The FTC wants to make it easier to cancel subscriptions just as streamer cancellations are peaking — read how Disney, Netflix, and more are pushing back
The FTC wants to make it easier to cancel subscriptions just as streamer cancellations are peaking — read how Disney, Netflix, and more are pushing back
Trade groups for Netflix, Disney, and others oppose an FTC proposal that would make it easier for people to cancel streaming and other subscriptions.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/434525
Archived version: https://archive.ph/M2Qe1
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230713053626/https://www.businessinsider.com/hollywood-streamers-oppose-ftc-proposal-regulation-click-to-cancel-subscription-2023-7
I once worked for a company that switched to a subscription model. The entire thing was designed to be as difficult to cancel as possible, so that people would keep paying long after they stopped needing to use the service. The whole thing was fucking disgusting and I kept getting reprimanded for pointing out how insidious it was.
I didn’t realize canceling streaming subscriptions was difficult. Is this some sort of proactive measure?
It isn’t, generally. We went through a whole market transformation when streaming came in where we lost the whole “12 month contract” thing. It affected TV, phones, utilities services, banking products, etc. and now we have “cancel anytime” as the norm
But plenty of companies have tried to be sneaky around the “cancel anytime” approach. For example, the New York Times has a very easy subscribe process: click product, pay. But to unsubscribe, you can’t go through the same way, you either have to ring or go through their online chat, because it gives them an opportunity to retain, upsell, or even delay to get you to stay or give up unsubscribing. I feel like these kinds of tactics are what the FTC are going for.
I don't think it's just streaming services. FTC quotes gym memberships as an example as well, and they're notorious for bad cancellation policies.
This is simply a positive thing. Corporations have the right to conduct their businesses, the consumers should also have the right to abndon those businesses they no longer wanted, as easy as adopting them.
Corporations: FREE MARKETS!!
Us: ok
Corporations: Wait, not like that!
For nearly the past 20 years, cancelling XM radio (and now SiriusXM) required a phone call to customer service to cancel an account. Literally you could log in, add new radios, upgrade subscriptions, etc from the website, but you could NOT cancel online.
I was pleasantly surprised that they finally seem to have listened and you can now unsubscribe online without making a phone call. I guess they realized the labor costs were more than the number of customers they were retaining with the dumb policy.
Having a good CC merchant can’t short circuit this. Had a pay as you go phone provider with nearly the same thing. Called once and got shuffled around and hung up on.
Called the CC merchant and said I tried to cancel but they keep charging me. But that the service is no longer approved. They filed a chargeback on the last purchase and, at my request, stopped allowing future charges to the account. That canceled the service. Granted, as with most chargebacks, they canceled my account and sent me a strongly worded email but fuck it, I was done anyway.
Yeah, most people don't realize your bank has your back. If you paid by card online, you're protected in situations like this - the vendor then has 14 days responsibility to respond to your bank and tell them why they refused to cancel the service for the customer with a good enough excuse otherwise the customer almost always wins a chargeback.
ATT mobile does this. Had to do a chat to cancel, took like 25 minutes instead of a simple cancel button
AT&T Mobile too? Hot damn I had AT&T Internet for a few years and they REALLY screwed up. I started having intermittent signal issues where the reception would drop to less than 1megabit per second. They kept sending techs out who would look at their ipad and say the box in the neighborhood is showing a good signal and it MUST be all the 3D printers I have in my spare bedroom (not realizing that those printers don't even have wifi connections lol).
Finally after a dozen techs all told me I was crazy, I switched to cable internet and when I unplugged my DSL AT&T modem, it turns out the phone cable was loose (poor crimp job by the AT&T install tech when they installed the unit a few years earlier) - if one single tech had physically unplugged my modem to test signal quality from my end they would have caught the issue - but nope. So I called AT&T to cancel and they refused to cancel - they transferred the call to an account retention specialist who kept refusing to let me cancel the service - trying to offer me better rates and such. I was shaking I so angry, I told them they had a dozen chances over six months to fix the issue and never did.
Just for context on why rules like this are definitely needed. AOL still has people paying them subscriptions as of 2 years ago.
