It seems to differ by provider. When I was with Three it was an irritating process of having to either call up or visit a shop in person and say "I want to look at the naughty pages, please". Another provider (I can't remember which) had a method where you had to supply a credit card number.
I'm with "1p Mobile" now who are a virtual network on EE, and their adult content block is just a toggle in your online account, with no faffing around required - you can just hit the toggle. I presume the idea is that you don't give little Timmy the password to his own account portal, but I don't know what's to stop him getting his own SIM by himself.
With Three, I found the adult content block caused other problems with SSH connections dropping, various random stuff getting blocked and so on, which all went away as soon as I had it disabled, so it's worth doing even for non porn fans.
> I presume the idea is that you don't give little Timmy the password to his own account portal, but I don't know what's to stop him getting his own SIM by himself.
Well — perhaps the toggle is only available if the account has been topped up with a credit card?
One thing that distinguishes you getting a SIM and Little Timmy getting a SIM is that you're over the age of majority and can enter into credit contracts, whereas Little Timmy can only get a debit card.
This fact is actually central to one of Ofcom's recommended age verification techniques, though the adult block on mobile phone networks is much older than these recent measures.
Meh. I live in a poorer area of the UK. We don't have indie bookstores any closer than a 45-minute drive away, and I'm lucky to have a car.
When the kind of people who run "indie bookstores" come and set up in areas like mine instead of staying in their twee suburbs and posh little towns, then I'll start using them and stop using Amazon. Until then, Amazon are the people democratising access to book shopping, delivering fair-priced books to people regardless of where they live, not to mention the convenience of Kindle.
I'm in Europe and had endless ads on my Xiaomi phone - normally for Xiaomi crap, like themes and games. I actively had to go in and turn off notifications for various Mi apps to stop them pestering me with notifications several times a day, but there are still full-screen ad interruptions in the stock apps like the file manager and notepad.
My Redmi Note 13 Pro Plus is nowhere near as good as my last Xiaomi - the ads seem to have increased, and the battery life has gone to shit after <1 year of usage. I won't get another.
I've found similar. I don't know if it was post-Covid, but I have completely asymptomatic high blood pressure. It's really scary to go to the doctor for an extremely routine health check expecting to be back at work in an hour, and then suddenly be told that your blood pressure is so high that you need to go to hospital immediately.
There's no obvious cause, I'm fit and healthy in all other ways, I've had multiple blood tests and ECGs, my cholesterol is normal, everything is normal, just the blood pressure. I also didn't know about this machine but I might get one. I have developed anxiety around having it taken (because of the experience of getting sent to hospital!) so it goes up when I take it, like extreme white-coat syndrome.
I'm definitely getting one of these gadgets so I can see what it really is, without the stress and pain (those things hurt!) of inflating cuffs.
The same goes for all services. I was able to sign up for an ISP service (in the UK) online very easily, with a few clicks and entries onto a form to enter my details, choose my installation date, choose my speed, etc. Fast forward a few years, I'm leaving that house and need to cancel the internet - snail mail letter needed.
There is zero incentive for a company to invest in tooling and tech to make processes that lose them customers more efficient. This is something that has to be regulated and enforced. I just don't see a c-suit clamoring to spend money on making it easier to leave.
There is a reason to invest in this, the rationale goes as follows: Some of my customers will legitimately need to cancel, unsubscribe, stop using, or whatever, but they like the product. If I piss these customers off, they may recommend against using it, and refuse to ever use it again so I should accept that they're leaving with grace and maybe they'll return later. You can offer to "pause" a subscription for example, "Posted to Amundsen-Scott† for six months? Alas Swim Fun Inc don't have a pool there, but when you get back just hit resume and you can keep the same pricing, meanwhile we won't charge you".
But far too many "business leaders" are focused on short term gains at any cost and so this doesn't compute for them. They don't care that you currently like the product and would resubscribe when you get back from the pole, because that's a year or more away, they care about next quarter, and if you aren't income next quarter you're irrelevant to them, fuck you.
† Amundsen-Scott is the name of the base at the South Pole of the planet. It's a cool place. But lots of services aren't available there or would make no sense. You can't live there permanently, so those people are coming back.
I was pretty sure we'd abandoned the "but it would hurt the business and they'd change their ways" fantasy years ago, because a) it doesn't, and be) they don't. How's Equifax doing these days? Oh yeah, totally fine.
In my case I enjoy reading The Economist and do not mind paying for it, but some years back I had to cancel my subscription (I was cutting back on expenses) and honestly I found that experience so much against the business values they preach that it has made me not subscribe again, even if it means not reading their publication.
(Every few years I go to check if they have made it easier to unsubscribe, but last time I checked they still had the same practices)
Edit: I can also imagine that I’m a minority and so it really pays off to keep doing this.
