Over the past year, I've been testing different types of e-book software. All of these are cloud based solutions. One of the services I tried out was something called Designrr, which was an okay software. I managed to create some sample e-books with it but I didn't feel it really suited my needs. It didn't have the features I was looking for. So, I wrote in to them in February, well in advance of the autopay renewal deadline.
Initially I was told that what I should do is to wait until the deadline was near and then request to cancel the autopay because if I cancelled early, I would not be able to use the software anymore. I thought this was kind of ridiculous since I had already paid a subscription for the whole year. Just because I cancel the autopay months in advance I would suddenly not be allowed to use the remainder of my subscription? Well, that seemed to be the policy.
I thought about it and I decided to cancel straight away, even if it meant I could no longer have access to a service I had paid for. I did this for two reasons. Firstly, I wasn't planning to use it much anyway since I had already concluded it didn't have some key features that I needed. Secondly, I didn't want to run the risk of missing the autopay deadline and finding out only after the fact that my credit card had been billed for another year. Generally, many online services tend not to give advance notice that they are about to auto-charge you. They just do it and give you the receipt.
So, I told them to cancel my subscription. To my surprise I was told that I was actually still able to have access until the expiry date. So that was fair enough. I wonder why I was told otherwise earlier.
Anyway, I promptly forgot about Designrr until I received an e-mail the other day saying I had been charged an annual subscription (due to autopay). I checked my e-mail archives and found the correspondence which confirmed that I had already cancelled. So, I immediately wrote to them and to their credit they acknowledged the mistake and said they would refund the amount charged. That's decent of them.
I would say their autopay policy is nowhere nearly as a bad as FT's policy, which is the worst I've ever come across. But it certainly could be improved. They should make it easier to cancel the autopay (I had to write an e-mail to someone to request this. It should have been as easy as pressing a button). They also should inform customers when the autopay is about to happen so that the customer can consider whether to continue or to cancel. If you have confidence in your product why do you have to worry about the customer cancelling? Just let the customer know you are about to charge them for a year and you want to make sure this is okay with them.
Initially I was told that what I should do is to wait until the deadline was near and then request to cancel the autopay because if I cancelled early, I would not be able to use the software anymore. I thought this was kind of ridiculous since I had already paid a subscription for the whole year. Just because I cancel the autopay months in advance I would suddenly not be allowed to use the remainder of my subscription? Well, that seemed to be the policy.
I thought about it and I decided to cancel straight away, even if it meant I could no longer have access to a service I had paid for. I did this for two reasons. Firstly, I wasn't planning to use it much anyway since I had already concluded it didn't have some key features that I needed. Secondly, I didn't want to run the risk of missing the autopay deadline and finding out only after the fact that my credit card had been billed for another year. Generally, many online services tend not to give advance notice that they are about to auto-charge you. They just do it and give you the receipt.
So, I told them to cancel my subscription. To my surprise I was told that I was actually still able to have access until the expiry date. So that was fair enough. I wonder why I was told otherwise earlier.
Anyway, I promptly forgot about Designrr until I received an e-mail the other day saying I had been charged an annual subscription (due to autopay). I checked my e-mail archives and found the correspondence which confirmed that I had already cancelled. So, I immediately wrote to them and to their credit they acknowledged the mistake and said they would refund the amount charged. That's decent of them.
I would say their autopay policy is nowhere nearly as a bad as FT's policy, which is the worst I've ever come across. But it certainly could be improved. They should make it easier to cancel the autopay (I had to write an e-mail to someone to request this. It should have been as easy as pressing a button). They also should inform customers when the autopay is about to happen so that the customer can consider whether to continue or to cancel. If you have confidence in your product why do you have to worry about the customer cancelling? Just let the customer know you are about to charge them for a year and you want to make sure this is okay with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment