Submitted 4 weeks ago by JackLSauce@lemmy.world to youshouldknow@lemmy.world
Amazon Prime is particularly heinous about using dark patterns to confound users into risking forgetting but ultimately you’ve already paid for the month, year
I can confirm this to also be the case with most streaming giants plus the less-giant Shutter
Also not true for HP’s “Instant Ink” subscription service, which I can tell you from experience will brick the perfectly full cartridges already in your printer as soon as you cancel, even if you have not yet reached the next billing date.
Always forget printers exist but can’t say I’m surprised. Added this to the list of exceptions and made the title more accurate
Yes, this is the first thing I’m doing when subscribing to a trial. As soon as I’m subscribed I immediately cancel so I don’t forget and I use the service for the trial period.
Most TV apps end your trials and even paid accounts immediately. Apple rather enforces that they have to give the paid subscription till the end of the term. That’s why I like paying through Apple.
Want to add in a potential extra as well… even if you DO find a service good and worth continuing to use, It’s a good idea to try and cancel it anyway. Why, because a lot have special automations to attempt to retain you by offering you deals.
“are you sure you want to leave, what if we gave you 3 months at half off?”.
this is what my grandfather would have to do almost yearly do get an affordable direct tv bill. The year he switched to fubo is the year that they stopped giving him the discount. He refused to pay 150$ a year for the three channels he watched
There are exceptions, but yeah the pro move is to immediately unsub as soon as you sub if you’re not planning to stick around.
nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
Not all. Some end your access as soon as you cancel, normally they let this be known while cancelling, but not all of them so that.
teft@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
If they don’t prorate a refund then they’re stealing from you. Obviously if this is a trial they can cancel immediately if you haven’t paid but otherwise it’s theft.
nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
I agree, but good luck getting anywhere with it if they choose to not refund you.
JackLSauce@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Any specific service you’ve seen doing this?
I’ve not experimented as much with cloud providers or non-American companies so not yet sure if this is a byproduct of industry practice, market pressures on public companies or legal requirements and counter examples could help
I should also point out the good: many of them (like Netflix) are very open about how cancelation works once one goes to that section of their site
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 weeks ago
All subscriptions through Apple do this.
The upside is if you cancel a yearly subscription after just one day you get basically all your money back.
BlazeDaley@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
ClassPass
Trial cancellation terms
nokturne213@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
Napster did this when I went to cancel. They said if you cancel now you lose the rest of the year you already paid for. I set up a reminder to cancel as the time got closer to the renewal, but the service was so bad I contacted customer service and asked for the remainder of my money back that it was unsuable for me. They finally ended up giving me a refund. There have been others, but that one sticks out in my mind.