For me: Cancelling paid subscriptions should be as easy as subscribing. I hate the fact that they actively hide the unsubscribe option or that you sometimes should have to write an e-mail if you want to unsubscribe.

  • @[email protected]
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    12416 days ago

    Corporations that don’t pay taxes being allowed to make millions in profit while their employees qualify for welfare because they pay them so little.

    • @[email protected]
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      2516 days ago

      They should just make it so that whatever they announce as their “earnings” to their stockholders should also be the amount that they are taxed for.

    • slazer2au
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      2916 days ago

      What’s worse is those same organisations get corporate welfare (tax breaks) but fight tooth and nail to prevent their workers from getting it.

  • @[email protected]
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    3016 days ago

    My car insurance goes up as my car loses value. Years ago you could choose to only insure it up to a certain amount. My kids drove an older car and i designated $10k in insurance for it. That cut the insurance price to about 60%. Texas no longer allows that.

    • @[email protected]
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      1816 days ago

      Isn’t most of the insurance for liability? I can see a logic where older cars are less safe, and thus accidents are more likely and would cost more, hence the higher costs. But I’m just guessing.

      • @[email protected]
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        316 days ago

        Collision insurance, the kind that pays for damage to the policy holder’s car in the event of a crash caused by the policy holder or an authorized driver of their car often more than doubles the overall cost of insurance. Collision insurance is usually optional when there’s not a loan.

    • @[email protected]
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      616 days ago

      Your car may lose value, but the cost to repair goes up. Hence the insurance increases. Also the likelihood of a total loss goes up as well.

      • @[email protected]
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        16 days ago

        The insurance will never pay more than the value of the car, so if the repair cost goes too high they’ll just declare it a total loss and pay the “fair market value” of the car. And yes, a total loss is more likely, but that doesn’t mean the insurance pays more, on the contrary, they use that to pay less.

  • @[email protected]
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    2716 days ago

    all i’m going to say is whatever shit adobe is pulling because i could yap about this forever with anyone

    • @[email protected]
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      1216 days ago

      Yes, but - in many of those contracts (particularly end-user license agreements) you agreed to them changing the terms of the contract. You also have an “out” - not using the product any more.

      You’re right though: it’s slimy. Anything slimy thing can be put into a contract!

      Source: I’m not a lawyer, but worked in an office with a lot of them, and worked with software license agreements in particular.

      • Lemminary
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        316 days ago

        I’m so curious now. Do you know how those apply? I mean, can they change the terms on you without notice or is that notice legally required? And say they want to feed all your data of however many years to AI. If you accidentally use it once, do they get permission for everything? What if you agree only because you want to delete your data?

        I have so many questions. lol

        • thermal_shock
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          916 days ago

          You usually get an email saying something is changing. Problem is, you’ve already paid and if it’s a material change, now you have to agree to continue using your property. Sometimes you don’t get a notice and it’s a “software update” that now pushes ads onto a product you bought and are now shit outta luck since you can’t return it. Samsung and Roku are bad for this.

          • @[email protected]
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            215 days ago

            Samsung and Roku are bad for this.

            You’re buying the hardware; they provide the software as a service. Oh, sure, no agreeing to a unilateral change of conditions on the software means that your hardware is rendered worthless, but still… And yeah, that’s pretty much the way that actually works.

            IP law can start getting pretty strange.

  • Zagorath
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    1116 days ago

    Political parties sending you a reply-paid envelope that says it’ll enrol you to vote postal ballot, with a return address that sends your information to that party, so long as they eventually do forward your info on to the Electoral Commission to register you for a postal vote.

    • guy
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      416 days ago

      I have no idea what any of this means

      • Zagorath
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        616 days ago

        In Australia, one way you can apply for a postal vote is by sending an application form by mail to the Australian Electoral Commission—the nonpartisan government agency responsible for overseeing federal elections.

        Political parties like our centre-right–to–far-right LNP and centre-left–to–centre-right Labor will often send you a letter, in the lead-up to an election. Inside that letter will be an application form, and a reply-paid envelope addressed to the party headquarters. But the address doesn’t say “LNP party headquarters”, it says something like “postal vote centre”.

        If you fill out the form, I believe the parties are obligated to send it on to the AEC. But there is no law preventing them from harvesting your data to use for marketing purposes before they do so. Because political parties have exempted themselves from a lot of the usual privacy laws.

        There have also been accusations that they might delay sending your details on by a few days if you’re from an area less likely to vote for them. Increasing the chances your postal vote doesn’t arrive in time for you to actually use it. Not sure how founded that is, and I doubt it would be legal, but it also may be difficult to prove.

        • @[email protected]
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          215 days ago

          Huh, I’ve not heard of this, though it doesn’t surprise me.

          In the area where I grew up (waaay out in the sticks, with no easy public transport access to the closest AEC office), the AEC tended to send people out to your home on your 18th birthday (or soon after it) and enrol you on the spot. This was decades ago, though, before you could do any of it online.

          • Zagorath
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            215 days ago

            That’s enrolling to vote. This is about requesting a mail-in ballot for people who are already enrolled.

  • @[email protected]
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    1516 days ago

    Ripping a tag from a pillow that says “Under Penalty of Law: Not to be Removed By Anyone but the Consumer”

  • @[email protected]
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    814 days ago

    Non-profit scams. You can set one up, put out a call for donations claiming you do some blah blah blah work, and give yourself most of the money in the form of a salary/bonus. Only a small percentage of the money ever needs to go to anyone in need.

    This happens in all sorts of corporate and religious charities. The NFL was technically non-profit for many years, and that should say it all.

  • @[email protected]
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    1416 days ago

    Having the door held open for you while walking towards it but changing directions in the last moment.

    • @[email protected]
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      16 days ago

      Yes, there’s a lot of unspoken rules that are out there, but never actually enforced. Facing the other way in an elevator was one example I remember from my social sciences classes.

      • @[email protected]
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        316 days ago

        If I saw someone facing the rear wall/corner of an elevator but not acting unusual in any other way I think I’d feel like I was getting pranked somehow, lmao. I could go in and use the elevator and nothing could happen but one or more people facing the “wrong” way and I’d feel like I was the butt of a joke in some unfathomable way

        I think it’s the unnecessary number of turns you’d need to make to actually use the elevator but still face the rear well while using it that makes it feel weird to me, but idk

        • @[email protected]
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          16 days ago

          I mean, it’s the same, you just turn around at the end of the ride as you’re leaving rather than the beginning. But, it’s simply not how it’s done.

  • @[email protected]
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    1715 days ago

    For subscriptions, I highly recommend using disposable cards like Privacy.com (no affiliation, just a customer). If I want to try out Prime, or Starz, or a “free until…” promotional offer, I just spin up a card. It’s connected to my bank account, locked to that single merchant, and they can’t charge more than whatever spending limit I put on that card. Honestly, I don’t always even sign in to a service to cancel, it’s much easier to just pause or delete a card, and then they can’t charge you anymore. It’s free for us because they collect a small portion of the transaction amount (like Visa, PayPal, etc)…

    • @[email protected]
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      114 days ago

      I used them for a couple of years. But I kept finding that when I went to re-sign up for new vendors they wouldn’t support the cards for some reason. Has this gotten better?

  • HubertManne
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    4716 days ago

    Any type of exit fee like account closing. Any costs for leaving should be charges before leaving as part of business costs either at the start or part of monthly or whatever. Leaving should be free.