Question: I saw an interesting health book advertised on TV and bought it over the phone. When I got my credit-card bill, I noticed a mystery charge of $5.95 for an e-newsletter from the same company, Natural Cures. When I called to cancel, the lines were always busy or I was put on hold and never helped. I’ve been charged for six months for a newsletter I never wanted! - Fred Mandato, Huntington, N.Y.
Answer: Businesses just love hooking us into memberships and subscriptions, which provide them with steady revenue that’s cheap to maintain. Cheap, in part, because of our own inertia - once we’ve signed up for a product or service, we often stay signed up because we don’t want to bother with the hassle of canceling. And as you discovered, “companies make it way harder to cancel than to enroll,” says Alison Preszler of the Council of Better [...]
Original post by and software by
