RealNetworks sucks
You know, my friends tell me that one cool thing about the better online porn sites is that it is usually a snap to cancel a subcription. Even the disreputable sites, so everyone says, have some sort of cancel page you can eventually find.
I don't know if this is out of concern over legal action or what. I suspect a large part of it is that these sites want return business and the best way to get customers to come back is to make everything as easy and convenient for them as possible.
Anyway, I'm looking at my bank statement the other day and I see a charge "PURCHASE AT RN" or something, for like $10.91. I'm thinking, "RN"? What is that? Raunchy Nurses? Rastafarian Nymphs? Robust Nutsacks?
Then, a couple days later, I get a chirpy e-mail from RealNetworks saying that because it was now the NFL off-season, they were halving the NFL.com subscription to $5 a month. WTF?
Then I remembered. Back in September or so I signed up for a three-month pass to NFL.com to get game audio and game highlights. The technology and billing provider was RealNetworks.
It turns out that when you sign up for a three-month subscription, it's really a "pay for three months up front and then automatically keeping paying after that until you come back and tell us you want to cancel" sort of deal.
It gets even more galling. I followed the link in the e-mail to access my account. I get to the Real page, enter my username and password, and it tells me that I have no Real subscription but they can sign me up for one right now.
Technically this may be correct. I have an NFL subscription, not a RealNetworks subscription. But I can imagine someone going there and getting confused into thinking that their subscription ran out, and signing up for another Real service.
I look in vain for a "cancel" option. There is none. The deal is that you have to call a customer service number between such-and-such hours to cancel. This practice instills in me Incredible Hulk-like levels of fury.
Get this straight. You can, RealNetworks is more than happy to take your money with a few clicks of the mouse and the entry of your credit card number. But if you want to cancel, this amazing champion of consumer-oriented technology makes you pick up a damn telephone and navigate what is presumably a typical customer call center.
I have had this happen only once before -- with AOL. I had signed up for them with my first computer. It came pre-installed and you could get going within minutes. But to cancel, you had to FAX or WRITE THEM a letter. It took me two months, several phone calls, and a very nasty and threatening fax to get that straightened out and my money back.
I swore I would never use AOL again, and I make the same pledge about RealNetworks now.
The great irony about this is that RealNetworks' CEO Rob Glaser started the company as "Progressive Networks" and was originally to help further Glaser's liberal social agenda.
Look, Glaser is a great entrepreneur. He bailed from Microsoft in the '90s because he thought Web video and audio were huge untapped markets that were passing Bill Gates by. He helped legitimize and nurture much of the Internet multi-media we take for granted today. He created a thriving company in the heart of Seattle and created tons of jobs, wealth and cool vibes. He freaking helped rescue professional bowling, and where would be today if we didn't have pro-bowlers to make fun of? Stuck teasing the curlers, that's what.
But it sucks that his company doesn't have the basic customer relations sense of your average porn site.
I don't know if this is out of concern over legal action or what. I suspect a large part of it is that these sites want return business and the best way to get customers to come back is to make everything as easy and convenient for them as possible.
Anyway, I'm looking at my bank statement the other day and I see a charge "PURCHASE AT RN" or something, for like $10.91. I'm thinking, "RN"? What is that? Raunchy Nurses? Rastafarian Nymphs? Robust Nutsacks?
Then, a couple days later, I get a chirpy e-mail from RealNetworks saying that because it was now the NFL off-season, they were halving the NFL.com subscription to $5 a month. WTF?
Then I remembered. Back in September or so I signed up for a three-month pass to NFL.com to get game audio and game highlights. The technology and billing provider was RealNetworks.
It turns out that when you sign up for a three-month subscription, it's really a "pay for three months up front and then automatically keeping paying after that until you come back and tell us you want to cancel" sort of deal.
It gets even more galling. I followed the link in the e-mail to access my account. I get to the Real page, enter my username and password, and it tells me that I have no Real subscription but they can sign me up for one right now.
Technically this may be correct. I have an NFL subscription, not a RealNetworks subscription. But I can imagine someone going there and getting confused into thinking that their subscription ran out, and signing up for another Real service.
I look in vain for a "cancel" option. There is none. The deal is that you have to call a customer service number between such-and-such hours to cancel. This practice instills in me Incredible Hulk-like levels of fury.
Get this straight. You can, RealNetworks is more than happy to take your money with a few clicks of the mouse and the entry of your credit card number. But if you want to cancel, this amazing champion of consumer-oriented technology makes you pick up a damn telephone and navigate what is presumably a typical customer call center.
I have had this happen only once before -- with AOL. I had signed up for them with my first computer. It came pre-installed and you could get going within minutes. But to cancel, you had to FAX or WRITE THEM a letter. It took me two months, several phone calls, and a very nasty and threatening fax to get that straightened out and my money back.
I swore I would never use AOL again, and I make the same pledge about RealNetworks now.
The great irony about this is that RealNetworks' CEO Rob Glaser started the company as "Progressive Networks" and was originally to help further Glaser's liberal social agenda.
Look, Glaser is a great entrepreneur. He bailed from Microsoft in the '90s because he thought Web video and audio were huge untapped markets that were passing Bill Gates by. He helped legitimize and nurture much of the Internet multi-media we take for granted today. He created a thriving company in the heart of Seattle and created tons of jobs, wealth and cool vibes. He freaking helped rescue professional bowling, and where would be today if we didn't have pro-bowlers to make fun of? Stuck teasing the curlers, that's what.
But it sucks that his company doesn't have the basic customer relations sense of your average porn site.
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