Some people say they’ve resorted to fibbing about illnesses, emigration or even prison sentences so the company will stop trying to keep them signed up.
Others have simply cancelled the direct debit with their bank, but this can impact your credit score – and it doesn’t cancel your contract with the company.
One company mentioned by several readers was Adobe, the maker of Photoshop and Acrobat.
When Carmen, from London, took out a free trial of Adobe Creative Cloud, she wanted to subscribe for three months.
But she found herself on an annual contract, with a £250 cancellation penalty.
After a year, she tried to stop it from auto-renewing, but was told she had missed a “very specific” cancellation window, so was locked in for another year.
The same thing happened the following year.
Carmen said: “I’m usually very careful about tracking and cancelling subscriptions, but Adobe Creative Cloud’s approach felt especially unfair and difficult to manage.”
She added that if the cancellation process hadn’t been so difficult, she may have dipped in and out of a subscription as and when.
But her experience made her decide: “Never again.”
Adobe has been approached for comment.