@dreev I’ve written before that credit card charges should produce an explicit e-mail confirmation message that would also act as a receipt outside of the web site (if the website is not available, there is no trace of the charge that the user can access).
But this is even worse.
I should not have to find out from my credit card report that my Beelite subscription has been renewed.
This is a terrible practice that should end yesterday.
I really enjoy Beeminder, use it daily and love being able to support the service, but this is extremely wrong. If I wasn’t such a fan of the service (I have a beeminder sticker on my desk :p), I would be very pissed right now. The internet has become a place where the average user is being taught to treat every company as a possible scam. You (@dreev) have often commented about the typical new-user FAQ about “you are going to trick me from my money by causing me to derail”). Even big companies employ tricks and tactics that are on the verge of deceit or worse. Just yesterday I was chasing LinkedIn to cancel a subscription that I had already cancelled once a week ago (more on their practices here). Beeminder has shown that it’s not that kind of company and should behave like this in all cases.
I understand that the subscription automatically renews if the system sees that I’m using it.
However, proper warning about a charge before it happens, and confirmation after it happens is 200% crucial to keep users informed and clear about what is going on with the credit card information that they have entrusted you.
thank you (edited for clarifications and toning down the anger :))
Thank you – I’m definitely viewing this as a bug report! I vaguely recall @bee mentioning it as a to-do item literally years ago and amazingly I think you’re the first one to mention it since. I think the fact that we have auto-canceling subscriptions makes it at least non-evil. The evil version is when a company hopes you’ll never notice that you’re still paying for something forever. Taking the initiative to automatically stop charging you without being asked is going super above-and-beyond, I think.
But also, yeah, sending the dang receipts! Thanks again!
Quick fix: show the premium plan and expiration date on the right-side avatar/“user info” box
(By the way, is the timezone that important that that is always shown?)
…amazingly I think you’re the first one to mention it since.
Just to mention, I emailed support about this on the 31st of March, specifically to state that I had removed my credit card details from this service (and a few others) as a result as I had not intended to renew.
I’m a little bit concerned if that hasn’t been received.
Seems like the “Payment” tab on the settings page should have
a) a note about the subscription not renewing if you don’t use the service (by the way, what exactly does that mean? no data points in X number of days?)
b) a text about removing the credit card with instructions to mail support (and of course the warning that you wont be able to use the goal if you derail)
There are also does not seem to be a way in the Settings page to cancel an account?
I see now! I was searching for your username. Your email wasn’t in fact missed, it was just waiting for me for the past 4 days and appeared lower priority since the subject was Complice postmortem. Having actually read it now, I just refunded the $82 for your Bee Lite renewal. Sorry about that!
I do appreciate the gesture and that you were trying to make things right. However, I hadn’t asked for a refund but requested that you consider the importance of an email regarding the subscription renewal.
The thing is, that’s a pre-paid debit card which expired in March. I got my new card and transferred the balance off, realised I was short and then spotted the unexpected Beeminder transaction.
My email was admittedly quite terse but I clearly stated that what I wished from you was that you would start sending reminder emails to subscribers before taking their money.
I would have been quite happy if you had apologised for the withdrawal and asked me if I wanted a refund.
Instead, within a few moments of having this brought to your attention, you’ve refunded the subscription to a dead card and reported that it had been done.
I’ve already contacted the card issuer to clarify the situation and I presume they will transfer the outstanding funds to my new card, but what I find aggravating is that you have responded to the issue by again completing a financial transaction without any communication with me.
Oh man, it totally failed to occur to me that there could be any harm in refunding money! I guess mainly I didn’t think about the multiple credit card issue. I think if we take money we shouldn’t have then we have to give it back, almost whether you want it or not. Maybe I’m being extreme but it also seems like a lot of our users are too sweet and polite to say yes to an offered refund so it feels weird to even ask when I want to just insist that they take it. But again, annoyance here was about multiple cards. Sorry about that!
