Always Make Sure To Remove Your Cards From Old Accounts

[Zwielicht]

Businesses are getting very odd, and dare I say greedy, when it comes to subscriptions lately.

Since March, we've been getting cancelling all of our subscriptions in order to cut down on our expenses.

However, many of these cancellations seem to be getting ignored. It's like every company has simultaneously decided to do whatever it takes to get money.

I've got two examples just in the last couple of weeks:

Amazon
This was a really weird one. We had an old account with Amazon that we had Prime with and used for a single month before cancelling Prime in 2023. We left two card details on the account as it was just forgotten about.

My wife didn't notice this right away, but all of the sudden in January 2025, she started getting e-mails from Amazon about how the card details are outdated and Prime can't renew. The e-mail said they would look for a way to maintain the payment or otherwise cancel it. This was strange because we had no touched this account in 2 years, and now they're suddenly trying to charge the card? We checked and the account wasn't compromised, so what gives?

Then this month out of the blue, they charged my debit card for Prime. When we called, they only had my old debit card details and not the new one they charged, but I'm guessing they managed to pull some strings because it was the same account number.

We told them to cancel it and refund it, which they did, but the whole experience was just plain weird.

Sparkletts
We had a water delivery subscription with Sparkletts because there used to be a water quality issue with the tap water here.

We put our payments on pause before trying to cancel the service. Maybe we just have really bad luck, but they recently got bought out by some company called BlueTriton, which bought a couple of other water delivery serviced and merged them into one called "ReadyFresh".

The reason I say we got unlucky is because in the middle of this merger, they must've not transferred the fact that we cancelled the service and charged use $40 twice a month when we used to pay only $19 twice a month. So, not only did we get charged for a service we cancelled, but the bastards raised the pricing of it as well.

Take a look at this. The merger happened in March, for reference, but look at the price difference for the exact same number of 5-gallon bottles.

We're just going through and cancelling anything extra at this point, because even if we had the money to keep paying for this stuff, it's just not worth it anymore.

 

[Zwielicht]

This ReadyFresh merger service is awful. When it was Sparkletts, you could just cancel online.

With this one, you can only cancel by phone, and look at these ridiculous charges just to cancel:

CUSTOMER WILL PAY ALL CHARGES FOR PRODUCTS, EQUIPMENT, AND ALL APPLICABLE SURCHARGES, TAXES AND FEES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, (A) ALL BOTTLE DEPOSITS UP TO $20 PER BOTTLE AND/OR ACCOUNT DEPOSITS UP TO $100; (B) ANY APPLICABLE DELIVERY FEES OF UP TO $20 PER DELIVERY; (C) AN ADMINISTRATIVE FEE OF UP TO $6 FOR EACH PAPER INVOICE IN LIEU OF, OR IN ADDITION TO, AN ELECTRONIC INVOICE; (D) A FEE OF UP TO $8.99 PAYABLE IN THE EVENT CUSTOMER CANCELS A SCHEDULED DELIVERY ON LESS THAN 24 HOURS’ PRIOR NOTICE; (E) A FEE OF UP TO $50 FOR THE RECONDITIONING OF EACH COOLER LEASED BY CUSTOMER AND PAYABLE UPON THE CANCELLATION OF SERVICE; (F) A FEE OF UP TO $6 FOR ALL RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS WHO CALL THE CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER FOR ASSISTANCE WITH UPDATING OR SCHEDULING DELIVERIES, MAKING A PAYMENT OR MODIFYING AN EXISTING ORDER; (G) A FEE OF UP TO $20 FOR CUSTOMERS WHO CALL THE CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER AND ORDER A ONE-TIME PICK UP OF EMPTY 3- OR 5-GALLON BOTTLES; (H) TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, A SURCHARGE ON CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS, BASED THE AMOUNT OF THE TRANSACTION; AND (I) IN THE EVENT CUSTOMER IS IN DEFAULT ON THE PAYMENT OF ANY INVOICE FOR A PERIOD EXCEEDING 150 DAYS, A REINSTATEMENT FEE OF UP TO THE SUM OF (X) THE OUTSTANDING AMOUNT PLUS (Y) 25% OF SUCH OUTSTANDING AMOUNT; (J) ALL APPLICABLE STATE BOTTLE DEPOSITS AND REDEMPTION VALUE ON ANY FREE AND PURCHASED PRODUCTS UPON CUSTOMER'S RECEIPT OF COMPANY'S INVOICE; (K) A REINSTATEMENT FEE OF UP TO $20 FOR CUSTOMERS WHOSE PAYMENT HAS BEEN RETURNED DUE TO INSUFFICIENT FUNDS OR OTHER REASONS; AND (L) A FEE OF UP TO $20 PER DELIVERY FOR SELECTING CERTAIN DELIVERY DATES.

I can't even remove my card details or turn auto-pay off. I have no idea how many bottles they're going to claim I have because their merger was a mess.

I'm going to make sure they can't charge my card. Screw this company, they can ban me from their service for all I care. I'm done paying greedy companies like this.

 

[Dopious]

Yeah, this is definitely a weird behavior nowadays, so far no fake charges on my cards, but then again I try to make sure that does not happen, I had 1 fake charge like 20 years ago to my card for $250 got it back though after some threatening.

 

[Outlaw]

I caught one funny one recently, I got offered a discount for an upsell and took it but noticed one half of my previous subscription was still on the go

Nearly got me, no harm done or planned but as you said; always remove cards from old accounts...

 

[t2van]

Having had my bank account emptied after my card got copied at a restaurant I'm super guarded on all of this kind of thing.

Anything I buy online I use a virtual card or a pre paid service. The same with subscription based things often the account is zero and I get a friendly reminder email and I sort it out there and then it can be a royal pain in the ass for work based products.

But it does solve the insane price hikes or charges for services you think you canceled.

As for water under sink filter? Best thing I ever bought

 

[SilverClouds]

You can do chargebacks maybe??

 

[Zwielicht]

You can do chargebacks maybe??

I've never actually done that, but I might make this the first time I do.

Technically, they delivered the water already and rendered the service (that's how I found out they didn't cancel it; I noticed the charge after the delivery). The sudden price increase was a big surprise and not one I knew about in advance, so I might be able to get my $40 back if I mention that to my card issuer.