Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Cancellation flows
Raised as a usability problem by 11 people on Hacker News over 14 years (2012–2025), in 11 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Cancelling requires dark patterns or a call to retention staffUnreviewed
20122026- Subscription cancellation is buried under dark patterns that make it hard to stop auto-renewal2023-12-30
- Cancelling subscriptions requires pages of 'are you sure' dark-pattern screens2021-11-15
- Cancelling forces users to agree to terms, a dark pattern pushing them into unwanted choices2020-11-02
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 11 complaints
- Cancelling by phone involves long holds, menu mazes, scripted upsells, and being bounced between agents2025-05-12
- Subscription cancellation is buried under dark patterns that make it hard to stop auto-renewal2023-12-30
- Users get frustrated and give up cancelling due to multiple modal boxes2022-07-05
- OK means cancel and Cancel means the opposite, so users can't tell which button does what2022-03-07
- Cancelling subscriptions requires pages of 'are you sure' dark-pattern screens2021-11-15
- Signing up is one click, but cancelling means waiting on hold for 45 minutes2021-07-10
- Must click through a series of sales pitches to decline and cancel2021-05-02
- Cancelling forces users to agree to terms, a dark pattern pushing them into unwanted choices2020-11-02
- Cancelling is made so difficult that customers resent the company afterwards2020-06-21
- Cancelling needs a series of dark patterns or a phone call to a retention specialist2018-08-23
- Small 'I still want to cancel' link loops back to same page; big stay button works2012-11-15