alt.hn

5/26/2026 at 2:50:25 PM

Don't Subscribe So Casually

 https://thebestworstcase.substack.com/p/dont-subscribe-so-casually

by shmublu

5/26/2026 at 6:37:41 PM

> If someone offered you a magic button that gave you ten dollars now, but carried a high probability of altering your tastes, your routines, and the way you think, would you press it?

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.

by Sophira

5/26/2026 at 9:28:28 PM

Oh yeah. Imagine the product offerings for food alone. "We can make you care about good wine versus bad wine in a way that the average sommelier will find very normal and perhaps even a touch impressive." Or "We can make you and your children enjoy vegetables and seafood as much as you enjoy desserts." People would be willing to pay tens of thousands. And then imagine "We will make exercise be a part of your routine like you've already been doing it for years" or "we will make you like your job" or "we will make you regularly open up emotionally with your spouse."

by CobrastanJorji

5/26/2026 at 10:52:27 PM

You could, sadly, easily 10x the willingness-to-buy metric (and dollar amount) if the marketing promise became about one getting others to change their opinions, preferences, and behavior and avoiding making any changes to oneself.

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?

by sebastiennight

5/26/2026 at 11:46:14 PM

Fish is healthy, and I know a bunch of choosey food folks who just fundamentally do not like fish. Steak, chicken, pork, fine, but not fish, and shellfish are just right out.

by CobrastanJorji

5/27/2026 at 7:19:15 AM

Not even fish and chips?

by hnfong

5/27/2026 at 3:10:30 PM

Is cod supposed to be a particularly enjoyable fish?

by account42

5/27/2026 at 9:54:40 PM

I think the fact that it's deep-fried in batter is what tends to make it appealing to kids and those with kid-like tastes.

by sebastiennight

5/26/2026 at 4:02:07 PM

Companies who wish for more casual subscribers should support services (such as Apple App Store subscriptions) and anti-dark-pattern laws which reassure the public that unsubscribing will be easy.

Then the complacency and other psychological effects that this article seeks to inoculate users against will be maximized.

by rectang

5/26/2026 at 3:12:58 PM

I would go a step further, cancel as soon as you subscribe. It's still valid for a month because you've paid for it!

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

by sa-code

5/26/2026 at 3:24:41 PM

Recently cancelled something early so I won’t forget, they didn’t send my shipment even though I paid for it. They said I cancelled, tried to work with support but given after a point.

So yeah, not all companies do that.

by BloondAndDoom

5/26/2026 at 3:36:26 PM

Did you receive your money back?

If not, time for a charge back with your card provider.

by mschild

5/27/2026 at 8:32:22 AM

I didn’t, the thing with chargeback they don't do it after one month. At least that’s AMEX. I’m sure there is a fight to make and get it back, but I’d rather work and make money instead of fighting to stupid people and system.

by BloondAndDoom

5/27/2026 at 3:09:49 PM

Maybe worth looking into other providers. I've never had issues disputing charges. Granted I dispute maybe 1% of the transactions I make, because I only do it if I legit got scammed. I think paying for a month and not getting a month is a scam.

by bauldursdev

5/26/2026 at 3:39:38 PM

Charge back usually never works… at least in my case the provider never actually did it because the seller was in good standing.

by umpalumpaaa

5/26/2026 at 3:43:33 PM

Counterpoint: I've done 3 and all went through without drama.

by radlad

5/26/2026 at 3:50:09 PM

With what credit 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)

by ndr

5/27/2026 at 8:33:53 AM

This is another problem with charge back, EBay is screwing you? Do you want to be black listed from eBay all of your life or lose that $100? Can you dare to chargeback Apple or Google?

It’s too risky tbh.

by BloondAndDoom

5/26/2026 at 3:50:48 PM

I’ve never had an issue with charging back when they fail to deliver the product

by iwontberude

5/26/2026 at 5:23:50 PM

You’re not providing adequate documentation then. I’ve charged back major companies before without issue when they were at fault and refused to help.

by Kirby64

5/26/2026 at 4:10:26 PM

The one time I thought it would not work it did. Home depot rental generator that failed to run under load; store manager refused to test the unit under load as it was against store policy. Refused refund and instead gave me a $50 off coupon. I then called Chase, explained the situation and charges reversed on the spot. I took the coupon and bought a nice corded Milwaukee sawzall.

by MisterTea

5/26/2026 at 9:16:38 PM

Hertz tried something similar when I was a new immigrant (it was weird and seemed hyper-scammy anyway). Pre-paid for a rental to the airport, show up to get the vehicle. "System says we need to do a secondary ID verification, enter your SSN into the pinpad in front of you"... "System says there's an issue validating your SSN against your DOB" (no shit, because I'm an immigrant whose SSN wasn't issued til I was 28 years old).

