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the phenomenon of "automatic renewal" of app members has always been controversial. recently, the topic of "zhihu was accused of automatic renewal even after uninstallation" sparked heated discussions on weibo. zhihu's practice of only providing "in-site messages" as reminders for automatic renewal has caused dissatisfaction among some consumers. regarding the phenomenon of "automatic renewal" of app members, the jiangsu provincial consumer protection committee believes that before renewing app membership services, consumers should be reminded in a conspicuous manner through multiple channels such as text messages, phone calls, and emails, and should not be limited to notifications within the app, so that consumers can make clear purchases.

image source: visual china

the only relevant reminder is "internal message"

user uninstalls the app but still gets charged

according to media reports, some consumers complained that they recently looked at the bill carefully and found that their account had been automatically renewed since they first opened a zhihu yanxuan membership in february 2022. the customer service responded that the site is currently notifying privately 5 days in advance. relevant private messages can be viewed on the zhihu app homepage-the bell in the upper right corner-message-official account message-zhihu yanxuan membership channel. before the deduction, there is only the "in-site message" reminder method, which has caused dissatisfaction among some zhihu users. in addition, some users said that they had not used zhihu or enjoyed zhihu's membership services during the period of continuous deductions because they "had uninstalled it long ago."

what is zhihu's response to the above controversy? are there only "in-site messages" for reminders of automatic renewal? will there be any improvements in the future? on the evening of august 28, a reporter from yangtze evening news/ziniu news contacted the relevant people from zhihu and received a reply.

regarding "automatic renewal after uninstallation", relevant people from zhihu said that zhihu has a standard notification process for user payment status, and there is absolutely no deduction of fees without prompting the user. however, zhihu cannot monitor the behavior of users uninstalling the app.

a search by yangtze evening news/ziniu news reporters found that some netizens seemed to understand why the phenomenon of "automatic renewal after uninstallation" occurred, but could not accept the only "in-site message" notification method. "although it is really annoying that there is no warning for automatic renewal, it has nothing to do with uninstallation. as long as you have money in your account and automatic renewal is turned on, it will renew." "it really doesn't matter, but the in-site notification is too limited. if you uninstall it, you won't receive it." "if i don't log in or uninstall it, i won't see the in-site message reminder." "i left my phone number when i registered as a member, why can't i receive a text message reminder when the fee is deducted?"

zhihu people admitted that zhihu currently has only one way to remind users of automatic renewal, which is "in-site message". there were sms reminders before, but the reach rate was not very good, so it was temporarily offline. zhihu has opened a customer service account [zhihu butler] and other customer service channels. in the future, we will continue to explore better feedback methods to improve reach efficiency.

what should be done if users have a refund request? a zhihu person said, "according to relevant national laws and regulations, digital products are not eligible for unconditional returns. zhihu yanxuan membership is a digital product and is operated in strict accordance with relevant national management regulations. in response to users' refund requests, zhihu has specially opened a customer service account [zhihu xiaoguanjia] and other customer service channels to actively communicate related matters and resolve users' reasonable requests."

according to a zhihu user, zhihu provides instructions for canceling continuous subscriptions and refund consultation on the app customer service page, which users can view through [my] - [exclusive customer service] - [salt select members] or [search for the question you want]. if users want to cancel continuous subscriptions, they can cancel through the third-party payment channel.

the phenomenon of "automatic renewal"

consumer dissatisfaction

zhihu is not the only one to be questioned for the "automatic renewal" issue. in recent years, the phenomenon of "automatic renewal" has widely dissatisfied consumers. in an online survey conducted by the jiangsu provincial consumer protection committee in 2019, 69.30% of consumers said they encountered the system's default automatic renewal, but only 5.58% of consumers said they would choose automatic renewal. from the sample experience, 24 samples have the function of automatic renewal. among them, 21 samples set automatic renewal as the priority option. only 3 samples did not set automatic renewal as the priority option.

several years have passed since 2019, and the situation has improved, but the phenomenon of "automatic renewal" still occurs.

in june 2023, the provincial consumer protection committee released a survey report on smart tv-related issues, which found that the renewal of smart tv memberships is relatively complicated, and it is easy to automatically renew subscriptions but difficult to cancel, which is obviously unfair. based on commercial considerations, many operators provide consumers with the function of automatic membership renewal, but compared with the convenience of scanning and paying when activated, the cancellation of the automatic renewal function not only requires cancellation within the prescribed period, but also has a complicated cancellation method.

in the point redemption consumption survey released in july 2024, the online questionnaire survey showed that 66% of consumers have encountered situations where points expired and were cleared without reminders. the app points experienced in the survey all have an expiration date, and the reminder methods include sms reminders, markings in the app, etc., but some products only provide reminder services in the app. sichuan airlines can view the mileage that will expire in the past 3 months through the app, and no sms notification is provided when the mileage below 500 kilometers expires. starbucks points are cleared once a quarter, and there is no reminder in the mini program or sms before the expiration. if consumers uninstall the relevant app, they will not receive reminders.

during the investigation, the reporter found that most users clicked "agree" to the corresponding matters when they first activated the automatic renewal. so why do many people claim that they were automatically and continuously deducted without knowing it? some consumers said that it would be cheaper to activate the continuous monthly renewal than to activate it for one month. the consumer wanted to watch a certain part of the content at first, but forgot to turn off the automatic renewal after watching it. the deduction reminder of the app is not obvious, and some are even "quite hidden"; some do not send sms reminders, which makes it easy for "automatic renewal" to occur.

reminders should be given through multiple channels in a conspicuous manner

let consumers know clearly about consumption

according to the jiangsu provincial consumer protection committee, article 10 of the regulations for the implementation of the consumer rights protection law stipulates that if an operator provides services by means of automatic extension or renewal, the operator shall draw the attention of consumers in a prominent manner before consumers accept the services and before the date of automatic extension or renewal. article 18 of the measures for the supervision and administration of online transactions stipulates that if an operator provides services by means of automatic extension or renewal, the operator shall draw the attention of consumers in a prominent manner before consumers accept the services and five days before the date of automatic extension or renewal, and consumers shall make their own choices; during the service period, the operator shall provide consumers with prominent and simple options to cancel or change at any time, and shall not charge unreasonable fees.

the jiangsu provincial consumer protection committee believes that before renewing app membership services, consumers should be reminded in a conspicuous manner through multiple channels such as sms, phone calls, and emails, and should not be limited to notifications within the app, so that consumers can clearly understand their consumption. at the same time, the jiangsu provincial consumer protection committee recommends providing consumers with a convenient "one-click" operation method. if consumers need to cancel renewal or membership services, they should be allowed to choose in a more convenient way (such as sms reply, qr code scanning cancellation, etc.).

yangzi evening news/ziniu news reporter ma yan

proofread by sheng yuanyuan