Cable Companies Claim Adding ”Cancel" Button To Website Would Cost 100 MILLION DOLLARS 🤣
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- čas přidán 18. 01. 2024
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I agree with this message. Lesson, before you sign up, make sure you can cancel just as easily. Kinda like a marital prenup. Maybe a loss in sales from no one signing up, they'll stop this $#!+.
problem is sites can change this at any time, amazon used to be easier to cancel if i remember right, now it's a 3 step buried process, problem is they change it over time without needing consent.
prenups are not legally binding
everything is easier to sine up for then to cancel just look at socialism
and you have the right to repair your hardware what you do not have is the right to use their software after you have repaired your hardware because it is their software and thy can revoke your right to use their software at any time for any reason
Capital one gives free virtual cards, I use it for everything
if you need a marital prenup then you have no trust and should not even get married in the first place ..
@@runeseeker993 True. Buyer beware and do what you need to do when you discover this has happened to you without your consent. The $H!+ needs to stop!
If lack of a cancel button is the only thing keeping subscribers, their business model already sucks.
It works. You have no idea how many ppl actually say this:
"Aint gonna wrestle the indian guys on a phone call today. Forget it. I'll do it tomorrow"
And tomorrow never comes ...
If they do this then no one will subscribe or buy their products remember if you make as bad service people will 100% leave or even better tell others that this service should not be trusted
we already know it sucks, their business model is having a monopoly
Welcome to capitalism!
@@visitante-pc5zc They know humans are lazy by nature and these predators will always use that to their advantage - welcome to capitalism ;)
100 million from people cancelling easily rather than harassed into keeping it
I had the exact same thought from the title.
I actually just canceled my Comcast recently and it took all of 3 min and got no pushback. I was very surprised.
Can't cancel when it's a monopoly and you are not given an alternative 🤷♂️
Organize a mass cancellation
When I had to argue to cancel after getting military orders to go overseas I vowed to never again subscribe to any service like that
My country passed a law that actually made it exactly the way you said. If a business has an online subscription, they are now required by law to provide online cancellation, in "3 clicks", aka, clicking unsubscribe, logging in to your account, and clicking Confirm Unsubscribe.
It really is a life changer
May I ask which country do you live in?
@@phleepy_bird6418 From the looks of his channel: France, and yes google showed this: A new regulation was recently introduced concerning the termination of contracts in France. Specifically, the “termination in 3-clicks” law requires that we should always be able to end a contract 1) online and 2) in 3-clicks or less.7 sept 2023
Cancelling a service having to be as easy as signing up for it is a legal requirement in at least the entirety of the EU.
The Netherlands requires sellers of subscriptions to provide a way to unsubscribe that is just as easy as subscribing. You subscribe via the phone? Then you can unsubscribe via the phone.
Is that why it's so easy to unsubscribe from bogus newsletters in my email. If so thank God there's at least one win I can make use of.
Totally agree!
NEVER ENROLL ANYTHING IN AUTO- PAY!!!
I actually had to cancel a subscription by dropping their billing from auto-pay and not using their service. They will gladly cancel your sub when you stop paying them. You will receive "warnings" and threats, but if you're not using them and paying them in a manner where they cannot grab your money, they will cancel your service.
Sad, but true,
I've had to do this too
Great plan. I have a relative who has a terminal illness and had various service charges but isn't using them - they are too ill. I can't find any way to cancel some of them - so I know if I cancel the bank transfer the provider will get arsey BUT when the account gets frozen it will have same effect. It seems the only way to get companies to send an email or put a letter thru the box.
For a brief time you could get one-use credit card numbers to use for purchases, etc. I expect that was killed right quick by companies wanting to continue their perpetual non-cancelable subscriptions
Tell your financial institution you want a new card. New card, new number, no more auto pay.
Use a pay card. That way when you wanna cancel... Just stop loading the card.
Now this needs to be the real cancel culture
Ironic that in the the real cancel culture its impossible to cancel
Always has been.
@@Hex-Mas underrated comment, fellow cosmonaut!
joke's on yall i don't subscribe to shit i don't want in the first place
@@manitoba-op4jx I actually just cancelled all of my subscriptions the other day, except for Amazon Prime. And then they rolled out the ads even for Prime members. Plus the ever-worsening Chinese junk issue. That's next on the chopping block.
As far as I'm considered, making it overly difficult to cancel a subscription is no different than theft.
But I'm pretty sure you're always free to call up your bank and tell them to block any and all transfers to whatever service it is that you can't cancel.
As far as the law is concerned, only poor people can commit theft.
Closer to extortion, but yes
@@meyes1098 Yep. It initiates a chargeback that negatively affects the seller.
Call up the government and try to cancel your subscription to them. Oh wait you don't want this "cancel button" rule to apply to them at all, do you?
CANCEL
Look at this idiot. Giving away millions of dollars worth of code for free.
Imagine the financial damage a company would face if every customer just did chargebacks
it would happen if the CIA hadnt infiltrated literally every internet forum and installed moderators to ban anyone who attempts it.
The cancel button would restrict innovation. It would restrict them from innovating new ways of making sure you can't cancel your subscription.
Even that isn't true. They'd sit down and try to figure out how to make clicking on that button as hard as possible. Maybe you have to click it 250 times in a row. Or every time you mouse over it, it moves away. "Hey, the button is there! That's what you wanted, right?" Or maybe they could make you watch a 35 minute ad after clicking and if you close the ad before it's over, they see it as you changing your mind and wanting to abort your cancelation.
@@needycatproductions6830 that's why it only restricts them instead of preventing them.
@@needycatproductions6830 Or an unsolvable captcha. Google's _real_ good at those.
@@mjaomjao2the thing is: restrictions are what create innovations in the first place
@@needycatproductions6830I remember some online service I canceled asking me like 3 times and the last time it had a huge colored ”continue membership” button right in the middle and the ”cancel membership” link in a small font plain text at the bottom. I was already annoyed and trying to click through it as fast as I can so I accidentaly continued my membership.
