This is simply untrue—I’ve canceled my recurring subscription several times and just now I double-checked to be sure the cancellation option is still there. It is. I’m very curious about your assertion. Are you thinking of a different game?

My example of this is GoToMyPC. I signed up four years ago for use while I was out-of-town and had intended to cancel once I was back home. When I attempted it, I discovered that the only way to cancel was to call their customer service number. Now, I have to admit that I have what I wouldn’t call a “phobia”, but certainly a strong dislike of talking to strangers on the telephone. So I put it off. And I kept putting it off. And so I eventually paid for the stupid thing for two years because I didn’t want to talk to someone on the phone. Eventually I bit the bullet and canceled. But this whole idea of making it very easy to sign up but very difficult to cancel really leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. It makes me angry—and that’s without anyone actually defrauding me as they did Henry.

Their policy in this regard was to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to get a refund, or even a glimpse of a refund, despite the fact that a large majority of briefs merited at least some of the bloated fee to be returned. A standard tactic was to get one of the ‘phone operators to claim that the customer would need to speak to the managing director, who was always out of the office (again, not true).

They had revenue streams in the tens of thousands of pounds a week, a large portion of which they retained through tactics exactly like this. Also, I lost my job there after stating my objection (coming from a resentment of such low-handed, double-dealing dickheadery) to their practices, which says a lot about the pressure internally against dealing with customers in what most people would consider a fair fashion.

Time for some enterprising lawyer to work up a class action.

Notably, I subsequently received an email with a confirmation number, confirming my cancellation. So perhaps they’ve marginally improved.

I’m in the UK, and have found my credit card company tends to believe the cardholder rather than the merchant when it comes to such tomfoolery – probably because they hear lots of such complaints. Oh yes, and of course keep an eye on your statements like Janice said, so you can nip such goings-on in the bud.

And definitely everyone should be checking their credit card statements regularly. That’s what helped me when my card for work was compromised! Sorry about the eFax suckitude, though, Henry!

I wrote my credit card company and they had the charges removed. I filed a complaint w/ the Iowa AG because it clearly seemed like a scam, not a mistake. The AG did little since my case had been resolved.

Clearly, this is a standard industry practice.

Lesson 2: Online payments are fine; automatic payments suck.

Lesson 3: Learn to love the word “fraud,” because you’ll be using it a lot in the future.

Lesson 4: Change your credit/debit card numbers once per year.

But even more mainstream services put up road blocks. Sometimes this results in legal action:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/24/235233

So maybe, if this is a pattern with E-Fax (and I bet it is), the next move should be contacting the relevant legal authority.

Personally, I try to avoid signing up for any service that involves a direct charge on my credit card or direct withdrawal from my bank acct. If they can’t send a bill, I can live without whatever they’re selling.