The Internet is starting to Break - Here's Why.

Why big tech companies suck right now. Looking at you Amazon, Netflix, Uber, Spotify, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, KZbin...Secure your privacy with Surfshark! Enter coupon code BOSS for an extra 3 months free at surfshark.deals/BOSS
Some of Cory Doctorow's stuff!
Ensh*ttification: www.wired.com/story/tiktok-pl...
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[@hasanismail.]

if buying isn't owning then piracy isn't stealing.

[@Arjun-Subra]

That's deep..

[@mauriciodelarosaparedes2464]

Oh wow!!

[@meeladsamadi]

get this man to the top! 🔥💯

[@andrewmeakin324]

When buying is renting then piracy is borrowing :D

[@epochgd]

Dude. Couldn't be said better

[@Sr68720]

The best subscription I ever had is piracy.

[@loui2bolus265]

Real

[@lablackzed]

100% 👍👊

[@anikghosh4949]

Agreed

[@SuperAgentAB]

Arrgh!

[@Mih52]

True

[@plebmcpleb5761]

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person, taking 15 minutes to walk and pick up some food myself, or refusing to use Amazon, people tell me that I'm eccentric for doing that... It's so normalized, but it all feels so icky I can't bring myself to give these scammers a single buck. Everything that came out of Silicon Valley for the last decade has been a grift, an attempt to dismantle a select industry to rebuild it in a worse state. So this video is refreshing! I'm very happy it's getting so much attention!

[@mrsully6003]

I think it depends on your situation. We live 35 minutes one way from any box stores that we like to shop at. When we need a couple items, it makes no sense to spend all of that time driving to town when Online retailers can bring it to us in a couple of days for free. Imagine what we can with those extra hours every month. Work, play, whatever we want.

[@plebmcpleb5761]

​@@mrsully6003 Yeah, I can relate, I used to live in a pretty remote area. Sometimes there's no alternative either in which case it's totally fine to use em. But I'd still encourage anyone to try to look for different services than the likes of Amazon or Uber, you'd be surprised.

[@Ziminy13131]

For centuries people went to the store themselves. And many businesses delivered for free to get your money. It's odd that people find it normal to pay these exorbitant fees. I see people paying more for the cost of delivery than the food they purchased.

[@davidcavalari226]

"Imagine what happens if companies like this get ahold of your medical and emergency services." Don't have to, I live in the U.S. 😭😭😭

[@Redmoneyusa]

Give an example.

[@jw8350]

@@RedmoneyusaInsurance?

[@gozearbus1584]

For having lived in EU and US, yes the US has been turned into a third-world country by libertarianism

[@_theeverydayitachifan_]

​@@gozearbus1584third world countries have a better medical system than US lol. Medical tourism from US to third world countries is a thing now

[@psiho94]

​@@gozearbus1584You realise that private companies owning things like medical services is what's ruining the US and it's not the liberals who lobby for that...

[@krishgupta687]

The fact that amazon has added a "rent" system (for old movies too) despite of having a prime membership is just outrageous

[@nunocarneiro464]

You have every movie ever made on the internet for free

[@stitchbiatch3715]

This is why I just bought a DVD player and started collecting DVDs again

[@WyattOShea]

@@nunocarneiro464 yaaaaaar

[@ravenspurplebeats5412]

can probly find that old film in charity for £1-2 and keep it forever.

[@Beanzops]

I eat the cotton candy from my walls

[@cartographic.]

"charging for what used to be free" literally sums up every company today

[@rodrigojds]

literally every company that exists, exists to make a profit. No company out there provides a service for free. That's basic economics

[@bumblebeegamerreal]

@@rodrigojds Its true that companies exist to make a profit, but unfortunately its also their job to maintain their trust with customers. Just because your company needs to make profit, doesnt mean they can exploit workers or piss their userbase which makes them lose customers. Its really not an excuse to resort to unethical practices, and not be transparent in communication. Of course no one offers a service for free, but charging more for less perks will definately push away customers. Look at Disneyland and Cable TV. You pay more for the former and you get less benefits than you did. The latter, you initially pay for no commercials at a fair price and now you pay at least 200 dollars with commercials

[@DavidHutchinson0713]

​@@rodrigojdsAnd that's why it's called "business", not "charity"

[@rodrigojds]

@@DavidHutchinson0713 exactly. Would you give your phone away for free? No. So why would companies do that?

[@bumblebeegamerreal]

@@rodrigojds I understand companies need to make money, but its their job to make sure the changes they make do not hurt their customers and tarnish their reputation. Just because companies need to profit doesnt mean they can take away people's games, charge more for less perks, mistreat employees, or go against their company's foundation No company is going to give a free service for obvious reasons, but companies shouldnt be surprise that people are angry at them for valid reasons and turn away from them. Yes, no company gives you a free phone, but at least not all of them make it difficult to repair your phone or overcharge for repairs for the sake of profit Not all companies give you games for free, but not all companies give poor experiences with shady DRM, buggy unfinished graphics and gameplay, barebones plot, and main story content locked behind a paywall, all while being priced at $70. Even worse, these companies are able to revoke access to your games because of a legal loophole. The same can be said for streaming services where you used to be able to watch Cartoon Network shows on HBO, and now most of them are completely wiped I understand businesses need to make money, but there is a fine difference between needing to turn a profit and just being a greedy company. If needing to turn a profit requires screwing with the trust of the community, running scams, losing trust of investors, and introducing unethical practices, despite still being a sucessful company, then thats problematic In most cases, you can find another product or buy a good indie game if you dont like whatever the company sells, hell you can leave a review. But in some cases such as KZbin's treatment towards content creators and Comcast's attitude towards cable television, there is no choice. They are relatively successful companies and financially stable, yet they demand more money. I understand employees need to be paid, maintainence needs money, electricity needs money, etc, but clearly corporate greed runs rampant. Many silicon valley companies layoff hundreds and thousands of employees and some form Unions and protest due to unfair working conditions. So unless if companies are transparent with whats happening, then they shouldnt be surprised people dont like them

[@rhanhurst8002]

I think one of the worst parts is being unable to cancel your subscription within the app on your phone and having to go through their website to cancel and then having to jump through the hurdles as well it's just become predatory and we are all just accepting it as a society so nothing will change anytime soon

[@Scresho202]

Its your country, most likely the USA In Europe its illegal and you have to have a easy cancel button BY LAW

[@rhanhurst8002]

@Scresho202 it's Australia lol I'm from NZ and we have to go through their services to access some services because they're not available here

[@Scresho202]

@@rhanhurst8002 Interesting! Sorry for the wrong assumption!

[@glockenrein]

@@Scresho202 I’m in Germany and I cannot change anything relevant about Spotify or Amazon Prime from within the app. I have to use a desktop version.

[@Scresho202]

@@glockenrein You can use the mobile website too, can't say if inside the App works But still it's easily available on either device and is mandatory by EU law Don't think inside the App is mandatory

[@eckroattheeckroat4246]

Something I experienced in America on Hulu was that the service had WAY more commercial breaks that you would normally see on television. A normal 22 minute episode of a sitcom could have 7 commercial breaks, as opposed to 2 commercial breaks if watching a normal broadcast. The ad supported version of the service was effectively unwatchable compared to normal broadcast television, AND it that was with a subscription fee.

[@luvgener8ion]

Realized this when we'd sit through ad blocker screen And added up the run time of the show is like 15-17 minutes

[@pownder]

Hold up, the ad supported Version is not free? You're paying to see ads? Hahaha. Piracy rules

[@Alustar22]

@@pownder IIRC HULU used to have a fucking bonkers tier system, where the free version had shit tons of ads, the lowest tier had "less" ads, and the premium version had no ads. I've got friends that have no clue about ad blockers and VPNs, going to their homes is like stepping back into a 90s sitcom.

[@HEROX_XX]

Bro be exposing everyone💀

[@thatdudejrss-s]

fr tho

[@cheese8555]

Ong ong fr fr

[@ayberos788]

Frfr

[@kshitijkumar7043]

Fr these thugs *need* to be exposed

[@georgecy5937]

fr and I appreciate that

[@minixt9835]

The last two videos have been brutally honest and genuine, I really like this type of content.

