I came across one of the most appalling cancellation policies I've ever run into, from none other than gay.com.

I had a gay.com annual membership which came up for renewal and I decided to cancel prior to renewal. After going through a bunch of pages and procedures designed to make it as difficult as possible to cancel, the very end of the process says "You have to call our office at (some not-tollfree number) to cancel."

So you call the number and... surprise!... it's open 9-5 M-F. But you can leave a message. So I leave a message... and then call back a few days later to make sure they've processed it. Turns out, since they didn't *receive* the message until after the cancellation date (message left on Friday, they answered on Monday, cancellation date was Sunday or something), they charged a month "prorate" at $20, and refunded the difference.

At the time I didn't feel like arguing it, but the more I think about it, the more it seems like a scam to increase renewals. I'm surprised that their merchant bankcard provider allows that, as I know our provider required a reasonable and easy cancellation/refund policy.

I probably won't charge it back, but it *did* leave a really bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps getting the $20 is worth more to gay.com than getting my future re-join dollars.