Consumer advocacy group highlights difficulty in cancelling fitness app subscriptions

A report by the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) has highlighted challenges users face when trying to cancel subscriptions of popular fitness apps, the ‘28 by Sam Wood’ app from celebrity personal trainer Sam Wood cited for having a particularly difficult opt-out processes.

The newly published report advised that businesses often tried to elicit feelings of guilt from consumers as they try to cancel, and deliberately make it hard to for people to unsubscribe.

Surveying 1,000 Australians to find out what sort of experience they have when trying to cancel online subscriptions, the CPRC report advises "our research into ‘subscription traps’ found that three in four Australians have experienced some form of negative experience when trying to cancel a subscription.

"This can include feeling pressured to keep a subscription or giving up and continuing to pay for a service you no longer need.

"Many survey respondents found the practice annoying or deceptive."

28 by Sam Wood was highlighted in the survey as having a particularly difficult cancellation process for its $58.99 per month service.

It noted “health and fitness services have always been notorious for making it difficult to unsubscribe and online versions of these are no exception.

"The online fitness program, 28 by Sam Wood, uses false hierarchy and confirmshaming across multiple screens throughout the cancellation process, making it difficult to unsubscribe from the program."

‘Confirmshaming’ refers to a process that uses language in order to elicit guilt or negative emotions from customers for choosing not to engage with a service or feature while false hierarchies are used to promote a certain option or hide others.

The report noted that “the link or button to cancel the subscription is either in fine print or a lighter colour.

"The process - which takes a minimum of five screens - also includes grandiose affirmations of the expense being an investment, further shaming consumers as they proceed with the cancellation process."

Responding to the ABC reporting on the issue, a spokesperson for 28 by Sam Wood said the report was noted, stating “improving the experience for our 28 by Sam Wood customers is an ongoing priority for our business.

"We will take these findings into consideration and review internally."

CPRC's Deputy Chief Executive, Chandni Gupta said the increasing popularity of the subscription model had made things more difficult for consumers, noting "you can sign-up any time you like, but you can never leave; with sign-ups taking mere seconds, while cancelling can be a difficult, frustrating and time-consuming ordeal.”.

The report found 75% of customers had some kind of negative experience trying to cancel a subscription, and 30% have felt pressured to keep a subscription they wanted to cancel.

Gupta called on the Australian government to adopt similar legislation to the recent Digital Services Act in Europe, which came into effect in February.

The act is aimed at cracking down on illegal content, transparent advertising and put obligations on all digital services to better protect consumers.

Images: Sam Wood promotes the ‘28 by Sam Wood’ app (top, credit: the 28 by Sam Wood app), the first screens a customer is presented with when they look at cancelling the 28 by Sam Wood app (middle, credit: CPRC) and customers are made to click through a number of 'confirmation shaming' pages before getting to the cancellation stage (below, credit: CPRC).