[@bumblebeegamerreal]

Thats because the overall content is shifting to become more authentic and genuine. Most people become famous for being themselves and the oversaturated MrBeast effect is slowly retired. Even MrBeast toned down his smile on the thumbnail

[@hityouwiththatdduddudu]

@@bumblebeegamerrealhaha…I actually checked after reading your comment and yea his recent thumbnails do not have the same trend of smile as his older vids…..still averages 150 mil views tho

[@bumblebeegamerreal]

@@hityouwiththatdduddudu I mean MrBeast religiously studies the algorithm unsurprisingly

[@dylanjnich]

me too!

[@christiansimmons630]

And yet this video was basically a massive plug for SurfShark VPN which is yet another subscription based service 😂🤦🏼‍♂️

[@minigunner1218]

It’s worth mentioning that virtually all the companies mentioned started off operating at a massive loss, relying on venture capital to maintain their service under the premise that their userbase will eventually be monetized. If an established company did this while relying on their own financial reserves, it would be considered predatory pricing and thus punishable under antitrust law.

[@hexmaniac]

Most if not all of these tech unicorns are unsustainable money shredders who awe investors with shiny gadgets and end up failing within 10 years. Personally I view all of this as a side effect of not treating the internet like a public utility.

[@simonk5571]

Are these laws only American laws?

[@Thon_Mayo]

Finally it is said out loud! I’ve been complaining about all of this for a while now. I’ve gone back to booking local taxis, pick up my own takeaway, reverted back to piracy,… feels like stepping back in time! But at least I’m not fuelling these greedy companies that have no respect for their loyal customers…

[@laurel1865]

They put the fees on the customers via tips. Drivers make a base pay of $1-4 dollars depending on how far. Think about the gas it takes to drive 2 miles?!?! So instead of paying us drivers more, they put the fault on the customer to tip more. I never take anything over 2 a mile.

[@Thon_Mayo]

@@laurel1865 I don’t live in the US, we don’t rely on tips to make a living. So I can’t comment on how things work in the US.

[@GangstarComputerGod]

Honestly, the taxi companies made the market ripe for companies like Uber. The two companies in my city were dogshit. Rude drivers that often demanded CASH! Long waits for cabs and they could be unreliable. And they spent years monopolizing places like airports so you were forced to use their shit service. Not defending Uber here, but they took off because taxi companies refused to innovate or improve for decades.

[@pinkifloyd7867]

People are getting fed up and bored with big tech... time is precious ❤

[@user-rc8zv9em4s]

Piracy lol 😂 love it

[@electricbelt]

just cancelled 3 of my subscriptions that i had forgotten to cancel. and its all thanks to you, keep it up!

[@rozzp.5840]

Same!!!

[@dicekolev5360]

How do you guys forget such thing?!?!

[@baganatube]

@@dicekolev5360 Not bookkeeping + being too rich, I guess. 😁

[@xuduwu3472]

@@dicekolev5360goes to show that predatory practices those scum companies do actually works

[@user-hn5zb1ed6e]

@@dicekolev5360 nowadays people are really busy, you just cant assume everyone lives the same life as you, maybe the person has a job to work and a family to feed and they had just forgotten it, it is only part of human nature. or maybe their family had subscribed and they had just remembered to cancel it now. I had also thought how people could forget such a thing until it happened to me.

[@fraud8256]

“Imagine what happens if companies like this get in charge of your medical services”… sir you just described America

[@noahflare6825]

💯

[@atrevi19]

Exactly !

[@soueucaasi]

That's really sad tbh

[@GabrielRM]

Honestly might still be better than the NHS at this point.

[@Feriellll-13]

​@@soueucaasi at least the nhs is free, if you want better service, there is still private healthcare

[@monalee7687]

Very interesting, I’m not a prime member so I always collect things I need for some time until I have enough for free delivery. Here is the interesting bit: Amazon ALWAYS automatically chooses the option for faster delivery even though it costs $8-9 just to have things delivered a couple of days sooner. In the beginning, I didn’t notice this because it says on top that I’m eligible for free shipping since my items are over $35. I ended up paying extra and noticed it was more than expected so I had to cancel it and rebuy it. So what they are doing is trying to fool prime members into getting slower delivery while they try to fool non-prime members into paying more than they wanted to.

[@chrischarles500]

Got me, too! 😠 I've never forgotten to check it since then.

[@RaeReactions]

@@chrischarles500I was thinking the same thing while watching that bit!! I don't have prime and have to constantly remember to change it to the free shipping option because amazon will automatically default to the paid faster option. Outrageous that they do the reverse for Prime Members..

[@blahco4tt]

​​@@RaeReactionsIt's not that they do the reverse so much as there are two or three (depending on item and shiptime) free shipping options, but they purposefully put it on the slower free ship option instead of the one you're literally paying for with your subscription. They'll also try to encourage you to do a ship option that ships out in fewer shipments but takes longer to get to you...again, trying to stop you from getting items the fast way that you are paying for with your membership. But yes, regardless of which subscription you use, you always have to watch out for shipping. In fact, I noticed on my current non-prime membership that they now automatically put certain items on paid shipping before I checkout so that I add more items to my cart for it to be eligible for free shipping (b/c I somehow only had a partially free shipment). I thought it was weird since all items clearly showed a free shipping option beneath their price. Low and behold they were indeed tricking me. I went into checkout mode before adding anything further to my cart and noticed they had switched certain items to paid shipping while having others on free. I then switched the paid ones to free and I suddenly met the free shipping eligibility for all my items in that shipment. Watch out!

[@hellpier4154]

To add to the delivery thing, I'm a delivery driver for a pizza place, and it will almost always be cheaper to order delivery directly from the restaurant, rather than ordering through skip the dishes or Uber eats, etc. This is because the Delivery fee, if any, within city limits, is the same, regardless of if you're literally next door, or on the edge of town. deliveries outside of town are usually upcharged (at least in my case) about 1 dollar per kilometer out of town. This covers the cost of gas, as well as wage. No tip will ever be required, but is always appreciated, and as a delivery driver for a pizza place, you could tip nothing and id still make sure your food gets to you as fast as possible. Order directly from the restaurant, rather than the app, to avoid being overcharged for delivery.

[@saviour254t9]

I basically use Uber to discover restaurants near me and I usually Google to see if they deliver or not and call there directly.

[@scholaroftheunlight]

Food delivery jobs are a scam in themselves. Unless you deliver in a well-to-do area and make good tips, or the company has their own vehicles, you will never make enough money to make up for the wear-and-tear costs on your vehicle. City driving for hours is hard on any vehicle.

[@hellpier4154]

@@scholaroftheunlight I can whole heartedly agree with this. i pay for my own gas and maintenance fees. its not a viable job, but money is money at the end of the day.

[@digl_live]

The answer is piracy. If you can't afford the subscriptions, just pirate the content. It's morally wrong, but being morally wrong to corporations is a morally right thing to do, since corporations don't even have morals to begin with. The only people who deserve your subscription money are small creators of services or products that you enjoy. If corporations aren't going to make it convenient for you to pay, you shouldn't pay them. If paying is not owning, then pirating is not stealing.

[@domacihlebac5739]

Pirating adobe products is morally right

[@in7minutesorless]

​@@domacihlebac5739and so is pirating nintendo games

[@anugruheethangelomathew2923]

Yt revanced for everyone who hates ads, sponsored content etc

[@MrDesillu]

The answer is not piracy but doing another thing. Better than wasted time on pirated content. Pirating content is for junkie of content.

[@livinlicious]

If you act immorally towards someone who is immoral. That makes your action moral. It's easy as that. You can hate it, but you can't deny it.

Bro just lost every chance of a sponsor just to speak fax, couldn't be more proud

[@olekbeluga314]

He doesn't need a sponsor. He's about to surpass Apple in subscribers and it is a tech channel. The amount of ad money he's pulling is terrifying to think about. Glad he decided to take advantage of his sponsor-independence and giant audience to sting giant companies in the balls.

[@abhinavgupta8512]

@@olekbeluga314 If he needs to grow his business, he does need sponsorships. It's just most of the companies he mentioned don't do youtube channel sponsorships usually so he is ok. If he goes after Surfshark, DBrand, etc. he may bring in huge losses.

[@sensualbydomeni]

Wait and see.