Well, they're not wrong. It would cost that much because that's the revenue that would be lost by customers easily canceling after adding that button! 😄
I thought the exact same thing LOL I thought it was gonna be the punch line at the end or something
can't believe louis failed to note this in the video, heh
Oh no, they might have to actually provide value to the customers instead of just trapping them into being subscribed, the horror!
That's 100% it. Their staff is trained to steer you in any other direction if you manage to reach someone. I mean, they could code a button to add $1 onto your bill in 15 seconds.
Toyota engineer goes to his boss. Boss glancss at drawing, says 'Too easy, do ovah.!
I am so tired of corporate speak and gaslighting. Everything negative is done “for our customers’ experience”.
Not filing a complaint with their state attorney general does not prove a lack of dissatisfaction, but rather an understandable lack of faith in this country’s overly bureaucratic, unfair, and wholly corrupt legal process. Full stop.
we have the same thing with crime here, the cops are so useless that we dont report crime anymore so the government goes look at the great job we are doing, crime rates are at an all time low, but in reality its at an all time high and nobody wants to report it because not only does it take a long ass time and get you nowhere, but you also have to pay to park anywhere near the police station too.
"Misunderstand the consequences of canceling" What are they the mafia? That sounds like a veiled threat.
nyeh see, the boss don't want you to cancel. there could be consequences, see?
We made em an offer he couldn't refuse
Welcome to capitalism - the predatory system that puts profits over people ...
There’s zero consequences you cancel and if you decide you like the feature you resubscribe
They are referring to the TOS clause that says: "If the customers ever unsubscribes, we are going to break their knees."
When I cancelled my cable I decided not to converse with them on a human level. I just robotically repeated "I want to cancel my cable TV service" no matter what they said or how many customer retention "deals" they offered me. That seemed to speed up the process quite a bit.
Yeah, call center staffers who aren't paid very much tend to give up quickly in the face of obstinance, or someone who pisses them off in a way they didn't expect. I had a telemarketer selling solar panels get angry at me once because he simply couldn't comprehend that I lived in a condominium, and therefore I own my home but can't have solar installed. To him, only apartments and houses exist. This was after I'd been spammed with calls for solar panels for weeks.
@@CrizzyEyesWould you be interested in purchasing some solar panels for your condom minimum? 😂
@@CrizzyEyes If you call to cancel a service subscription and you piss off the call centre worker even a tiny bit, (s)he will just hang up the phone on you, and if you repeatedly call back, the company that runs the call centre will just go to court, cry harassment, and get a no-contact order slapped on you, leaving you trapped in a subscription that you cannot cancel.
@@denelson83 This is why services that give you virtual credit cards are so valuable because when a company hard prevents you from cancelling you just delete the credit card and they can't bill you anymore.
@@fenix849 But if they knew your home address, which was tied to the billing record for your "virtual" credit card, then you would end up receiving collection notices, as according to the service provider, you are still subscribed. Ignore the collection notices, and they will get more and more aggressive until you end up getting taken to court and ordered to pay.
The only way to cancel Comcast is find a zip code outside their coverage area and tell them you're moving there lol
You can put your service on hold. Not too many people ask for it. Saves face for all concerned. No one wants to cancel or to be canceled.
Another CZcamsr just posted on this subject. He emailed a service that he wanted to cancel. They emailed him back that he had to call in. He replied "No, I don't. I emailed you that I want to cancel, and by replying to that email a company representative has acknowledged receipt of my cancellation. If you charge me again I will show this email to my credit card company and they will void the charge (and charge your company the appropriate fees)". They cancelled his subscription and never charged him again.
Dear Lord, I hope that works.
Who? Link? I want to watch that one
@@Bronek0990same, give link
Source bro. You know the rules.
@@WiseWikHeh, that's 100% what I'm feeling!
One of my coworkers lost her mother, and having to see her go through fighting all these phone systems to cancel all her mothers services was brutal. She had to tell multiple companies multiple times "No, I don't want XYZ, I want to cancel because she is dead. How do you not understand, she no longer lives there because SHE.IS.DEAD. She's not going to use X service because SHE. IS. DEAD."
It was truly awful and sad, and it was an all day event. For all I know, what I saw might not have even been the half of it.
This is why molotov cocktails exist. Companies wouldn’t be so shitty if they knew their jobs were flammable.
Oh wow! That's awful!
The sad thing is that cs worker has to make you not cancel. I had a call like this and I cried for 30 minutes after because I didn't want to force this person who is already distraught to keeping hack squat but I was forced to or I could lose my job. These companies don't even care about their own employees as well.
Reminds me of some of the trouble I had after my mother died. She was being charged for some medical equipment that she returned a year earlier. I kept getting the bills, and kept calling the company and showing them proof that they picked it up a long time ago.
After my mom died, they still kept charging. I still kept fighting them. I finally called Medicare to report fraud. The lady I talked to said if I'm not my mom (and I'm not, my mom's dead and I explained that again), then she can't talk to me. She can only talk to my mom due to privacy rules. I told her I'm trying to report fraud. She insisted my mom is the only one that could report fraud. I explained again, that she was dead. I explained she doesn't need to "talk", just "listen". She refused to open my moms account to allow her to listen to anything. This conversation was not going to happen and that was final. This phone call felt like a dream. Like it couldn't be happening. How was I supposed to report medicare fraud if they won't listen?
Sat stunned for a few minutes, then decided to drive to the rental place. Several customers were in there at the time. I'd normally wait my turn, but I was pissed, and called out from 30 feet away "Who Do I Talk To Who Can Stop The Fraud You Guys Are Committing?". Some lady took me back right away and I sat with her as she called Medicare and refunded the government their money.
It is indeed difficult to stop these "mistakes". Old people often can't do it on their own, especially after they're dead.
I mean no disrespect but the scenario reminded me of the "Dead Parrot" sketch.
It's not just disrespectful to their customers, it's also disrespectful to their employees, because guess who has to spend time on the phone with an irritated customer who literally isn't allowed to cancel a subscription?
