Apple Store Staff Accused of Unwanted Subscription Trials
Reports say some Apple Store staff switched on paid-later trials without consent. Apple dropped a sales target. How to check and cancel yours.
If you bought an iPhone, Mac or Watch at an Apple Store in the past few months, it's worth spending two minutes in Settings today. Repair technician and right-to-repair campaigner Louis Rossmann has spent the last two weeks publishing YouTube videos in which people who say they're customers or current Apple retail staff describe free trials for Apple One and other services being switched on without the buyer properly agreeing to them. Those trials renew into paid plans unless you cancel.
What happened
The claims centre on a feature Apple calls "Connect and Personalize". In US stores, an employee can ask you to scan a QR code for a more personal shopping experience. Once you do, their store device can see which Apple products you own, which services you already pay for, and which trial offers you qualify for. The offers show up on the employee's screen with Agree and Decline buttons, and your Apple Account's saved payment card is already attached.
According to the tips Rossmann received, some staff rushed people through that screen, described trials as "gifts", or tapped Agree themselves. MacRumors reports that until early last week some US stores tracked a "services attach rate" with a 40% target per employee, meaning four in ten customers buying a device were supposed to leave with at least one subscription. MacRumors confirmed Apple has now dropped that metric. Apple's official reason is that it matters less over the holidays, when people often buy devices as gifts. Later in the week Apple sent retail staff a memo reminding them to get consent for trials, Connect and Personalize, Apple Upgrade sign-ups and Genius Bar repairs.
To be fair to Apple, these are still allegations. Notebookcheck points out that Rossmann says some of the internal documents in his videos were recreated to protect sources, other employees say they followed the rules, and nothing shown so far proves Apple management told anyone to sign people up without permission. The Desk notes it's also unclear whether Apple's changes were a response to the videos or were planned anyway.
Why it matters
A free trial that quietly turns into a monthly charge is the kind of thing people miss for months. Apple does send an email when a trial starts, but it lands among a pile of receipts and order confirmations right after a big purchase, which is exactly when you're least likely to read it. Bundles like Apple One also cover several services at once, so one accidental tap can add a fairly large monthly bill.
What to do now
- Check on your iPhone. Open Settings, tap your name at the top, then tap Subscriptions. Every active plan and trial on your Apple Account is listed there, with its renewal date.
- Check on a Mac. Open System Settings, click your name, then Media & Purchases, and click Manage next to Subscriptions.
- Cancel what you didn't ask for. Tap the subscription and choose Cancel Subscription (or Cancel All Services for a bundle). Cancelling a trial usually ends it straight away, so do it once you're sure you don't want it.
- Ask for money back if you were already charged. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in, pick "Request a refund" and choose the charge.
- Look at your card statement. Search for charges from Apple over the last few months, since family members' purchases and older trials can hide there too.
My take
I don't think you need to boycott Apple Stores over this, but I would change how you behave at the counter. Scanning that QR code is optional. You can buy a device without it, and if an employee pitches a trial, it's perfectly fine to say no and ask them to show you the screen before anything gets tapped. If you do want a trial, set a phone reminder a couple of days before it renews.
The reports so far are about US stores. If you shop at Apple's stores elsewhere, including the ones in India, I can't tell you whether the same system or targets are used there, but the check above works on any Apple Account and costs you nothing. This also fits a wider pattern I've been writing about: Apple only just started letting apps offer discounts when you try to cancel, and companies everywhere are leaning harder on subscription revenue. Treat every "free" trial as a bill with a delay, and go through your subscriptions list once every couple of months.
If Apple says more publicly, I'll update this post.
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