Credits to go fucking australian news site adelaidenow.com.au
They want it to be difficult to cancel. Shit like this should be illegal.
It was made illegal in the EU years ago.
The rule is pretty simple: you have to be able to cancel a subscription the same way you signed up for it. If you used the Internet to sign up there better be a fucking button that allows you to cancel.
I cancelled my mobile contract in Germany last month, and I had to submit in their web portal that I wished to cancel, and then call them to confirm the cancellation.
It was with Klarmobil.
Yes, Drillisch is one of the companies currently simply ignoring the law. They will probably continue to do so until they get successfully sued and/or fined into compliance.
Here in Paraná there’s a rather old law against that too, from 2007. Back then the concern was phone companies and credit card companies doing it, but the law was worded in a surprisingly sensible way, so it protects customers against online roach motels too. I’ll coarsely translate it from Portuguese, (sourced from p203):
Law #15627, 18/Sep/2007
*Enforces that providers of continued services are required to ensure to customers the ability to request the cancellation of the service through the same means which the acquisition was requested, as specified.
- Article #1 - Providers of continued services are required to offer to customers the ability to request the cancellation of services through the same means which the acquisition [of said services] was requested.
- Article #2 - Furthermore they should provide cancellation means through phone, internet, or mail.
- Article #3 - For the effects of this law, as “continued services”, without implying exclusion of similar [services]:
- I - subscription of newspapers, magazines, and other periodic publications;
- II - paid television, internet providers, landed or mobile telephone lines, data transmission and aggregated services;
- III - gym academies and open courses;
- IV - capitalisation titles and insurance bonds;
- V - credit cards and “discount cards”.
It seems that the governor back then was already expecting companies to rule-lawyer and say “ackshyually we aren’t offering [service], we’re offering [same service under different name], so it doesn’t apply to us”, so the way that article #3 was worded basically lists examples, not an exhaustive list. As much as I hate that specific governor I can’t help but think that he did a good job with this law.
California in the US has a law that says if you signed up online you have to be able to cancel online. The rest of us need that law.
It doesn’t work on every website, but sometimes you can change your address to be in California and then magically a cancel button will appear.
Pro tip, tell them you want to end your subscription immediately. Don’t say anything, awkward silence. When they ask an another question to goud you into staying repeat the first statement. If they ask rando questions, silence.
They give up in under a minute. Be polite but obstinate.
Use a service like privacy.com. Cancel the card they charge monthly… no phone call needed. Added benefit is if the vendor is compromised there is no loss…the cards can be locked to only allow charges from 1 business. Steal the credit card info… can’t use it anywhere else.
I don’t know how well it would work in practice, but every time I see something like this, the darker, more childish part of my brain wants me to send a human shit to them in the post, with a note saying “Thank you for subscribing to Post-me-a-poo (Daily)! To cancel your subscription, please add a ‘Cancel Subscription’ button to your website!”.
Hahahaha. I fully laughed out loud. That’s brilliant. Prawns is full on evil, but they deserve it. Your act of petty vengeance has probably made my day. Thanks! :)
Just send them invoices for your time to their AP department to see how tight their payment controls are…
I’d be surprised if these places are any good with paying their actual invoices, let alone fake ones
You might be surprised. They still have to pay for office supplies, it contracts, keep the lights on. And I have a have time they are spending top dollar on accounting professionals or software, so they might pay out. It’s quite random, and I have often seen the decision to pay a bill based off the size and name of the company lol. Bad spending controls starts with bad companies, and companies willing to go to war pinching pennies from people who barely have it don’t exactly make it into my books as a company I bet is run well. You can make a lot of money and accidentally pay a lot of money you’re not supposed to. School systems are notorious for being scammed because they have weird, or barely any spend controls.
I have actually threatened this before to some shitty scam company that kept phoning me during work hours - I never went through with it in the end though, because I’m a massive coward and I’m frightened of negative consequences.
But in a parallel universe, I stuck it to them bastards :)
Maybe this is a little European, but just cancel the Direct Debit or block the recurring payment with your bank?
That would make you default on the payment and they’ll pass it to debt collection. Only do this if you reasonably tried everything else (and documented your attempts) before using that option.
Maybe rules are again different, but a simple subscription here wouldn’t cause a default as there was no credit agreement. Interesting to see how things differ.
