Consumer Alert
Tried to cancel a service but couldn’t? Learn steps to take
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Have you ever been unhappy with a service — like your phone or Internet — and tried to cancel it? But, when you tried, you found it difficult or nearly impossible? Learn about the ways companies illegally trick or trap people who use their services, steps to take, and your rights.
Today, the FTC announced that Vonage, a phone company, didn’t give customers an easy way to cancel their telephone services. Instead, the FTC says the company used a series of hurdles. These “dark patterns” made people hunt for the cancellation phone number; when they were able to call to cancel, they were often passed from agent to agent with repeated sales pitches; and, if they succeeded in cancelling, many wound up being charged surprise high-cost Early Termination Fees (“ETFs”). In many instances, even when people managed to navigate Vonage’s process and cancel their accounts, the FTC says Vonage continued to charge them without their permission.
As part of the settlement, Vonage must pay $100 million that the FTC will send to the small businesses and customers who were harmed by the company’s practices. Vonage must also stop using dark patterns, let people know important information at sign-up, make it simple for people to cancel, and get their consent for every charge.
If you’re considering a product or service check out the company’s policies on:
- Easy and simple cancellation. It should be as easy to cancel as it was to sign up in the first place. Before you place an order, look at the company’s refund and return policies, and whether you’ll be charged any cancellation fees.
- Automatic renewal. As soon as you know you don’t want to renew your plan, look at the company’s cancelation policy. Make sure it won’t automatically renew before you can cancel it. For more on avoiding charges in auto-renewal plans read Getting In and Out of Free Trials Auto-Renewals and Negative Option Subscriptions.
I purchased Norton protection. They added so many upgrades that my computer finally shut down completely. While it was still barely functioning, I tried to unsubscribe. Their web site led me around in dead end circles. I finally had a Tech completely cleanse them from my computer. It works fine now. I had them on automatic payment from a credit card. I had that account closed and changed for other reasons. Waiting to see if the charge carries over to the new account.
Please add comments for merchant credit card processing and attempting to end service with them
Boost Mobile has very similar practices. I waited for a full hour on hold with two different agents and they insisted on calling me back before they could give me my account number.
Verizon expires your password then uses dark patterns in an infinite loop so you can’t log in to view or pay your account. They use dark patterns to find the number to reach someone to get the information you need to pay your bill. When you try to file an issue with them about the difficulties, again, dead-end. I’ve had to file several complaints with the FCC just to get them to respond!
In reply to Verizon expires your… by Dawn
Me as well! There’s a geofence over my home thanks to them and I can’t seem to get them to remove it. I have contacted the FCC and the FTC. It’s pitiful!
Verizon was very hard to cancel. It took me hours, but as a retired person I had time to spare. I kept my cool and after two trips to a store location with no luck and about 5 hours on hold and having people hang up on me on the cancel phone number. I took a round-about path by calling the new account number and cancelling thru the person.
Sears appliance warranty are the worst to cancel. There are several contractors who do their work, and nearly impossible to cancel because Sears sells the warranty to another company, a third company handles the money, and they have so many web site with so many variations and if you call you get a customer service rep who tried to tell you you have to pay over $200.00 cancellation fee. It's impossible to find a link on their many sites to cancel online.
ATT does the same thing.
Sirius XM is terrible about this. They make you call them and then get passed around for 20 minutes before they finally 'let you' cancel their service
I had the similar problem with Verizon wireless. I went to a store and bought the device, made the contract, and paid in my credit card. The store promised that I could get a full refund if the wireless service would not work in my area. The service did not work, and so I went to back to the store. The store manager said Verizon would mail the bill, including the full payment of the device I purchase on monthly payment arrangement - the monthly payment of device and wireless services was automatically withdrawn from my checking account. I did not get any final payment bill the store had promised. Instead, I was receiving a phone call from Verizon Wireless collection company everyday. It took me such a long time that I found out where I could send the final payment. From my experience, the similar situation applied to some other services. Nowadays, I feel I cannot contact anyone away from home without wireless services. It's convenient, however I wish there should be easy way to cancel the contract.
Blue by ADT and Lifeshield alarm systems actually fabricated an agreement between them and myself and sent it to my credit card company as “proof” that thier charges were justified”. They accused me of “friendly fraud” suggesting that I owed them money for outdated equipment and alarm monitoring service that I never got. They included details that vaguely resembled my contact information and mailing address. They called me for months threatening to turn me over to collections. They refuse to leave a voicemail and claim that they are a paperless company when I requested a paper copy of the agreement they are referring to.
Cancelling a PayPal account is impossible.
I have had this done to me by just about every company I have used. It is too easy for them to report me but not fair that it is so hard to do the same to them. I really do not wish the same but, there has to be a way for them to treat the customers better. Especially if they want them to return. What is worse is when housing authorities force us to pay entertainment services before getting housing. There should be easier ways to talk these things out before they report to our credit bureau.
