But then that becomes unpaid bills and they send you to collections.

You can dispute debt in collections by requesting proof of the debt. The consumer protections in that area (debt collections) are quite a bit more developed than any consumer protections about intentional procedural inefficiency when cancelling service.

If you never actually took the steps to cancel your contract won't they be able to prove your debt via the existence of a non-cancelled contract?

The purpose is to take advantage of the sloppiness of the debt collection industry. They are designed around tricking financially illiterate people, harassing poor people, and lying.

When they buy a debt, they rarely get comprehensive documentation.

you will end up with damaged credit. The only negative on my credit report is from a verizon phone I bought from a verizon store (actually ended up not being Verizon owned store,) which i returned within the 7 days return fee, even paid re-stocking fee. But which the store credits me for having returned it later than I did, which allowed Verizon charged me 1 month service fee, which I never got a bill or email even though verizon had both, until it showed up on credit as collection. Nothing I did could get it off.

You can probably avoid this—or, rather, cover your ass legally—by doing something like sending them a letter registered mail informing them that you are cancelling and will be blocking further payments.

It's far from a good solution, but it should at least put you in a better position vis-a-vis the courts if it comes to that.

Suddenly waiting on the phone for 45 minutes doesn't sound so bad, unless proving a point is your main goal.

It certainly takes less that 45 minutes to send registered mail. There are even online services to which you can upload a PDF or document of your message. I have done this on numerous occasions.

Actually there is another option. Make a complaint to your state's Attorney General's Office. They usually have a website for filing consumer complaints, and AGO will contact the business, and the business is usually responsive when contacted by AGO.

How does this work? Do you provide the AGO with your name, phone and address? Subscription details?

Yes. Here's the Texas AGO's web site, as an example: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection/fil...

For some people, being on the phone for 45 minutes (and what guarantee is there that you'd actually get to talk to them after 45 minutes?) during business hours is simply not an option. They would have to take time off from work, which a) might not be allowed, and b) if allowed would certainly reduce their pay.

Furthermore, there's an entire category of people for whom "talk on the phone" is not an option, period. If they wanted to cancel by the approved method, they'd not only need to take that time themselves, they'd need someone else willing to take that time with them.

Simple anecdote, but when I paid a medical bill and they still came after me and sent it to collections, I contested the bill and told the collection agency that this is not my debt. Never heard from them again.

Since when? I've never used a subscription before that doesn't just cancel when my card fails to debit.

Only in America

Even simpler, file a dispute with your card issuer. Dish will pay the chargeback fee and block you as a customer, but I'm sure you don't want to be their customer again, so that's not a problem.

What dispute reason would you give? Usually card issuers will ask you if you've made any attempt to settle the situation with the merchant.

If you misrepresent that you have and they are just ignoring you, you might practically get away with it, but do know that that kind of misrepresentation might get you into trouble some day.

If however the merchant is actually unreachable for a bona fide cancellation request, that's totally on them.

The reason you would give is exactly the reason the OP gave, that Dish was deliberately not reachable for cancellation.

Yeah, the solution to that is to mandate accepting cancellations via a single click (or preferably even email, since it shouldn't be my problem if I don't remember my account details when I want to cancel).

Disputes should have been the backstop to incentivizing the market to making cancellations easier, but things apparently didn't pan out that way. So arguably, the free market has had its chance, and it's time for regulations.

> Usually card issuers will ask you if you've made any attempt to settle the situation with the merchant.

"I attempted to reach them via phone on or about _____, ___. No remedy was achieved."

This might practically achieve the desired outcome, but do note that just not paying does not extinguish your debt to anyone you have a valid contract with.

I've seen Americans living in Europe get bitten by this quite frequently in some countries, where sending something to collections is both commonly done and the collection agency will successfully take you to court and win in almost all cases even for pennies.

On the other hand, the EU has had "two-click cancellation" regulations for a while now, so there is a better alternative available for both sides (customer and company).