this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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Fuck Subscriptions

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Naming and shaming all "recurring spending models" where a one-time fee (or none at all) would be appropriate and logical.

Expect use of strong language.

Follow the basic rules of lemmy.world and common sense, and try to have fun if possible.

No flamewars or attacking other users, unless they're spineless corporate shills.

Note that not all subscriptions are awful. Supporting your favorite ~~camgirl~~ creator or Lemmy server on Patreon is fine. An airbag with subscription is irl Idiocracy-level dystopian bullshit.

New community rule: Shilling for cunty corporations, their subscriptions and other anti-customer practices may result in a 1-day ban. It's so you can think about what it's like when someone can randomly decide what you can and can't use, based on some arbitrary rules. Oh what, you didn't read this fine print? You should read what you're agreeing to.

==========

Some other groovy communities for those who wish to own their products, their data and their life:

Right to Repair/Ownership

Hedges Development

Privacy

Privacy Guides

DeGoogle Yourself

F-Droid

Stallman Was Right

Some other useful links:

FreeMediaHeckYeah

Louis Rossman's YouTube channel

Look at content hosted at Big Tech without most of the nonsense:

Piped

Invidious

Nitter

Teddit

 

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This is exactly what happened to my parents this week. Brinks claim my elderly stroke-victim father verbally agreed to a total of three overlapping contracts that extend their subscription out four years and the only way to cancel is to pay all four years of the subscription.

I was surprised but not surprised to find other customers complaining about the same thing. They have no contract or terms they will provide that we supposedly agreed to, so I can’t review this cancellation clause.

They are taking “subscriptions that are difficult to cancel” to a whole new level. 😡

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[–] DABDA@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago

Rated A+ by BBB, 1.05/5 stars average over 1,082 customer reviews.

Definitely inspires faith in their ability to accurately rate a company.

Best of luck in fighting the charges. Sorry that you/your parents have to deal with it :(

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago

I'd treat this like one of those "pay us in gift card" scams, and get the bank involved.

If they cannot/will not provide the contract terms, then there's no way this is valid. I would start with your parents' bank, see if they have a fraud or consumer advocacy group. Ask about your options for a chargeback or a stop payment. I would strongly reccomend you go in person to a bank location to run this down so you can just lay out the situation to a human being rather than trying to find the right resources yourself from the outside. It will likely take multiple in person trips.


It may also legitimately be cheaper to hire some legal services (a lawyer) to fight this for you, if you're looking at 4 years worth of charge for cancellation.