In Arizona, can a company require you to cancel a subscription service in person?

A subscription service in Arizona is claiming their service can only be cancelled at the customer's home office, in-person, which is the one that the customer originally signed up with. What if the customer lives very far away from the office or even out of state? The website states that not even the corporate office can make changes to the account; everything must be done in-person at the home office. Is there some sort of protection against this that would allow a customer to cancel over the phone with a corporate office if they live a certain distance away?

This refers to a service with a specific term and an automatic renewal at the end of the term, right? Is the customer in California?

Right. The customer is in Arizona as well. I saw the law for requiring a service cancellation option online in California, but nothing for Arizona. Originally with signing up you're locked in for a minimum of 2 months, afterwards it's a normal recurring subscription that you can cancel with 48 hour notice prior to the start of the next billing cycle.

There is usually a clause that says "enforced under the laws of the state of X": what jurisdiction do they claim to be operating under. Also, is there a mandatory arbitration clause?

"It is governed by and shall be construed under the laws of Arizona" . there is a section for "Binding Individual Arbitration".

1 Answer 1

Various states have cancellation laws guaranteeing a certain right of convenience to cancelling a renewable contract: Arizona is not one of them. (Additionally, some states have service-specific laws such as gym membership cancellation laws, which I assume is not relevant here though in Arizona it includes cancellation by certified letter). In general, the terms as stated in the contract will hold. If the contract says that you have to physically go in to the office where you initially signed up, you have to physically go in to the office where you initially signed up, regardless of the inconvenience. If cancellation by certified letter is not allowed under the contract, then you may have to be inconvenienced.

One possible alternative is to grant someone a Special Power of Attorney, or more generally, hire a lawyer to do the cancelling for you. You can't use that POA form if you don't live in Arizona.

For sake of completion, in this case the local office (not corporate) ended up replying to the inquiry and allowed cancellation via e-mail. Knowing that they could legally require this though reminds me to consider contracts more carefully before signing them. Would advise anyone in a similar situation to be persistent at the local office but also polite.