Consumer columnist and West Hartford resident Harlan Levy has more than 20 years of experience writing stories about everyday experiences that anyone could encounter. 

Harlan Levy. Courtesy photo

By Harlan Levy

Good news for consumers like me, who’ve been stuck trying to get out of the pernicious impossible-to-cancel automatic subscription renewals.

Last week I wrote about purchasing on PayPal a $1.99 one-time Software program, Total Adblock, to block unwanted ads now littering my inbox. A subsequent email stated what wasn’t in my original purchase – that every month I’d get a $9.99 charge to keep the deal going. Yes, I could cancel the account by sending a $14.95 certified letter announcing my cancellation. I promptly canceled all future charges, wondering if a collection agency will pursue me for the accumulated bills.

So one week ago the Federal Trade Commission announced a final “click to cancel” rule on “negative option” programs – effective in six months – requiring sellers to make it as easy for consumers to cancel their enrollment as it was to sign up.

The agency said it receives thousands of complaints about negative option and recurring subscription practices every year, and the number of complaints has been steadily increasing over the past five years. So far in 2024 the agency received nearly 70 consumer complaints per day, up from 42 in 2021.

The final rule will prohibits sellers from:

• Misrepresenting any material fact made while marketing goods or services with a negative option feature.
• Failing to clearly and conspicuously disclose material terms prior to obtaining a consumer’s billing information in connection with a negative option feature.
• Failing to obtain a consumer’s express informed consent to the negative option feature before charging the consumer.
• Failing to provide a simple mechanism to cancel the negative option feature and immediately halt charges.

“Too often, businesses make people jump through endless hoops just to cancel a subscription,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said. “The FTC’s rule will end these tricks and traps.”

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris talked up the proposed “click to cancel” rule in September. The rule passed 3-2, with the FTC’s two Republican commissioners voting against it.

Yay the FTC!

Hacks

While randomly trolling the internet this week I came across some practical hacks I never thought of that are worth sharing:

1. Defrosting meat: To access your frozen meat much quicker than usual, flatten it as much as possible before freezing it. Flattened meat will reduce de-thawing times.
2. Water boiling over: To stop water from boiling over onto your stove, lay a wooden spoon across the top of the pot. The spoon will prevent the water from overflowing (supposedly). As you can see from my before-and-after photos it didn’t work. Oh well.
3. Discolored headlight covers: If you haven’t replaced your headlight covers in a while, they may be yellow and discolored, reducing your visibility, especially at night. Apply a layer of Crest toothpaste to your plastic headlight covers and polish the toothpaste on them, then wipe it away.
4. Coca-Cola: I haven’t had a can of Coke in, probably, 30 years, but now I’ve found other uses because of its chemical properties: erasing stains and removing rust. Pour and soak Coke in your toilet for a quick cleaning session. You can also soak your screws in Coke in order to remove the rust from the components.
5. Your phone on the plane: Use a plastic sandwich baggy to hang your phone on the seat in front of you So you don’t have to hold it. You can work the screen while covered.
6. Hammering nails: Use a common clothespin (remember those?) to hold your nail in place while you hammer it.

Putting a wooden spoon on a pot of boiling water is supposed to stop the boil-over. But it didn’t work for me, as the water kept boiling over, spilling water on the stove. Photo credit: Harlan Levy

Now you know.

NOTE: If you have a consumer problem, contact me at [email protected] (“Consumer” in subject line), and, with the power of the press, maybe I can help.

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