>Letting companies redefine the rights of their customers seems bizarre to me.

I'm sure it's obvious by now but perhaps it's worth restating:

Those companies have large budgets for contributing to elected officials' campaigns. The individual consumers negatively affected by these practices can't band together as efficiently as the large business on the other side of the abusive behavior.

As long as enough elected officials entertain these businesses in visits, allow them to help write legislation, and accept contributions from them, it won't change.

Also, executive agencies have to put out proposals for new rule making and allow a period of public comment. The business in the sector have entire staffs and/or contract with firms whose job it is to watch these publications and craft intelligent responses backed up by fudged data to "prove" how "damaging" these policies would be to the industry.

The individuals who respond are mostly retired people/activist citizens who can only say "this is a bad idea and I don't like it at all."

But do you think in the rest of the world it's the same thing? In Germany we have good consumer protection laws, even though there of course are lobbyists (or, the old-fashioned name for it, PR people and employees of a company).

Currently in the UK, I had a really bad experience with 3, where I tried to cancel, I was informed that I had my account cancelled and then they kept billing me (for months).

I consulted with some lawyers and they told me since I had only done business on the phone (the only way the company does this business by the way) that was essentially my word against the companies. There was no way to email them and even when I did they refused to confirm or deny any account status unless I called them.

That's not to say consumer rights aren't important, I think America could do better, but I certainly do not feel protected in the UK. It's worth noting that the bulk of my exposure to UK based utility companies or government departments has suffered from similar problems, no easy way to paper trail requests made making these kinds of consumer rights ombudsmans worthless.

In the UK as well, that's why you set up a direct debit payment for any subscriptions. That way you can cancel it at any point and the company can't continue taking your payments any more. If they genuienly think you should still be paying them, then they can sue you for the money, which of course they won't over a £9.99/month subscription. Paying with a debit card is a bit of a mistake because the company can just keep charging it - althought that is also solvable by just ringing your bank and asking for a new card with a fresh number.

Historically I've had good luck emailing/live chatting them stating 'This message confirm xyz, please confirm within X days. Lack of response will be taken as confirmation.'

Keep a record of that and when it comes down to having to make a complaint you can present it to the ombudsman.

This does exist for credit cards in the US. There are guidelines by which credit card issuers must abide by customer requests, and they're seemingly always happy to side with the consumer when it's even somewhat reasonable.

> Letting companies redefine the rights of their customers seems bizarre to me.

Maybe it's just what I was used to, but I think it's far more annoying in many European countries (not sure about the UK but at least the one I live in) where it's harder to return products without specific proof and following strict guidelines, virtually impossible to get a credit or debit card that covers all fees for normal international use, difficult to get a fraud or improper charge on a card statement immediately rescinded, etc.

Speaking from Australia, we have outstanding customer protection and rights, and no massive hoops or hurdles to go to get it that would be more significant than anything in the US. It’s really much more just. Fraud or improper charges are also easily immediately rescinded if using a credit card. What kind of cover for fees for international use are you talking about?

> Fraud or improper charges are also easily immediately rescinded if using a credit card.

I'm not sure how exactly it compares, but every credit card at least in my lifetime in the US has been bound by these same protections.

> What kind of cover for fees for international use are you talking about?

Sorry, this is more of a tangent that I should have denoted, as it's not specifically related to fraud or consumer rights. At least compared to the major European and Asian countries in which I've traveled or lived in, credit card and bank/debit card offerings in the US are extremely generous in benefits, rewards, fees, etc. I actually still sometimes use my US card in a European country because my US bank offers lower fees than my domestic bank (in the home country) for ATMs, currency exchange, card replacements, etc.

> Speaking from Australia, we have outstanding customer protection and rights, and no massive hoops or hurdles to go to get it that would be more significant than anything in the US.

I'm honestly not sure how this compares to the US or elsewhere as I've never been to Australia. I'm regularly surprised by how inflexible businesses seem in much of continental Europe, however.

> At least compared to the major European and Asian countries in which I've traveled or lived in, credit card and bank/debit card offerings in the US are extremely generous in benefits, rewards, fees, etc.

That's true in my experience. It's hard to find a card that doesn't charge ridiculous fees for foreign transactions (even in local currency), for example.

There's the other side of the medal though. Which is that somebody is going to pay for this generosity by the card companies.

Either merchants pay ludicrous fees, which are severely capped in Europe. Or card companies outright rip off the less fortunate members of society by usurious interest rates and fees. Fees, which may be outright criminal[1] if charged in some of the European countries.

[1] That's not hyperbole. For example: Interest rates in Switzerland are capped at 15% annually. If you charge more than that for a loan it's usury, which is part of the criminal code.

In my experience consumer rights in the UK isn't all that either. They basically just ignored all the EU consumer protection laws and never enforced them, so companies could do what they want, like add hidden surcharges for example.

Probably still better than US, but that's not saying much.

There's a huge appetite, it just doesn't matter because corporations have more power than individuals because of how capitalism interacts with democracy.