Subscribers Trapped, Can't Cancel
Individuals are experiencing frustration and financial burden due to difficulty canceling subscriptions and facing continued charges despite attempts to do so. Companies employ deceptive practices, obscure cancellation processes, and unresponsive support, leaving customers feeling helpless and exploited. This impacts a wide range of services, from streaming to software and research tools.
SOURCES (60)
“Do you know it was actually her using it after offboarding? Could have been compromised by a 3rd party and you’re fortunate the bill isn’t 10x or more”
“Is there anyway through banking apps? i was an idiot and forgot to do it before hand and hadn't remembered until after the 30 days where you can reopen a Gmail account, the support from the company isn't the most responsive (it's been 3 days without an email back) and i just want it to stop charging me. submitted by /u/BashfulZ [link] [comments]”
“Rocket money does this except it doesn’t track if you have used it. But it will cancel or renegotiate for you for a fee.”
“had a problem. I called up and closed an account. the subscriptions kept getting added to it like YEARS later. They said the card was "completely closed" and i could not see the balance on the app. They kept using the card though. The person said they "allow it so you can't easily cancel complicated subscriptions. it makes us more money unfortunately." so i asked how to "super completely close" the accounts, and they said "you can't go beyond completely”
“A paying customer has exactly one way to stop being billed: delete their account, and with it their subjects, materials, conversations, quizzes, study history and every uploaded file. There is no other path. Measured, not inferred Every cancellation site in the codebase: One subscriptions.cancel() call exists and it lives inside the account deletion orchestrator. There is no customer portal link, no manage billing screen, no downgrade, no plain cancel. Why this surfaced While auditing whether ef”
“one of our customer sent this before cancelling the subscription. most people don't tell the reason before cancelling it. Glad he filled it, otherwise i'd be dying with anxiety submitted by /u/Little_Thanos [link] [comments]”
“Get the overage rate in writing before you sign. vista social and buffer publish theirs.”
“If you’ve brought it through Apple ID, you can go to Apple and request a refund and say you’ve been charged twice.”
“I’m in the US. IL. Anyone experienced difficulty terminating and how did you proceed if you were in my similar situation? It’s been horrendous with our uniform company. I had to pull out the contract and receipts to get it terminated… but it’s still not. They retrieved all the products today, but that does not complete the termination process. The agreement states that we agree to them being our exclusive provider. The manager gave us a verbal “go” at doing whatever, but I don’t know. Like I sai”
“I've been subscribed to chatgpt for the better part of a year, the plus subscription. No issue. Then i found out somehow the auto reload for credit feature was turned on. I turn it off and just got an email that it's been turned on again. Has that happened to anyone else here? submitted by /u/Callicojacks [link] [comments]”
“Yikes thanks for posting this. Haven't received the email myself (yet).. Not sure there are any better alternatives?”
“God I hate how I cannot even start this post with “I don’t know why they’re still in business”. They have the world by its balls, they could easily blow any other music streaming service out of the race if they just FIXED THEIR FUCKING APP BRO. This new “companion mode” bullshit they installed is the worst update I have ever seen with my own two eyes. It is so shit so so so shit I don’t even have the words to describe it. Do they not test things before releasing updates? Is this done on purpose?”
“We travel and work and honestly we don't have time for BS like this. We paid for the family plan, and we are only 2 users on it, and this BS is honestly too much to swallow. submitted by /u/coccosoids [link] [comments]”
“company polies that track web browsers across your personal device will REMAIN after you leave! check your registry. I left 3 months ago and JUST realized the policy was still embedded in my laptop”
“[Calm] ★ 1/5 (v7.0.5) — Be very careful if you’re considering this app. If it’s not a scam, it sure behaves like one. I tried to start the 7-day free trial twice, receiving error messages each time. Was given no indication in the app that the trial had started and, following Calm’s own instructions, I checked my Apple Subscription list and the trial wasn’t listed there either. I concluded that the trial hadn’t started… but then 7 days later I got charged $84! (Later I discovered that Calm had s”
“Just wanted to share a warning for anyone using RedotPay. I tried to permanently delete my account and remove all my KYC data, but they blocked the deletion over a tiny 2 USD outstanding balance caused by declined transaction fees. When I contacted support to waive these micro-fees so I could close my account and clear my identity documents, they completely refused. To make matters worse, I spent a whole month trying to discuss and resolve Apple Pay issues with them, and they simply ignored me a”
“We were late by a week but we kept in contact with the them and they did say this was an excessive amount being charged and they would investigate”
I drank the Kool-Aid and paid them almost $90 a month. Never again.
“I authorized a debit card, it got declined and they accessed my venmo instead. I would like a refund, I canceled my membership, but I can't find anywhere to dispute this with youtube. Help please? submitted by /u/plasma-ray [link] [comments]”
“honestly the real headache is those review-only seats, half the tools bury that in the fine print and then act surprised when you're mad about it if you're already sizing for 3x your current accounts i'd map out the worst-case cost now and compare, most of these companies count "users" differently once you cross a threshold they won't tell you about upfront”
“They will be sunsetting legacy customer accounts this year, but won't tell us the exact date, afaik”
“tbh the fact that they wiped your existing balance and not just blocked future earnings is the real red flag. denying future commissions under new terms is fair, but clawing back what was already earned under old terms is a different thing entirely”
“[QuickBooks] ★ 1/5 (v26.08.4) — It barely works on a good day. The price goes up every month even know the service gets worse. Stuck using it because there isn’t anything else.”
