms to do it, too.

Blackmist@feddit.uk on 26 Oct 19:01 next collapse

I was subbed to Humble Choice for a while.

Trying to skip a month was a minefield of dark patterns. At least three confirmation screens, buttons swapping places and colours…

slumberlust@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 13:16 collapse

I’m not ready to give Amazon any credit here. They use a lot of scummy dark patterns like swapping accept/deny buttons and making accept super easy and friendly to click while decline is small plain text.

Gigasser@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 19:54 next collapse

Gym memberships should definitely be easier to cancel

11111one11111@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 00:42 collapse

Electronics Security Association Interactive Advertising Bureau NCTA The Internet and Television Association

I’m picking up qhat you’re putting down about shitty companies but the problem with your guess is that almost 100% of the shitty companies using shitty marketing techniques you encounter in the average week are all outsourced to marketing firms like the three petitioning the lawsuit.

No intention of this being “HAHA YOU WERE WRONG!” Just wanted to let you know there weren’t only 3 petitioning companies named in the court document. Unless they list more further into the document than fuckin page 60 cuz that’s where I threw in the towel lol.

hemmes@lemmy.world on 26 Oct 00:10 next collapse

Sirius XM has entered the chat

dan@upvote.au on 26 Oct 18:15 next collapse

California already has a law like this, so the companies have already implemented this workflow. They just need to remove the geogating.

Mercuri@lemmy.world on 27 Oct 15:05 next collapse

It’s so fucking stupid. If you can sign up with a click, you should be able to cancel with a click. There’s no justifiable argument against that other than corporate greed.

I do remember one of my most satisfying cancelation calls though. I just kept saying, “No.” Just “no”. No added explanation. No added reasoning. It frustrated the retention employee so much. They were like “but WHY?” They couldn’t try to convince me not to quit since I didn’t give them any reasons for why I didn’t want it, just that I didn’t want it.

Rob200@lemmings.world on 28 Oct 21:30 collapse

Fight data caps bills comcast, not the consumer’s damn right to cancel a sub. Its supose to be “cancel anytime.” Like Google was once, "do no evil.’

Imagine if Youtubers did this.