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I would love to test this because I'm pretty sure that simply using netflix after you canceled will not start the subscription again without any prompt. What if

I would love to test this because I'm pretty sure that simply using netflix after you canceled will not start the subscription again without any prompt. What if you dad is lying to avoid embarrassment?

atum47 3y ago
> What if you dad is lying to avoid embarrassment? Shouldn't matter, right?! Once I cancelled was not supposed to be charged again unless I agree to it. If my father wanted to renew the subscription, he should use his card, right? the renewal process should function as a new subscription, if not done by the same person that subscribed in the first place.
- lolinder 3y ago
  Were you and your father using two separate usernames/passwords? Or a shared login? If it was a shared login then Netflix would have reasonably assumed that you authorized the charge. If it was a separate account, you have a point—only the plan owner should be able to renew the plan.
  - gabeio 3y ago
    Unless I am missing something there is no way to have more than 1 login for netflix. Everyone uses shared logins.
    - lolinder 3y ago
      They recently added support for sharing your plan with an "Extra Member", for an additional fee: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/123279 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/123279
- neximo64 3y ago
  Its really likely your father renewed the subscription with consent, and forgot about it. Netflix doesn't auto renew simply by watching. It asks you to renew the subscription. It requires conscious consent.
  - partdavid 3y ago
    How do you know this? Where is the record? If Netflix is going to charge me money, they need to prove that I incurred the charge. They could do this by making a record of the date, device and profile that renewed. But they can't. In my case they refunded the erroneously renewed subscription as a "one time courtesy". Like they're doing me a favor. Yeah, it's "one time" because I'd have to be a fool to do business with a company that treats me this way.
    - Alupis 3y ago
      > They could do this by making a record of the date, device and profile that renewed. But they can't. Most likely they do, and decided it wasn't worth fighting over this issue. OP's dad, using OP's account, consented to billing. There's really no other option, unless we're just going to say things non-technies think, like the computer decided on it's own or something. Netflix cannot just randomly decide to charge people for things. That would obviously be fraud, and Netflix wouldn't still be a company today if they depended on fraud for billings. Think about it...
      - partdavid 3y ago
        Yes, you're right, it's not possible for "a company" to commit fraud and still be a company, right? If the world worked like that, you would expect to find many examples of companies committing fraud. And you'd never find a bank like Wells Fargo committing fraud for money, right? Because surely they wouldn't be a bank? And you'd never find a company violating its own user privacy rules, like Facebook, because they'd surely be out of business, right? And you'd never find a major phone company billing people for things they didn't have the right to do, because surely AT&T would be out of business, right? The fact is: "most likely" and "probably" and your uninformed best guess about what happened is not knowing. I'm not sure why you would think that the only reason that I would think that Netflix restarted my subscription in error is that I'm a "non-techie" (and ugh, what an odious way to try to dismiss someone) who thinks "the computer decided on it's [sic] own." It tells me a lot about your understanding that you can't imagine many scenarios where the interaction of a complex, mostly non-technical system of product design, business decisionmakers, microservice integrations, several apps on hundreds of distinct platforms might behave in an unexpected way that treats consumers unfairly, with varying levels of intention or neglect at different layers. As the consumer, I'm getting charged the money and I'm the one who needs the justification to indicate that it was authorized. I disagree with your perspective that "Well, they're a 'company', therefore they must have a good reason to charge me, I better pay it". I do, in fact, think it's "most likely" that someone did... something... on a logged-in device that restarted the subscription. However, I think it's very unlikely that that involved presenting a new billing agreement that they agreed to, or providing the password to my account (remember, this is a subscription that was cancelled, not suspended or paused or frozen or any other kind of seemingly-temporary measure--since Netflix doesn't offer a way to remove accounts, it's the strongest thing I can do to sever my business relationship with them). If the logic is unintentional: an edge case of a logged-in device where that particular app on that platform sent the wrong cookie when starting a stream, etc., then Netflix not caring to investigate and solve it is because they're happy to collect revenue from erroneous and unjustified subscriptions in the hope that consumers won't notice or fight it; which is gross. If the logic is intentional: to obscure the fact that whatever action the user takes results in a re-subscription; then it's gross and possibly illegal (dunno, not a lawyer, and my definition of "crooked" might include things that aren't yet against the law). Either way, they are likely to keep doing it until forced to stop, because your naïve perspective that companies can never do anything wrong is absolutely incorrect.
- themitigating 3y ago
  It was the same person as viewed by Netflix because he had your account. Asking to renew using stored data is something you can object to but it's not insane

atum47 3y ago

> What if you dad is lying to avoid embarrassment? Shouldn't matter, right?! Once I cancelled was not supposed to be charged again unless I agree to it. If my father wanted to renew the subscription, he should use his card, right? the renewal process should function as a new subscription, if not done by the same person that subscribed in the first place.