[@toad7395]

These companies dont need sponsorships anyways, hence why they're doing enshitification.

[@dazingamaine4318]

@@sensualbydomeni dude he is just..... so incompetent. complains about everything and misinformation. you can get a one month ps sub. for a tech channel he is just a consumer. the japan ep was good. otherwise very whiny. to each their own.

[@dshepherd107]

That’s what Ive started doing. Canceling or pausing streaming services, while I binge one. Then pause or cancel that one, & sign back up to a diff one. Amazon is really starting to piss me off though.

[@Memorex1632]

You've summarised exactly what I observed throughout the years. It's getting more and more ridiculous with what those companies can get away with.

[@ebraheemalrawi1336]

"If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing" - a wise guy

[@KingKraft08]

This has become one of my favorite sayings

[@nat6lbg440]

Best quote I read today

[@maxwellsmith5627]

Based

[@Blue_Monument]

shark tanks honest reaction ._.

[@jsilverchannel]

Piracy isn't stealing, it's just renting

[@PJxpanterx]

I wonder if things will loop, people start pirating everything again, the companies tries to fight it, they eventually give up and offer a good service to people, people stop pirating, the service becomes shit, people start pirating.

[@theghostofbabanovac7069]

"they eventually give up"....i have news for you they never gave up, in fact "pirating side" has been loosing ground heavily for the last 15 years. Today's much harder to find pirated products than it was 15-20 years ago

[@abdou.the.heretic]

​​@@theghostofbabanovac7069what??? I live in a third world nation where I remember Quake 1 literally meant a month paycheck from my parents... In 2001. Now with the internet, I screw over so many big corps and made a small business from bootleg CDs it's not even funny, God bless the internet. It made me even realise religion is bullshit, can you imagine that???!!!

[@lindsaytoles2023]

Let's find out... Time to start the cycle again!

[@abdou.the.heretic]

@@lindsaytoles2023 I'm having hope that one of these days, hopefully when I'm gray and decaying so as to witness it, big corporations will make one last slip, and people turn to localised merchant guilds except with internet. We really only need the word of mouth to go around enough, but I bet someone will come and call me a communist. I don't even believe we were made equal in luck and fortune. But some douche having a mega yacht chaffs my ass like old school jeans.

[@Earthboundmike]

@@theghostofbabanovac7069 Pirating has been losing ground? I mean, it could be but I hiiiiighly doubt it. Have you heard of say, Nordvpn.

[@davidhunternyc1]

Some of us remember Blockbuster video. Whoever thought that would be the golden days of at-home movie watching. The tItles were endless. The foreign film section had a thousand titles alone. The was a nature section, documentary section, and well as the obligatory other sections. You rented the movie for a few days and brought it back when you were done. I loved it. Listening to music has gotten better, with services like Tidal and Roon but watching content has gotten worse. And now basic cable is $100 a month. It's insane.

[@henrywadman2908]

The best part of this video is the gag at 13:05, discussing curated ads with an advertisement for silicon feet. Quality content.

[@oosukeren7948]

Was just searching for this comment- Surprisingly you're the only one that's commented this

[@jalliartturi]

Say this video gets 10M views. If 1% of the audience cancels a $10/mo subscription, you just saved people $10,000,000 one year from now... Hats off to you!

[@tinthanthea2126]

10%*

[@criminelis2328]

Cancelled my Amazon Prime around halfway this video XD

[@grasz]

Or $1,000,000. Both works.

[@jalliartturi]

@@grasz yeah 1M monthly or 10M a year from now :)

[@ryangiroux5688]

Don't be cowards guys let's do it

[@PersonofInterest23621]

“Now you pay as much you used to before these services, but you don’t own anything either” is exactly the biggest problem.

[@johnsmith-cw3wo]

supply and demand my dude... free market right wing capitalism for the win. 💪

[@janwilson9485]

You pay a lot more than when you had to purchase things

[@SgtIrradiated]

If you're not owning it in the first place, piracy is not stealing.

[@sboinkthelegday3892]

Oh, whine. I pay $0 for youtube's wonderful services, like every time I return to home page it reloads all the links in 5 seconds and all the thumbnails in 10. Yes, in that order. To different links.

[@rullebullerdmule6703]

​@@johnsmith-cw3woWhen most laws are written in favor of corporations due to lobbying, it's called end stage capitalism, aka (corporate+state) fa$ci$m. Unregulated capitalism always ends up in the same manner, some would say that in time, all forms of capitalism do, the only difference is how fast it progresses to that dystopian end stage..

[@lithelily]

The darkest pattern: being forced to close ads, instead of them closing themselves. double plus dark: making it nearly impossible to close an ad instead of opening the link.

[@ThePianoKeys]

I'm cancelling my Amazon Prime membership this year and I refuse to use delivery services and Uber/Lift. These companies can't last forever - they'll push people to the limit and then they will start losing customers.

[@HunterTracks]

Pretty nice to hear a KZbinr of your size talking about Big Tech BS, keep it up!

[@manthe3711]

Arun is so rich that he spends the equivalent of France's minimum wage on subscription every month.

[@abadenoughdude300]

@@manthe3711 Meanwhile I can't see myself signing up for even one subscription service because "am I actually gonna be using it? not likely? then why bother" while he has like a dozen services while having probably far less free time than I do. I see it less as him spending "so much" as him failing to resist the companies selling him crap he probably isn't using all that much anyway. Different people have different priorities, though seeing him spend 1200 pounds on subscriptions makes me go "but why?"

[@yashrastogi149]

Unfortunately it won't do shit.

[@HunterTracks]

@@yashrastogi149 The more people are aware of the issue, the more likely they are to support solutions. Small steps are all we have, unless you got a better plan?

[@yashrastogi149]

@@HunterTracks Being aware of the fact is not enough to have these companies change their policies and even if through some miracle they did "change" how long did think it would take them to start exploiting the consumers again?

[@Pierobon]

In the past 2 years I found myself canceling everything... This guy just explained why.

[@theprecipiceofreason]

Same. Cancelled everything. Stopped shopping at big corpo stores for my regular needs and I'm unexpectedly saving around 5k a year. I thought I would pay a premium for avoiding it and I am 1 to 1 but I found I don't actually use the services enough to warrant a subscription of any kind, outside of my phone.

[@windharp]

And then he does a surfshark commercial, which is really odd to me. Even _he_ still wants the money more than he values his own integrity. Btw: There are creators who publish how much those VPN companies offered them, and state the VPN deals are among the most profitable you can get.

[@06howea1]

Me too

[@meltdown6165]

I never started. Facebook was always suspect to me because they don't give a shit about privacy. Amazon exploits their employees and suppliers, as does Uber. They also destroy local businesses who don't have the ability to abuse tax loopholes as the multinationals do.

[@YOTUBE8848]

The problem is our anger is slightly misdirected. Although some blame needs to be shared by the companies, we need to be mindful of the fact that everyone has commitments and debts to repay including countries, and if there was a productivity decline for 2 years and govts tried to solve it by going further into debt, we should remember that inflation will rise. Sadly, our approach now is: spend the stimulus check today, think about consequences later. We let the govt get away with a lot of things.

[@mrk1224]

I'm glad that big channel like yours discusses this. Really frustrating how things get monopolized.

[@ajjoshi]

8:26 - they also charge the restaurant approximately 35% of the bill 😢 killing the hospitality industry AND charge the customer extortionate amounts (up to 75%) as pointed out by Arun What a great video, I've been going on about this for a long while

[@haresh6557]

Not to mention the fact that every service is asking for a tip nowadays. Like what am I even giving a tip for!?!?

[@eberamp]

Don't forget to tip your landlord!

[@jondalton5237]

That they ask for a tip before the service is even received is my biggest annoyance.

[@thezfunk]

It is to shift costs from the employer to the customer.

[@moneyneeded9912]

yes this is stupid, im in the uk where tipping isnt common because the uk pay the staff an ok wage, but they still want tips, f that ill go out my self to go get the damn thing. aint tipping when the pricing on everything is higher than instore, ontop of that they add a service charge and a delivery fee, why do i need to tip when everything is already higher than it needs to be, its just pure greed.

[@RavenAdventwings]

Heh. That's certainly a very American problem.

