There’s a reason why people don’t like subscriptions, and I ran into it this week.
I signed up for an annual service last year and I used it every weekday for 3 or 4 months. It was a good service, but I found an alternative and stopped using it. Foolishly on my part, I neglected to cancel my subscription, so I got charged for the next year’s service on the renewal date — despite the fact that I hadn’t used it for several months.
That’s my fault. I learned awhile ago — or I thought I had learned — that every time I sign up for a subscription service I should put a tickler in my calendar to re-evaluate that cost when it’s up for renewal.
That’s one reason why people don’t like subscriptions. They feel like they’re being tricked into making a payment they don’t want to make. That’s not the way to do things. It’s bad business, creates a bad customer experience, and it creates ill-will between the consumer and the service provider. Not only that, it destroys the whole subscription model. When people abuse subscriptions it makes consumers not want to subscribe.
What could this vendor have done to make it a better experience?
First, they could have noticed when I stopped using the service. It was, after all, a pretty dramatic change. I used it every weekday for months, then not at all. They should have put me in a re-engagement campaign, and they should have asked why I stopped using their service.
Second, they should not have auto renewed me when I hadn’t used the service in months. That seems pretty obvious. At a minimum they should have asked me if I really wanted to renew.
Some of you are shaking your head right now saying, “we want more renewal money, not less!” To which I respond, do you want to sell an honest product, or do you want to cheat people into handing over their money when they really don’t want to?
Third, they should have sent me a warning before charging my card. That’s a common courtesy, and also a good business practice – especially on an annual renewal. It’s so easy to forget what you signed up for a year ago. It’s also an opportunity for the merchant to make sure you have the right payment information on file. For example, you could say “this is a reminder that we will charge your Mastercard ending in 1234 on July 1st. Click here to update your payment information.”
Fourth, if all those things fail, they charge me, and I complain about it, they should refund my payment.
I hope that people of good will can see the sense in these suggestions and voluntarily adopt policies like this. It’s possible that we need something like a “good subscription vendor seal of approval.” That is, some organization would spell out consumer-friendly subscription best practices and allow conforming vendors to put a trust badge on their sales page. Otherwise, the vendors who use subscriptions as a way to cheat consumers will ruin the whole model.
