Easy to get in, pain to get out

Why is it that most memberships make it super easy to sign up and a pain to cancel? Gym memberships are notorious for this. Sign up and start working out immediately. You want to cancel? You have to submit something in writing, give 30 days notice, answer a bunch of questions, blah blah.

Even guarantees such as "cancel with no questions asked" are empty promises. Years ago I canceled something, and got into a back and forth with a rep asking me about why I was canceling. I still had the original sales email and read him the copy verbatim and yet he still insisted on getting information about why I wanted to cancel. So much for no questions asked.

Last year in the panic of the pandemic, I signed up for a Thrive membership. Thrive is basically an online grocery store. I only ordered from them a couple of times. I don't know if they just didn't have products I like or if I prefer to shop at an actual grocery store. Either way, I have not been using it. My yearly membership was set to renew next month, and I went to the website to cancel. I did not find the option in my settings or profile, so I went to the FAQs. The only way to cancel is to call them or initiate a chat. I initiated a chat and finally was able to get my membership canceled.

It should be just as easy to cancel a membership as it is to start it. 
This falls under a category of User Experience (UX) coined Dark UX
2021-04-07 16:13:17