One of the really annoying aspects of the digital age is trying to end an online subscription. These subscriptions are always easy to sign up for but very difficult to end. My favorite example is the New York Times. They bombard me daily with exhortations to take a trial subscription. If I don’t like it, they say, I can quit at any time.
What they don’t say is that while subscribing requires little more than a click, unsubscribing requires a phone call to the NYT where they do everything they can to talk you out of dropping your subscription and generally make ending it as difficult as possible. Everybody but the marketers hate this tactic.
Now, at last, it’s going to end. The Federal Trade Commission has announced a new rule that makes the tactic illegal. Basically the rules says that it has to be as easy to quit as it is to sign up. That would mean, for example, that I could quit my NYT subscription with a click or perhaps an email. No more arguing with a salesman trying to keep me in the fold.
As you probably know, Irreal is inclined to be skeptical about the utility of involving government bureaucrats in our affairs and if I were consistent, I’d be against this intervention too but, I must admit, I’m happy to see this rule. It is, I think, merely insisting that companies be honest and equitable with their customers.
The marketeers who see abusing their customers as a viable tactic will doubtlessly try to find a ways to skirt the regulations. It will be interesting to see what happens.