Yes, that’s right, you read it here first. Auto-renewal is for the benefit of the customer. It’s absolutely not so that the myriad of businesses out there can take advantage of the fact that a lot of people (me included) don’t diarise when subscriptions are about to expire. One would hope that a company who were auto-renewing for the benefit of the customer, would give the customer the benefit of an email in advance, warning that this is about to happen so, should they wish to, they could cancel. But no, this would be too easy and of course deprive them of their juicy extra pennies.
I probably wouldn’t be SO cheesed off if I hadn’t received an email from The Ladders website today. I discovered yesterday that, despite my best efforts to read small print, my membership had auto-renewed. Wasn’t happy. I undertook the suggested tactic to “downgrade” and thereby preventing future auto-renews but the damage was done. My “experience” was further exacerbated with the receipt of an email today from The Ladders. They reminded me that of course, they told me about auto-renew in my sign up email and of course it was also on the payment page. They then added this titbit:
“We think of our auto-renewal in the same way you might think of a newspaper subscription renewal – you just want your paper there every day. When it’s not, and you have to re-enter all of your information, it’s just one more thing to fit into your already busy life. Also, you’ve probably noticed with any other online membership you might have, auto-renewal is a common practice for this very reason.”
Seriously. Trying to soften the blow to say “we’re doing this because we care and because everyone else does”, does NOT make it good practice. I replied, informed them of this and am awaiting a response.
Yes, this is my fault but please, how difficult is it for companies out there just to send a reminder about auto-renews. These are times of a difficult economy and when someone is out of work, every penny makes a difference. Think about it and if you have the influence to do something, then pass the message on and make the change.
