America's subscription-trap nightmare could be coming to an end

• The White House announced on Monday a series of efforts to save consumers time and money.
• The initiative includes a proposal to make it easier to cancel subscriptions and memberships.
• It would also address bad customer service, making it easier for consumers to speak with a human.

Sick of spending hours trying to cancel your gym membership or get money back on a flight? A solution could be coming your way.

President Joe Biden's administration announced on Monday an initiative called "Time Is Money" to crack down on hard-to-cancel subscriptions and bad customer service.

In partnership with government agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Transportation, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the administration is proposing rules to make business processes easier for consumers to navigate. The rules would ensure people are not stuck paying subscriptions they don't want, which can cost them time and money as they try to drop a service.

"Essentially, in all of these practices, the companies are delaying services to you, or really trying to make it so difficult for you to cancel the service that they get to hold on to your money longer and longer," the White House domestic-policy advisor, Neera Tanden, told reporters on a Friday press call. "These seemingly small inconveniences don't really happen by accident. They have huge financial consequences. They really are just taking advantage of the fact that people are really busy."

According to the White House fact sheet, the FTC is proposing a rule that would require companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it is to sign up. The agency is reviewing public comments on the proposal.

When it comes to customer-service frustrations, the CFPB is kicking off a rulemaking process to get rid of what the announcement called "doom loops," during which customers have to click through "a maze of menu options and automated recordings" to speak with a representative, the fact sheet said. This proposal would require companies to have a human representative available at the click of a single button.

The DOT announced in April a rule that would require airlines to provide automatic refunds to customers when their flights are delayed or canceled, rather than requiring the customer to sit on hold with the airline to get money back.

Business Insider reported last month on why customer service can be so frustrating. The economist Dan Davies called it the "accountability sink," in which companies use an algorithm or defer to company policy to make decisions so no employee is held accountable for any of the customer's frustrations.

"That's the situation that people find so incredibly frustrating," Davies previously told BI. "Because it's bad to have decisions go against you, but it's absolutely psychologically intolerable to feel like you're not being listened to."

The White House also said in the announcement that it opened an online portal where Americans could submit suggestions on what the administration should address next when it comes to saving time and money.

"I think we can all relate to this. It happens to Americans every day," Tanden said on the Friday press call. "For example, you want to cancel your gym membership or subscription service to a newspaper. It took one or two clicks to sign up, but now, to end your subscription or cancel the membership, you have to go in person or wait on hold for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, or half an hour just to opt out."

Have you struggled to cancel subscriptions or memberships? Have you had a bad customer-service experience? Share your story with this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com .