In those situations, when I'm on chat or phone with some poor unfortunate support line person, I'll be sure to phrase my complaints to "your company", "the company" or . I don't say "you" when I mean the company I'm dealing with. That takes it out of any implication that it is in any way personal. If necessary I'll even say something along the lines of "this isn't about you, it's about your employer".
Excellent point but it also makes me wonder if something as good for customers like an easy cancel button will also cost potential jobs. Companies like Comcast will recoup the losses somehow.
They might decide they don't need as many answering calls anymore or something
@@SenileOtaku Pure respect to you for showing respect to support
@@kennymorelandiii9406 If one company stops milking their customers to fill the pockets of investors, that opens the door for other companies with more respect for their customers and employees, which would create more and better jobs.
If customers aren't giving their money to Comcast, they now have more money to give to other things.
The idea that supporting a bad company is actually what's best for the employees: that's a lie those at the top have sold people on.
In the EU it’s mandatory for companies where you can sign a subscription online to let the customer cancel within 2 clicks from their website. Often you only need your name and membership number.
Im from Austria, which was in the EU the last time i checked, and its really not that easy to cancel a membership, or anyone with minimal information about me would be able to cancel all my subs, but i can send a digital signed e-mail to them which takes me 2 minutes and they have to accept it like its a certified mail.
@@Vittrich As a German I can tell you that EU law is sometimes not applied in the countries because of... eh...
@@Groink1 i still dont believe you can cancel memberships with name and number alone, the problems and work this would generatete would be unbearable.
@@Vittrich Hwere I am you need to sign into the account you want to cancel a subscription for. Such as: Amazon, Netflix, Gym, Phone
So basically they’re admitting they’re preventing customers from an easy cancellation method specifically to take advantage of people with social anxiety of talking on the phone and dealing with sales pitches.
There isn't a single product or service worth having that requires sales people to sell it.
And take advantage of the elderly. I had to get involved and get quite rude (threatening a lawsuit) to get her Hughes service disconnected, and it took some swearing to get DirectTV to cancel her service (she lived in the boonies). After all of that, Hughes charged her for equipment that was already returned, and, because it was missing that little crappy ethernet cable that originally came in the box. Reported this on every website imaginable, including the FTC, with a description of all that was going on, then, magically a few weeks later, her account was credited. Satellite companies are the worst! Probably because, as the lose market share to ground based ISPs, they get more desperate. They're crooks.
That would include me. *I hate using the phone to talk to people I don’t know and don’t expect to ever become acquainted with in the slightest!*
EDIT: *Heck, I hate using the phone to even talk with people I either don’t know but expect to become acquainted with or that I’m already (but only) acquainted with!*
Or just people that value their time more than money. despite the old saying, time is not money.
I don't think it's to go after zoomers who can't handle ordering food, they don't have cable. It's to go after people who work full time and can't sit on hold all fucking day.
I can add a "cancel" button for 75 million dollars. Hit me up cable companies if you want to save some money.
I'll do it for $70M. Thats a $30M discount off industry standard!
$74M. $70M to the guy above me, $2M for me, and $2M to you.
69 Million Dollars!
You should call them to solicit your services, they might take up your offer with such a discount.
I can code it in less than 5 business days in Python. For 75m
The fact that you announced the ad and gave me time to close it made me actually watch the ad, out of appreciation.
Lol, and the fact that it wasn't even an ad
What I always find insane is when you call them app to cancel. Because they just had a huge price hike, They miraculously have the perfect deal for you to put the price back where it was if you'll just not cancel.
if it's really going to cost $100m, that tells me they're keeping at least 5 million people trapped in subscriptions they no longer want.
With cable costs in the US, it's more like 1 million customers or less. But I think they have way more than that that would cancel, so maybe they should increase the cost to add the cancel button. (It's all still a lie.)
I think chatgpt and a few people that have patience could figure out how to do this in less than 24 hours for a few thousand dollars.
@@focused313 I (for the record I haven’t watched the video at all, so I could be completely wrong) don’t think they’re suggesting that it literally costs $100M to implement a cancel button, I think they’re just trying to say that’s how much they’ll lose from the cancellations that’ll follow
who are they hiring? its probably 100M from either loses of sales OR wrongful termination of employees that they end up paying unemployment offices
@@TheMamaluigi300 They're trying to show undue burden to make the change as a defense to not have to make the change. The number itself is totally made up, but it is possible they used a rough count of business loss to come up with it even though that is not a defense to not make the change.
Congress - or whoever the cable lobbyist sent the letter to - should ask the lobbyist to explain the $100M calculation in detail. Show your work.
Together with learning how their site code works it would take 1 day to add button to frontend and 1 day to add API endpoint to backend. One day for testing and releasing from test to live. At price around $50/hour it would be quite a bit less than 100 mil.
Yea they did alot of creative accounting with that.
@@test-rj2vl Eh but knowing these companies they wouldnt test it, both out of laziness/greediness and maliciousness to hope that it doesnt work
And while you're at it, show me all your company's revenue and expenses too. I'm sure you've got nothing to hide...
@@heavyhauler426 Shoo shoo, corporate personhood shill.
I worked in directv retention. The whole point was to persuade people not to disconnect. The only thing the website can't do is talk to a customer and sweet talk them on what they like. You can be told on a website disconnecting fees, return explaination, and even offers to get you to stay. You can literally do 95% of that job with a website.
Protecting corporate profits... The root of all evil
_"How will it restrict innovation if there's a cancel button?"_
Making it harder for them to practice their innovative social engineering.
Except its not that innovative. Mailing lists and Txt subscriptions have been doing this since the mid-90s and mid-2000s, respectively.
@@freelancerthe2561 It's just sarcasm.
Making it super easy to cancel would actually foster innovation because they'd actually have to reevaluate how they retain customers and end up providing a more worthwhile service
stop stop stop I can only get so erect
This is deep😊
meanwhile, lots of people canceled Netflix and they still suck. lol
But that is way too expensive for them.