[@someasiandude4797]

“Imagine if companies like this get in charge of your medical and emergency services!” In America you need not imagine!

[@tgpng2688]

Stop reminding me of reality😢

[@marckpadilla]

Thank's to their politicians!

[@back-up2049]

💯

[@TheBUGZNTA]

Enjoy your waitlists.

[@siddharthk9487]

Thought the same ish.

[@evennorthug2585]

This is the most important video I've watched for a long time. In Business Management, the bag of tricks is called Pricing Models. There are no ethics involved. It's all about money: max revenue and just enough customer satisfaction. We need to develop a language to unravel and communicate bad practices, and we should drag the people responsible into the spotlight and make their reputation, career and bonuses suffer. A killer app would unite consumers, expose bad ethics, damage brands and undermine business cash flows. Bring ethics back into business!

[@adityam.5056]

It's like your favourite new restaurant. At first, it is all amazing, then slowly the portion sizes become smaller, the prices increase and the service becomes worse till it's no longer your favourite

[@rachitarora7039]

For a non Prime user like me, Amazon instead auto selects the paid fast delivery instead of the slower free option 😂

[@lorenzocoppa9005]

Me too! I won't ever subscribe to prime when I have the chance to collect things swiftly from shops close to my house

[@prcr]

Of course. 🤕

[@lakojake4215]

I cancelled my subscription to Prime and I still get all the same delivery options, including "Prime Free". I honestly don't see the difference.

[@soundria25]

@@lakojake4215 until the end of the month, Bro

[@ThomasAndy-qu8dp]

same lmao, i rarely use Amazon so i don't mind using the slow option that comes next month if needed.

[@adityachatterjee7181]

This is the kind of work we want to see more and more. Not just phone or gadget reviews

[@Moe-ww2uk]

This.

[@mohammedaffan323]

fr

[@Maximilian475]

Yes!

[@CMJ06]

Yes yes yes yeah

[@toonistiny]

That would be nice, but this guy kinda built his channel on phone and gadget reviews. To suddenly stop would be a brave move.

[@carnosinehobs7759]

For me, your videos have their ups and downs, but I love when you absolutely nail topics like these. Thank you for spreading the consumer gospel.

[@marcusclark1339]

that story on forgetting is so true, another reason not to get subscription service, had that happen, 4 months and $60 lost and worse the lost is demoralizing so u don't try to get the money back, cause time wasted and just want it done with

[@bardz0sz]

My language teacher has 2 airbnb flats in São Paulo, and he’s noticed they weren’t showing up in search - because they were priced TOO LOW, he had to up the price because he was loosing clients. That means Airbnb is artificially pushing prices up

[@bobbah676]

Yes. All these internet companies are more a less scam. Airbnb is one of the worst companies, they allso willing rent out ur place to be used as a sex hotel or to sell drugs, airbnb do not care.

[@franciscosousa5913]

Not only that, but if you price a product too low for its market price it might look as less reputable, people might think it’s too good to be true thus recurring to other options.

[@FizzyGajing]

I dont get it. How can AirBNB not want low prices, sure they get to take more from your teacher but Airbnb is competing w hotels at the same time.

[@Marynicole830]

@@franciscosousa5913the only reason that is, is because everyone overprices. If people started normalizing a fair price, that problem wouldn’t exist. It’s one of those things that get worse the more people follow it. Fair prices should not be met with skepticism, it’s a symptom of the current market that will implode on itself. Nothing is priced to low these days, it’s either super overvalued or just a little overvalued but since every company and industry is doing the same, no one can just go elsewhere. Air BNB prices are absolutely insane. They used to compete with hotels but damn if hotels aren’t half price or even a third of the price of similar air bnbs

[@And2Handles]

Before it was a no brainer to use Airbnb, nowadays it really depends on the location. Sometimes hotels offer a better price. Especially for flats that are only used for sleeping

[@relaxxed_]

I've found that I am now happiest avoiding unnecessary purchases. I either make my own food or go to a local restaurant, usually only get fast food / delivery when I am extremely busy. I don't watch tv/shows anymore via streaming. I don't take ubers anymore, I just drive, or take a cab. I don't pay for anything extra because it all sucks. I buy online exclusively when necessary, and I only buy things I use. I only buy another when it breaks or doesn't keep up with what I need it to do. And it is truly liberating. Sad to see how far all these promising new businesses have failed. I really do miss the 2000s internet.

[@mohamadhamada9954]

I absolutely agree with you

[@TelmoMonteiro]

Couldn't say it any better

[@only1baloney]

that's been my life, the entire way. weird how all of you are just finally figuring out the only way to save money, is to save money. LOL.

[@user-cs1we8kv2o]

you are a real hero!!

[@ffelegal]

How do you watch tv shows, then? By downloading them?

[@meme.d112]

as someone who has been learning more about the economic levers of the tech industry the past few years, i'm so so glad a mainstream reviewer/youtuber is covering it and so thoroughly. thanks for the fantastic vid!!!

[@PhilipZeplinDK]

Uber fucked up in Denmark, when they said they didn't have a responsibility to pay taxes, as well as have the same standards as taxis. State went after them so hard, Uber themselves shut down all operations with a year. And no, it's not a problem, all our taxi apps work exactly the same - if not better.

[@ROLOGamingOfficial]

"Tiering" comes straight out of the Airlines Industry. Instead of creating new better quality Tiers, they broke down the existing ones into ones with less features.

[@Prometheus7272]

So wait does that mean 1st class used to be standard or am I misunderstanding this?

[@Slaggo]

@@Prometheus7272 Pretty much; in the old days of the airline industry, first class was the only thing available: there were plenty of room, very comfy, great customer service, etc. Nowadays, it's in the tier system where first class is now the upper tier at a higher price and economy is the lowest tier where they shove people in like a tuna can.

[@hiraar3979]

Like Tuna can 😂😂😂

[@Prometheus7272]

@@Slaggo My entire life’s a lie

[@ThatOneInternetCommenter]

I would argue the way airlines approached this had an overall positive effect (making air travel more accessible), but other industries bent it to make it malicious.

[@bisnisldy1]

I’m a delivery driver and I promise you there’s no special notification that lets me know you’re a priority smh and I don’t get anything extra smh

[@Variety_Pack]

oof. i drive but i never order, it's such a scam.

[@Chinoman10]

You should look at Drife, they don't charge anything between rider and driver. Their revenue comes solely from driver subscriptions.

[@Elmaestrodemusica]

Do you check to see if a tip has already been added?

[@shakdidagalimal]

He never got into how they screwed the drivers to rake out more share profiteering.

[@cin2110]

Nice big corps just pockets our money.

[@walterkovacs2612]

The editing team need a raise

[@Miisamm]

When Netflix came out I stopped pirating series and movies, but now... Disney Amazon netflix, no hbo in Europe, no paramount etc. Well ... yarrrr

[@GlorifiedGremlin]

This is honestly one of the most valuable videos you've ever published

[@al7erna7ive]

This

[@StallionStudios1234]

Yeah this just reminded me to cancel my Uber one sub. They did the 3 months free offer which is coming up in a month. I have no intention on keeping it. I only order once or twice a month so not worthwhile for me to use that. Most of the time I just go pickup my food so no need for it.

[@SamT]

This video deserves to be seen by more people, it's the sort of education big companies don't want people to know

[@Michael-Angh]

For me this is one of the most valuable KZbin channels ever in existence.

[@stackflow343]

These subscription models are everywhere and it's a cancer. Subscriptions for things that have no reason needing a subscription. Even car manufacturers want to soft-lock features your car already has behind a subscription (including Key FOBs). All the people over the years who've nagged and rolled their eyes, excusing criticism away as anti-progress... they deserve a large part of the blame for enabling this imo

[@kittytrail]

helped the widow of a friend sort her financial woes after his death by going through all the shit she pays for but don't use, it was a nightmare, more than 600€ thrown away each month for nothing, like two gym subscriptions she says she had "cancelled" including one for a place that closed down in her city in 2020. took close to two months to cancel everything as some "required" sending registered mail twice. 😑 oh yeah, and two "security suites" for a windows pc she doesn't have. 🤡

[@merkasable]

​@@kittytraildamn that is rotten to the core, cheers that you helped her out and I hope that the system will change. But I fear that too many people wont care enough to force the businesses to stop these practices

[@kittytrail]

@@merkasable she signed for all those but never checks her bank statements or email, it's a nightmare as she has now new subs for coffee pods and some beauty/skincare products. i'm not sure she really understands that her monthly available for discretionary spending money has been divided by more than 3 since my friend death... 😑

[@adrianocs4]

​@@kittytrail Had a case where my friend was paying for ant-virus and the cancel page leads to an error 404 page, in the end i teached him that he can call his credit card company and ask them to cancel any subscription from there AND ask for a chargeback for everything he didin't use by just telling he got scamed.

