Want to cancel your LoveFilm subscription? Good luck.
Update: 22 July 2009
Some people have been coming here looking for instructions on canceling their LoveFilm subscription. So here’s how. Ring 0844 482 0123. More contact details for Lovefilm here.
Original Post
One of the hackneyed old clichés of the interweb is that whatever experience you are going through, there’s someone else out there who’s either going through or gone through the same thing.
This is the case with LoveFilm and my attempts to cancel a subscription.
Firstly, let’s be clear: as a customer, I’ve had no problems. The discs arrive on time, the selection experience on their website is pretty intuitive and usable and they don’t send too many marketing emails.
But try to cancel? You are dead to them.
Ironically, despite being a company built on digital foundations, LoveFilm is reluctant to let you cancel through the website. Oh no, you have to call them, giving them another chance to talk you round. When you do actually convince them to cancel, they will only do so once they’ve got their final discs back. Otherwise, another month’s subscription is sucked from your account.
It’s standard business practice to try and reduce cancellations, to minimise the churn. And with chumps like me who sit on the DVDs for months without watching them, it’s hardly surprising they want to retain me as a customer. But with this jumping-through-hoops cancellation process, it does more harm than good. I’m never going to return to LoveFilm because of this experience. I’ve also told lots of friends and blogged about it. And google ‘LoveFilm cancellation’ and you see that this isn’t just me. There are hundreds of people who have pulled their hair out over this, venting their anger online.
Note to LoveFilm: the customer experience is just as important during cancellation as it is with acquisition. Or as the crowds are saying: Love film; hate LoveFilm.
Tags: ecommerce, marketing, User Experience
By Dom Waghorn, Head of User Engagement at 
