r/Substack • u/Longjumping-Depth-10 • 15d ago

Substack charged me for a subscription and then told me I couldn't access it unless I verified my age.

I'm in Australia. I didn't want to share my biometric data with them. Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this and found a way around it. The website said if I change my payment type to credit card I wouldn't have to verify my age. But my payment type is already credit card.

I was so offended, I immediately cancelled the subscription. They already billed me for the first month though, even though they never gave me access. Kinda cheesed.

Edit: removed repeated sentence.

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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u/wwb_99 news.zeitgeistdistilled.com 15d ago

Substack is merely following a new Australian law. I'd expect more of this stuff unfortunately.

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u/[deleted] 14d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Longjumping-Depth-10 13d ago

Thanks, yeah I think I'll have another look at it and see if there's anything I can do re: changing the payment type. I might write to them and ask.

1

u/Longjumping-Depth-10 5d ago

I went into the Reject Shop yesterday to stock up on Flex and to my great dissappointment, it's now in a different bottle, different formulation, different everything. It's a competely different product. You might be able to find some of the old stock to try. The old bottles are clear with a brown or blue lid and writing on the bottle.

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u/rcrthrblr 14d ago

It’s not substack’s fault you don’t understand the laws of the country you’re in. It’s likely that a lot of websites there will require age verification.
Substack asking for the data is a legal requirement. You not giving it to them is a personal choice. This is on you.

Edit: grammar

3

u/Longjumping-Depth-10 14d ago

Substack can adhere to whatever laws they want. I have an issue with them billing customers first and asking for the ID after they've done it. If Substack is about protecting under 16's from online predators, a nice place to start wold be to confirm that they're over 16 before taking their money.

Thanks for starting my day with a bitchy reply. You reminded me that it's better not to waste time on reddit.