Verizon says you have 15 to 30 days and yet when you complain on 3rd day till 10 days several times a day both phone and in person. They band aide the issues till you are not allowed to return and even if they let you return everything or anything they still ruin your credit score just because they can. They say there will be a zero balance and yet I still have a 500$+ owed according to my bills and credit report. I have never treated anyone like this. Nor would I ever think of it. Hard to believe others really say they support veterans. Thanks for the support?
Having very same problem with Paypal trying to cancel my account. How do I go about escalating this to the authorities? If you go on Facebook and search for "paypa;" you will clearly see there are a multitude of disgruntled and scammed paypal clients who wish to cancel also
Metro by T-Mobile , Walmart is selling sim cards that say money back but they do not honor and when you want to report this to a higher branch customer service says we've been having to turn away a lot of ppl while looking you in the eye and say sorry and pass the problem to a nother and while waiting 40 minutes to talk to store manager the local police show up and turn a peaceful complaint into a disturbance. So T-Mobile/metro keep your money , Walmart is the pusher, and the law enforcement paid by the ppl (u/me) make sure your voice isn't heard. That's not the worst of it . I got on my Walmart app to buy a pay as you go for $10 and receive 1000 txt 500 data no contract just stick the card in phone and go, so I went to wm to get it 10 minutes to closing , I pulled up my order and showed the assiate and he said there 1 left it's locked up in the back, he handed me sim kit with TMobile in big letters and metro in very small letters with a $10 in one corner . I paid then imediatly put in my moto ace to activate using Walmart wifi. The card installed a bunch of stuff and I had no idea it did. By morning I had a 2 year contract , didn't know, a number , didn't know all from it said I had service (TMobile ) so from library I dialed 611 and asked before anything can I port my number ? I was transfer , the number was ported and I said thank you and call ended, but service didn't work, I call 611 back , thank God I start a bug report , a snoop log and enabled traces, from Africa a guy I couldn't understand which was dilberate said 100 time all I need is your credit card your name and address, and what is the problem I will fix you right up, and for 40minutes he tried accessing anything he could get hence the stalling. He wouldn't let me have my number back which I desperately needed for WHelp for home owners so I wouldn't lose my home do to COVID, and for some strange reason the mic did not work on speaker and the on hold was a merry-go-round. I was on hold longer then not so I switched speaker on and off and each time he came back on it was hello hello and it was obvious he used hanging up as a threat because I wasn't responding in 2 seconds. I finally felt like I was going to pass out , my chest hurt , so said calmly thank you for you time good bye.
I did research on the FCC site and found TMobile was in trouble for transparency, for being dark , I'm sure FCC fined them and for two weeks nothing but TMobile this TMobile that and Walmart promoting them . I'm sure y'all see the picture here. This circle jerk must stop .
AT&T has done the same thing to me. It’s not even my account
This article says that it will explain what "steps to take, and your rights." There was zero of that in this article.
I HAVE MANY E-MAILS THAT USE AN OLD E-MAIL (no longer in use). This e-mail is scrambled and extended with other letters & numbers. They change every time. I cannot 'unsubscribe'. They come from many sources. It is a very old 'aol' address. HELP
Not much information here, just talk about Vonage.
Musescore seems to only let you cancel your subscription only after an 1hr of filling out information to "set up your Account" which makes no sense, as again it says to take an hour. wich i don't know of any other subscription service is doing. just seems like an excuse to add to the likelihood that you'll either forget or down right not let you cancel without filling information put. im now waiting to hopefully being able to cancel buy emailing costumer support.
I found this page while looking to cancel my insurance from the General. The only way you can cancel insurance through the General is to mail them a letter. They do not provide a template for it, nor do they make this known on their website. I had to find this out through WalletHub. There’s no option to call or cancel it online, like almost every other insurance company does.
I tried to cancel some of the services on the account today, and the chat person can only cancel $100 in services. Ridiculous!
mineral stream has no way of canceling an order. they state that you must contact them through their email for a quick response. i emailed them and they waited until after they had shipped my order for them to respond , having that it being too late to even cancel my order. i’m fustrated and i emailed them 3 times and this is all i got.
I have been trying to cancel with Dish for a month and still am not able to. I get messages on Twitter saying I won't be charged during this time, but I was charged. They finally have their phones lines up, but if you select the manage accounts option you wait on hold for an hour and then they say we will transfer you to our account termination department, but no one ever picks up. There is no way to do this online. Someone has to stop this fraud. It has gotten absolutely ridiculous.
Best Buys geeksquad would not let me cancel until after 30 days so they could charge 240 cancel fee, 4 phone calls, 3 online chats, and a 5 hour drive to a location and nope.