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There is absolutely nothing dishonest about clearly communicating to the customer what you're going to do, then doing it. You may run your business differently

by apowell 17y ago

There is absolutely nothing dishonest about clearly communicating to the customer what you're going to do, then doing it. You may run your business differently and wish others did the same, but that doesn't make intro pricing dishonest. This is doubly true when you're marketing to internet marketers.

Andys 17y ago
There's more to "communicating to the customer" than just putting it out there. Maybe a wall of text is just as bad as traditional "fine-print". If you think you made the conditions clear but you get unhappy customers anyway, you've failed to communicate.
_delirium 17y ago
To me, if the intent and main effect are to basically trick people into paying for something they don't really want, it's at least sleazy, if not outright dishonest. There are legitimate uses for trial offers, so it's a bit of a judgment case, and I think depends to a large extent on just how clearly the terms are communicated. In particular, it should be very clear to customers of average sophistication exactly what will be rebilled, and exactly what they need to do to avoid the rebill if they'd like to cancel--- and the cancelling should be easy.
- lena 17y ago
  I agree. If you genuinely feel that your product is worth the $80/month and that your customer will feel the same way, why not send them a reminder a few days before the trial stops to let them know? Maybe give them a freebie if they continue the membership. I used to have a subscription to a UK magazine where apparently automatic subscriptions are not legal, so they have to sell you the magazine again, every year. I thought this was great, as opposed to the situation in the Netherlands where you have to cancel at the right time, or else you are stuck with another year. (There are laws in progress to change this, so clearly many people are annoyed by it)

by apowell 17y ago

Andys 17y ago

There's more to "communicating to the customer" than just putting it out there. Maybe a wall of text is just as bad as traditional "fine-print". If you think you made the conditions clear but you get unhappy customers anyway, you've failed to communicate.

_delirium 17y ago

To me, if the intent and main effect are to basically trick people into paying for something they don't really want, it's at least sleazy, if not outright dishonest. There are legitimate uses for trial offers, so it's a bit of a judgment case, and I think depends to a large extent on just how clearly the terms are communicated. In particular, it should be very clear to customers of average sophistication exactly what will be rebilled, and exactly what they need to do to avoid the rebill if they'd like to cancel--- and the cancelling should be easy.

lena 17y ago
I agree. If you genuinely feel that your product is worth the $80/month and that your customer will feel the same way, why not send them a reminder a few days before the trial stops to let them know? Maybe give them a freebie if they continue the membership. I used to have a subscription to a UK magazine where apparently automatic subscriptions are not legal, so they have to sell you the magazine again, every year. I thought this was great, as opposed to the situation in the Netherlands where you have to cancel at the right time, or else you are stuck with another year. (There are laws in progress to change this, so clearly many people are annoyed by it)