Current Events > I feel like subscription services should get your approval before charging you

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know i have been guilty of subscribing to something and then forgetting to cancel and getting charged the next month. These services should not get the ability to charge me indefinitely unless i unsubscribe. They should have to ask for permission every month imo

No.

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They do, when you sign up for them. Your fault if you can't keep on top of your stuff.

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That's do, it's called hitting cancel after you sign up.

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nope it good as it is.

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I think TC is asking for a thing like the Xbox does where you can turn off auto renewal.

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you are correct

but most will refund you if you call them a day or so after charged

Sorry for your irresponsibility.

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Yeah, it's a pretty scummy business practice.

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trappedunderice posted...

Yeah, it's a pretty scummy business practice.

they literally bank on hoping people forget so yes

TrollTrace posted...

forgetting to cancel and getting charged the next month.

And that's why they don't do it.

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Giving them your credit card information is you opting into that service.
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Umbreon posted...

And that's why they don't do it.

and that is why we should make laws requiring them to ask approval or at least force refunds for all subscriptions if contacted before using the product or whatever

A bunch of people here work for subscription services cuz pre enrolled auto renewal without the ability to opt out is absolutely shady business practice.

No one should be ok with this. It is no different than how gyms used to make you write a letter and mail it to them in order to cancel your membership.

I mean, it's in the name.

It's a subscription service. These are recurring charges.

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Also fuck any company that makes it difficult to unsubscribe.

I shouldn't have to travel the lands and defeat the 8 elemental masters in order to unsubscribe.

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Umbreon posted...

Also fuck any company that makes it difficult to unsubscribe.

I shouldn't have to travel the lands and defeat the 8 elemental masters in order to unsubscribe.

a-a-are you sure you want to unsubscribe?
yes I am
*drops call

Free promos are fine in exchange for subscriptions

What *would* be nice are simple on off toggles where I can stop start or temporarily pause it. Dollar Shave Club at least has a temp pause option with some decent time frames now.

Will_VIIII posted...

I mean, it's in the name.

It's a subscription service. These are recurring charges.

Do you fucking work for a subscription service my guy? Why are you ok with shady business practices. Almost everyone has a story of getting fucked over out of $10-$15 by a subscription service. It's not like they could not create an automated system to ok auto renewals.

WingsOfGood posted...

and that is why we should make laws requiring them to ask approval

They do, when you enroll in the service.

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SK8T3R215 posted...

They do, when you enroll in the service.

I did not give my consent but once.

SK8T3R215 posted...

They do, when you enroll in the service.

It's literally a legal requirement. You always agree to it in the agreements no one reads.

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WingsOfGood posted...

I did not give my consent but once.

So you consented to the agreement...

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TrollTrace posted...

Do you fucking work for a subscription service my guy? Why are you ok with shady business practices. Almost everyone has a story of getting fucked over out of $10-$15 by a subscription service. It's not like they could not create an automated system to ok auto renewals.

There's nothing shady going on, just have a little due diligence.

I cycle through streaming services all the time. It's not hard.

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That sounds like a lot of monthly emails you want to get for things that you probably want to keep using 95% of the time.

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Eh more should have options for paying manually every month.

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SK8T3R215 posted...

So you consented to the agreement...

Consent must be refreshed or you are violating it.

Yeah I've been getting SiriusXM for free by cycling free trials for over a year.

Its really not hard to put a reminder or two in your calendar to cancel the auto renewal you literally agreed to.

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Like for real if a $10-15 "unexpected" charge fucks you over you're probably not in a financial situation where you should be subscribing to a service.

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CapnMuffin posted...

Free promos are fine in exchange for subscriptions

What *would* be nice are simple on off toggles where I can stop start or temporarily pause it. Dollar Shave Club at least has a temp pause option with some decent time frames now.

See that is different. Thatd belike paying for a gym membership for a month but only wanting a daily deduction from your monthly subscription every time you went to the gym. So if your membership is $30 a month or $1 a day, and you go to the gym 2x a week, you are asking to only pay $8 and have the remaining $22 roll over to the next month. I think that is kind of pushing it, these companies would lose at least half their revenue from that and the people would still bebenefitting from the subscription.

