They're making cancelling services impossible.
by rblampain from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5KC6G)
In the last few years, I have found that cancelling services is becoming more difficult as service providers seem to follow the growing common practice of burying the cancel option in a way that it is hard to find and consumes a lot of time or cost a lot or does not exist.
One such service provider (I forgot which) had such option designed in such a way that a large number of "clicks" are necessary, the last one pretending that you have a complaint to make and asking you to state it and they might give you a solution as if you mistakenly failed to "click" the right box at one stage.
In a recent case, one hosting company supposed to be reputable (linode) has decided to "suspend" one account because, as they claim, they were unable to collect payment for one service but not another while payment for both were taken at the same time, from the same card, unchanged for many years. It appears that they wanted a change of password for both services and as a result became able to get paid only for one which I highlighted and they admitted in their reply but later returned to their original claim.
In another case, mentioning to Vodafone that a change of bank account could lead to a delay in payment (it did not) triggered them to try to preemptively take payment for 3 months of service when nothing was due, for which they apologised.
As a result, I have decided not to provide my bank account whenever possible and insist on them providing another option. Some willingly provide their own bank account details, including their international banking number. which allow you to make regular payment that you can stop at any time. In other cases and if that option exist, I pay through "payment processor" which I can easily cancel at any time.
In another case and being Belgian-born I subscribed to "Le Soir" (a Belgian newspaper) and finding that they wanted more money to make it more easily readable, I decided reluctantly and with sadness not to submit to such approach and to cancel the subscription. To my amazement and thinking that consumer laws were more stringent in the EU, I discovered that they wanted the cancellation done in writing and by electronic official mail (named differently in each country) costing some 20 Euros for a cancellation that would not even take place immediately.
My question:
Has anyone a hint or advise or comment on how to deal with this growing problem as I am sure many people face it and, like myself, want a quick, easy and final solution?
The object is not to get any refund, it is simply to move on at minimal loss of time and avoiding extortion.
Thank you for your help.
One such service provider (I forgot which) had such option designed in such a way that a large number of "clicks" are necessary, the last one pretending that you have a complaint to make and asking you to state it and they might give you a solution as if you mistakenly failed to "click" the right box at one stage.
In a recent case, one hosting company supposed to be reputable (linode) has decided to "suspend" one account because, as they claim, they were unable to collect payment for one service but not another while payment for both were taken at the same time, from the same card, unchanged for many years. It appears that they wanted a change of password for both services and as a result became able to get paid only for one which I highlighted and they admitted in their reply but later returned to their original claim.
In another case, mentioning to Vodafone that a change of bank account could lead to a delay in payment (it did not) triggered them to try to preemptively take payment for 3 months of service when nothing was due, for which they apologised.
As a result, I have decided not to provide my bank account whenever possible and insist on them providing another option. Some willingly provide their own bank account details, including their international banking number. which allow you to make regular payment that you can stop at any time. In other cases and if that option exist, I pay through "payment processor" which I can easily cancel at any time.
In another case and being Belgian-born I subscribed to "Le Soir" (a Belgian newspaper) and finding that they wanted more money to make it more easily readable, I decided reluctantly and with sadness not to submit to such approach and to cancel the subscription. To my amazement and thinking that consumer laws were more stringent in the EU, I discovered that they wanted the cancellation done in writing and by electronic official mail (named differently in each country) costing some 20 Euros for a cancellation that would not even take place immediately.
My question:
Has anyone a hint or advise or comment on how to deal with this growing problem as I am sure many people face it and, like myself, want a quick, easy and final solution?
The object is not to get any refund, it is simply to move on at minimal loss of time and avoiding extortion.
Thank you for your help.