“I tried to make a payment today but it failed and now every time I try to log on to my account it says there's an error over and over. I had 505 dollars that I loaded on to my card that literally just disappeared. I keep trying to contact flex but I can't get past the AI chatbot. I genuinely don't know what to do rn. submitted by /u/NotSoAverageJoe9 [link] [comments]”
“[Perplexity] ★ 1/5 (v26.33.0) — I have been a paying Perplexity subscriber for years. A core feature I used broke and never came back. I reported it, followed up for months, and got zero resolution. What I got instead was atrocious support. Auto-replies. AI agents. The same “escalated to a specialist” line on a loop. Then they sent a template saying they had not heard from me and would close the ticket if I did not respond — after I had been the one chasing them the entire time. They sent that s”
“[Calm] ★ 1/5 (v7.0.5) — Be careful if you sign up for an on going subscription. My link was from Facebook and it has never made the verification to my email. Without that I have no access. I have spent hours with trying different methods from google and calm without success. There is no human contact besides a message. I have sent 2 messages over the last 5 days and no response. I’m now on a recurring subscription I have no access to and no method to stop.”
“[ChatGPT] ★ 1/5 (v1.2026.230) — I have been using chat gpt for months and months I pay $8.00 for the go plan and apparently now I have to pay $19.99 to now not get ads ! Or which is even more insane you have to go back to free version then you won’t gets ads ! Are you serious ?! Why am I pay monthly subscription to be told all this now ?! How is this ok ????!!!!!”
“Thats the thing, I only have one subscription that I use and they charge less than this. I dont even have a card that could've fallen into the wrong hands bc as I said, I just had to dispute another similar charge just a few days ago. I was supposed to get the new card that day but I ran out of time to go and grab it so I waited until I could. As it stands I dont have an active debit card.”
“[Calm] ★ 1/5 (v7.0.5) — I signed up for a free trial. I had already deleted the app when I received a renewal email. I checked my subscriptions in my iPhone settings and this wasn’t listed as a subscription. I assumed I wasn’t going to be charged $79.99 for a renewal. Well, then I was. I did NOT want this app. Very upset with this.”
“Hi u/legalzoomcommunity I need help as well. Order 59232739. I’m being charged $399 for registered agent fees. I filed with state for dissolution one day after the fee hit and I’m being charged the full $399. Nobody at Legalzoom has any interest in any sort of refund”
“Patreon keeps charging me, but the membership does not appear in any of my accounts. I have been trying to cancel this Patreon membership connected to a YouTube guitar teacher for many, many months. I have spent many, many hours trying different ways to cancel it and keep going in circles. I have now checked every email address and Patreon account that it could reasonably be under. None of them shows this membership. Numerous times every few months for well over a year when I think of it, I go t”
“There's a good chance "deleting my account" did not satisfy the requirement to cancel your free trial. This is actually a massive fuckup, way more for the company than the user. This should not be physically possible, as they are now charging a nonexistent user. Also, OP dont ever cancel by deleting an account, thats 100% not canceling, and never has been.”
“After about a week, decided it wasn't for me and I deleted my account. There's a good chance "deleting my account" did not satisfy the requirement to cancel your free trial. You've tried going through their support to stop payments in the future, which I think warrants placing a "Stop" on your credit card for the recurring charge. Search your bank's website for details or give their support number a call. Use the phone number that's on your card.”
“Is the subscription routed through a third party like Google play or Apple store?”
“Title says it all - sorry if this is not the correct subreddit, but not sure where else to go. I asked in a different one and didn't really get any suitable help. I created a grok account for the first time about 2ish months ago. I upgraded to grok plus or whatever its called and it was on a trial run. After about a week, decided it wasn't for me and I deleted my account. A few weeks later, when the subscription would have expired, it renewed for the full value of $30. I applied for a re”
“I had a one year subscription to AAA last year. It lasped this year. I have never seen so much junk mail in my life. It's like I've joined a cult and I've left and they are after me. And it's not just little postcards no, it's huge packets of manilla envelopes. Day after day after day. I cleaned out my car the other day and 90% of the paper was AAA crap. submitted by /u/Q8DD33C7J8 [link] [comments]”
“Yeah, sometimes one cancellation exposes a problem better than ten positive comments. The example commands sound like the right fix too. If users have to learn how to talk to the product before they get value, onboarding is probably doing too much work.”
“[Calm] ★ 1/5 (v7.0.5) — This is literally a scam. They suck you in with a free trial, make it impossible to cancel and then when you reach out to cancel via messages, they ignore it and you end up getting charged and impossible to get your money back. Do not recommend”
“[Wise] ★ 1/5 (v9.87) — Can’t pay without a pop about notifications or AppStore rating request. Next popup I’ll move all my money to Revolut”
“Hey. I had that happen once where the payment didn’t go through because I’d created a one-year virtual card (so after a year of subscription, the card was no longer valid). My subscription got cancelled two days after the billing date (I didn’t notice until then), so I created a new virtual card and paid right after I realized the subscription had been cancelled. I had zero issues, the payment went through fine, the subscription was validated immediately, so I wouldn’t worry too much if I were y”
You likely live in a country that doesn’t regulate every single thing.
“it’s unlikely your bank will get your money back. it’s deceptive of the company, yes, but there was probably something in the fine print. also, banks don’t usually approve disputes from over 60 days ago. it’s your responsibility to monitor your accounts, and although the company may have deceived you into paying $24 monthly, it’s absolutely your fault it went on for this long”
“[Claude] ★ 1/5 (v1.260826.0) — I had the “Pro” subscription for a few months. On top of that I paid two times the 48.99$ extra usage because in the end the subscription wasn’t enough… fed up by the constant running out of daily/monthly usage, I canceled my subscription. I still had about 9.50$ usage credit left and guess what. It all magically disappeared with my canceling the subscription. I do not criticize the model, the technology of the tool. It is just shady how it tricks you into paying m”