You can’t avoid defaults: a box is either ticked or it isn’t. The audit asks whether each one is what a customer would pick if asked plainly, and whether its costs show up anywhere you look.

Have the screenshots from the one-page map to hand. Score each check 0 to 2: 0 if it failed or nobody can answer it, 1 if partly true, 2 if clean. “The app set it up that way” scores 0.

Every default was chosen by someone. The audit finds out who, and whether they’d choose it again.

The twelve checks

1. Every preselected choice is on one list · 10 minLook at: Product page, cart, checkout, post-purchase page, account page and first three emails, on a phone.
   Good: One document lists each preselected option, who set it, when and why.
   Cost if wrong: You can’t fix a default you don’t know about, and apps add new ones with updates.
   Read next: Whoever Sets the Default
2. Each default passes the plain-question test · 5 minLook at: The list from check 1.
   Good: Most customers would pick each preselected answer if asked in one plain sentence, and a number supports it.
   Cost if wrong: Take-up now, complaints later.
   Read next: Good Defaults and Bad Ones
3. Subscribe-and-save shows its terms beside the button · 5 minLook at: Your top subscription product page, on a phone.
   Good: Ongoing price, cadence and how to cancel sit next to add-to-cart, whichever option is preselected.
   Cost if wrong: “I never signed up for this” tickets and disputes at the first renewal.
   Read next: Subscribe, Save and Cadence
4. The default cadence matches real use · 5 minLook at: The default interval, against the median days between first and second orders for one-time buyers.
   Good: Within a week or so of how fast people use the product.
   Cost if wrong: Product piles up and “too much” becomes the top cancel reason.
   Read next: Subscribe, Save and Cadence
5. No paid add-on is pre-checked · 3 minLook at: Shipping protection, gift wrap, donations, warranties, priority handling.
   Good: Every paid extra starts unticked.
   Cost if wrong: Refunds, tickets and disputes, and in the EU and UK an unlawful practice.
   Read next: The Checkout Box
6. Email and SMS consent start unticked · 3 minLook at: Checkout, account creation and pop-ups.
   Good: Each channel has its own unticked box; SMS carries its required disclosure.
   Cost if wrong: A list that didn’t choose you, and legal exposure on texts.
   Read next: Consent You Can Use
7. Skip, pause and change-date sit one tap from the next order · 4 minLook at: The pre-renewal reminder and the account’s subscription page.
   Good: One tap from the reminder, no login hunt.
   Cost if wrong: Customers who wanted a break cancel, because cancel was the only exit they found.
   Read next: Skip, Pause and Not Now
8. Cancel works the way signup did · 4 minLook at: A test subscription, canceled on a phone, timed.
   Good: Online signup, online cancel, similar steps, any save offer beside a visible cancel button.
   Cost if wrong: The exposure at the heart of the FTC’s Amazon Prime case and several state laws.
   Read next: The Rules, September 2026
9. Complaints and disputes are counted by cause · 4 minLook at: Support tags and your processor’s dispute report, last 90 days.
   Good: You can say how many came from subscriptions, add-ons and consent.
   Cost if wrong: Nobody ever weighs a default’s cost against its take-up.
   Read next: The Choice Scorecard
10. Lifecycle copy asks instead of orders · 5 minLook at: Replenishment, winback and review-request messages.
    Good: They offer a choice and name the easy no; review asks go to every buyer, with no reward tied to a good rating.
    Cost if wrong: Resistance, and review practices the FTC’s 2024 rule prohibits.
    Read next: But You Are Free
11. Every countdown and stock claim is true · 5 minLook at: Timers, “only 3 left” and “selling fast.” Reload in a private window; check inventory.
    Good: Timers end at a real time, stock matches inventory, activity comes from real data.
    Cost if wrong: What the UK regulator took Emma Sleep to court over.
    Read next: Real Urgency, Fake Urgency
12. “Last chance” means last · 3 minLook at: Twelve months of your promotion calendar.
    Good: Nothing called final returned at the same or a better price within 30 days.
    Cost if wrong: Customers learn to wait, and your deadlines stop working.
    Read next: Testing a Real Deadline

Score as you go; your band appears when all twelve are in.

Read your score

No subscriptions? Score checks 3, 4, 7 and 8 as 2. A clean 16 on the other eight is a strong start.