Law NY Attorney General sues Sirius XM - claims their process to cancel subscription is illegal

[mkess101]

Can you not just unilaterally cancel the subscription with your bank or credit card provider?

Ding ding ding.

Don't get me wrong, companies that do this shit and make people jump through hoops and be put on hold forever to cancel absolutely suck ass.

But to anyone who might deal with this: always put these subscription based things on a credit card and not bank withdrawal. Way easier to deal with disputing CC charges than trying to get a refund into your bank account.


If you call to cancel, get the person's full name that you talk to. Tell them that if they don't cancel your subscription effective immediately, you'll simply claim fraud to your CC company if they attempt to charge you and that you're documenting the call.


I've had this type thing happen a couple times over the years. Once, they did try still charging me. Called Amex, told them what happened, they cancelled the charge. Took less than 5 minutes and the shady company (was for internet security iirc) didn't try it again.

 

[CantCucktheTuck]

weakness on display

 

[evergreenrider]

Satellite radio is such a massive letdown. Remember the selling point being there's no ads? There's more ads on Sirius than the am sports channel I listen to.

 

[Jballer]

I worked for a company that got sued by the FTC for this very reason. Sirius should be thankful it’s just NY coming after them.

 

[jamel]

Sirius XM = Muzak

Same bullshit just a different candy wrapper

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Didn't have any issues but I use a centralized app that can easily cancel / manage a subscription.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Isn't this something White House is currently bringing up?

This goes right along with the hidden fees attached to major purchases, rentals, hotels, etc.

 

[Fluffernutter]

I cancel my credit card every other year to avoid crap like this. Start fresh.

Over the summer, I went to visit an old friend. He lives in a college town. When we went out to grab food, I had to park my car. The parking payment system is completely app based.

Alas, it's a subscription based parking plan. So, by activating it, I had to subscribe for a monthly fee.

Canceling it once I got home was a pain.

I assume having such a program in a college town means that college students just accept the monthly fees (or have their parents' credit card take the bill).

Devious and easy way to make money.

 

[mb23100]

They're certainly not unique in that regard, but yeah, canceling shit should be as easy as signing up for it. Not sure what laws are being broken here, though. They're not technically stopping anyone from canceling. They're merely preying on our laziness.

I wouldn't even call it laziness they're just hoping you forget.

 

[fedorthegoat777]

Over the summer, I went to visit an old friend. He lives in a college town. When we went out to grab food, I had to park my car. The parking payment system is completely app based.

Alas, it's a subscription based parking plan. So, by activating it, I had to subscribe for a monthly fee.

Canceling it once I got home was a pain.

I assume having such a program in a college town means that college students just accept the monthly fees (or have their parents' credit card take the bill).

Devious and easy way to make money.

I miss the days when you just put quarters in a meter.

Now you have to download an app, figure how the app works. Enter your plate # and cc# and everything.

I eventually figured it was easier to just not pay and pay any correlating tickets you might get.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Good. I’ve never had them but I e had some that make it really hard to cancel. Screw companies that do that

 

[Renard]

I've heard of people using privacy.com virtual credit cards to safeguard them against issues cancelling services. Like if you call the service, cancel it but they're still deducting payments, you can cancel the entire credit card on your end. Using a reusable prepaid credit card with a fixed amount of money loaded onto it would also work. Your account will be sent to collections so it's important to keep a paper trail of your cancelling to prove the contract has ended and the charges are fraudulent, otherwise it hits your credit score.

 

[nhbfan8080]

I've heard of people using privacy.com virtual credit cards to safeguard them against issues cancelling services. Like if you call the service, cancel it but they're still deducting payments, you can cancel the entire credit card on your end. Using a reusable prepaid credit card with a fixed amount of money loaded onto it would also work. Your account will be sent to collections so it's important to keep a paper trail of your cancelling to prove the contract has ended and the charges are fraudulent, otherwise it hits your credit score.

Popular money transfer apps like Venmo, Wise have virtual debit Master/Visa cards in addition to their physical cards. The apps have a disable option to temporarily bar any payments until you enable it again in the app. Changing the virtual card number is also free. Its a no brainer to use these apps nowadays for online payments.