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Don't Subscribe So Casually(thebestworstcase.substack.com)
49 points by shmublu an hour ago | 38 comments
sa-code an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I would go a step further, cancel as soon as you subscribe. It's still valid for a month because you've paid for it!

If you ever need to use the service again just re-subscribe (and re-cancel)

In fact, what is stopping you from cancelling all your subscriptions right now? You can always buy back in when you like

BloondAndDoom an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Recently cancelled something early so I won’t forget, they didn’t send my shipment even though I paid for it. They said I cancelled, tried to work with support but given after a point.

So yeah, not all companies do that.

mschild 38 minutes ago | parent [-]

Did you receive your money back?

If not, time for a charge back with your card provider.

umpalumpaaa 35 minutes ago | parent [-]

Charge back usually never works… at least in my case the provider never actually did it because the seller was in good standing.

MisterTea 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

The one time I thought it would not work it did. Home depot rental generator that failed to run under load; store manager refused to test the unit under load as it was against store policy. Refused refund and instead gave me a $50 off coupon. I then called Chase, explained the situation and charges reversed on the spot. I took the coupon and bought a nice corded Milwaukee sawzall.

dominicrose 5 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Maybe you should try Paypal next time, if allowed by the seller

radlad 31 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Counterpoint: I've done 3 and all went through without drama.

ndr 24 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

With what credit card provider?

I've done it multiple times when a vendor was behaving fairly and it always went through.

I don't recommend doing it to a vendor you plan to have business with again in the future as they might ban you (eg food delivery apps)

taormina 8 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Get a credit card that isn't dogshit then. You can absolutely charge back.

iwontberude 23 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I’ve never had an issue with charging back when they fail to deliver the product

orsorna an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Some don't treat months as discrete units. Uber revokes your membership immediately.

3form 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Also a common practice for free trials. Adobe does that if I'm not mistaken.

Love seeing companies worth tens or hundreds of billions acting like they couldn't spare a cent from underhanded shit like that. Scrooge McDuck type of behavior, except he also had some redeeming qualities.

II2II 5 minutes ago | parent [-]

With free trials, I can understand revoking the benefits once the subscription has been canceled. While I can understand the consumer's perspective of not wanting to be billed for future months (say if they forgot to cancel), free trials are intended to attract future customers. If a person signals that they are not going to be a future customer, why should the business offer the free service?

jLaForest an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Do they also give a prorated refund? Otherwise that seems to be blatant theft

malfist an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Uber would never take any immoral action like that. They've always been upstanding citizens.

dylan604 an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

What money did you give Uber in advance? Why would you have a balance needing to be refunded if you have not taken a ride?

SauntSolaire 41 minutes ago | parent [-]

Uber one exists as a subscription you pay with certain benefits for frequent users.

Semaphor an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

When I actually use a service, it's more work to resubscribe. But money is also tight enough for me that I'm on top of my subscriptions and don't have any I don't need (and when I'm unsure, I set reminders to cancel)

boplicity 18 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This is indeed my standard practice. In my head, I just tell myself "I'm buying a month."

throwaway2027 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I saw some small business owner complain about this behavior on twitter some time ago and he mentioned he only saw non-Americans do this and it made him really mad or something and he didn't provide the service and banned them or something. Funnily enough I do think this happens so sometimes I cancel instantly and sometimes deliberately wait until there are a few days left on the subscription exactly out of paranoia behavior that you'll get a worse service or something, that they must have some database field early cancel and mess with you or something.

bji9jhff 26 minutes ago | parent [-]

Why would they salt their own field it's hard to understand

noja an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because for some subscriptions the price goes up.

jerf an hour ago | parent [-]

But the entire scheme here is to not have them continually. It's better to pay month+$2 in six months when you need it, than 6*month for the months you don't.

If you rotate subscriptions sensibly, they're much cheaper than the old cable model. If you're not looking, they can really bleed you out and be much more expensive than the old model.

toomuchtodo an hour ago | parent [-]

You can also pay ~$20/month for an online locker that'll pull the torrent for you and serve to your devices, if that's within your philosophical tolerances. People need to get paid, but I do not much care of the enterprise value of media conglomerates and the resulting enshittification. I don't mind paying for Nebula.tv (~$36/year) and PBS Passport (~$60/year), for example, to directly support those media creators, as well as sending creators fiat directly or via Patreon (Coffeezilla and Peter Santenello, for example).

jerf 11 minutes ago | parent [-]

I have no problem with anyone just sending money if that's what they want to do; I have a number of Patreon supports also. I do strongly advocate for not letting subscriptions leak out without realizing it, and less strongly for considering whether or not you need something like Disney+ continuously or if you can rotate between it and other services.

sublinear an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The core value for most subscription services is their convenience. There's usually another less convenient way to get the same thing cheaper or free.

Most people are literally paying so they don't have to set all that shit up again and the cost is trivial to them.

If that's not you, fine, but my point is that nobody is "right" about this topic. Services exist because they make money.

rectang 12 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Companies who wish for more casual subscribers should support services (such as Apple App Store subscriptions) and anti-dark-pattern laws which reassure the public that unsubscribing will be easy.

Then the complacency and other psychological effects that this article seeks to inoculate users against will be maximized.

IFC_LLC 35 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A very simple handling:

Buy a domain. Get Proton, or Apple, or any other custom-domain email service.

Setup catch-all incoming mail.

Every merchant receives an email like merchantname@donotwriteto.me

Then you can either sort those out, or if they are malicious and not deleting you from your email lists, you can block the incoming traffic on that email.

This way you still can verify your email, comm stays private and you can have your own peace of mind, but you don't have to keep the spam in your primary inbox.

hundchenkatze 24 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

This is good advice for email/newsletter subscriptions, but that isn't what the article is about.

CachedaCodes 13 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's def good advice.

I've been doing something similar with Firefox relay to have proxy emails that I can regenerate if needed, it worked well but not for every site. Recently I've been testing SimpleLogin and it worked every time, it's by Proton.

cube00 26 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Highly recommend this, I no longer need any spam filtering following this approach.

My old Gmail would be loaded with spam and the filter would screw up and mislabel legitimate mail. Now, no spam at all.

It also helps when your email is involved in a data breach which is becoming the norm now.

Although be prepared for awkward in person interactions when a business wants your email. Everything from "no, your email silly not mine" to "I own this business name you can't have it in your email address"

iLoveOncall 14 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

You obviously didn't read the article at all since it's about paying for subscriptions.

winddude an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Kinda' ironic posting a service that promotes two types of casual subscriptions, inbox clutter, and "micro transactions"

sdoering an hour ago | parent [-]

Especially when one considers how friggin difficult this service makes it to cancel a (paid) subscription.

shmublu 37 minutes ago | parent [-]

yeah. would love other recommendations for similar services that handle it better if you have any

xg15 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Can be extended to social media accounts as well.

elzbardico 39 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Nowadays I am adopting the "Mom Strategy for Subscriptions (TM)": Eat what is in your plate before asking for more stuff.

atulatul 21 minutes ago | parent [-]

I tried this idea for the books and gave up. No rules for book purchases.

But for something like netflix, I create a list. And when I start repeating something like Seinfeld, Breaking Bad, etc. rather than not-yet-watched items from the list, I cancel the subscription. And I don't renew till some time passes (6 months). Only then there are a few different movies/ series I can add to the list.