@@MichaelSanAngelo of course, that assumes said companies decide to not keep their head up their ass, and actually look at the numbers and listen to the customers.
My dad found a gym membership opened under his name out of state and when he called to cancel it the person on the phone accused my dad of lying and started interrogating him asking him if we let anyone borrow our info and if we were sure that we didn't let anyone onto the account. It took a solid 20 minutes to convince them that we didn't open an account on the other side of the United States lmfao
Louis, keep up the good work.
It took 3 days to cancel a CIGNA Dental Plan. Again, NO WEBSITE CANCEL POLICY Button, just a Customer Service telephone number.
Two days (first day on hold forever, I hung up) to access the 800 Customer Service Contact telephone number. Finally, I was informed (after 35 minutes on hold) that I had to contact the Billing Department. So I contacted the Billing Department to cancel. After being recorded as an "Official Cancellation Procedure," I was informed that an email and a letter would be sent to Confirm the Policy Cancellation; neither arrived. The following month I was informed that the Policy was cancelled due to NONPAYMENT.
My new Dental Plan requires a Cancellation Letter. In the application, I took a Paint.png picture with the address for the future cancellation.
“A very small percentage of people are complaining” Then why did you make a whole article about it!
Thank you for the heart!
Exactly. The "no one is complaining" excuse is short-sighted, too. Advocates like Louis could say that they choose to complain by posting videos instead of contacting the state attorney general because they think the video will reach more people and have a wider impact.
@@alexanderbaker4900 both of you well said
At that point is the Streisand affect on their end (but not really since more than a few people were complaining about it)
Right to Repair the things you own. Right to own the things you buy. Right to cancel services you no longer want or need. These things should never be infringed. And yet companies infringe upon them all the time. It's a sad state of affairs.
Their right to our wallet should never be infringed
It's fucked up. It's depressing. This shit should've been curbed a while ago. We're too politically constipated to do jack shit.
these should be added into our constitution or something. idk. or some new bill
These issues can all be resolved in the upcoming conflict.
💯!!!
A similar law was actually introduced in Germany many years ago. Before that, the situation was not as bad as you describe it, but some companies required you to cancel via snail mail, when you could sign the contract via an online form. At least that was the problem which was publicly discussed as the reason.
Yes, we have laws for both problems in Germany. If you can sign up online, they have to provide a cancelation option online. And there is a law that consumer contracts only renew on a monthly basis after the agreed upon fixed term contract is over.
I thought it was a huge issue with what is now called Sky, where you sometimes even had to get a lawyer involved because they would "lose" the mail even if you sent it certified. It's one of the reasons why I don't touch this company with a foot pole.
@@ManyYser Ok, maybe. I haven't heard of this specific case. In general, I would not rule out that some company abused it more than others. Anyway, as you are mentioning Sky, I actually also had some bad experience with them many years later. Specifically with Sky Tickets. But I don't think they were malicious in my case, as they failed to *activate* my subscription 3 times. So they were actually hurting themselves. I think their processes are just pure garbage. :D
I remember musically having this terrible canceling process. I was just an innocent teenager trying to learn to play the guitar. I still see their ads and even had an ad with metallica. I saw other people couldn't afford christmas presents that year because they couldn't cancel the subscription, forgot about it and then were charge more and more each month.
A consumer may not understand the consequences of cancelling? More like a consumer may not understand the consequences of signing up.
Exactly
"The best customer to have is a customer that keeps paying you when you're not actually using their services." I think they call that "the insurance industry".
I always felt irked by the auto renewal option that Frontier always advertises. They say right now if you sign up for a cable subscription package that you pay significantly less than what the average rate goes for. But the auto renewal condition is in literal fine print.
I guess we just live in the day and age where customer rights are waived as a "we know what's best for you" but it's extremely important to note that we're heading into the future where subscription services will become part of everything we own to the point where we own nothing.
I canceled my cable internet to switch to T-Mobile Home Internet because it was cheaper and faster. I returned my equipment after calling them and thought that was the end of it. That was April of '22. I got charged for May and June. Come July, after two refunds then getting charged a third time, I filed an FCC complaint. Not even two days after submitting it, someone higher up in the company called me and ensured that they had received my equipment, no longer had my payment information on file, and that I would be free and clear.
Hold them accountable.
I swear every time you try cancelling an adobe product you must:
1: read through 50 pages of special offers
2: confirm where you live is correct
3: Input the name of your first pet
4: Write a 5000 word essay about the history of adobe
5: click cancel
6: WHOOPS THERE WAS SOME ERROR!
It's even worse for corporate accounts. You have 1 brief window each year where they give you the ability to cancel unused licenses due to staffing changes. If you miss the window, you're SOL and are stuck paying for another year
stuff like that is what makes yar har morally work.
@@NoahGooder Gotta love when "acquired" software is all around better even if they were to sell it for $1
It is cheaper to purchase a new computer to run pirated Adobe software, than paying for Adobe subscriptions on an existing computer. Just make sure the computer with exclusive pirated software has none of your banking details or financial information.
@@ninjanerdstudent6937 I intiallly thought you were wrong but after doing the math. paying at max 5000 dollars for a new pc does pay for itself if used regularly enough.
Its gotten to the point where if you dont think major corporations are evil, its because you never ever read anything ever.
And lack pattern recognition.
*All* major institutions are evil. It doesn't take a genius to realize it. That's why it's so gutbustingly funny that the proposed solution for corporate abuses is to just give governments more power to abuse.
I have a friend that thinks everything is okay as long as he can get his weed.
@@jrstf Tbh, if good weed was made more affordable, I’d be simping for whoever’s responsible.
No, I read. I read "Atlas Shrugged" and without these major corporations keeping me from canceling my subscription society would collapse!
Tired of these companies bullying and scamming us constantly.
I agree 100 percent. Being disingenuous and shady is the new innovation. Even sadder, there will always been sellouts who will continue to feed these monsters.
What's the word for lying in court? Perjury? Lobbyists who lie to congress should be guilty of perjury.
I believe they are.
