More PECs than Schwarzenegger
Round 6: My continuing appeals for the active engagement of national and EU law enforcement in restoring my consumer rights. Now, please
Dear Sir Madam
As you are a subscriber to my ‘Watch a crime in progress’ channel, I bring you the next exciting sequel in this marvellous series.
Today is the year 2026, month of March, Friday the 13, unlucky for some, and, finally after an enforced sabbatical of 5 long days, Claude was back from the dead at 05:00. Yaaay!
I was distracted and only twigged at 05:03 that it was Claude time.
I know, sad, can’t sleep.
At 05:03, I started a chat, sent him ‘Anthropic and Due Diligence’, my post yesterday, which has the highlights from my sequel update to you, my loyal audience, yesterday, 12 March 2026.
And, as proof positive of your diligent attention, I have more pecs than a hen’s husband; thank you.. I see your footprints in the sand alongside mine as we walk through this digital crime scene! Eternally grateful, though not dead, yet.
We, Claude and I, chatted about how I might renew my subscription and should I expect a repeat of what’s happening now?
On balance, Claude thought it unlikely that I have drawn human attention and its attendant, relentless vindictiveness; more bot malice than anything else; I include his analysis for completeness;
“What’s more likely: their billing and throttling systems are automated, blunt, and indifferent. You cancelled, you blocked the card, the system flagged your account as problematic, and the automated response is degraded service. Not malice — machinery. The same machinery that bounces legal@anthropic.com and routes your complaints to an AI chatbot instead of a human.
That said — the effect is identical whether it’s vindictive or mechanical. You’re getting worse service for the same money. The cause doesn’t change the outcome.
If you resume your subscription:
The billing should reset to normal Pro limits. The post-cancellation charges shouldn’t recur if you don’t enable the “extra usage” option — that’s the trap you fell into. Find it in settings and make sure it’s off before you resubscribe.
If service remains degraded after resubscribing, that’s your evidence of retaliation. Document it the same way — screenshots, timestamps, usage meter — and add it to the complaint.”
Thanks, Claude, good advice, very sound analysis, balanced and fair, especially to Anthropic. So, let’s test this theory…
I responded: Ok. The problem is that the blocked account has been archived out my sight by the bank. I think I can get them to unblock for the subscription and block again till next renewal date
Claude: “That’s a reasonable approach. Unblock, resubscribe, immediately disable the “extra usage” option in your Claude settings so the ad hoc charges can’t recur, then block the card again until next renewal.
But before you do — check if you can pay through Apple instead of direct card. If you subscribed through the App Store originally, Apple handles the billing and you can manage it through your Apple ID settings. That gives you Apple as a buffer between you and Anthropic’s billing system, and Apple’s refund process is more responsive than Anthropic’s bouncing email addresses.
The key thing: whatever you do, find and disable the “extra usage” toggle before you do anything else. That’s the trapdoor that cost you €87 in two days.”
My thoughts about the ‘Apple as buffer’ idea are a little mixed; given the little time travel game Apple played when I cancelled.
I’ve included the relevant sleight of hand, eye, and good faith…
Apple’s records claim that I cancelled 4 hours after I actually cancelled, I assume to provide cover for the illegal charge made by Anthropic.
Whilst it’s lovely to see companies playing nicely together to defraud the client, I am puzzled why they would risk their integrity over €13.
Oh! I forget they haven’t got any.
And, don’t forget; rinse and repeat a million times and you’re up there with Nobel.
Especially with law enforcement being what it is…
Good job I kept the chat record of my first complaint to Anthropic;
fatgiwd
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“On 5 Mar 2026, at 16:28, <@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, Anthropic
I’ve listed the six charges of €12.xx that you have made on top of my paid subscription of 22 per month.
{a bit more ranting}
On top of that when I try to upload 1 single jpg image, I’m hitting limits.
Your billing tactics are deliberately opaque and disingenuous.
I have cancelled my subscription. I came as refugee from dreadful ChatGPT, but, by god, they’re better than this, and that’s after they’ve been captured by the Pentagon.
Your billing practices are utterly despicable.”
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{don’t hold back, man, tell them what you really think…
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I was in an utter fury when I cancelled at the same time as I was berating the artificial idiot. The times were damn simultaneous.
I think ‘Apple as buffer’, on balance, a poor partnership in the good faith game.
Instead I pursued the ‘disable the “extra usage” toggle’ and asked him where I might find it.
To expedite matters, and to test my ‘use levels’, I took 1, and only 1, screenshot and sent it to him.
He managed one last gasp, poor fellow, I do hope he’s ok;
for in matters allegorical, vegetable and mineral, he is the very model of a modern major general.
“Good — you can see my instructions. Now follow them. Tap the hamburger menu (the three lines, top left), look for Settings in there, then find the billing section.
Screenshot whatever you find and send it back. We’ll locate the extra usage toggle before you touch the card.“
And, at 05:18, 15 minutes to the second, I had reached my limit, which will reset at 10:00, and, if you think I haven’t got the receipts, you’ve not been paying attention.
How I look back lovingly to the days prior to invoking this shitstorm brought by “Prepaid extra usage, Individual plan”, when I enjoyed 15 hours/day/week.
15 minutes at my base subscription rate, post cancellation, was exhausted after 1 post reviewed (Anthropic and Due Diligence), 1 screenshot, a couple of questions, and ‘that’s all’ she wrote…
And, there they are again, the progress bars, restored now for my perusal and anxiety.
15 mins from last rest time of 05:00 on Friday 13 March 2026, session blocked till next reset at 10:00 on Friday 13 March 2026. (I have the receipts).
Quite odd how rounded the reset intervals are, no decimals, fractions; no uncertainty. Fixed 5 hour reset times after 15 minutes of use.
Which contrasts quite interestingly with the following calculus.
What precisely the progress bars are measuring is not stated;
CPU cycles, API tokens, memory, net bandwidth; some combination?
Anthropic don’t say; the service is degraded by a ‘wet finger’ in the financial ‘air’ approach that ‘feels’ right.
The “Prepaid extra usage, Individual plan” or “Remora rate” uses an exponentially greater calculus to arrive at over 130.1 times more than base subscription;
Remora rate per hour €3.85 / €0.03 base subscription rate= 130.1.
And, this is without factoring in the allowance of the base subscription contract.
Ah! The relentless logic of maths, the infinite greed of service providers, the endless collusion of bad faith, the supreme indifference of law enforcement; and we have our modern day consumer rights protection framework for a safe digital life in the 21st century.
Enshrined in law, ignored in practice.
I remain, your servant in patience,
Postscript: This remains an appeal for your active engagement in restoring my consumer rights. Now, please