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.

by FireBeyond

5/26/2026 at 4:06:19 PM

Get a credit card that isn't dogshit then. You can absolutely charge back.

by taormina

5/26/2026 at 4:09:44 PM

Maybe you should try Paypal next time, if allowed by the seller

by dominicrose

5/26/2026 at 3:14:28 PM

Some don't treat months as discrete units. Uber revokes your membership immediately.

by orsorna

5/26/2026 at 3:32:45 PM

Also a common practice for free trials. Adobe does that if I'm not mistaken.

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.

by 3form

5/26/2026 at 4:08:59 PM

With free trials, I can understand revoking the benefits once the subscription has been canceled. While I can understand the consumer's perspective of not wanting to be billed for future months (say if they forgot to cancel), free trials are intended to attract future customers. If a person signals that they are not going to be a future customer, why should the business offer the free service?

by II2II

5/26/2026 at 6:38:53 PM

Are they signaling that they're not going to be a future customer? Or are they just signaling that they want to take positive action if they make the decision to subscribe?

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?

by wat10000

5/26/2026 at 4:58:28 PM

Sorry, but they set their signaling mechanisms so that that signal is worthless. How many people who don't cancel want to signal they are going to be a future customer, as opposed to it being an accident? How many people who do cancel do it to signal they don't want to be a customer, and not because they don't want to be automatically billed? I believe the answer for both is "not many".

I think the companies do it because it benefits them, and because they can.

by 3form

5/26/2026 at 4:22:38 PM

Apple TV free trials due to new hardware (e.g. new iPhone) is like this too, I just set a reminder on my phone and cancel it one day before they’ll start billing me. The UI for cancelling is also painless.

by jonathanlydall

5/26/2026 at 4:59:37 PM

Uber is ahead of you. You need to cancel two days prior, or something on that note (I don't remember the exact timing).

by 3form

5/26/2026 at 10:56:10 PM

I must be missing something obvious. Pardon me asking.

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

by sebastiennight

5/27/2026 at 4:42:44 AM

You can subscribe to uber for discounts, priority, upgrades and maybe cheaper Uber Eats?

I’ve not bothered past one free trial but if you use it regularly maybe it’s worth it.

by bombcar

5/27/2026 at 7:31:13 AM

It's mostly for Uber Eats. As long as you order 2-3 times per month it might pay back (depending on your location and where do you order from).

by 3form

5/26/2026 at 4:29:46 PM

Somewhat tangential, but I am reminded of a quote about an adjacent problem with analogous flavor from the pen of the venerable G. K. Chesterton...

'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.'

by lo_zamoyski

5/26/2026 at 5:02:05 PM

A nice summary, he would get quite a shock from seeing how advertisement business ended up. I wonder what addendum would he have to the oft-repeated claims of "we're genuinely helping people meet their needs", too.

by 3form

5/26/2026 at 9:19:10 PM

Reminds me of an anecdote from my middle class town:

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.

by FireBeyond

5/27/2026 at 4:45:16 AM

My kids tell me the proper response would be “lol get rekt noob”

by bombcar

5/26/2026 at 4:25:46 PM

>Uber revokes your membership immediately.

Sounds like a great object lesson -- this a service that is will to take your money. Better to cancel now and not look back.

by everdrive

5/26/2026 at 5:34:58 PM

> this a service that is will to take your money

rephrase?

by NooneAtAll3

5/26/2026 at 3:17:28 PM

Do they also give a prorated refund? Otherwise that seems to be blatant theft

by jLaForest

5/26/2026 at 3:24:28 PM

Uber would never take any immoral action like that. They've always been upstanding citizens.

by malfist

5/26/2026 at 3:29:29 PM

What money did you give Uber in advance? Why would you have a balance needing to be refunded if you have not taken a ride?

by dylan604

5/26/2026 at 3:33:25 PM

Uber one exists as a subscription you pay with certain benefits for frequent users.

by SauntSolaire

5/26/2026 at 3:18:46 PM

The core value for most subscription services is their convenience. There's usually another less convenient way to get the same thing cheaper or free.