[@kittytrail]

@@adrianocs4 depends where you are on this planet. here, you cannot cancel directly your payment as contract law is enforced quite well both for the company interests and for the customer ones and judges tend to side with the customer in case of a doubt (much like ebay's CS way of doing things) as the threshold of "proof" is higher for professionals than for laymen. there are lots of loopholes like unilateral contract terms modifications that will free you from the most robust contract if you don't agree with those changes (say roaming incoming SMS charges in Zimbabwe for your cellphone contract while you won't _ever_ need it), even if the new terms are in your favor of if they encompass a part you never used nor ever planned to use. one of the biggest problem is when the corporation is american or english and you have to go through their vile anglo shenanigans about the customer always being right as long as he pays, as soon as he stops or wants to stop, they consider you literally like a traitor and an ignoble person that cannot appreciate their infinite generosity in having you as a customer. or if you have to deal with cheap arsed 3rd world CS reps that neither understand what you say or mean nor do you understand what they're saying... 😑 add that most people are pretty much gullible and won't read the contract they're agreeing to nor would they understand half of it if they took the time to do so. 😑

[@DesoloZantas]

I'm so glad someone made a video of every reason why I rage at my phone. We don't make enough money to spend the money that they want us to spend. This will eventually eat itself dry. But this inflation is actually an optional and unnecessary company decision to rake more out of the customer. The rich loves to get richer.

[@teralecole316]

It’s never been more clear that greed is at an all time high.

[@Mark-bo7pb]

"you won't own anything and you'll be happy" starting to make sense now

[@HammSaaa]

Saint Klaus😊

[@SJursa-ey4tt]

They said it only now, but went on from like 60s, with TVs, milkmen and electricity bill... It really is, a technocracy beofeudalism, corpocracy - we are ants the those at power, they give us just specks, "gifts" to appease masses from rising up...

[@hungaro7964]

rhis is why piracy will be rocking unless u are in b2b

[@11yash11]

Except for the being happy bit

[@ihx7]

and ironically the right wing is in favor of it

[@daniel.muntean]

I'm glad someone on KZbin talks about this. I've began to think this only happens to me, and I'm living in a bubble.

[@bjtaudio]

Thats the other problem everyone is living in a bubble, cancel the subscriptions, dont waste your money.

[@kaiipop4762]

Frrr

[@Daniel-rp7nb]

I dont get it, people have been talking about this for years…..

[@TimHaggerty-ox8bl]

@@Daniel-rp7nb Me neither. Are all these tricks just now occurring to this man? I mean, I like him but tell me something I don't know.

[@Mischievous_Moth]

@@TimHaggerty-ox8bl Well, not everyone knows. OP for example probably wouldn't have known without this video, and believe me your average person doesn't really notice so whether or no you personally already knew doesn't mean that the video is without merit.

[@kyleg568]

The best part about all of this is that people continue to pay for it. This goes for every industry involved in sales. Vehicles, for example, are out of control too, but only because people continue to pay $50k for a base model F-150.

[@spammus1]

Recently I started shaving off and deleting all these useless apps and subscriptions. I also deleted most of my socials. It's actually so refreshing, the "back in my days" thing has basically become just a meme but now more than ever it holds extremely true. I miss when phones, cars and services weren't dumbed down to the extreme, filled with useless things just to cut corners and save price and were so anti consumer. I've always been against piracy, but as time went on piracy became the only reasonable thing to do.

[@tonywarner4478]

I’ve just cancelled UberOne, Spotify, Disney+, all thanks to this video opening my eyes! Thank you, Arun!

[@mordante01]

cry more

[@mitsunam7001]

@@mordante01 What?

[@mordante01]

@@mitsunam7001 People cry and moan that things cost money. I think Disney+ never made money. Spotify is I think also losing money and the artists gets paid almost nothing. People cry about about it but forgot buying a single CD or LP costs more then 2 months subscription. Spotify is too cheap.

[@keithp6054]

Me too

[@Kole777]

@@mordante01 WEE WOO WEE WOO DEPRESSION ALERT

[@Fascinatefelix]

Adobe has reached peak enshitification. I'm surprised they were not mentioned.

[@ai-tools-search]

+1

[@harounhajem7972]

Has?! It always was. They sphear headed the subscription service for software. But they never fixed their products, with subscription their products became worse

[@panicdispenser6586]

you have to cancel it from time to time and take the black friday offer with 40% discount. last december i canceled it and they gave me 2 months for free. but its still f expensive

[@Kool212]

So glad there are decent one time purchase or free alternatives to all their software.

[@museum1401]

@@Kool212 Yep, I've started using Resolve and Affintiy Photo and they're pretty good. Adobe can do one.

[@nicolasmarazuela1010]

We stopped pirating and using dubious streaming plattforms because the the subscribtion model was more comfortable. But now it reverses again...

[@theforestoftchanbyyaoma7441]

Thank you very much! Clarity is definitely with you and we all benefit from it. 🙏

[@henrynordman]

This video really summed what's going on in the last ~5 years. Everything just slowly turn into shit: shorts, ads, fees, etc. Internet is really broken these days.

[@goodgrief888]

Yep, the entire economy is now based on tricking us. I’m so tired of subscriptions. I don’t do free trials anymore because they make it so hard to cancel that you put it off until the last day and they hope you give up trying to find the link to cancel and keep paying

[@pigimiceli]

you can thank share holder capitalism. I remember when the talks about free internet and open software technology were at the forefront, but then people went... nooo let s just give them something and it will be fine. Now that they are the only game is town you see why it was an important fight to win. Give them a finger, they ll take the balls next.

[@guillaumelane3374]

Ikr it just all feels so bad compared to pre-2020 imo I feel like KZbin and Google are making the occasional effort to go in the right direction though, like YT recently asking users to choose the content they actually would like to see more of

[@henrynordman]

@@pigimiceli i think its more about large monopoly companies in tech (e.g. Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Netfilix) that can base their whole business strategies on enshittification. There is no viable alternatives for the users to seek higher quality services. In the non-internet world, we don't have this problem. With cars, restaurant etc we can always choose to go for competitor if we are not satisfied with the product we get.

[@alanmichael5619]

@@guillaumelane3374 Honestly KZbin are one of the worst ones. They keep locking existing features behind the paywall and increasing the number of ads.

[@souptaels]

It's funny cause the precedent before was that ordering online was cheaper than just going to the store yourself, but now it's actually the opposite. What used to be convenient is now just predatory.

[@Kirkaig]

Ordering online is cheaper, it only gets expensive when you buy from big companies and even then it's cheaper for them. If physical stores had better ways of jacking up prices they would and they still do some sneaky tricks.

[@jeffreysanders7334]

One of capitalism's "killer apps" is pricing goods efficiently. For example, if I'm an apple farmer, how many apples do I need to sell in order to pay for the new engine on my truck? As it turns out, for most things in general, free markets do a good job deciding the efficient point. It doesn't work for things like medicine where people can't just opt to use the product, but it does for things like delivery services. The same people here complaining about the cost of online services that deliver to your house would also probably complain about workers not getting paid enough. And these services LOSE money for the companies. You know why? It's never been efficient to have a single person deliver you a $10 lunch. It uses an insane amount of resources for almost no benefit. It's SUPPOSED TO cost this much, because it's ridiculously inefficient and resource hungry. You all might as well complain that you can't get your food delivered by helicopter for cheap.

[@souptaels]

@@jeffreysanders7334 I can't get my food delivered by helicopters for cheap. Workers aren't getting paid enough.

