Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Account deletion
Raised as a usability problem by 17 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2013–2026), in 16 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Account deletion is made hard or impossible, a dark patternUnreviewed
20132026- Deleting accounts is a lot of work and takes very long on some sites2026-10-09
- Deleting accounts requires waiting periods, same-device access, emailing support, or facing retention offers2026-02-28
- Deleting accounts requires emails, phone calls, long holds and captchas2026-02-26
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 17 complaints
- Deleting accounts is a lot of work and takes very long on some sites2026-10-09
- Deleting accounts requires waiting periods, same-device access, emailing support, or facing retention offers2026-02-28
- Deleting accounts requires emails, phone calls, long holds and captchas2026-02-26
- Getting started is overwhelming; must dig through inbox and navigate varied account-closing flows2024-02-15
- Second delete button is disabled, so the account can't be deleted2023-12-20
- Delete account button is disabled, forcing users to dig through developer tools2023-12-20
- Banned accounts can't be deleted; the only route is a support bot that refuses2022-11-06
- Can't find how to delete their account in the interface2022-08-19
- Cancelled users never learn restoring is possible, and data is gone afterward2022-07-05
- Extra confirmation modal added to make deleting an account harder, a dark pattern2022-06-05
- Account deletion demands a password the user never set, and password reset won't create one2021-11-24
- Deleting accounts is hidden behind dark patterns or requires multiple emails to different departments2021-11-17
- Deleting one account doesn't delete linked exchange accounts; must contact support separately2019-10-06
- Account deletion is made hard or impossible for users, a dark pattern2019-09-02
- Delete button actually deactivates; real deletion link is hidden in support pages2017-11-24
- Account deletion flows are deliberately frustrating, so users struggle to complete them2017-11-24
- Companies make account cancellation and deletion information hard to find2013-01-17