lolinder 3y ago
Were you and your father using two separate usernames/passwords? Or a shared login? If it was a shared login then Netflix would have reasonably assumed that you authorized the charge. If it was a separate account, you have a point—only the plan owner should be able to renew the plan.
- gabeio 3y ago
  Unless I am missing something there is no way to have more than 1 login for netflix. Everyone uses shared logins.
  - lolinder 3y ago
    They recently added support for sharing your plan with an "Extra Member", for an additional fee: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/123279 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/123279
neximo64 3y ago
Its really likely your father renewed the subscription with consent, and forgot about it. Netflix doesn't auto renew simply by watching. It asks you to renew the subscription. It requires conscious consent.
- partdavid 3y ago
  How do you know this? Where is the record? If Netflix is going to charge me money, they need to prove that I incurred the charge. They could do this by making a record of the date, device and profile that renewed. But they can't. In my case they refunded the erroneously renewed subscription as a "one time courtesy". Like they're doing me a favor. Yeah, it's "one time" because I'd have to be a fool to do business with a company that treats me this way.
  - Alupis 3y ago
    > They could do this by making a record of the date, device and profile that renewed. But they can't. Most likely they do, and decided it wasn't worth fighting over this issue. OP's dad, using OP's account, consented to billing. There's really no other option, unless we're just going to say things non-technies think, like the computer decided on it's own or something. Netflix cannot just randomly decide to charge people for things. That would obviously be fraud, and Netflix wouldn't still be a company today if they depended on fraud for billings. Think about it...
    - partdavid 3y ago
      Yes, you're right, it's not possible for "a company" to commit fraud and still be a company, right? If the world worked like that, you would expect to find many examples of companies committing fraud. And you'd never find a bank like Wells Fargo committing fraud for money, right? Because surely they wouldn't be a bank? And you'd never find a company violating its own user privacy rules, like Facebook, because they'd surely be out of business, right? And you'd never find a major phone company billing people for things they didn't have the right to do, because surely AT&T would be out of business, right? The fact is: "most likely" and "probably" and your uninformed best guess about what happened is not knowing. I'm not sure why you would think that the only reason that I would think that Netflix restarted my subscription in error is that I'm a "non-techie" (and ugh, what an odious way to try to dismiss someone) who thinks "the computer decided on it's [sic] own." It tells me a lot about your understanding that you can't imagine many scenarios where the interaction of a complex, mostly non-technical system of product design, business decisionmakers, microservice integrations, several apps on hundreds of distinct platforms might behave in an unexpected way that treats consumers unfairly, with varying levels of intention or neglect at different layers. As the consumer, I'm getting charged the money and I'm the one who needs the justification to indicate that it was authorized. I disagree with your perspective that "Well, they're a 'company', therefore they must have a good reason to charge me, I better pay it". I do, in fact, think it's "most likely" that someone did... something... on a logged-in device that restarted the subscription. However, I think it's very unlikely that that involved presenting a new billing agreement that they agreed to, or providing the password to my account (remember, this is a subscription that was cancelled, not suspended or paused or frozen or any other kind of seemingly-temporary measure--since Netflix doesn't offer a way to remove accounts, it's the strongest thing I can do to sever my business relationship with them). If the logic is unintentional: an edge case of a logged-in device where that particular app on that platform sent the wrong cookie when starting a stream, etc., then Netflix not caring to investigate and solve it is because they're happy to collect revenue from erroneous and unjustified subscriptions in the hope that consumers won't notice or fight it; which is gross. If the logic is intentional: to obscure the fact that whatever action the user takes results in a re-subscription; then it's gross and possibly illegal (dunno, not a lawyer, and my definition of "crooked" might include things that aren't yet against the law). Either way, they are likely to keep doing it until forced to stop, because your naïve perspective that companies can never do anything wrong is absolutely incorrect.
themitigating 3y ago
It was the same person as viewed by Netflix because he had your account. Asking to renew using stored data is something you can object to but it's not insane