Roach Motel

A product makes signup, purchase, or subscription simple while cancellation requires hidden paths, calls, delays, or repeated persuasion.

The pattern changes the cost of thinking. It makes the preferred action immediate, emotionally charged, or visually dominant, while making the more reflective action slower, duller, or easier to doubt.

A simplified specimen designed to make the pattern recognizable at a glance.

• Subscribe in one click, cancel through a phone queue.
• The cancellation link is buried behind retention screens.

Origin: Subscription software, gyms, media services, and membership programs.