I avoid subscription services like the plague because of this (and other reasons).
I can't know if they're going to do this kind of crap until it is to late. Even if some one reviewed services for this they could change at any time for the worse. So I just assume it will happen and try to limit getting into that bad arrangement as much as possible.
I have a good example of this dynamic using Comcast: when we left New Haven, I had to spend a couple hours in line at a dingy, poorly staffed office terminating my account (the dude working there was fine, he needed coworkers) and then a couple months of “accidentally” still billing me. They could afford to be sloppy on billing and cancellation where I’d lived because in 2008 the competition was (I am not making this up) 128kpbs ISDN and 768-1Mbps DSL since the phone company had badly neglected its wiring.
In addition to being illegal, this was short sighted because they’re a national company. Comcast/Xfinity is one of three gigabit choices in my neighborhood and they periodically send offers with competitive pricing but each time I remember what dealing with them was like and toss it into the shredder. I’m sure the regional office would say they’re better run than the New England one, or that they have a better system, but I’m not going to find out, and there’s no way they skimped enough to save more than they could have made with over a decade of service in a new region.
I tried to delete a Sony account (I had 2). Their site said to talk to support to get this done. I waited for 45 minutes, finally got to someone and they said I can’t. When I tried to mention the support site, they disconnected me, throwing me back in a 45 minute line if I felt like being hung up on again.
For a company that has been hacked multiple times, I find this unacceptable.
It's similar here in Sweden. Usually they require a call to support, officially. However, I think there is a law/policy that require them to accept unsubscriptions by mail/message, regardless of what they say on their website. I recently did this and it worked! Maybe there's something similar in the UK?
Yes that’s right. You can unsubscribe by any which way you want. Mail, phone call, pigeon. Any message sent to any employee or office in anyway is deemed acceptable for giving notice for any service or contract.
Counter-anecdote: cancelling my Virgin Media plan was very simple. I've clicked through their online cancellation process, then they've sent me a prepaid return box for the modem, and that was it.
> Unlike providers who use the rival Openreach cable network, Virgin Media does not allow its six million broadband customers to cancel expired contracts online. Thirty days’ notice is required before any switch, compared with the 14 days’ notice required to switch Openreach providers.
A link to the ongoing Ofcom investigation into their shabby tactics:
I was shocked when I canceled cable TV and the landline on my Comcast triple-play plan--still have internet.
I had procrastinated for months because I was sure I'd go through a real workout routine. I did have to call them but don't remember any particular pain getting through to someone and then it was just "Your new bill will be [about half the old one). Return your rented voice modem. Have a nice day." Maybe it was because it was during COVID.
I had an internet service that could be signed up for on the internet, but required a phone call to cancel. During covid they could not staff their phone service properly so it was effectively broken (20 minute holds, getting booted from the queue, etc.), so I just closed the card and told them to pound sand.
I just started using and paying for Spotify, having been a diehard radio listener all my life (and, in a previous period of my career, worked in the sector). It was more of a reaction against radio rather than being in favour of Spotify, though. I was tired of my listening being characterised by inane commercials, constant depressing negative news, DJs telling us that it's some stranger's birthday, long interviews with some jerk I've never heard of, endless dreadful tracks that I wouldn't choose to listen to.
It got to the point where I couldn't figure out why on earth anyone would listen to radio when you can get all the music you like, with no ads, no news, and no Dave Doubledecks, for a few pounds a month. After a couple of weeks of using it, it started recommending music I'd never heard before, and really cool Scottish and Welsh folk music that the radio stations here would never touch, so I've discovered really cool stuff through it. I love that I can tell it never to show me certain artists - for instance, if I never heard Eminem again in my life it'd be too soon, so I've told it to never recommend any tracks by him, whereas local radio plays him incessantly.
Hum, OK. I'm in VK, seems it's quieter here. Thought they'd use VHF to keep it local, but I suppose 160m is the next best thing (it's not the best look, you ought to keep that traffic local if possible).
PS: Sorry about that damn typo, I must kill autocorrect.
Didn't Cities Skylines come out of a previous project by the same developer, a transport simulator called Cities in Motion? It's no wonder it has a heavy focus on transport management.
I'm with "1p Mobile" now who are a virtual network on EE, and their adult content block is just a toggle in your online account, with no faffing around required - you can just hit the toggle. I presume the idea is that you don't give little Timmy the password to his own account portal, but I don't know what's to stop him getting his own SIM by himself.
With Three, I found the adult content block caused other problems with SSH connections dropping, various random stuff getting blocked and so on, which all went away as soon as I had it disabled, so it's worth doing even for non porn fans.