How Companies Profit by Annoying the Hell Out of You

Monica Potts, New Republic  - Several months ago, I looked at my bank account and saw that it was awash in charges from newspapers and websites charging $5.99, $13.99, $7.99 at regular intervals for subscriptions I barely remembered signing up for. They added up to a lot of money wasted each month. When I tried to cancel them, each service had a different process, some of which involved navigating through several screens or calling customer service or chatting with automated systems—rather than just clicking a button, as I had done so easily in subscribing. I quickly became overwhelmed and annoyed, and instead chose the nuclear option: I canceled my debit card. That created its own set of tedious internet tasks, of course, but at the time it felt like the best option.

These kinds of experiences are so common and universal that Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., decided to weigh their true impact. They call it the “annoyance economy.” In a report released Monday, they show how junk fees, customer service calls, excessive insurance paperwork, spam calls and texts, and more cost Americans at least $165 billion in lost time and money every year. The same practices boost corporate revenue by 200 percent, the report found.