[@itsjustbusiness1989]

​@@jeffreysanders7334cheap food helicopter delivery and fairly paid workers sound really cool actually, companies should do that

[@itsjustbusiness1989]

​​@@jeffreysanders7334 cheap helicopter food delivery and fairly paid workers sound really cool tbh corps should do that

[@KahlDragonborn]

Everyone needs to watch and boost/share this video! Thanks Mrwhosetheboss this was very much needed and I am so glad someone made an in depth video on it. Great work.

[@warlockly123]

How is im just finding out about this channel now! Actually new favorite channel thanks Arun love your content insane quality and amazing writing! never hit the subscribe button so fast

[@adeen5438]

My favorite is a website being "on sale" for only 12 hours left. But they're ALWAYS on sale, so that 50% was always their intended price, preying on FOMO of having a deal.

[@boulderbash19700209]

On the opposite spectrum is website that put a higher price the second time you open it, to punish you for browse around for similar products. 🤬

[@GetMoGaming]

Because it works - it's proven to turn on panic responses to make you more likely to panic-buy. (Unless you know what's actually going on, that is)

[@Muwahid999]

Udemy increases price after multiple visits. It initially fooled me into buying courses in haste (they were good Cs related courses but i could've bought them as per need hadn't i thought prices don't actually increase using discount coupons etc)

[@FantasiePolitiek]

Airlines use this alot, the more times you look at a certain flight at a certain date and a certain time the more you are giving away about actually wanting to book that specific flight. This is when they start up charging you at least a couple of tenners.

[@owenorders5202]

Anyone who puts a time limit on the availability of their product is trying to make you panic buy. Legitimate salesmen have always done this, but the ploy is mostly used by scammers nowadays.

[@michaelkyle2150]

Uber also tries to refuse refunds when you cancel Uber one a few days before the renewal date, claiming that it takes several days to cancel the payment and therefore there’s nothing they can do and the payment will be taken and can’t be refunded. It takes 5 minutes of telling them that’s it’s illegal to not give a refund when cancelling BEFORE the renewal and then magically they find the ability to refund the payment. They’re a terrible company, barely use them anymore.

[@videoandphotographyllc]

you can also dispute the charge using your bank

[@arcticbeak]

@@videoandphotographyllc Doesn't it hurt your credit score, if you do it that way?

[@thebearsschitzoidmind9707]

As long as you give them their stated required notice period that you will be cancelling your contract, then you have every right to cancel the standing order or direct debit in your account. For them to make a claim against you for monies in arrears they would have to show how you had breached the contract (ie not given them x number of days notice). Moral of the story: don't fall for the "keep your account open after cancelling in case we need to give you a refund" because that's an age old lie. Take it from an ex-call center worker for a number of those dodgy companies that "put customer service at the heart of everything we do", it's a lie 99% of people fall for.

[@edwin768]

Uber is a TERRIBLE company TERRIBLE

[@BrownDaddy007]

Uber is owned by one of the most extortive banking families in the history of human beings, Rothschild.

[@paritosh3saklani]

Kudos arun for spitting the fact this is not something that generally anyone has guts to talk about

[@greeneyes66]

the most annoying is actually the backdoor return of adverts like with Amazon Prime. The other day, when a commercial started with the countdown I was wagering leaving the desk to get a drink or something - to stop and think: this feels just like mid-90s TV all over again.

[@PHiNiX]

One of the things that I realised with youtube specifically was, that if you ever not skip a skippable ad, there is a chance that youtube will assume that you fell asleep and will simply use your proceeding session to make them money. I have woken up to multi hour ads running while I was asleep, or checking my history in the morning and finding content from creators that I have never seen before and have nothing to do with what I usually watch or what I had on when I fell asleep.

[@SamuKumar-rz6tn]

Lol

[@Benjamimic]

Adblock is free. I can't remember the last time I saw a sponsored item or ad.

[@shadowgaming475]

​@@BenjamimicKZbin does not let your do anymore

[@dekaiT]

@@shadowgaming475 google a bit harder ;)

[@bellatrixlestrangeone1651]

Whot mate? That sounds horrible. You can enjoy KZbin on your phone. 0 ads at $0. Can't speak for iPhone users, though.

[@martinhawes5647]

I hate companies that make you “lose access immediately” when you cancel a subscription. Then I’m forced to set a reminder 1 day before the end of the subscription month to cancel it.

[@charlottelavigne6826]

ye i got scamed 30.99£ i was so angry

[@FJUVHJDSR]

Fr, it's very annoying... I take a different approach to handling it tho lol

[@danytalksmusic]

Which companies do that? As far as I know, it's illegal because you purchased the rights to a platform for one month at a cost of 0 dollars, so you have legal rights despite paying nothing

[@khalisteas]

@@danytalksmusichappened to me with apple tv

[@patatoothie]

Creative Cloud can only be cancelled one month before the end and the minimum you can subscribe to is one year. Otherwise you have to pay 50% worth of the remaining months as a cancellation fee. 🙂

[@bioblade87]

"charging a monthly fee and hoping you forget" literally every gym in existence lol

[@Rot8erConeX]

9:21 Wastage is the reason my Switch joy-cons are re-colored. My brother was modifying his own Switch (to make it his favorite colors but also keep the asymmetry he liked about the Switch. Ultimately his Switch looks like Shego from Kim Possible.) and he determined that with the price of shipping and how much extra it would take to add to his order for him to qualify for free shipping, it was *more cost effective* to triple the size of his order. Luckily, he had four siblings who also owned Switches and the entire family would benefit from our consoles *not* being identical. So he threw a link to the website he was using to the sibling chat and said "first two siblings to send me their preferred colors get their Joy-cons recolored for free. I'll even install them for you."

[@_qw3rtyXxYz_]

Remember when youtube had a single 5 second skippable ad? It's crazy how fast they went from that to their current state

[@aaronlange8756]

I'm old enough to remember when KZbin didn't have any ads.

[@Cathiina]

Same, Aaron, same lol

[@StuartHetzler]

KZbin will literally make you watch a 15 second ad on a 3 second video these days.

[@SirTacoVr]

Idk about phone and pc cause I watch most of my KZbin on tv but sometimes KZbin will give FOUR UNSKIPPABLE ADS

[@HilleCine]

Also now they pump more adds than tv, and pay the creators less and less. In fact many large channels can't even support themselves now without sponsor adds. Time for some competition.

[@whatabout7331]

Worst thing is Google imo. You often cant even find useful information anymore, you'll only find companies who want to sell you something for your problem. And I'm not only talking about ads. Its about SEO....

[@UraFlight]

This is true

[@sirlawrencet]

I'm a 20 year advertiser. Google wants to make sure that it's mostly paid clicks that I get, and at the same time their customer service is horrid. I spend $6000 a month with them, yet the 2 or 3 times a year that I call with a problem I get a call center with script readers who don't help at all. It used to be that interns from Stanford or Berkeley would man the phones, but that ended 10 years ago or so.

[@idontwantahandlethough]

@@sirlawrencet I think they're just literally "too big to fail" at this point. They know you need them if you want to advertise online these days... so they don't give a shit :/ Edit: I remember it used to be pretty solid customer service too (at least on the business side of things anyway)

[@nx2120]

Google search + reddit. Like redditors opinions aren't perfect but at least you get a diverse group of people with differing opinions talking about the topic you're interested in and then maybe u can form an opinion based off of that

[@GreenMonkeySam]

🦆🦆🐐 DuckDuckGo instead

[@thebigten90]

As someone who used to work at Comcast and saw prices creep up throughout the years with no justification. Leadership in these companies are 100% strategically doing this and feel like they’re better than everyone because they are smart enough to think about ways to make more money

[@TheNeverEndingDesire]

I just hope Arun doesn't get banned from all the companies he is subscribed to! I'm from Bangladesh and as a part of the 3rd world country this subscription scams are creeping up at our doors as well. Love from Bangladesh!!❤

[@bloop_official]

The proof of him being a good KZbinr is the last two videos, completely honest, genuine and not caring about what the company will do to him after the video.

[@christiansimmons630]

But this whole video was basically a plug for SurfShark VPN, yet another subscription service - the irony 😂 And remember the piece he’s quoting is only possible if you pay for the service upfront in its entirety, so his per month price is quite grey

[@jer280]

He's correct about a lot of what he says, however... The basket nonsense is kinda dumb. It wasn't £4 it had shipping of another £4 unless you spend £30. Also the website is a local business that sells cheap decorations. That would be like me complaining about how dollar tree has cheap decorative glass, and that on Amazon for the same thing it's more expensive... Makes no sense.

