The Unethical Renewal
Ever look at your bank account and go, “huh, it seems like I spent more money than usual this month but I haven’t changed my spending habits.”
You go in, check your bank account just to realize that the three free trials from last month renewed because you forgot to cancel them. Shit.
Then, instead of blaming the company for not sending receipts, you shame yourself for knowing better and yet again not setting that damn Google Calendar reminder.
But hey, you could always try paying for another subscription to manage your other subscriptions because if you can’t manage a handful, what’s one more?
Until you don’t need it and are still paying for it every month for no reason.
Plus, it didn’t solve the root cause of the issue where companies are incentivized to profit off your negligence.
Subscription society sucks.
The idea of having to repeatedly pay to have access to the same content is a nuisance and managing the various niche subscriptions to get access to one TV show that has locked itself into a contract is a drag on society.
But knowing that the service that you provide is so inconsequential that you don’t remind your paying customers that their subscription is about to renew is unethical.
It is an acknowledgement that you, as an organization, lack the confidence in your product that people would renew and pay you without having forgotten about their subscription.
Capitalizing on the forgetfulness of your audience instead of forcing yourself to add so much value that they can’t help but want to pay for another month.
This dated model of intentionally forcing people to opt in to receiving receipts for their subscriptions—capitalizing on consumer psychology—blatantly broadcasts that you don’t care about your product nor do you care about your customer.
As we become more aware of and tired of this trend, the tides of consumer behavior will shift and the more we can coerce organizations into maintaining higher ethical standards instead of grabbing money from your wallet when you have your back turned to the product you have long forgotten about.
Only you can help fight the moral injustices we face in subscription warfare.
*sponsored by the Dakota Coombes ad council
TL;DR: The rantings of a person that cancelled their 3 month free trial of Apple TV+ that they only used for a week, experienced the fear at the threat of losing all access immediately—the draw of risking auto-renewal to not lose this access, and proceeded to notice that you have to opt in for receipts.
A blatantly obvious demonstration that they are hoping you let it automatically renew and forget about it forever—growing exorbitantly wealthy off your $10 a month.