They are. Is just that congress does NOTHING.
@@GeorgeMonetresults suggest otherwise, unfortunately
But the lobbyists are the ones paying off the courts and politicians, so nothing will happen.
The problem is how courts rely on expert opinions. Experts aren't people who know and are honest, experts are people who can show some certifications, and ideally have a track record of getting paid to say things in court that favor the party that pays them.
Heaven forbid that businesses would actually have to bust their asses to keep their customers happy and prevent from losing their memberships.
Cable companies in utility companies tend to be the worst for this since they're essentially monopolies. There's usually only one company you have available for your area.
Sirius XM is EXACTLY like this.They say you can cancel on line but every time you go it's "down" and you MUST talk to a Rep.
I'm trying to cancel various subscriptions and services for someone who has a terminal illness (in UK).
I ended up swearing at the operative - he said he would like me to stop. I reminded him we are recording this for training purposes (we) - and that perhaps the point that their ****ing service hasn't been working for over 3 months and this made it impossible for them to call an ambulance had made me angry. Their refusal to make it easy to cancel made me even more angry. And the continual need for dude to consult with his manager - conf them into the call.
When he finally confirmed the service was cancelled but would have to pay another month - imagine my surprise when we get an email suggesting we STILL have more hoops to jump thru to cancel their shitty service. I think when the persons bank account gets frozen because they have passed on - they will try to find a way to attempt to get money beyond the grave.
Ombudsman will be getting a call if this service isn't cancelled.
It WOULD cost them 100 million dollars. It just wouldn't cost 100 million to implement.
The fact that there are now businesses advertising themselves based on providing the service of one click cancelling your no longer wanted subscriptions says everything.
I've been doing a few things for a while now, which may be above the standard agency level, but it works for me:
1. When you get a contract and see things you don't like, cross them out and change (and initial) it before signing (often doesn't work but sometimes it just squeezes through)
2. Become familiar with getting prepaid cards/one time cards/ junk accounts from your bank that you can trash at any time without consequence
3. If a business has a friendly cancel option, use that. If not, just cancel the card and forget about it. (Send me a certified letter if you want me to consider updating my payment method lol (I won't))
4. Never give real information to anyone unless legally obligated to.
5. Have a central place where you can document contracts, subscriptions, etc.
I was reading an article on this and I was baffled they actually were able to come up with a BS reason and not break character when defending it.
The "you don't understand the consequences of canceling" argument is funny to me. They bring up the idea of canceling 1 item of a bundle could make the rest more expensive.
1. Warn me on your website, I'm brain dead and I'll code it for you in 5 minutes.
2. Why do I have to talk to you for an hour to cancel my only item? By their own logic there's no unforseen consequences there. They just want a representative to try and talk me out of it.
3. If your business relies on the revenue it gets from stopping people from canceling, it sounds like the stuff you're selling is pretty dog 💩
The customer is always right.
It's pure gaslighting. They want to make anyone who wants to cancel seem incapable of making a reasonable decision. Like you're the crazy one because you don't understand the value of the services they offer. Disgusting Stalinist tactics.
There are discounts that are available only to people who try to cancel. Those discounts cannot be made public.
@@jrstf ATT's discount offer was still more than Cox's - which was 4x faster than ATT.
1. Call the company you want to terminate services with. Talk to the human, not the 'self-help' robot.
2. Tell them you're going to prison in a week and can't afford the subscription.
3. Sure, you'll have to tell every company on the block that you're going to prison, but it'll all pay off in the end.
If you think it's dumb;
YES! WHY DO WE HAVE TO RESORT TO EXTREMES FOR SOMETHING AS BENIGN AS CANCELLING A SUBSCRIPTION?!?
@@Carah-qk3nzyes huh?... OP why???
From the company's perspective, what's the big difference between "I can't afford the subscription" and "I'm going to prison and I can't afford the subscription"? Also, what's the big difference between "I'm moving away" (which they sometimes ignore) and "I'm going to prison"? What makes "prison" some kind of magic word?
@sanjaymatsuda4504 if you're already going to prison, they know it is unwise to play games with you.
Why yes, sullying your own reputation is the best way to cancel a subscription to something. Better yet, just tell them to go you-know-what themselves and stop all payments then sue their asses or whatever comes to mind to let them know of your dissatisfaction. And if you take extreme measures, perhaps you'll actually go to prison and then you wouldn't even be lying.
@@fastradioburst253 lmao hold up hold up... common sense alert. We cannot have people making sense around youtube. 🤣
The other issue that needs to be resolved (that is in relation to cancelling services) is early cancellation/termination fees. It's holding the customer to ransom and it's Anti-consumer. There should be some kind of regulation for that or at least we need to basically send a message to internet providers that it's not OK
The problem is that too many companies think they have a right to your money. Unless something happens to force them to change, nothing will.
Was blown away when the local Planet Fitness gym offered a one-click cancellation on their website. Definitely a pro-consumer move that adds value to their brand.
Fitness "influencers" like to clown on PF, but there's so little to complain about from a value POV.
It varies by location, not all locations do this. I was forced to cancel in person (I cancelled in Dec). It's a step in the right direction, but still not quite there.
We're all saying it with you Louis. If their current quote to add that cancel button is 100 million dollars, I PERSONALLY will do it for 10% of that price. And in fact for that 10 million dollar fee I'm prepared to swim across the Atlantic from my UK home, to their head offices to perform the necessary changes to their web pages.
It won't cost them that much to create the cancel button. It'll cost them that in lost revenue when people can actually unsubscribe when they want to.
I wish I had the 10 million and a GoPro so I could watch that happen. Honestly. 😂
Bro seriously though that's like a 5k fix if even like that's not even a hour or two of web redesign. Shit I could probably do it by watching a CZcams video honestly. So yeah for that 10% my 350 pound ass would walk from Texas to their head office 😂
right, in the long run they'll lose 100M.