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.

by sublinear

5/26/2026 at 3:56:25 PM

This is indeed my standard practice. In my head, I just tell myself "I'm buying a month."

by boplicity

5/26/2026 at 4:19:45 PM

The Playstation store subscriptions have different tiers and within each tier different prices depending on the number of months.

These psychological tricks don't need to work every time (or on everyone) to be effective.

by dominicrose

5/26/2026 at 3:23:12 PM

When I actually use a service, it's more work to resubscribe. But money is also tight enough for me that I'm on top of my subscriptions and don't have any I don't need (and when I'm unsure, I set reminders to cancel)

by Semaphor

5/26/2026 at 5:36:04 PM

I currently do this with language models subscriptions.

by amunozo

5/26/2026 at 3:15:43 PM

Because for some subscriptions the price goes up.

by noja

5/26/2026 at 3:22:46 PM

But the entire scheme here is to not have them continually. It's better to pay month+$2 in six months when you need it, than 6*month for the months you don't.

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.

by jerf

5/26/2026 at 3:29:24 PM

You can also pay ~$20/month for an online locker that'll pull the torrent for you and serve to your devices, if that's within your philosophical tolerances. People need to get paid, but I do not much care of the enterprise value of media conglomerates and the resulting enshittification. I don't mind paying for Nebula.tv (~$36/year) and PBS Passport (~$60/year), for example, to directly support those media creators, as well as sending creators fiat directly or via Patreon (Coffeezilla and Peter Santenello, for example).

by toomuchtodo

5/26/2026 at 4:03:23 PM

I have no problem with anyone just sending money if that's what they want to do; I have a number of Patreon supports also. I do strongly advocate for not letting subscriptions leak out without realizing it, and less strongly for considering whether or not you need something like Disney+ continuously or if you can rotate between it and other services.

by jerf

5/26/2026 at 4:22:28 PM

I canceled a Disney Plus subscription recently (after ordering it largely to watch a specific show), because when I purchased their "ad-free" tier, I found that after paying they just replace their generic ads with their own in-house ads, which they then pretend are different from ads because they're "trailers".

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.)

by GolfPopper

5/26/2026 at 6:07:20 PM

Wouldn't this be a good use of a 1 time credit card number?

by soperj

5/27/2026 at 1:00:38 AM

Yeah, this is the main thing I use privacy.com for

by paconbork

5/26/2026 at 3:30:14 PM

I saw some small business owner complain about this behavior on twitter some time ago and he mentioned he only saw non-Americans do this and it made him really mad or something and he didn't provide the service and banned them or something. Funnily enough I do think this happens so sometimes I cancel instantly and sometimes deliberately wait until there are a few days left on the subscription exactly out of paranoia behavior that you'll get a worse service or something, that they must have some database field early cancel and mess with you or something.

by throwaway2027

5/26/2026 at 3:47:47 PM

Why would they salt their own field it's hard to understand

by bji9jhff

5/26/2026 at 5:01:17 PM

[dead]

by radium3d

5/26/2026 at 4:19:48 PM

I think costco membership has two reasons...

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.

by m463

5/26/2026 at 5:17:54 PM

Their "shrink rate" is low. Members are less likely to steal.

by massysett

5/26/2026 at 6:48:50 PM

Plus, how are you going to sleep 300LBs of mayo without someone noticing?!

by mmh0000

5/27/2026 at 4:33:33 AM

> gym memberships are subsidized by people who barely go to the gym and would be better served by buying day passes

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.

by gobdovan

5/27/2026 at 4:38:21 AM

Day passes are there to make the monthly look good. And if the average user goes to the gym twice a month, they’re optimal for the average.

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.

by bombcar

5/26/2026 at 3:39:20 PM

A very simple handling:

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.

by IFC_LLC

5/26/2026 at 3:50:30 PM

This is good advice for email/newsletter subscriptions, but that isn't what the article is about.

by hundchenkatze

5/26/2026 at 3:48:33 PM

Highly recommend this, I no longer need any spam filtering following this approach.

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"

by cube00

5/26/2026 at 4:01:42 PM

It's def good advice.

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.

by CachedaCodes

5/26/2026 at 3:59:48 PM

You obviously didn't read the article at all since it's about paying for subscriptions.

by iLoveOncall

5/26/2026 at 4:04:33 PM

[flagged]

by srigbok

5/26/2026 at 10:59:39 PM

My relationship to subscriptions has changed since I started using https://kill-the-newsletter.com/ . To show up in my inbox demanding my attention is a big privilege I'm not willing to give away so easily anymore.

by singiamtel

5/26/2026 at 5:06:08 PM

Privacy.com solved this problem for me. I just sign up for trials with a $1 card, and I sign up for memberships with a unique card number and a “use once” flag.

by borski

5/26/2026 at 5:18:00 PM

same. It's brilliant and I pay them nothing.

