yours, tiramisu

<rant> shame on CLEAR for dishonest, predatory sales tactics

Do you know what CLEAR is? You might have seen their white, futuristic-looking pods the last time you visited a major airport. They make money by charging subscriptions to expedite the security screening process with the use of your biometric information (a picture of your eyes & your fingerprints).

clear portal

Anyway, I flew out from LGA today for the first time, and on my way to security a CLEAR agent took me aside and asked me a couple questions, like whether I was traveling domestically and whether I had a US identification. I told him I didn't have CLEAR, and tried to make my way to the security line, but he told me it didn't matter and that he could give me a free trial for CLEAR. Without asking me whether I wanted it, he asked me for my driver's license and credit card (a form of "secondary identification", apparently) and started signing me up. At this point I started to feel like I'd been roped into something unknowingly, but he had already started entering information into the CLEAR portal so I just went along with it.

After I land I see an email in my inbox from CLEAR, and in fine print at the very bottom I see this:

ティラミス

The CLEAR agent (salesperson) who signed me up for this free trial never asked me to consent to any of this. He didn't inform me I would be billed in 2 weeks after my free trial was up. And in doing so he made me waste my time calling CLEAR and listening to their attempts to make it as inconvenient as possible for me to cancel my subscription.

If I hadn't caught this fine print this could have been so much worse. I would have needed to dispute charges on my corporate credit card and likely gotten in trouble with my company.

These dishonest, predatory sales tactics need to stop, and we should name and shame them when we encounter them.


thank you for reading; write to me at yourstiramisu 🐌 proton dot me

#english #rant