Comment by sa-code
2 hours ago
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
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.
Did you receive your money back?
If not, time for a charge back with your card provider.
Charge back usually never works… at least in my case the provider never actually did it because the seller was in good standing.
6 replies →
Some don't treat months as discrete units. Uber revokes your membership immediately.
>Uber revokes your membership immediately.
Sounds like a great object lesson -- this a service that is will to take your money. Better to cancel now and not look back.
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.
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?
Apple TV free trials due to new hardware (e.g. new iPhone) is like this too, I just set a reminder on my phone and cancel it one day before they’ll start billing me. The UI for cancelling is also painless.
Somewhat tangential, but I am reminded of a quote about an adjacent problem with analogous flavor from the pen of the venerable G. K. Chesterton...
'It is really not so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see the rich asking for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for more money. A man would be annoyed if he found himself in a mob of millionaires, all holding out their silk hats for a penny; or all shouting with one voice, “Give me money.” Yet advertisement does really assault the eye very much as such a shout would assault the ear. “Budge’s Boots are the Best” simply means “Give me money”; “Use Seraphic Soap” simply means “Give me money.” It is a complete mistake to suppose that common people make our towns commonplace, with unsightly things like advertisements. Most of those whose wares are thus placarded everywhere are very wealthy gentlemen with coronets and country seats, men who are probably very particular about the artistic adornment of their own homes. They disfigure their towns in order to decorate their houses.'
Do they also give a prorated refund? Otherwise that seems to be blatant theft
Uber would never take any immoral action like that. They've always been upstanding citizens.
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?
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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)
This is indeed my standard practice. In my head, I just tell myself "I'm buying a month."
The Playstation store subscriptions have different tiers and within each tier different prices depending on the number of months.
These psychological tricks don't need to work every time (or on everyone) to be effective.
Because for some subscriptions the price goes up.
> what is stopping you from cancelling all your subscriptions right now? You can always buy back in when you like
> Because for some subscriptions the price goes up.
Had a bad experience of this with a tool where I had subscribed a full year at the old price.
They raised prices while I was on a vacation, and the first time I logged back in, I was charged the difference.
No prompt to agree or disagree, and the charge assumed a full year of usage on the new price rather than being pro-rated.
They refunded it shortly after on their own, and then someone from their team emailed asking what I'd done on login, as if they didn't already know. Possibly a billing system glitch on their end, but the lack of any consent prompt is the part that bothered me.
Didn't renew, though I'll admit their product is solid.
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.
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).
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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.
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.
Why would they salt their own field it's hard to understand