SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The New York AG just won a lawsuit over a process that 'deliberately' wastes subscribers' time:
A New York judge has determined that SiriusXM's "long and burdensome" cancellation process is illegal. In a ruling on Thursday, Judge Lyle Frank found SiriusXM violates a federal law that requires companies to make it easy to cancel a subscription.
The decision comes nearly one year after New York Attorney General Leticia James sued SiriusXM over claims the company makes subscriptions difficult to cancel. Following an investigation, the Office of the Attorney General found that the company attempts to delay cancellations by having customers call an agent, who then keeps them on the phone for several minutes while "pitching the subscriber as many as five retention offers."
As outlined in the ruling, Judge Frank found that SiriusXM broke the Restore Online Shoppers Confidence Act (ROSCA), which requires companies to implement "simple mechanisms" to cancel a subscription. "Their cancellation procedure is clearly not as easy to use as the initiation method," Judge Frank writes, citing the "inevitable wait times" that come along with talking to a live agent and the subscription offers they promote.
The Federal Trade Commission has started cracking down on hard-to-cancel subscriptions as well, with a new "click to cancel" rule going into effect next year. Under the law, companies must make canceling a subscription as easy as it is to sign up. "This decision found SiriusXM illegally created a complicated cancellation process for its New York customers, forcing them to spend significant amounts of time speaking with agents who refused to take 'no' for an answer," Attorney General James said in a statement.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday November 24, @04:48AM (1 child)
Last Jan I subscribed to a 30 day trial via Prime so I could watch a football game. When the game was over I cancelled the trial. Next month I noticed a charge on my bill. Went to Paramont+ to cancel, they pointed me to Prime. Went to Prime, they pointed me to Paramount+. Lather rinse repeat.
Worse, I couldn't watch Paramount+ because I was unsubscribed. So I'm paying for something I can't use and everyone is pointing fingers at the other guy.
Fortunately my credit card expired so the charges stopped. Guess how long it's gonna be before I sign up for another streaming channel. Go ahead, guess. If you guessed anything less than the heat death of the universe then you're wrong.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 2) by Deep Blue on Sunday November 24, @07:44PM
My story here in GDPR land is different. I got an offer for a month free trial for a 3d party sports channel from my phone company. I wanted to watch some NFL games, so i took it. The day before the trial ended, i ended the subscription and i was still able to watch a game on the same day the service ended. All i had to do was login to the phone company site and click to end the subscription. But yes, i was suspicios too, that's why i ended it the day before.