Member-only story
The Service Agreement You Can’t Cancel
Easy to sign up, impossible to exit
It all sounds great.
The free trial.
The easy access to a service you need.
The chance to decide if you want it.
And the promise of no obligation and easy cancellation.
Then, the reality hits. You see a charge on your bank statement and realize you forgot to cancel that service you’re not using or don’t want anymore.
There’s no email address. The click-to-cancel button takes you to a page with a bunch of words and no easy answers.
You can’t find a phone number. The site says you MUST call to cancel, though.
If you don’t give up and DO find a number, you tell the representative you want to cancel.
They make a sales pitch.
You still want to cancel.
Then . . . it happens. The charge is on your bank statement AGAIN.
I’ve written before about the insidious nature of companies that create memberships that are basically impossible to cancel.
A pair of recent stories about a phone service and a short-term loan product reminded me of this persistent issue.