Argentinian here. We have a LAW that forces all service providers and online retails to have a "I regret" or "Cancel" button on their website. That buttom can only lead you to a direct form were you fill why you cancel your service and a "send" buttom. By law companies cannot hold you, charge you, make you fill extra steps or make you wait. Some companies may call you to confirm your cancellation and try to retain you by offering some discount, but that call is being recorded and if you asked for cancellation, they will have to cancel unless you state otherwise.
This is for EVERY service company and retail as well. The button cannot be hidden and must be on the front page with a clear view of it.
And yes, adding a cancel button is expensive for some companies. I worked at a bank when that law came in, and boy, it wasnt easy at all to add a "I regret" button when costumers adquire loans, insuranses, credit cards, transfers, etc. When a company offers complex services, yes, it could be quite costly to add that button that automatically cancels whatever you want to cancel. Some financial products cannot be cancelled, others can....
i literally needed a doctors notice to unsub from my local gym
I went to a gym like that. Not surprised, good luck. Those gyms make it impossible and find any excuse to not cancel, even with a doctors note.
@@thekingoftown07 i actually got lucky i guess cuz with note they insta-cancelled it
What the name of said gym? Just to avoid such gym.
@@BatmanSpideyDa3rd this was a long time ago known as Bally Total Fitness. There are others who follow that model as well. Avoid them if you can. Home gyms are great too. Invested in a strongman gym for my basement. Great investment and saves tons over time
That's a hippa violation! They have no right to your medical records or information
I used a local gym to shower when I was homeless for nearly two years. I tried to cancel and they wanted the same thing, can't do it over the phone, have to fill out the paper and mail it in. Did that and didn't give them the information they wanted, so they refused to cancel until it was properly filled out. I refused and an 8 month battle where I refused to pay their monthly fee and many chargebacks later, they cancelled my membership without me needing to contact them outside of calling customer service about cancelling my membership and them saying no can do.
I won. Now they send me texts every month to try to get me to sign back up. Oh, and it was never supposed to be a subscription, they "upgraded" my membership for me after twelve months.
The last city I lived in had a 24/7 gym where I just bought a 15€ key badge and payed for 1,3,6 or 12 months of access in advance. I didn’t even need to sign up I just showed an id and signed a paper agreeing that they’ll ban me if I break/steal stuff, let outsiders in etc. It was so suprising after my last gym being 12 month minimum with only exceptions pregnancy, severe illness or military service and even then you could only freeze it for a few months max.
The lobbyists are outrageous. I am convinced these companies would make more money in the long run if they just treated their customers with respect. Example: I haven’t owned a printer for 15 years because their tactics pissed me off so much. How much could they have made from me in that time if they didn’t act like assholes?
Get one of those printers with the refillable wells
That's a great example, actually. There's a FedEx print shop within spitting distance of where I live, and I ended up installing their app just so I don't have to deal with real printers anymore.
Finally bought a Brother monochrome laser printer which uses affordable toner instead of very expensive inkjet cartridges. Tired of HP and Canon greed and their intentionally crippled cartridges forcing you to spend more even before the ink actually runs out.
@@JoseLopez-tk4tq same here. We have had a brother color laser printer for going on 10 years now. We get 3rd party cheap toner and it works great. We replace it maybe every two years if that! Inkjet printers are another story though
Never buy any printer, they're all garbage, no exceptions. From a software standpoint, they are a security nightmare.
Thank you for being the person who puts this out there. It's so hard as an individual to fight back against all this corporate BS.
God bless my bank for having the "block" button
The easiest way Ive found to call for a cancelation of a service is when they ask for a reason why you are canceling just lie to them and tell them you are going to be going to prison for the next 5 years at the end of the month and wont be able to use the service, they will usually immediately cancel for you.
Lol sounds like a great idea, throw in it's for a violent crime after you tracked down someone who wouldn't let you cancel a service and you got caught, your getting sentenced in the next few days. Guess that would help ease the cancellation 😂
Use it to your advantage. Call your ISP, security, or cable company and tell them you want to cancel your service because a competitor just started providing service to your area and is offering the same service for less. It does not matter if this is true or not, nor does it matter if you don't actually intend on canceling your service. They will send you to the retention department and they will lower your bills to keep you a customer. Until they make it more convenient to cancel service, take advantage of their terrible system.
why would it not matter if it is true or not
The issue there is that you're dealing with a cabal - they all collaborate to set prices. So they know who's where and what they're offering.
@@hotpocketbagel Because you're telling them they're about to get nothing, and now they have to negotiate where before they could dictate.
@@leandersearle5094 i don't really understand but how does that make lying ok
@@hotpocketbagelwhat’s wrong with lying to people who want to steal your money and bribe government officials to make themselves richer? Fuck CEOs.
Same goes for the 'Sign Out' button. Some websites choose to tuck it away as if it's not really something people do much. For example, putting the Log Out button in the visitor's Profile - as opposed in the website proper where people spend 98 percent of their time.
Totally agree, this is a problem, I consider the terms to cancel the membership you described to amount to fraud.
As someone who worked in Direct TV Retention when I was younger I can tell you that they make it as hard as possible to cancel. Canceling should be as easy as signing up. If your business relies on making it difficult to cancel then that business doesn't need to exist.
That's an interesting perspective, and also you have my sincere sympathies for the trauma you must have experienced in that job.
Thats by design, isn't it? Providing a good working service costs money. And costing money hurts the profit margin. And when the profit margin shrinks, Mr Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr Bigglesworth gets upset, people fry!!! (duhhhh duuunnnn duh duuun na nuh)
I once ran into one of these uncancelable gym memberships. I just did a chargeback. Then another one. Then they called me to complain and I told them to get bent and that if they charged me again, I’d do another chargeback.
It stopped!
My local gym tried to do similar stuff. I don't live in a big city, I live in a small town where this gym has two locations within 20 miles of each other. I let the credit card expire and never updated it, haven't heard from them since.
In UK to cancel subscription to one of the gyms, I had to fill the form, and it take them around 20 days to cancel. They responded and cancel just day after renewal.
Whoever wants to solve problems, looks for solutions.
