There is zero incentive for a company to invest in tooling and tech to make processes that lose them customers more efficient. This is something that has to be regulated and enforced. I just don't see a c-suit clamoring to spend money on making it easier to leave.

There is a reason to invest in this, the rationale goes as follows: Some of my customers will legitimately need to cancel, unsubscribe, stop using, or whatever, but they like the product. If I piss these customers off, they may recommend against using it, and refuse to ever use it again so I should accept that they're leaving with grace and maybe they'll return later. You can offer to "pause" a subscription for example, "Posted to Amundsen-Scott† for six months? Alas Swim Fun Inc don't have a pool there, but when you get back just hit resume and you can keep the same pricing, meanwhile we won't charge you".

But far too many "business leaders" are focused on short term gains at any cost and so this doesn't compute for them. They don't care that you currently like the product and would resubscribe when you get back from the pole, because that's a year or more away, they care about next quarter, and if you aren't income next quarter you're irrelevant to them, fuck you.

† Amundsen-Scott is the name of the base at the South Pole of the planet. It's a cool place. But lots of services aren't available there or would make no sense. You can't live there permanently, so those people are coming back.

I was pretty sure we'd abandoned the "but it would hurt the business and they'd change their ways" fantasy years ago, because a) it doesn't, and be) they don't. How's Equifax doing these days? Oh yeah, totally fine.

This.

In my case I enjoy reading The Economist and do not mind paying for it, but some years back I had to cancel my subscription (I was cutting back on expenses) and honestly I found that experience so much against the business values they preach that it has made me not subscribe again, even if it means not reading their publication.

(Every few years I go to check if they have made it easier to unsubscribe, but last time I checked they still had the same practices)

Edit: I can also imagine that I’m a minority and so it really pays off to keep doing this.

I avoid subscription services like the plague because of this (and other reasons).

I can't know if they're going to do this kind of crap until it is to late. Even if some one reviewed services for this they could change at any time for the worse. So I just assume it will happen and try to limit getting into that bad arrangement as much as possible.

I have a good example of this dynamic using Comcast: when we left New Haven, I had to spend a couple hours in line at a dingy, poorly staffed office terminating my account (the dude working there was fine, he needed coworkers) and then a couple months of “accidentally” still billing me. They could afford to be sloppy on billing and cancellation where I’d lived because in 2008 the competition was (I am not making this up) 128kpbs ISDN and 768-1Mbps DSL since the phone company had badly neglected its wiring.

In addition to being illegal, this was short sighted because they’re a national company. Comcast/Xfinity is one of three gigabit choices in my neighborhood and they periodically send offers with competitive pricing but each time I remember what dealing with them was like and toss it into the shredder. I’m sure the regional office would say they’re better run than the New England one, or that they have a better system, but I’m not going to find out, and there’s no way they skimped enough to save more than they could have made with over a decade of service in a new region.

The harder they make leaving, the less % chance that I'm ever coming back.

But I suppose they know and don't care.

I am also very surprised that this is the case in the UK. From my experience, it was very easy to cancel internet in the UK. As in nearly dead simple.

I tried to delete a Sony account (I had 2). Their site said to talk to support to get this done. I waited for 45 minutes, finally got to someone and they said I can’t. When I tried to mention the support site, they disconnected me, throwing me back in a 45 minute line if I felt like being hung up on again.

For a company that has been hacked multiple times, I find this unacceptable.

It's similar here in Sweden. Usually they require a call to support, officially. However, I think there is a law/policy that require them to accept unsubscriptions by mail/message, regardless of what they say on their website. I recently did this and it worked! Maybe there's something similar in the UK?

Yes that’s right. You can unsubscribe by any which way you want. Mail, phone call, pigeon. Any message sent to any employee or office in anyway is deemed acceptable for giving notice for any service or contract.

Counter-anecdote: cancelling my Virgin Media plan was very simple. I've clicked through their online cancellation process, then they've sent me a prepaid return box for the modem, and that was it.

I spent literally hours over several days on hold to cancel and when googling it this was widespread and hated.

Possibly you were very lucky, or they've buckled to the pressure caused by previous anti-consumer BS.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/19/i-was-cut-off-...

> Unlike providers who use the rival Openreach cable network, Virgin Media does not allow its six million broadband customers to cancel expired contracts online. Thirty days’ notice is required before any switch, compared with the 14 days’ notice required to switch Openreach providers.

A link to the ongoing Ofcom investigation into their shabby tactics:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/switching-prov...

I was shocked when I canceled cable TV and the landline on my Comcast triple-play plan--still have internet.

I had procrastinated for months because I was sure I'd go through a real workout routine. I did have to call them but don't remember any particular pain getting through to someone and then it was just "Your new bill will be [about half the old one). Return your rented voice modem. Have a nice day." Maybe it was because it was during COVID.

Nah they famously still do this thing where you have to give them 30 days notice and they will call you 2-3 times to get you to stay.

I had an internet service that could be signed up for on the internet, but required a phone call to cancel. During covid they could not staff their phone service properly so it was effectively broken (20 minute holds, getting booted from the queue, etc.), so I just closed the card and told them to pound sand.