[@fifamobile-xx2ef]

​@@christiansimmons630 yes they side by side BANKRUPT own subscriber

[@SebeastMr-zh4px]

What will they do to him?

[@bloop_official]

@@SebeastMr-zh4px Never sponser him.

[@Phrancis5]

As an older silicon valley tech worker, I kinda avoided participating in many of this. I stuck with taxis, picking up my food, not installing apps, rotating streaming services and limiting social media platforms. Maybe I saw how user data and privacy was coopted or the insane startup funding to capture market share would have to lead to insane commoditization in the end. I'm all for innovation, but all the surveillance capitalism and sh@#&!tification really has gone too far.

[@bifrostbeberast3246]

rotating streaming services? A true millenial is a pirate. They make enough money, don't worry about the loss you incure them.

[@stevesether]

Fully agreed. I'm an older non-silicone valley tech worker. I saw these traps coming a mile away. I never joined Facebook. I never use delivery. I was an earl Netflix subscriber... until it was flooded with garbage, and realized I essentially never found anything I liked on it and quickly cancelled it. I don't sign up for Amazon prime, and when I do, I game the crap out of them at get the "free trial" service for a week, then immediately cancel the service (which they let you do). I have almost zero apps installed on my phone. In fact, if I could get rid of my smart phone, I think I would, and just go with a dumb feature phone. You just have to see the angle these companies are using. It's all fairly obvious. So much of tech today is a trap.

[@RobbenBanks153]

Gen X innit

[@minirlz]

okay boomer

[@MNkno]

I started with an in-company Saturday afternoon class, soldering resistors, condensers, etc. onto a 1-board base 16 "computer", and finished up (I think) working on the merger of a data center /"cloud" company with a smaller (sexier) startup in the same industry. .. And, like you, I have avoided participating in much of what is happening now: sticking with taxis, picking up the food or eating in the restaurant, not getting a smart phone =not installing apps, no wifi, limiting social media platforms, etc., but still happy to work online. The sh@#&!tification really has gone too far, and being cynical / suspicious of all convenient free things is justified.

[@memoryhero]

The recent inclusion of ads in Amazon Prime Video films was already the final straw for me. I'm pulling the plug on everything.

[@georgewashington7313]

Corporate strategy: 1) Make a genuinely good product/service 2) Undercut competition to eliminate it 3) Take actions to ensure monopoly 4) Create appearance of adding value while actually minimizing it (squeezing consumers) 5) Turn products/services from purchases to rents (guaranteed/predictable returns to shareholders/executives) 6) Profit, profit, profit Bonus) Eject from failing company with golden parachutes while shareholders watch stocks plummet in disbelief Consumerism is great when it accomplishes the first step, but gov't regulations' job is to step in to punish/prevent steps 2-5. Our government is failing us. "Which government?" Yes...

[@kreyzgr5167]

Imagine if all running subscriptions were automatically cancelled (by law) when the company changes their subscriptions features (e.g. removing features to add them to a higher tier)

[@mszuala]

Now this is a GREAT idea

[@darkhorse29-yx8qh]

this guy is complaining about inflation as if it's an evil conspiracy..

[@AverageAlien]

Imagine you actually made your own purchase choices without relying on daddy government to hold your hand for you

[@Executor009]

Symmetrical cancellation, it should take you the same amount of time to cancel than it took you to subscribe and or get money back.

[@nickstiltson1180]

@@mszualawhich will never happen unfortunately

[@enb080]

When you cancel the subscription, Netflix still has the data of your credit card ready to be reactivated and you can never remove it unless you insert a different card info . Not being able to remove the credit card from their settings should be illegal.

[@Iquey]

Yes it should be. Find a consumer protection group in your area and do a class action.

[@enb080]

@@Iquey problem is only people who live in developed countries think about this. Where I live most people have other problem.

[@bills6093]

Cancel the card and get a new card.

[@enb080]

@bills6093 cards are expensive. In some countries, banks sell them

[@suyogyashukla536]

@bills6093 CC companies like Visa and Mastercard both have a service called “Automatic Billing Updater” - it essentially updates the companies with new card info without your manual intervention so your subscriptions can keep going. This is also why you see your new card getting charged when you clearly remember you had originally subscribed using a card that has since expired, for example.

[@hurricanemeridian8712]

Wild how this was kind of obvious and lots of people complained about big tech because they expected us to end up here. Honestly sucks, good ideas always get sucked dry for cash instead of quality

[@aispina]

My bank, Revolut, offers cards designed for online purchases. They’re destroyed after a single purchase. My favorite option is to use one of those when subscribing then I don’t even have to cancel since the service cannot charge me again.

[@artsimulation]

I remember when Amazon first came out and it was only about books back then. After a year or so my local book shop put a sign in their window saying "support your local bookshop against Amazon". I asked the bookstore what was going on and she told that they couldn't compete with Amazons prices. At the time no one could figure out how Amazon could sell books so massively cheaply. Only some 20 years later did the truth come out and it was a genius strategy. The idea was to deliberately run Amazon on a loss bases until they had wiped out all their competitors. Once they owned the market they could do whatever they wanted with both the sellers and the buyers. And so here we are. We are all to blame for being both blind and blindsided.

[@elizabethnicole4188]

And e-books were supposed to be cheaper than paper...what a joke

[@ZaerdinGaming]

You're kinda, sorta right. While Amazon didn't engage in selling below cost on books, it did sell the books at or near cost plus shipping. The local bookstores couldn't compete because they needed to make more profit to exist. Amazon's actual key advantage was that it was not required to collect sales tax while your local bookstore likely was. This means that even if Amazon sold at a comparable price, it was still decently cheaper to purchase off of Amazon because of sales tax.

[@RaidenKaiser]

I find it funny how I warned people not to fanboy for Amazon. I seen people go "I only use Amazon I trust no one else" and thousands of times I would warn people irl it sounds very similar to the strategies I heard about Walmart and nobody listened.

[@Matanumi]

its not just about market capital its all about market SHARE

[@TheDionysianFields]

@@ZaerdinGaming How do you know they weren't selling at a loss? Shipping would be more than sales tax for sure.

[@EddieJazzFan]

Ordering food online for delivery is completely insane with the taxes, fees, unhealthy choices and you don't really know what happens to your order between the restaurant and your house.

[@user-hp9ln4mm1d]

I am a driver for Uber and DoorDash. I can tell you that in 99% cases nothing happens to your food between the restaurants and it is dropped at your door. Almost all of us just put it in a thermal back or if it’s cold in a cold Right away I’m driving to your house. We just wanna keep our job. We have no interest in messing with your food for those who mess with the food there are serious consequences and honestly we don’t wanna dot that. we get seriously abused by these companies and I guess, if driver is at their breaking point and see no hope in going on then might do something like not deliver the food because they’re just about to have the app turned off on them and lose their job in a second and really don’t care what happens to them or your food. The better you tip the driver the batter driver you’re gonna get. We only get two dollar base pay for every delivery from these companies. They really want to extract as much money as they can from all parties involved, which is the driver, the customer, and the restaurant, it really makes nobody happy, but they keep trying to pitch all of these three parties against each other while they hide between a very opaque wall.

[@lustbubo4638]

People have been ordering food online for decades... It's fine

[@thatjeff7550]

Yeah, I'm more than happy to pick up my own food. What really gets me is what's happened at my Youngest's university. They have a Student Center with a fairly large food court. Only, you can't order food from most of the restaurants, you have to place an order on an Apple iPad-like kiosk. Take a guess who owns the kiosk? Grubhub. You literally cannot order food from the restaurants directly--you have to order through a third-party company which or course, tacks on a service fee for using their stupid kiosk. And I doubt many of the students have noticed this.

[@brjohow]

Exactly. I've shut down a lot of consumption due to getting ripped off. I basically cook nice things organic and local at home. And Uber? I'm willing to walk 5+ miles or wait to get away from surge, I also open Lyft and Uber and makre sure to use the cheapest option.