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.

by markhalonen

5/27/2026 at 8:01:16 AM

Are the cards ever declined for being virtual?

by Cider9986

5/27/2026 at 8:21:44 AM

Nope. I've never had one decline. Nor have I ever had any of the $1 cards fail to be authorized for a trial, no matter how much the service costs.

by borski

5/26/2026 at 3:22:11 PM

Kinda' ironic posting a service that promotes two types of casual subscriptions, inbox clutter, and "micro transactions"

by winddude

5/26/2026 at 4:29:40 PM

It's the most HN technology there is: "Has technology caused problems in your life? Well good news, this additional technology sits at the top layer to protect you from the prior technology."

by everdrive

5/26/2026 at 3:26:27 PM

Especially when one considers how friggin difficult this service makes it to cancel a (paid) subscription.

by sdoering

5/26/2026 at 3:37:26 PM

yeah. would love other recommendations for similar services that handle it better if you have any

by shmublu

5/27/2026 at 12:04:25 PM

Sadly not. If the relevant people I follow (and pay for) were on better services, I would happily put Substack in my DNS file with 127.0.0.1 :-(

by sdoering

5/27/2026 at 8:04:58 AM

Is it really your money if it can be withdrawn without your express action?

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.

by Cider9986

5/28/2026 at 6:43:30 AM

I have a simple mantra that is somewhat broader than this: Question convenience. Convenience isn't always bad. But every time you make a choice to increase convenience, especially when it's of the form "make it so that X will happen automatically in the future so I won't have to think about it anymore", you are effectively outsourcing your own life, and that's something to be cautious of.

by BrenBarn

5/27/2026 at 12:28:54 AM

Apple products are not anymore more expensive than competition. Other prices like RAM, harddisks, etc prices have risen so much.

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.

by xet7

5/26/2026 at 4:46:22 PM

Same for online feeds like YouTube. Good to occasionally clear out anything that hasn’t delivered good vids in a while

by Havoc

5/26/2026 at 5:31:05 PM

I never saw the point of subscribing. The home page will show you videos from channels you've watched whether or not you've subscribed.

by rchaud

5/27/2026 at 9:55:56 AM

It’s a good way of circumventing the algo feed.

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

by Havoc

5/26/2026 at 5:41:26 PM

I want to see a chronological list of videos of channels I liked and subscribed to as my feed, not whatever garbage is on the home page.

by satvikpendem

5/26/2026 at 5:42:39 PM

Agreed, I have a few hundred subscriptions and now use PocketTube to manage them into categories but I should probably cull a lot of them. It's a shame as many channels make some great one-off videos and I subscribe for hoping for the next one but it seems like they never come.

by satvikpendem

5/26/2026 at 4:48:31 PM

I think generally people have trouble not subscribing casually which could be why so many services are setup the way they are. In US society we give people the Freedom of choice with all of the beautiful and ugly side-effects that comes along for the ride.

by 0x59

5/26/2026 at 11:44:26 PM

Meanwhile I see "Subscribe" and "Sign-In" on this web page

by 1vuio0pswjnm7

5/26/2026 at 3:26:23 PM

Can be extended to social media accounts as well.

by xg15

5/26/2026 at 3:34:59 PM

Nowadays I am adopting the "Mom Strategy for Subscriptions (TM)": Eat what is in your plate before asking for more stuff.

by elzbardico

5/26/2026 at 3:53:32 PM

I tried this idea for the books and gave up. No rules for book purchases.

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.

by atulatul

5/26/2026 at 3:33:25 PM

One way I've "reset" my subscriptions is by invalidating the credit card they're on so most of them just stop billing. YMMV it's a bit of a blunt tool and not always foolproof, but it's worked for me before.

by musha68k

5/26/2026 at 5:43:39 PM

I'm pretty sure you can harm your credit and have the debt get sent to collections by doing this, at least it's common for gym subscribers not paying their fees.

by satvikpendem

5/26/2026 at 4:26:02 PM

[flagged]

by cocodill

5/26/2026 at 5:50:31 PM

The post makes some really great points.

by asw01