Don't Subscribe So Casually
thebestworstcase.substack.com
thebestworstcase.substack.com
This is actually a very interesting question, because I can see someone's answer being different between this question as stated, and the same question but where you would be paying the $10 instead of the button giving you $10:
> If someone offered you a magic button that carried a high probability of altering your tastes, your routines, and the way you think, but it cost $10 to press, would you press it?
Specifically (and somewhat paradoxically), I think more people would say yes to the second question than to the first, because people would start thinking about it as a transaction where the purpose of pressing the button has changed from "receiving money" to "changing myself", even though in both cases it's stated upfront.
Of course, in the context of subscriptions, the purpose is neither of these things (it's to receive the content that subscription is offering), so the first question is definitely more relevant in this situation than the second. It's still interesting to me, though.
Though, re-reading your comment now, I am curious
> We can make you and your children enjoy vegetables and seafood as much as you enjoy desserts.
Why seafood?
Then the complacency and other psychological effects that this article seeks to inoculate users against will be maximized.
If you ever need to use the service again just re-subscribe (and re-cancel)
In fact, what is stopping you from cancelling all your subscriptions right now? You can always buy back in when you like
So yeah, not all companies do that.
If not, time for a charge back with your card provider.
I've done it multiple times when a vendor wasn't behaving fairly and it always went through.
I don't recommend doing it to a vendor you plan to have business with again in the future as they might ban you (eg food delivery apps)
It’s too risky tbh.
Fine, already pulling up a map to Enterprise, "just give me a refund".
"Sorry sir, prepaid rentals are non-refundable".
So you take my money, refuse to give me a car, and want to keep my money? No. Let's talk about chargebacks.
Love seeing companies worth tens or hundreds of billions acting like they couldn't spare a cent from underhanded shit like that. Scrooge McDuck type of behavior, except he also had some redeeming qualities.
And what about signaling in the other direction? Canceling the trial immediately signals that they have no confidence in the product itself to sell you on it, that the company itself believes that if you use their product for another few days, you still won't want to give them any money for it. If the company has so little confidence in their own product then why would I pay for it?
I think the companies do it because it benefits them, and because they can.
Uber the cab service? People have recurring subscriptions to it? What does one get out of it?
I think I'm one of today's lucky 10,000
I’ve not bothered past one free trial but if you use it regularly maybe it’s worth it.
'It is really not so repulsive to see the poor asking for money as to see the rich asking for more money. And advertisement is the rich asking for more money. A man would be annoyed if he found himself in a mob of millionaires, all holding out their silk hats for a penny; or all shouting with one voice, “Give me money.” Yet advertisement does really assault the eye very much as such a shout would assault the ear. “Budge’s Boots are the Best” simply means “Give me money”; “Use Seraphic Soap” simply means “Give me money.” It is a complete mistake to suppose that common people make our towns commonplace, with unsightly things like advertisements. Most of those whose wares are thus placarded everywhere are very wealthy gentlemen with coronets and country seats, men who are probably very particular about the artistic adornment of their own homes. They disfigure their towns in order to decorate their houses.'
Local bricks and mortar small business that closed down and the wife posted a completely tone deaf message on their business Facebook:
"It is a horrible shame that our long sought out dream had to die because the local "community" was not willing to support it."
I missed the part where "community" meant we are obligated to expend our own resources for your profit.
Doubly galling was the fact that there was generally "his n hers" G Wagons parked out front of their business. Doing better than 95% of the community and still pissed that the community wasn't giving them more.
Sounds like a great object lesson -- this a service that is will to take your money. Better to cancel now and not look back.
rephrase?
Most people are literally paying so they don't have to set all that shit up again and the cost is trivial to them.
If that's not you, fine, but my point is that nobody is "right" about this topic. Services exist because they make money.
These psychological tricks don't need to work every time (or on everyone) to be effective.