[@Violant3]

You lost me at the last point haha, but the rest is true

[@robwembley]

Very comprehensive and thorough review of the online marketing of commonly used digital products. Great advice at the end. Thank You !

[@theoverengineer]

Brilliant, thank you. Possibly, planning ahead (meal prep, shop, cook your own, do your dishes) could work to replace ordering out, or doing something with people around you instead of expecting to be entertained and brainfed by your choice of subscription and be alone.

[@Robbyrool]

Health insurance companies in the US have been doing this and worse forever. Imagine you try to watch a movie on Netflix and it tells you “We will review your request and let you know our decision in 30 days.” A month later you get a letter saying your request to watch that movie is denied because their entertainment expert decided you don’t need to watch it. But you can appeal. “Deny, delay, defend.”

[@BobRooney290]

people pay medical bills? why? illegals dont have to, so neither should you. say no to hospital bills! it's easy. in NY, there are laws that protect patients from being ripped off by hospitals. no need to pay. the law also protects your credit.

[@danirobbe3293]

@@BobRooney290 The fact that all you got from his comment is that 'illegals' are the problem in this thing, is so sad. Even if all the illegals will be gone, insurance companies will still be the same problem. And at this point, I believe republicans will just blame legal immigrants for all the problem after they one day might have fixed illegal migration. Newsflash, the big coroporations and the tax system helping the rich and powerfull are a way larger problem than Miguel illegaly comming to pick your corps every spring by illegaly crossing the border.

[@ncard00]

Such idealism in this video, only makes sense a minority of people have the money and power in the world, survival of the fittest, the world and humans aren't made to be solidaric and strive for equality, it's not in our nature, why it'll never change.

[@jstomw]

I tell you how it is happening in my country. You are paying the taxes from your salary, and paying the taxes every time while you bought anything. Whole of your money to be converted to taxes, about 80%. After that you have a free-quasi-insurance. And when you call your hospital you detect that there's no any hospital. After that, even if your had an acute poisoning, you probably had a chance to alive with call the ambulance. But after a 6 hours awaiting, the dispatcher calling your with good question: so, are you still need an ambulance? No, I died. My real case.

[@Nyasahi]

@@BobRooney290 Which law?

[@Al-ex92]

Putting ads in Netflix, Prime and soon to also be Disney+ is absolutely insane! Why are we even paying for it if we are still being forced to watch the ADS

[@arctrix765]

just go on a pirate website with an adblock completely free better quality no ads

[@sonnguyen-iv7gv]

the answer is "piracy", i used to subscribe to spotify, youtube, netflix, crunchyroll, qobuz then i canceled everything except youtube and pirate movies, series. It's ridiculous when you have to pay for 4 months subscrition just to watch 1 seri

[@liberty0758]

Because you don't know how to get basically everything from those paid platforms for free and ad free.

[@JanKowalski-wb8ih]

You still pay for it? I switched back to piracy immediately when this shit started happening. Have some dignity mate

[@arctrix765]

@@JanKowalski-wb8ih have never payed any subscription (except iCloud for 1€) it just forces me to use it, cause i don't want to pay it for nothing with piracy you can watch something, have 3 months of life in between and then watch something again without having in mind that you are constantly paying for something you rarely use

[@_b166er_]

Not to mention the precarization of the people actually providing the service: low payments, no rights, rude self-entitled clients...

[@CanadianCarbonUnit]

I thought I was just getting old. You have shown me it's not that I am getting old, it's that this web IS MORE sticky and exhausting to escape from than ever.

[@jan_harald]

I love when people dare to speak out about the shitty things, instead of just quietly accepting and staying quiet

[@NicholasStevens11]

Like virtually every mainstream corporatist narrative and structure?

[@timeflex]

Don't forget to vote on the next free, democratic, transparent, and fair elections (conveniently prepared for you by capitalists).

[@KarlTheExpert]

Dare? As if he takes any risks, it's just more content and not very original, just fishing for the piracy-crowd.

[@ohhellwhereami2574]

​@@KarlTheExpert don't act like these platforms are peak

[@jonny555ive]

Mr. Bezos ?

[@Itstoearly]

For anyone old enough to remember, cable TV was originally ad-free, since you were paying for it instead of advertisers paying the providers. Didn't take long for them to realize they could charge the end user while still getting ad revenue...

[@paulocampino5045]

So true.

[@TelmoMonteiro]

Absolutely! Insane times that we are living

[@LaFonteCheVi]

And streaming was created to provide tv without ads... It all comes full circle. I can't wait until cable starts being adless.

[@Spreadie]

I don't Uber anything, and I don't have a paid subsciption to anything; nor am I missing out on anything, and I don't do fomo. I love this video - I have never felt so smug and self-satisfied.

[@Philip-lk5db]

Well said fella as I used uber before and after I got bounced for someone else that was willing to pay more I stopped using the service. Same goes with Netflix with upping prices and asking for more if I don’t want to see ads. All businesses need healthy competition. You should go to Asia (for example; China) and you be surprise how good delivery service and uber type taxi service is compared to what we get in the UK.

[@wardrich]

22:16 "So what do we do about it?" The answer is simple - since corporations are all infected with parasitic shareholders, the best option is to just avoid subscriptions altogether. Obtain your media in ways that you can ensure you will have access to it indefinitely without worry that some provider will one day vanish taking your money and leaving you with nothing. If there is no legitimate way to do this, then it seems piracy should be deemed the correct consumer option.

[@qzwxecrv0192837465]

I keep telling Robert Reich's lemmings this all the time: if you don't like a service or how much a company is making, don't buy their stuff. We are a consumer society that has to keep up with the Jones', MUST HAVE the latest & greatest, while not realizing they are playing a game that they can't win. Live humble, live simple, live basic and life is so much more enjoyable.

[@bperez8656]

The economy continues to monopolize American companies are not investing money into innovation and productivity. They are growing through stock buybacks to inflate prices and through buying other smaller companies and expanding and driving out smaller competitors. This is the undeniable trend until republicans become serious about anti trust laws. We either have to abandon these monopolies and contribute to consume from companies that democratize access and control to the masses or we are screwed.

[@bperez8656]

The economy continues to monopolize American companies are not investing money into innovation and productivity. They are growing through stock buybacks to inflate prices and through buying other smaller companies and expanding and driving out smaller competitors. This is the undeniable trend until republicans become serious about anti trust laws. We either have to abandon these monopolies and contribute to consume from companies that democratize access and control to the masses or we are screwed.

[@linnoff]

Trick is, for movies, if it's a Netflix produced movie (or any other platform) it will probably never have a physical release. So no only do we have to maintain our subscription or resubscribe if we ever want to watch it again, it will never have the same level of quality as the disk at the same "quality level". And even if you pirate it, that will almost always be even worse.

[@kroan49]

@@linnoff False. Pirating it has the same exact quality as the highest resolution available at the time for release. Pirates are very particular in the quality of their media libraries.

[@suishounamida4345]

One of the worst instances I've seen is a service where if you try to cancel the service early to avoid paying again next month, they end your access to the service immediately, then only /if/ you're in the first 3 days of that service, they refund the month's subscription cost within 1-2 business weeks. This means you have to cancel the service on the very last day you intend to use it, any earlier and you're being robbed of the service you paid for, and any later and they're basically holding your money hostage for two weeks so they can profit off of investments using customer funds. They'll take your payment in 10 seconds, but despite it being possible to return it in 30 minutes, worst case 2-3 days, they make you wait two whole weeks. It's absurd.

[@misakamikoto8785]

and that, is what credit card chargeback is for, no money for them!

[@stephentitus7137]

good thing i have the reminder app to remind me to cancel on time

[@realsatoshihashimoto]

Isn't 21st century capitalism wonderful?

[@Matanumi]

@@misakamikoto8785 except now credit cards don't hand out chargebacks so willynilly now that American's espically abuse them

[@Geekabibble]

They should be required by law to prorate it. But our politicians don't give a crap about us so why would they actually put decent laws in? 😝

[@doniherald7745]

this is also my concern, big respect to you sir for talking about this

[@naturallyweird661]

You know what's the worst of all in subscriptions ... You don't own anything... People pay for games and then pay a subscription for it for years and then the company just shuts it down and everything goes away ....