Products · Broad category
Subscription services
Raised as a usability problem by 138 people on Hacker News over 19 years (2008–2026), in 113 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Subscriptions are nearly impossible to cancelUnreviewed
20082026- Cancelling requires logging in, digging through settings, and declining offers to stay2026-10-11
- Subscriptions are impossible to cancel2026-09-29
- Subscriptions are nearly impossible to cancel, or charge large early-cancel fees2026-07-09
Each service has its own interface, making subscription management a hassleUnreviewed
20082026- Subscriptions are designed to be confusing or easy to forget, trapping people2024-01-19
- Subscriptions are easy to start but hard to get out of2023-03-20
- Every service has its own separate interface, so managing subscriptions is a hassle2022-08-25
Can't turn off auto-renew without losing the remaining trial periodUnreviewed
20082026- No way to turn off auto-renew without losing the remaining trial period2026-05-29
- Trial auto-renews unless cancelled before the last day, forfeiting remaining time2026-03-26
- Automatic renewal is a dark pattern that makes it hard to stop paying2024-10-16
Subscriptions are buried under the Apple ID name in SettingsUnreviewed
20082026- Users can't find where subscriptions are managed; it's buried under the Apple ID name in Settings2025-07-17
- Hard to find active subscriptions; forgets the links needed to reach them2021-09-13
- Subscriptions buried in iTunes/Music; can't find them on icloud.com2020-07-01
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 50 complaints
- Cancelling requires logging in, digging through settings, and declining offers to stay2026-10-11
- Subscriptions are impossible to cancel2026-09-29
- Leaving services is hard: hidden settings, retention flows, support contacts, and giving up2026-07-23
- Subscriptions are nearly impossible to cancel, or charge large early-cancel fees2026-07-09
- No way to turn off auto-renew without losing the remaining trial period2026-05-29
- Subscriptions are deliberately hard to cancel, pushing people to keep paying2026-05-07
- Unsubscribing is made hard with obtuse wording and options buried in menus2026-05-05
- Cancelling is made complicated, sometimes requiring a 30-minute phone call2026-04-02
- Trial auto-renews unless cancelled before the last day, forfeiting remaining time2026-03-26
- Signing up takes one click, but cancelling needs a phone call during business hours and a long hold2025-12-31
- Has to wade through dark patterns to reach a cancel screen for non-App Store subscriptions2025-08-25
- Cancelling subscriptions is hard, with cancel screens and complex terms making it difficult2025-08-25
- Children couldn't work out how to cancel the subscription they unknowingly entered2025-08-20
- Users can't find where subscriptions are managed; it's buried under the Apple ID name in Settings2025-07-17
- Some services make people call to cancel instead of offering click-to-cancel2025-07-09
- Subscriptions are deliberately hard to cancel, trapping people2025-07-09
- Cancelling many subscriptions requires different hard-to-find processes with deliberate friction2025-07-06
- Cancelling subscriptions is hard, and staying logged in is a pain2025-06-25
- Cancelling subscriptions involves dark patterns, pushing users away from cancelling2025-06-25
- People are tricked into subscriptions and find trials nearly impossible to cancel2025-06-16
- Cancelling requires about 30 layers of 'are you sure' prompts and retention offers2025-05-01
- Services use dark patterns that make cancelling a membership hard2025-04-30
- Family subscription was nearly impossible to manage without an Apple device2025-02-13
- Aggressively pushed into monthly subscription that is nearly impossible to cancel2025-01-25
- Subscriptions are hard to cancel and keep billing people2024-10-16
- Automatic renewal is a dark pattern that makes it hard to stop paying2024-10-16
- Cancelling the subscription is deliberately much harder than signing up2024-09-02
- Free tier looks like it requires a card, so users can't tell whether they'll be charged2024-07-22
- Cancel button keeps jumping away from the mouse for minutes2024-07-11
- Unsubscribing is hard to find and takes too many steps2024-07-11
- Interface cluttered with unwanted features and liked details removed through A/B tests2024-06-03
- Email link to cancel subscription opens page demanding iTunes, which user cannot install2024-02-20
- Subscriptions are built with dark patterns that make them hard to cancel2024-01-22
- Cancelling requires phone calls and arguing with support, a dark pattern2024-01-20
- Unsubscribing is deliberately hard, using dark patterns to keep customers subscribed2024-01-20
- Subscriptions are designed to be confusing or easy to forget, trapping people2024-01-19
- Cancelling by letting card lapse fails because the new expiry date is auto-updated2024-01-19
- Users cannot cancel subscriptions even when they want to2024-01-19
- Cancelling a subscription is deliberately made difficult for the user2024-01-19
- Dark patterns and 300-page contracts make it hard for people to cancel2024-01-19
- Cancelling recurring subscriptions is deliberately made deceptively difficult, so people keep paying2024-01-19
- Subscriptions auto-renew quietly and are nearly impossible to cancel2024-01-18
- Refunds are made hard to get, pushing users to consume unused credits instead2023-12-31
- Subscription features are filled with dark patterns that push users into paying2023-12-30
- Modal subscription popup appears before reader has read the article2023-12-11
- Cancelling trial shows confusing ending-immediately warning, then only says it expires later2023-10-26
- Payment-failure screens are impenetrable and hard to navigate to cancel or fix payment2023-09-14
- Automatic enrollment plus burdensome unsubscribing keeps customers paying without consent2023-09-05
- People are too busy to figure out how to cancel subscriptions and keep getting charged2023-08-31
- Cancel click shows no response for 10 seconds, causing users to click repeatedly2023-08-30