ContractsProf Blog

Editor: Jeremy Telman
Oklahoma City University
School of Law

Monday, October 25, 2021

Contracts Prof Devotes Morning to Fighting Back Against Wrap Contracts

Over the weekend, my wife and I upgraded our aging cellphones.  It was an ordeal, as it always is, requiring visits to three different stores and then another hour at home transferring files and data from the old phones onto the new.  So much for a relaxing Saturday.

The only document I recall signing was a receipt for the phones.  The only electronic documents I recall agreeing to were with Apple.  I recall no communications from my service provider until this morning, when I retrieved this perky e-mail from my spam filter:

Screen Shot 2021-10-25 at 10.44.25 AM

That's right, $7/month, every month, on both phones.  No problem, I thought.  I'll just go on the website and cancel it.  I was able to find the charge fairly quickly, but I couldn't just click on it and cancel.   It was clearly identified as an "Add-on" so I deduced that the way to remove it was to go to Manage Add-ons.  But on that page, I had a sinking feeling when I noticed that the main question was when I wanted to activate my Add-ons.

Screen Shot 2021-10-25 at 10.50.46 AM

Removing Add-ons was not an option, nor was phone insurance listed among the Add-ons that I could "manage."  I tried searching "cancel phone insurance" and got no hits on the website.  

Eventually, I was able to use the chat function to cancel the insurance.  I am going to be generous and only bill them for 1/2 hour of my time.

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/contractsprof_blog/2021/10/contracts-prof-devotes-morning-to-fights-back-against-wrap-contracts.html

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Comments

Ugh, how frustrating and enraging. At least we (the public) benefitted from the ordeal because it resulted in an entertaining post.

Posted by: kotodama | Oct 25, 2021 6:40:32 PM

Such a great example of the manipulative design of wrap contracts! Hope you don't see that recurring charge show up in the future (and nice catch in your spam folder).

Posted by: Nancy Kim | Oct 26, 2021 6:13:24 AM

Just channeling my inner Nancy Kim. . . .

Posted by: D A Jeremy Telman | Oct 26, 2021 7:37:57 AM