That businesses will design their websites (which offer subscription style services) and pull subtle tricks to either make it very difficult to unsubscribe, or coerce the user to maintain a subscription they do not want is nothing new. I recall the nightmare that used to be cancelling SiriusXM.
In order to do so and avoid a 15 minute conversation with their retention department where they throw everything at the caller but the kitchen sink so they do not cancel, I had to connect via VPN to a server in California. Why? California had an actually useful law that requires a business that allows online subscription to provide online cancellation.
A few years ago when I first moved to GA, I signed up for Planet Fitness online. I went once, was quickly reminded how much I dislike exercising in public, so I decided to cancel. I couldn’t do it online, I had to go back to that physical location to do so, which depending on how much the drone behind the counter cares, can take a lot longer than necessary.
These days it’s easier to just do it off the site, no muss, no fuss. Then there’s Dashpass. Now I was able to cancel the service (which offers reduced cost and fees for using the service for $10 a month) but not before I accidentally stopped the cancellation process, not only that – I couldn’t immediately click out of the popup which thanked me for not cancelling.
Easy enough here, we can see the option they REALLY want me to click as it’s in RED. Instead, I need to select the Continue to Cancel option which is pretty plain.
Again, more retention nonsense. Sure, when I actively used doordash 2-3 times a month (when I was single) I saved every time. They want me to keep it, I want to Cancel DashPass.
A little more progress here. Note that “I don’t use it” isn’t an option here. Also note that I am now required to click on the bright red button to Select Reason for my cancellation.
The very next screen, now I don’t want to click the bright red button, but they certainly do… so I Continue to Cancel.
The final switcharoo here. This actually caught me once before, as my eyes and mouse cursor were drawn to the bright red button (by design). This led me to a screen I couldn’t click out of, I had to hit the back button in my browser to escape and start the whole process again from the start. This is all by design, they want me to keep paying them whether or not I use the service.
I was able to it Submit and Cancel here, and I’ve still got the service until the renewal date next month but I won’t get charged another $10. I realize to most this likely doesn’t seem like a huge deal, but I have yet to see a single online subscription based service that doesn’t incorporate some less than ethical tactics when it comes to cancelling.
