Finally killed auto-renew on six subs today. Total waste: $847/year. One was a 2gb vps I migrated off in 2023. Another was "premium support" for a provider that ghosted. But how much RAM? Not enough, apparently, since I forgot half these existed. Current lab: 256gb threadripper, so this was just burning money for nostalgia.
Six subs.
Eight hundred.
Dollars.
Burned.
Impressive.
Member
Under GDPR article 7(3), withdrawal of consent for auto-renewal must be as easy as giving it. I have filed three complaints this year. Providers burying cancellation links three menus deep violates the "equal effort" principle. My recovered total: €340 annually. Article 13 flashbacks every time I see "manage preferences."
Meanwhile I just found I'm still paying CloudCone $9/mo for a vm I deleted in 2022. Their dashboard still shows it "suspended" so the charge lives. Beautiful.
What was the 2gb vps running? Curious what even needs that little now
It was a Debian box running pi-hole and a wireguard exit node. Nothing that justified $18/mo when my home connection handles both fine. The nostalgia was "first vps I ever leased" more than anything technical.
Pi-hole on 2GB? Overkill even in 2019. I run mine on a 512MB oracle free tier that costs actual zero.
CloudCone finally killed it after I opened a ticket. Refunded two months because I had proof I deleted the VM in 2022, their own API logs showed no resource usage since. Took four days though.
Member
Four days to stop charging for a deleted VM. This is why article 7(3) exists. "As easy as giving it" -- you click once to create, submit a ticket and wait half a week to destroy the payment obligation.
Same provider, same issue. I had a CloudCone storage VPS showing "terminated" that billed for 8 months. They claimed "termination is not cancellation." Learned that distinction the expensive way.
