Require apps and online subscriptions to provide notice at 30-days, 7-days, and 1-day prior to any bank draft or auto-renew for service, and to provide a visible and single-step cancellation option. Too many online businesses put a renewal in their small print, creating unexpected or steep-hike renewals derived from credit information saved on the first transaction. The practice depends on a “subscribe and forget” policy for everything from streaming music to overseas “health and fitness” apps. When one protests on the day of the unexpected draft, they are informed that cancellation does not meet their “restrictions and policy”. This drains millions per year from unsuspecting consumers for services they frequently stopped using months before.
Yes! This is a huge pet peeve for me. Sometimes I’ve completely forgotten about a subscription and have no desire to renew.
Yes! Those surprise charges are horrible and many times Apple refuses to refund
I agree with this notion. It seems that marketers and companies with these bait and switch tactics aren’t regulated enough.
I’ve long felt that businesses attempting to make a sale have always been given too much power at the cost of the American people. The benefit is always given to the company so they can make money based off the marketing tactics they use, and that’s likely due to additional behind the scenes marketing kickback plans with higher up companies as well. We need to take a look at consumerism at a whole and see what better protections can be placed for people. I’ll also add that the elderly population succumbs to these most often. Using my technology challenged grandmother as an example, she would sign up for something thinking it was a one-time pay and then get stuck with ton a contract she’d then have to pay to break, which she never remembered to begin with. She needed assistance in cancelling through online accounts or email. Not to mention the charges that ensued for months before she realized and how much money she’d lost on an already fixed income from social security. Incredibly sad.
You don’t need government to have their hands in EVERYTHING; that’s how we ended up in this disaster that Doge is currently trying to get under control!
Take some personal responsibility and put a reminder on your calendar 30 days, 1 week, 1 day before your auto renewal is due any time you sign up for something! Use your own common sense, don’t expect the government to do it for you; we all know how that turns out.
Yes, if a business can’t survive without deceiving customers, it should fail.
Preach!!
This is a pet peeve of mine and I’m so glad you brought it here. I agree with you 100%. I almost feel scammed when they don’t send an email before they take your money. Thank you!
I deleted my cc information on Apple and Netflix so they couldn’t renew it again because they kept doing it even though I had cancelled them!
When a credit card expires then the renewal should lapse and not just continue with the cc number indefinitely. Renewal notices should inform exactly which platform and the purpose of the program being renewed.
You might hate me for this point of view. However this is why they like auto renew. It is our jobs as consumers to know what we are paying for and when those bills are due. I choose not to auto renew because then i cant be charged without them notifying me and without them showing me an increase. As far as notification i assure you they notify each customer through and automated email. (I get one for any i do have auto renew with). So thus your asking that a policy be made because people cant be bothered to read their mail without being mailed many times regarding it. Companies know you dont check your email, they know if its on auto renew youll never think about it. This is in fact a customer issue not the buisness issue.
For some background i worked for customer service in the auto industry. Managed auto policies, sport policies, RV, bikes, and was metriced upon how many “bundled” Policies we could get. Even the company will explain they wanted customers to bundle because your less likely to change your policies due to it being a headache. I can also tell you there wasnt a day of customers claiming “I was never notified”. I assure you i could also tell you every day the customer was notified of changes and of the renewals. Be it more expensive or less expensive they were notified. I can also tell you upon pointing out each date every one of those customers then looked and acknowledged yeah they got notified they never read it though. So my question is where is accountability for the individual who chooses to purchase anything and then ignore every message a company sends them? How does this become the businesses fault one chooses to ignore their mail? And how and why would you claim to hold the company responsible for a customers choice of ignoring the mail to begin with?