750
Cable Firms to FTC: We Shouldn’t Have to Let Users Cancel Service With a Click (www.wired.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
111 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 58 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The one thing where I agree with cable companies about is the risk to consumers accidentally canceling all or multiple services when they intend to just cancel one. It will be hard to explain that a package price will no longer apply if one part of the package is canceled.

However- it can be addressed with a well-designed cancelation instruction screen. This is a constraint to the communication and process design; it is not an insurmountable barrier like the cable companies are suggesting.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    As a software developer who only has business customers, let me tell you the following:
    No matter how foolproof your system might seem. It never truly is. There is always some idiot (sometimes with a degree) who just can't understand/use it.

    But they could still try and mostly succeed. They just don't want to.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [+] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    You could make a big, red, flashing button that says "pressing this button will cancel all your channels, are you sure you want to do that?", and you would still get an significant amount of users complaining that pressing the button did exactly what it said it would because users don't read.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    That's just the cost of doing business.

    The system now is that you have to call them, get bombarded with ads and berated by their customer service for an hour, then maybe they'll think about cancelling you. And gyms are even worse.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    And there are plenty of ways to mitigate that such as having a window in which cancelled subscriptions can be reinstated.

    Making software and services awful because theoretically a bad user is going to misuse it is dumb, it's the very core of enshittification.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I have a feeling they'll make it difficult to use. Then when people do it accidentally because of they're shitty UI, they'll point to that and say, "see?!"

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago*

    No one will ever be in danger of accidently cancelling everything. The system will be intentionally designed so that you can only cancel one thing at a time, and that will be obtuse as possible. There will be a great risk of thinking you've cancelled something when it hasn't been cancelled, which will only be resolved by calling customer service.

    You'll go through six to eight pages to cancel each item, and when you've done that you'll get a confirmation email that will require you to click on something, log in, and confirm the changes for them to actually apply to your account. If you get the confirmation email and do nothing, your changes will not save.

    There will be a slew of angry customers calling customer service, who's job it will be to give back as little money as possible and retain every customer that calls. That job will be so awful that someone working that job will commit suicide because of it. The cable company will see that and market it as a success to their shareholders, and as an "easy cancel anytime" in advertising.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent