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Old 06-17-2021, 8:09am   #1
Mike Mercury
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Default "negative option billing" free trial B.S.

Senate bill would make it easier to cancel a subscription online after a free trial

https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/16/2...tion-consumers

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would make it easier for people to cancel online subscriptions after a free trial period has ended. Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), John Thune (R-SD), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and John Kennedy (R-LA) say the Unsubscribe Act would require companies to be more transparent about their subscriptions.

“The subscription-based business model is exploding, and it’s largely because of the deceptive practices that some companies use to lure and trap in customers,” Schatz said in a statement. “When people sign up for a free trial, they shouldn’t have to jump through hoops just to cancel their subscription before being charged.”

The bill addresses what’s known as “negative option billing,” where a customer signs up for a free trial and the company switches them to a full-price subscription automatically when the trial ends. Customers are often not notified that the free trial period is ending until the company charges them. Other companies allow prospective customers to sign up for a service online, but then require them to call a customer service phone line to cancel. And as someone who wants to support my fellow news sites and newspapers, it’s just not nice to let me easily sign up online for $1.99 but force me to call a customer service line after you’ve already charged me for a year’s subscription that I may not have wanted (maybe I did, but I would like the option to choose).

The Unsubscribe Act would require sellers to allow customers to cancel a subscription in the same way they signed up, require sellers to provide notice when a free or reduced-price trial is about to end, and to provide customers with a clear understanding of the terms of the contract. And sellers wouldn’t be able to automatically transfer a free trial customer to a contract longer than one month.

California has had a law in place since 2018 that requires companies to allow customers to cancel a subscription online.

Companion legislation to the Unsubscribe Act is being introduced in the House, according to a news release.

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Old 06-17-2021, 8:41am   #2
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Known a couple people get burned from free trial shit...
They need to make the law where it cancels automatically if you do not continue it instead.
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Old 06-17-2021, 9:05am   #3
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"the Unsubscribe Act"

this will be as effective as the "National Do Not Call List Act".

they pass a law (which has no teeth)... and everyone ignores it.
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Old 06-17-2021, 9:44am   #4
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Just don’t sign up.
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Old 06-17-2021, 12:23pm   #5
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I almost had an aneurysm on a phone call to cancel AOL back in the day. I was probably one of those recordings that made the interwebs. I like the thought, but agree that the .gov administering this will end up being like the Do Not Call thing. BTW, I hear your car warranty is expiring...
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Old 06-17-2021, 12:58pm   #6
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I did a "free trial" once about 40 years ago. Pretty sure the only way to stop the billing would have been to hunt them down and kill them Alternatively I suppose you could move to a different address and leave no forwarding information.

So it only took our government 40 years to realize people are being scammed like this? Baloney, more likely it took them that long to figure out a way to get a cut of the profits. They'll probably just require a permit, same as with all the unsolicited junk mailings we receive in our mailboxes every day.
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