"Scam" doesn't seem like the right term here. If the user selects the "3 day free trial, then $9.99/week" option... they're then billed $9.99 a week after their 3 day free trial. The "then $9.99/week" bit isn't even buried in fine print. It's right up front. At least the fact that it's going through the App Store subscription model means that it's dead simple [apple.com] to cancel.
its not that simple. Every time I have had to cancel a subscription I have had to re-google how to do so. Its not intuitive and an in-app canceling a renewal could easily be a requirement of membership in the app store to begin with. Even one app I used from time to time 'Carista' that comes with Bluetooth ODB2 interface module, had a preivous model of annual subscription for $50/yr or a 1-time $10 purchase for a 1-week access to the advanced tools. Aside from making dealership tweaks to settings like how many times your turn blinker blinks when you bump the signal column, it will perform other maintenance tasks like retracting the motor on your calipers in order to change the brake pads (old school tools dont work anymore). So the 1-time charge of $10 seemed to be the price to pay when you changed your brakes or wanted to update a setting. The last time I was surprised that this $10 charge, when you accept, became a recurring subscription. So once again I had to google how to kill the renewals. Out of all the services with renewal subscriptions such as neflix, hulu, etc. It is the only platform that does not have a simple landing page to manage this. Instead its buried 4 layers deep within the settings section. Not Settings -> Manage Subscriptions. No that would be too simple. Settings -> then click your icon, then go into your user account. Be sure to avoid the rest of your family setings, then go here, and here... The fact that I have to google it whenever I want to do it means they went out of their way to make it hard to find. I dont have to google how to check my mail even within the first 30 seconds of owning that phone. I clicked on the mail icon, and seeing I had not setup a mailbox, it walked me through doing that. I did not have to google a search that sent me into global settings to do this. When I want to watch netflix on my phone (i dont but if i did) I would launch the app, and it would have me sign in if I wasnt already signed in on that device. Simple. I can sign out just as simple without having to circumnavigate the entire Settings section of an Iphone to do it. There is no reason they could not mandate that simplicity in their app contract agreement with developers except that they are complicit themselves in this scam.
Not really a scam... (Score:5, Informative)
"Scam" doesn't seem like the right term here. If the user selects the "3 day free trial, then $9.99/week" option... they're then billed $9.99 a week after their 3 day free trial. The "then $9.99/week" bit isn't even buried in fine print. It's right up front. At least the fact that it's going through the App Store subscription model means that it's dead simple [apple.com] to cancel.
Re:Not really a scam... (Score:3)