Technology

“Three out of four of the cable and broadband customers who called to cancel end up retaining some or all service after speaking with an agent.”

Because threatening to leave is the only way to get a half-decent price?

NordVPN literally will not let me delete my account. My 3 years is over, there is no method to delete when signed in to their site. You have to fill out a form with your payment details and shit to "verify your identity" (who remembers that shit from 3 years ago).

Literally emailed from the email associated with the account, called, logged in, etc. they won't delete it until I send my credit card info in the clear, over insecure email.

FUCK NORDVPN

Fuck them. Next force gyms and newspapers to allow you to cancel with one click.

By law, anything should be a one click to cancel service, instead of the maze they send you through.

Xbox live, gyms, etc.

We Shouldn’t Have to Let Users enroll Service With a Click. Customers may “misunderstand the consequences of enrolling,”

Sounds ridiculous? Because it is. Clicking the cancel or enroll button is pretty much what you expect... This is utter nonsense, obviously.

God, hearing them squirm is almost making me horny. Please keep them groveling at the feet of the FTC. I reallllly wouldn't mind hearing this for a few years at least.

...Funny how whenever Republicans are in power, we get dickheads like Ajit Pai do absolutely nothing, arging that his hands are tied. But when democrats get voted in, the FTC starts drafting rules like being able to cancel a bill with a single click instead of fighting on the phone for 3½ hours with a bullshit sales rep until you have to threaten to sue them in order to cancel your internet or cable package. It's really funny how that works.

The one thing where I agree with cable companies about is the risk to consumers accidentally canceling all or multiple services when they intend to just cancel one. It will be hard to explain that a package price will no longer apply if one part of the package is canceled.

However- it can be addressed with a well-designed cancelation instruction screen. This is a constraint to the communication and process design; it is not an insurmountable barrier like the cable companies are suggesting.

When I was younger I remember buying credit cards with a set balance on them to pay for subscriptions that seemed shady.

If cancelling was anything except convenient, I'd just use up the balance on my next trip to the grocery store, then shred the fucker and forget about it. Company XYZ could then have fun trying to bleed a rock.

Only downside is that was a pain in the ass too, but at least kept the control in my hands.

Wondering if any banks have a way to set this up as a kind of partition on your account? Never looked into that approach but it seems like such an obvious solution.

Anyone got tips for this kind of thing?

Log in

Modify/Cancel services:

Do you wish to add, remove, or view your current services?

[Remove]

Here is a list of your current services. Check the box for each service you want to remove

[List, with a select all button, and a clear button]

[Remove selected]

You are about to remove the following services. Please confirm

[List, confirm button, take me back button]

A confirmation email of these changes has been sent to your email on file. Please allow 48 hours for changes to apply.

What consequences don't I understand? Like not having cable?

Subscription-based services already change the agreement of a transaction too much in favor of the provider, because it goes from "convince me that your product is good enough to go through the hassle of obtaining it" to "convince me that your product is bad enough to go through the hassle of cancelling it". It is only fair to try to tilt it in favor of the consumer as much as possible.

there should be a button on the remote control dedicated to ending your service

Yes you fucking should