> I don't dispute the fact that there are probably several hundred unhappy customers
You're being disingenuous. You know full well that the 409 1-star complaints filed with consumeraffairs.com are just from people who were motivated enough to file a complaint with that particular site. They are therefore the tip of the iceberg.
They also exclude the quite probably substantial number of exploited customers who don't check their credit card statements every month and therefore are completely unaware that they are paying your company $39 every month. Like for example the subject of the original post.
You know all this FULL WELL, don't you.
This "business" model is designed to ferret out exactly those kinds of people and exploit their lack of attention to fine print and oversight of their credit card activity. It's illegal in Germany, which is why your company had to change its checkout UI to be more clear.. but only in Germany.
This makes me think Matrix Partners has been reduced to a bunch of desperate slimeballs. Guess the days of funding companies like Apple are long gone.