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I think this is a little over-excited. Throwing around phrases like "false charge" and "holding your videos hostage" is a bit much. It sounds like their billing

by sho 2y ago

I think this is a little over-excited. Throwing around phrases like "false charge" and "holding your videos hostage" is a bit much. It sounds like their billing system is a bit clunky and you were probably hit by a timezone issue, which isn't great but hardly "predatory". I have nothing to do with Vimeo and don't want to sound automatically on their side but it sounds like you're getting exactly what you wanted? You even talk about needing to change to monthly billing in a year - so you still expect to be using it - didn't you just save money? They billed you a few hours early, OK, not cool, but that doesn't rise to "predatory" in my book.

throwaway489322 2y ago
I appreciate your perspective, but have to disagree. (Some quotes below are from your child comment, but I wanted to respond to all of them in one place) > Everything else is on the OP trying to game their system and screwing up. I was attempting to use the free trial as designed -- a few days free, and then (if everything goes according to expectation), begin paying. Not sure how that's gaming the system, unless you feel that signing up for a yearly trial with the likely outcome of switching to monthly billing is "gaming the system." I would call it taking them up on their offer. > The billing being slightly early seems like the only thing vimeo have done wrong here. I'm glad you agree this was wrong. I live month-to-month, and their billing error could've been quite catastrophic for me. It brought my account below my monthly rent, which is due in a few days, certainly before I would get any sort of refund from them. Yes, this is not a good way to live, but it's my financial situation at the moment. Luckily I was able to get Venmoed the $240 from a family member which I instant-deposited into my bank account. I'm incredibly fortunate to have that privilege. Having a $240 charge pulled from your bank account sooner than agreed upon is a big deal for a large percentage of the world. > doesn't rise to "predatory" in my book Understood. In my book, it's predatory to offer a free trial for hosting content, and then when someone wants to switch from annual to monthly tell them the only way to do that is to have a lapse in the hosting. Imagine you built a web app. You decide on a host, and -- oh look -- they have a free trial! Awesome. You sign up for the trial, give them your credit card info, post your website to Show HN. People are visiting the site! You're rising on Show HN! Comments and the whole lot. As your trial nears the end, you try to change from yearly to monthly billing. You find out the only way to do this is to... email support? Okay I guess. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt. You reach out to support. And they inform you that you'll have to let the billing lapse in order to do this. When it lapses, the website will go down. You're rising on Show HN, people are engaging with the site, and now you have to face the idea that hundreds of people will see a dead site... UNLESS you just pony up and pay the yearly fee. Now you're weighing paying more, or having your content disappear for a percentage of your visitors. To me, this is clearly designed to force you into yearly billing. If that ain't a predatory practice in your book, I can accept that. We'll just have to disagree on the definition of predatory. > they simply never bothered to build something to handle this extreme edge case Again, I can accept you think this is an extreme edge case. I think that switching from yearly to monthly before your next billing cycle must be somewhat common, especially on a service as popular as Vimeo.
eps 2y ago
> their billing system is a bit clunky That's a very naive way of looking at things. Billing system restrictions, especially around downgrading and cancellations, are always artificial.
- sho 2y ago
  It’s quite plausible to me that they simply never bothered to build something to handle this extreme edge case. And frankly, if I was in charge I would probably agree. The billing being slightly early seems like the only thing vimeo have done wrong here. Everything else is on the OP trying to game their system and screwing up. I don’t have much sympathy, to be honest.
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  It's common to have discussions on HN about the technical difficulty of billing systems, although these could possibly be explained by: (1) Technical people are getting crazy requirements from Sales (2) People find thinking things through hurts their head (3) Somebody thinks they can charge you a recurring subscription so you can charge somebody a recurring subscription

by sho 2y ago

throwaway489322 2y ago

I appreciate your perspective, but have to disagree. (Some quotes below are from your child comment, but I wanted to respond to all of them in one place) > Everything else is on the OP trying to game their system and screwing up. I was attempting to use the free trial as designed -- a few days free, and then (if everything goes according to expectation), begin paying. Not sure how that's gaming the system, unless you feel that signing up for a yearly trial with the likely outcome of switching to monthly billing is "gaming the system." I would call it taking them up on their offer. > The billing being slightly early seems like the only thing vimeo have done wrong here. I'm glad you agree this was wrong. I live month-to-month, and their billing error could've been quite catastrophic for me. It brought my account below my monthly rent, which is due in a few days, certainly before I would get any sort of refund from them. Yes, this is not a good way to live, but it's my financial situation at the moment. Luckily I was able to get Venmoed the $240 from a family member which I instant-deposited into my bank account. I'm incredibly fortunate to have that privilege. Having a $240 charge pulled from your bank account sooner than agreed upon is a big deal for a large percentage of the world. > doesn't rise to "predatory" in my book Understood. In my book, it's predatory to offer a free trial for hosting content, and then when someone wants to switch from annual to monthly tell them the only way to do that is to have a lapse in the hosting. Imagine you built a web app. You decide on a host, and -- oh look -- they have a free trial! Awesome. You sign up for the trial, give them your credit card info, post your website to Show HN. People are visiting the site! You're rising on Show HN! Comments and the whole lot. As your trial nears the end, you try to change from yearly to monthly billing. You find out the only way to do this is to... email support? Okay I guess. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt. You reach out to support. And they inform you that you'll have to let the billing lapse in order to do this. When it lapses, the website will go down. You're rising on Show HN, people are engaging with the site, and now you have to face the idea that hundreds of people will see a dead site... UNLESS you just pony up and pay the yearly fee. Now you're weighing paying more, or having your content disappear for a percentage of your visitors. To me, this is clearly designed to force you into yearly billing. If that ain't a predatory practice in your book, I can accept that. We'll just have to disagree on the definition of predatory. > they simply never bothered to build something to handle this extreme edge case Again, I can accept you think this is an extreme edge case. I think that switching from yearly to monthly before your next billing cycle must be somewhat common, especially on a service as popular as Vimeo.

eps 2y ago

> their billing system is a bit clunky That's a very naive way of looking at things. Billing system restrictions, especially around downgrading and cancellations, are always artificial.

sho 2y ago
It’s quite plausible to me that they simply never bothered to build something to handle this extreme edge case. And frankly, if I was in charge I would probably agree. The billing being slightly early seems like the only thing vimeo have done wrong here. Everything else is on the OP trying to game their system and screwing up. I don’t have much sympathy, to be honest.
PaulHoule 2y ago
It's common to have discussions on HN about the technical difficulty of billing systems, although these could possibly be explained by: (1) Technical people are getting crazy requirements from Sales (2) People find thinking things through hurts their head (3) Somebody thinks they can charge you a recurring subscription so you can charge somebody a recurring subscription