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Ask HN: DoNotPay siphoning from bank account, recourse?

10 points by garlandcrow ↗ HN
I installed DoNotPay over a year ago and just now noticed they started taking 3$/mo since December despite having uninstalled a year ago and have no emails or notice or anything from them. Anyone else have this experience? There was nothing about this cost when I signed up so don’t know how they can just start taking money. Contacting them they said it’s their policy to only refund 3months, nice policy heh. Also interesting they are essentially doing a silent subscription around Apple and it doesn’t show up anywhere since tied to your bank account. Yea 9$ isn’t going to kill me but they are likely stealing from sooo many bank accounts because of silently starting to siphon funds and no way to stop it thru Apple or anything.

9 comments

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sbuccini
You're not crazy -- this happened to me too even though I thought I never realized I had actually signed up for the subscription (I just went to the first page of one of their flows) and after I thought I had cancelled. I kept filing chargebacks with my credit card provider and was finally able to cancel my account through the app.

Good luck resolving your case!

atian
We invented chargebacks for these sorts of things. It’s the only metric here that merchant account providers can see!
scott31
If only there was an app that would help you not pay these stupid charges..
Trias11
Every time you file chargeback - merchant have to pay mandatory fee to CC to investigate that regardless of outcome.

This is best way to awaken otherwise ignorant merchant.

prezjordan
+1

I specifically recall them saying they wouldn't charge me until I used their service (when I tried it like a year ago). But yep, same deal. I assume I agreed to any policy changes like this, but definitely won't be forgetting about this.

jamessmith74
I think it’s changed a lot since the last year
dfee
The line item is called "Subscribe" and it is a $3 charge, as described. I've had my bank block the request, and issue a new card, and I'm still getting the charge.
jamessmith74
Not sure about this. It seems explicit in the signup flow that it costs $3 month and they are pretty transparent about it in media interviews.

App developers don’t really know when you uninstall on Apple because of privacy protections.

If you forgot to cancel, that’s on you, but saying you were “robbed” is a bit melodramatic

pfranz
In my case I've been charged for months, like the poster I have never received any monthly statements or any correspondence at all. The charge description is "Subscribe [numbers] CA" and nothing shows up in Google. I wasn't sure what this was, who the merchant was, or how to contact them.

Now that I've figured out it was this app I installed, but hadn't found a specific use for (and forgot about) I'm poking around again. In the app when I click on "Edit My Profile" it literally says "STEP 2 OF 3" and "Hmm... It seems that you have no set any personal details yet."

I can't remember the original signup flow (I'm confident it wasn't very clear), but even if it was explicit the way ongoing charges work and the value it adds is very dubious.