Whoever does not, looks for excuses.
When I called a cable company to cancel service they said "This conversation is being recorded for training purposes" and I relied "This call is being recorded for legal purposes" It went pretty quick after that.
Im stealing this.
@@AK-dr6pz it went quick because most companies will provide you their legal department number and literally hang up. Doesn't quite work like you'd think.
🥲🥲🥲@@edew9180
@@edew9180state your purpose followed by the being recorded part. Then if they interfere with the purpose of the call, they've already been put on notice of the intent and would cause their legal team a headache
Depending on the state but you do not have to do your own disclosure. Their recording disclosure goes both ways
I live in the Eu and by law the EU has made possible is the fact that contracts can not be automatically be renewed for the same period after the first period terminates. If I sign for a 1 year contract after that year it becomes a monthly contract subscription that can be cancelled at any time without too much effort within a 1 month notice unless you agree to renew it for a longer period for discounts or special offers for example. Granted not everything in the EU is better but consumer right have improved significantly.
I've dodged a lot of theses cancelscams by actually reading the agreements and if something is fishy I demand an explaination before I sign up.
A common red flag is if there is a line allowing the company to change the terms of service without a customer consent.
These type of carte blanche contracts should of course be illegal, but it's a good place to start when smelling for fishy things.
The sad part is this is absolutely true. You know how many times people go to cancel something and then because the particular app makes navigating their website a chore, people just give up and say "ill do it later", then forget to do it and get charged. But just because this is true doesn't obviously mean it's ok. Not putting a cancel button should be made ILLEGAL, straight up. Should be just as easy to cancel as it is to sign up. As he said, the fact they make it so hard to cancel shows they have zero faith in their product to begin with.
To be fair, people are drama queens, like people who refuse to use a self-checkout because it's unpaid labor, or acting like a delayed flight is a crime against humanity.
I remember a huge discussion around someone else canceling a service I also had, I think HBO Max, and people insisted that it was predatory because you had to click through all these menus -- having just canceled, I remembered clicking account, settings, cancel subscription, yes I'm sure.
People want to give you some sob story, that it's tantamount to slavery to be asked to take a survey or that seeing a single offer on your way out is worse than waterboarding.
@@CLove511cease
@@CLove511there are a lot of things that are insanely annoying to cancel though and especially if they aren't paying a ton per month alot of people will just not bother.
To cancel a gym membership you had to prove you didn't live in the area? WTF?
"please provide photos of your body to prove you stopped coming to the gym."
At that point I'd just call the bank and end auto pay. If they want to maintain my subscription without money I'll be happy to keep a free service.
@@MrDj232 wait I didn't know was possible to ask your bank to force cancel your subscription...
Well.. hey, the more you know 😂
@@nawfalshafiu5694it’s your account. You can absolutely tell them to refuse payments to certain accounts.
@@nawfalshafiu5694they just try to withdraw again, so you'll get a withdraw attempt the next month. If their a big enough dick they'll send you to collections because you never "canceled" the right way.
This business model is like having a sinking ship and deploying the life rafts for the survivors to swim to
you already know its going to shit if they are actually doing this instead of making their subscription worth the money
To be honest, while "they were describing" around 5:00 how cancelling might "harm" the customer, Me being a developer was already making a plan for a website how it should be done (which alighed with what you said 20 secs later) and it was hilarious.
Such practices really make me assume i should just not subscribe to any business that does this. Regardless of what they offer
(ALSO such code would really require about a week of work when you're so lazy)
and if the website is messy as hell and database is even more messy, would require 3 weeks of lazy work to figure out whats up and make it happen properly.
I think more generally, companies aren't sufficiently subject to retaliation. The reason behavior like this exists is because there is no reasonable way to punish an organization for poor behavior.
Welcome to free market capitalism!
People often tout America as the free market poster boy, but our trade reality is much more restricted and controlled than most realize. For example: we regularly restrict goods to partners and ourselves as well as define standards of production on a wide variety of sectors. The question is, what level of restriction creates the best quality of life for the participants? Unfortunately, companies have shown that the current pattern still operates in many ways at the expense of the participants.
They didn't bought your political bullshit. Nice
@@witherschatBut we don't *HAVE * free market capitalism. Existing/established companied have bought off and bribed Congresscritters for decades to make sure no competitors can get a start in the marketplace. The only reason the current crop of tech companies were able to get started was by entering a marketplace the entrenched companies were unaware of. But now that the "tech startups" have become themselves entrenched, they are using the same dirty tricks to buy off those same congresscritters.
The cost is irrelevant.
The FTC is getting closer to implementing a rule regarding subscriptions and recurring payments, including a “click to cancel” provision requiring sellers to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up. In other words, if you can sign-up online must be able to cancel online.
And the subscription service providers will just proceed to sue the FTC to stop it.
I'd prefer the requirement be "as hard to sign up as it is to cancel", and being forced to do it that way for five years. Suddenly, they won't be getting any new customers if they all have to spend an hour on the phone to sign up, their revenues will decline as existing customers get fed-up enough to cancel, and they'll hopefully go bankrupt before they're allowed to change their methods.
What's even worse is the people you have to can't even be understood.
I listened as my mother talked with our internet service provider, and the man she had to talk to had such a thick accent that he couldn't be understood every third word(I have never heard someone have to ask what someone said so many times in one conversation) then on top of that he had a woman and kids yelling in the background.
I have a complete lack of patience, and I would have hung up and tried to get a different representative the third time I failed to understand what the person was saying.
Name and Shame these companies/gyms.
People "don't complain" because by the time they're done canceling they're too fed up to fill out the offered satisfaction survey.
In Germany (maybe even EU wide) we have a new law (like one year ago) that every Telecommunications company needs to have within two clicks or less a Button in their website, which takes you to a side where you can cancel your contract (within the agreed timespan of your contract)
I worked at one I was in that team doing the backend to implement the button. It took us 1/2 a year to have it functional...
