Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscriptions If It's Too Easy

Re:Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscripti... by bdw5204 on Monday July 10, 2023 @10:40AM (#36667149)

I think the right fix for subscriptions is probably to require an affirmative renewal rather than a passive renewal. Since customers are too lazy to affirmatively cancel subscriptions they aren't using, a passive renewal means they keep spending money on it.

If you require affirmative renewal then there is no need to offer a "cancel my subscription" option at all because the way to cancel a subscription would be to just not renew it after it expires.

I think passive renewal is reasonable for utility services because obviously you want to continue your electric service and the cost of a momentary lapse in service would be potentially catastrophic. But your subscription to a music streaming app can lapse without anything bad happening and be renewed whenever you decide to use the app again. And that means that people who stopped using it but forgot to cancel aren't being billed for it.

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Re:Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscripti... by xur17 on Monday July 10, 2023 @10:44AM (#36667209)

It would be nice if that were offered, but tbh I would find the volume of "affirmative renewal" messages annoying.

I wonder if subscription payments could be handled at the payment provider level. Ideally when I use a payment method at a merchant, I would be able to choose between one time payment, and recurring payment. If I choose recurring payment, a token is generated, and I can revoke / cancel the token from my payment provider's website / app.

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Re:Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscripti... by themoonisachees on Monday July 10, 2023 @11:33AM (#36667918)

To be entirely fair, such volume would only come because everything has become a subscription. Maybe this would drive it back to buy a product and you now have it?

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Re:Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscripti... by xur17 on Monday July 10, 2023 @11:37AM (#36667977)

Fair point, and this is actually something I was thinking about last night.

I am more likely to spend $500 on a product than I am to signup for a $10 / month subscription.

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Re:Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscripti... by jbombadil on Monday July 10, 2023 @10:59AM (#36667423)

I agree. This is essentially how Apple handles subscriptions. If you created a subscription using Apple Pay, you can go to settings and cancel it from there. It’s one of the reasons I value Apple Pay.

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Re:Idiot Customers Will Accidentally Cancel Their Subscripti... by zbirkenbuel on Monday July 10, 2023 @03:06PM (#36671383)

That's one of the things I appreciate about BazQux as an RSS service. I get a reminder that my year "subscription" is coming up and if I'd like to continue I need to purchase another year. Perhaps it's because of their billing platform but I'm happy its a pattern.

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