Deceptive Patterns
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Ooma: Difficult to cancel subscription

Author
Dark Patterns Tip Line
Date
5 Oct 2023

“It’s easy to sign up, but if you want to cancel you can’t do that online. You have to call them, navigate through a lengthy phone tree, talk to a CSR, wait to get transferred to a retention agent, answer a bunch of questions and listen to the agent babble on about trying to get you to not cancel before they will honor your cancellation.”

Ooma was reported to the Deceptive Design Tip Line over a subscription that is difficult to cancel. According to the report, signing up is easy, but cancellation cannot be done online: the customer must call, navigate a lengthy phone tree, talk to a customer service representative, wait to be transferred to a retention agent, answer a series of questions, and listen to the agent attempt to dissuade them before the cancellation is honoured.