It’s EU wide, and it also include many other businesses like gym
1/2 a year to have it functional?! Man, how the HELL is this arranged
@@firerat1653 You wouldn't believe how messed up business systems are after a few decades. I heard (from someone who works there) that at the ex-state telecom company here for many big service incidents there are actual persons looking at the screen with the call logs and re-type the info into the screen that sends the info to the technicians. I have an online account with one of the older electronics chains here - one day years ago I put some stuff into the basket while logged in with one account, then logged out, logged in with a different account (because I was ordering for a club) and the web site managed to merge those two accounts and made both of them unusable with support being unable to fix it to this day. I could go on. Even if everything goes well - you need tons of approvals and test runs, which all conspire to make development lengthy. 1/2 year is fast for a generic cancel function.
I won't claim I know the exact infrastructure or anything, but how did it take half a year? Just bugs that had to be ironed out, or is it a convoluted system?
there have been a few rare instances where i went to cancel and (in these cases) the ability to cancel was actually so easy that I ended up not cancelling because I appreciated not being run around the block just to cancel. ik its wild but a little respect can go a long way.
True, that. There have been a couple of services that have provided good service, it's no longer economically advantageous for me to stay with them but I don't cancel immediately out of (believe it or not) gratitude.
Totally agree. The lying behind the reasoning is the worst part.
When covid first picked up, I emailed LA Fitness and they actually just cancelled my membership immediately. That was an insane relief.
It's hard to believe they been getting away with this for so long without getting sued into a oblivion.
That why those $1000 an hour corporate defense lawyers are paid to craft those airtight contracts. Don't even get me started on those regulations and legislation pushed by highly compensated special interest lobbyists to favor their corporate overlords agendas.
The key points that are keeping them from doing the right thing are corruption (the US just calls it differently - "lobbyism" - but the US is as corrupt as any 3rd world country) and something called "precedent". As soon as they feel they might lose a court case, they'll try to settle out of court. If they feel they have a safe win, they'll go for a judgement. That skews the odds in their favor in the long run.
Why? This is capitalism working exactly as intended.
Taking this kind of legal action is expensive as fuck. Only big corporations are able to do that, which is a gross miscarriage of justice.
It's because the common man is disjointed from one another and the machine is fluid and well put together.
Man I swear, I literally physically can't comprehend how companies can get away with this. I am tired of living on a planet where law and goodwill are considered separate. Companies and the individuals who run them spesifically should be punished for something like this, not because its necessarily illegal but because its a jerk business move that no one likes them for making.
I feel that using local business is a good idea. Even if it costs a little more. These giant nationwide companies are out of hand.
The issue is they get to decide when a "monopoly" is formed. They dont consider monopoly of parts or monopoly on repairs. Its absolutely ludicrous that this shit still happens.
I do not think you really want people or companies punished for being jerks. Because ultimately what is defined as a jerk move is very nebulous and changes drastically based on who is measuring the conduct. No consistency.
Write a law, make it law, and fit the cases in that
Because they throw the government a few bucks and they look the other way
They can get away with it because capitalism, freedom or something.
Being honest and upfront made me stay for an "ad read" that I don't really have any interest in. You're one of a few I do thst for.
You are right ,and this buissnes model is disgusting.
Why there are no more influential people like you reporting and doing smth about it like you
God bless you.
I really loved that about Golds Gym. You had to drop a hand written letter into a PO box by hand in a cave 10,000ft down in the middle of the Caucasus Mountain Range.
At least you got some exercise in before you quit your gym membership
@@CentreMetre Working out made you strong enough to climb which made you able to cancel. Sort of like 'when the master is ready...'
Do this one next!
'I can pay for something and it be debited from my account and posted into your account within seconds, but it takes 2 weeks to return to me if I choose to rescind the transaction'
they get 10 days worth of interest on your refund. Not much unless you see just how many refunds are pending right now...easily in the millions, and probably a hundred million during holidays. Think Superman 2 with richard pryor.
Now we need this law to apply to EVERYTHING!
Ordered checks from my bank. I write 13 or so checks a year. Car Insurance and Drivers License. So a box of checks will last me a long time. Then one day get a notebook, thanks for your order, 12 check packs. Went on the banks website to check, on the order page there is no way to cancel. Called the bank the rep was very helpful but surprised he could not on his side cancel the next order which would be 13 months later. Put me on hold, guess he called the company directly, came back and assured me it has been canceled and even he was saying this needs to change.
As far as canceling service, the only one that should be kinda difficult to cancel is telephone. People fked around and lost phone numbers they've had for decades because they canceled before the port went through. Tv and internet should be click to cancel. Those can be turned on and off remotely in seconds
Even phone service should be easy and obvious to cancel.
It should also come with multiple steps, each one warning people against cancelling to soon with two buttons "OK, continue my service" and "I still want to cancel now". Clicking "I want to cancel" on 3 screens may be annoying, but it gets the message across ... and if you think your subscribers are clueless idiots, make one of the screens a must-watch 15 second video warning.
@@lizcademy4809 yeah there have to be some steps in between. Ive worked customer service and had to explain to people that their phone number they had for 20 years is gone because they just up and canceled before actually moving their service
Force phone companies to unlocked Bootloader when phones stop receiving updates and security patches. Or 2 yrs after sale.
What works in Europe: Cancel by normal mail and stop paying. If they want money, they have to sue you. THEN this practice is tested in court if it is REALLY required to jump hoops to cancel something. At least here, it is not. I don't know what the law in the US system is. I did this several times over the last 2 decades and was never sued. You get some angry letters with insane late fees, and lawyer costs added. Trying to scare you into submission.
Nope! Just write them an email "I cancelled. There is no contract. You may sue me to get this court approved." And continue not paying. Sometimes you get the same claim from another debt collector a couple of months later. But at this point, you already won. If the first lawyer thought, he could squeeze money out of you, he would've tried it.
I thumbed up this video because of the ad warning. Thank you. Ads are the cause of do much evil in this world, like the decline of CZcams, the destruction of journalism and the news, the deep levels of debt of everyone, and so on and so forth.