we are devolving

This is usually how FREE TRIALS work, though, and always has been.

No it hasn't. Cancelling pretty much always lets you continue until you were due to be billed.
- Plus the fact that if you forget to cancel you can contact them to refund. (If they are nice)
- Not on free trials….as was said. It is typical if you actually already paid for a month and then cancel to have your subscription active till the end of the cycle.
Not when you have to put a credit card number on file. In my experience those trials almost always stay active until time has expired.

This whole thread is full of Apple apologists.
- Agree.
  
  I generally enjoy Apple's products, I'm very happy with the stuff I have at least. Corporations and companies aren't friends, and they don't deserve to be treated as such just because they make a product you enjoy.
  
  This kind of practise is bullshit through and through. Hell I think signing me up for a subscription as part of having a free trial is BS. I should be able to have a free trial for however long that trial period is, and then get to decide whether or not I want a full subscription. Rescinding the trial because I don't want to subscribe is garbage.
The idea is to make you keep it for as long as possible until you hit the first pay cycle.

"Free trial"

That is how they work though 🙄

I just canceled my Apple TV and I have access to it until the next billing cycle starts. But you have to actually have a billing cycle in order to have service up until the next one...

Classic Apple. Gotta pump up that Services revenue, even if by taking advantage of dark patterns everywhere.

I think this is apple being particularly shitty because most services don't do that.

in fact, apple forces other services to not do that but have double standards for themselves
Pretty sure I saw it somewhere else as well. Don't remember where, but I think there was option to cancel subscription and cancell reccuring payment. Pretty sure this is so they can silently take awau the more fair option later.

I miss when Amazon prime would refund you the remainder of the month when you cancelled.... I have no interest in being a prime member and actively avoid buying anything from Amazon. But sometimes I need something I can't find locally ASAP and giving them a quarter or two to have prime for a day was a solid option.

Yeah doing that sounds like a stupid business practice exactly because of what you've described
- Paying $15 a month for "free" shipping which is also included in the price point of the products sounds like a stupid practice too. Lots of people doing it though.

It makes me so angry that I can’t cancel my subscription to audible or else I will lose all my credits.

Fuck you audible.

Look into your local library. Mine is connected to Libby for audiobooks and it has a pretty big selection.
But, if you spend your credits on the audiobooks you want, you don't have to lose any. I did not lose the books in my library after using them and canceling my subscription and they still exist
- Yeah this conversation made me just go “fuck it” and I impulse used the ten credits I have on a bunch of books so now I don’t have standing credits anymore. It’s better this way lol

I cancelled a service I was getting for free, and they stopped providing the service 😭

Yeah literally what is this post lol.

I think I have only seen that on Apple. Any other examples?

I think patreon also does this which is shit imo
YouTube TV did it to me
Disney+ does the same as far as I remember.

So many idiots use apple.

Not sure what the distinguishing line is anymore, I thought it was Free Trials but I just canceled my TV+ free trial and it’s still active through the full period. (a couple days)

Fight back with their own weapons: „hey Siri remind me on 00.00.2023 to cancel my Apple One trial“

Privacy.com

Or revolut, oxygen and any other bank that provides virtual/burner cards. Everyone should be using virtual or burners with any subscription service, not only does it protect you from a leak, it also let's you set a max amount and when the price goes up you won't pay it without approving it and increasing your max tx amount.

And also if you stop paying for 3 months, they completely delete your library. I switched to try Spotify, and when I returned, all my collections from iTunes of 10 years ago are gone forever.

Great way to make sure people who leave temporarily instead leave forever

Enshitification

Not this time, it's completely expected that if you cancel a free trial that you're not interested and don't want it. It is not at all the same as cancelling a subscription that will ride out until the end of the period.
- I don't want to check this one but if you need a card on file to get your free subscription like basically everywhere else then this is an attempt to let you forget about the service and charge you at least once. Amazon prime's free trial might require 50 fucking clicks to cancel but it will at least ride out the month.
- If you're automatically charged when the free trial ends then you should absolutely be allowed to cancel a free trial so that you're not charged and keep using it until the last day it was offered to you.
- Free trial implies I don't gotta attach payment to it. This is more like paying for your water bill and calling the first month free.
Hey, another thread where someone is desperate to use that word!

It’s the “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” of Lemmy
- Hey buddy, I'm desperate to do a lot of things. Lemme show you what I can do with a $50 bill...
  
  -Attempts to pay rent and gets evicted-

Who would have thought that cancelling something cancels it? Incredible find, mate.

the idea was to sign up for the free trial, then cancel right away so that you don’t forget to cancel at the end of the trial. previously, in most cases, the trial would run it’s course and you could access it for the duration. Since companies rely on people forgetting to cancel (it’s the only reason anyone even has an apple TV subcription), they’re trying to make this simple life hack more difficult.