This is kind of a dumb fight you're trying to have. I'm all against scummy business practices but they tell you right before you sign up that it will auto-renew on a specific date for a specific price, and you can cancel the minute after you sign up. This one is all on you.

WingsOfGood posted...

Consent must be refreshed or you are violating it.

No it doesn't. You consented to be charged by them monthly for it.

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TrollTrace posted...

They should have to ask for permission

They do when you sign up.

Youre agreeing to pay this set amount every month until you cancel is you giving them permission every month to charge you. Dont be mad you cant remember to cancel.

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WingsOfGood posted...

you are correct

but most will refund you if you call them a day or so after charged

this. cant understand why people here would support the practice. its obvious the companies themselves realize its scummy enough that if they blocked refunds they'd get taken to court.

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Having a option for auto renewal or buying a month at a time would at least be a nice convenience to those that do cancel their subs when the decide they aren't gonna use it for awhile. Just have your info saved so all you gotta do is hit a single button once a month to renew. Maybe two cause they'd likely have the "are you sure" type of thing

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Auto renewal should be banned or companiyshould be required to notify each person 2-3 days in advance that auto renewal is happening soon so those that forgot has a chance to cancel

Will_VIIII posted...

Like for real if a $10-15 "unexpected" charge fucks you over you're probably not in a financial situation where you should be subscribing to a service.

It doesn't screw me over, but it is like they practically stole a good meal from me. Any subscription service should have to remind you that it is set to auto renew or have to get your approval for auto renewal and long ass agreements that no one reads should not be an excuse to continually fuck the consumer. We shouldmake business as transparent as possible.

sabrestorm posted...

Auto renewal should be banned or companiyshould be required to notify each person 2-3 days in advance that auto renewal is happening soon so those that forgot has a chance to cancel

Yes! This. Notify through text message.

TrollTrace posted...

but it is like they practically stole a good meal from me.

They probably get pretty sick of people stealing services from them

SK8T3R215 posted...

Yeah I've been getting SiriusXM for free by cycling free trials for over a year.

Its really not hard to put a reminder or two in your calendar to cancel the auto renewal you literally agreed to.

Like this guy.

Dont sign up for something if you cant handle payments or cant handle being smart about it.

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TrollTrace posted...

It doesn't screw me over, but it is like they practically stole a good meal from me.

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gatorsPENSbucs posted...

They probably get pretty sick of people stealing services from them

Like this guy.

Dont sign up for something if you cant handle payments or cant handle being smart about it.

yes TC, think of the poor starving multi-million dollar corporations!

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Some services make it very hard to cancel

sabrestorm posted...

Some services make it very hard to cancel

That's true and I agree that should be simplified.

Should be as simple as click, click.

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sabrestorm posted...

Some services make it very hard to cancel

Ever try to cancel amazon prime through your phone or amazon audibles? They practically hide the button.

Agreed.

It's all made to be scammy and so you forget. Some are cool about it, but most are not.

It was fine when most had prorated refunds, but now they're all scummy about it. Even many ISPs charge a full month if you're one day into the cycle. Like a "haha, gotcha".

Kind of like those prepaid phone scams where the balance expires if you don't add more in 30/90 days. Even if you have a balance. Like, fuck you.

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sabrestorm posted...

Some services make it very hard to cancel

Not really. Just have to go into Google and type service cancel or on whatever site search for cancel.

Maybe if youre lazy it isnt easy.

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TrollTrace posted...

Ever try to cancel amazon prime through your phone or amazon audibles? They practically hide the button.

Amazon is extremely tricky about their shit. They try to hide everything. They hide refunds to your original payment under 4 other options. So you click to refund to your Amazon balance.

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TrollTrace posted...

Ever try to cancel amazon prime through your phone or amazon audibles? They practically hide the button.

Agreed.

i've had amazon fuck me a few times with them automatically selecting the free prime delivery and signing me up.

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Can we at least agree that the cancel button should be on the home page and easily accessible? I feel like psychologically that could do the trick without having to change their practices too much.

gatorsPENSbucs posted...

Not really. Just have to go into Google and type service cancel or on whatever site search for cancel.

Maybe if youre lazy it isnt easy.

Watch out everyone we got a badass over here

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