If you rotate subscriptions sensibly, they're much cheaper than the old cable model. If you're not looking, they can really bleed you out and be much more expensive than the old model.
Yet another example of a media company making the paid service a worse viewing experience. (For me, the money isn't the point. My time is limited. I'd happily pay more for the handful of things I have both time and desire to watch. But charging me extra for no ads, and then shoving stuff in my brain anyway, is simultaneously both petty and beyond the pale.)
Yes, the people who "subscribe" to costco are more loyal, etc.
But it also excludes. The general public is probably a lot more labor-intensive for costco, and they eliminate that.
In my country, they're priced in such a way that day passes never make sense. If a monthly subscription is 50 EUR, a day pass is 18 EUR. So you'd need to go less than once a week for it to be better than a Gym subscription. But at that level of gym-going, you'd never see any kind of progress, unless you do very specific training, like very heavy lifts.
So, as a rational actor you're left concluding that the only options are:
- gym membership: you can grow muscle if you go daily; you won't see much benefit if you don't. <- reasonable
- no gym membership: you feel bad. <- suboptimal both for money and for muscle
- day passes: no muscle growth <- reasonable but then you feel bad about yourself
So, the middle is squished out completely and you're left either feeling bad or buying a membership. This presupposes you don't have alternatives for growing muscles, such as calisthenics, parks, free weights at home, which is the case for many. I can only conclude daily passes are for heavy gym goers that are traveling and don't want to lose progress, or other situations with people whose demand temporarily inelastic or non-repeatable.
But day passes force you to admit this and be sad, whereas if you have a monthly pass you can be happy because obviously tomorrow you’re going to go to the gym.
Buy a domain. Get Proton, or Apple, or any other custom-domain email service.
Setup catch-all incoming mail.
Every merchant receives an email like merchantname@donotwriteto.me
Then you can either sort those out, or if they are malicious and not deleting you from your email lists, you can block the incoming traffic on that email.
This way you still can verify your email, comm stays private and you can have your own peace of mind, but you don't have to keep the spam in your primary inbox.
My old Gmail would be loaded with spam and the filter would screw up and mislabel legitimate mail. Now, no spam at all.
It also helps when your email is involved in a data breach which is becoming the norm now.
Although be prepared for awkward in person interactions when a business wants your email. Everything from "no, your email silly not mine" to "I own this business name you can't have it in your email address"
I've been doing something similar with Firefox relay to have proxy emails that I can regenerate if needed, it worked well but not for every site. Recently I've been testing SimpleLogin and it worked every time, it's by Proton.
I tell friends and family about it all the time, but I can't seem to convince anyone to use for it every subscription like I do.
I like Monero(a privacy respecting cryptocurrency), but obviously you can't subscribe to anything with it because only I hold the keys to make a transaction and there is no tech I'm aware of that allows trustless subscriptions.
I wonder if there are any smart contracts type thing that allows this. Or does it have to be a custodial service to be able to be charged for subscriptions.
It has only really bitten me once. TorBox, a debrid service for free streaming torrents costs $33/year if you subscribe, but $36 for a year if I do a one-time payment. So, $3, but I feel like they should discount you because no chargebacks with crypto and lower fees.
I had some affordable TV subscriptions, but after a while I did not find more good shows, or there was too many ads, so I canceled them. Anyway, usually it's enough I have watched some movie once.
With some subscription that I pay, I'm paying for some change, or some new experience, or that I can use some software or hardware for some time. If after paying nothing changes, there is no ROI.
Which naturally is why Google has been making it ever harder to actually use it
> I never saw the point of subscribing
Guessing you’ve never used it extensively? My home page and subscription feed contain similar themes but are definitely not the same thing
But for something like netflix, I create a list. And when I start repeating something like Seinfeld, Breaking Bad, etc. rather than not-yet-watched items from the list, I cancel the subscription. And I don't renew till some time passes (6 months). Only then there are a few different movies/ series I can add to the list.