There is a tricky balance to the point you have raised. If the business makes the process too easy, the attrition will increase and the pricing structure will have to go up for the remaining buyers. When that happens, you would come in here to complain that the prices of goods & services are exorbitantly high.

"Invest some time in a better product" is not an appropriate solution since consumers have different incentive processes and those incentives changes throughout their lives. There is a diminishing return on investment for the producer of the g&s and they have to find the right balance.

The process of increasing cancellation cost (e.g. time), inadvertently puts the onus on the consumer to do their due diligence prior to purchasing a product.

No. I personally wouldn't complain that prices are exorbitantly high. If the price should be higher to cover the cost, it should be higher! It should NOT be hidden in an absurdly complex cancellation process. That's my opinion.

Maybe you feel differently. But know that a lot of people feel the other way also.

I found Spotify cancellation process surprisingly refreshing. Just a big giant cancel button with a confirmation. Done.

Same with Sling and Britbox - no fuss cancellations all online. Was impressed.

I use the Amex online chat to block a specific merchant when I want to cancel. Takes less than 60 seconds and they will decline any charge matching that merchant descriptor.

Does their data remain though? If it does then your data would still be in danger of hackers if said business got attacked, etc. Aren't businesses supposed to treat customer data as liabilities now?

Some consumers would want complete removal of their data after deciding not to continue paying for service.

just to reflect your attitude, why should we trust them to delete our data? why do we even tolerate a background level of fraud at all?

how about this - I dont use my cards that often - maybe 20 times a week. i'd be much happier if i got a notification through a side channel with a proposed charge and I could click 'yes' or 'no'.

it makes alot more sense to me than having to poll my account to look for potential fraud and argue with the bank about re-issuing a card with a new number.

wouldn't that be simple? i understand that for some usage patterns that would be inconvenient.

the broader point is that I shouldn't need to expose personal information just to buy a tea towel, I shouldn't even have to give you my email address so you can start sending my helpful hints about how awesome your other products are.

Firstly, MOST businesses don't store any credit card information so it's easier to be PCI compliant if the need arises and in order to limit liability. So if you trust the business enough to put in your CC#, you don't have to worry about the biggest issue.

Secondly, I don't know of ANY company that deletes customer data upon cancellation. I've worked at a few ecom companies now, and the marketing team would just LOL at that idea. Past customers are pretty much your highest converters. No way are you gonna get rid of your data on them.

MAYBE in Europe with GDPR. Even still, no company I've worked at does this even for European customers. I'm skeptical a meaningful percentage of companies do.