i miss the days when cancelling a subscription would just stop it charging you but you keep the service until you would have to pay
Your subscription still continues through the full period you’ve paid for.
Otherwise you’re owed a refund of what you paid, which looks like $0.
It’s a promo, take it or don’t.
The whole point of a free trial is to try the services without paying. If you sign up for a free trial, which these days requires a credit card, but are forced to continue the “subscription” until it ends, you could end up forgetting to cancel at the right time and end up being charged. No matter how you spin it, this is no good for the consumer and only helps corporate.
There would be no free trials offered if there was no chance of continuing as paid.
Do you want to ban free trials to protect the forgetful?
I want to be able to prevent it from accidentally continuing on to paid subscription like I could before by ending the subscription without losing the access as far as the trial period lasted.
Do you want to ban free trials to protect the forgetful?
Yes, in a way. They are counting on the forgetful to an extent. There are actual apps to cancels services people have forgotten about but still pay for. Remove the requirement for cc info for a free trial. There are services out their that I might use but I’m not comfortable inserting cc info until I’m sure it is useful to me. If the product is as great as Apple (or whoever) say it is, people will subscribe.
What? There’s always a chance of continuing paid; if people enjoy the service enough. Allowing a free trial that doesn’t require a credit card does not prevent people from wanting to pay to continue the service.
Kinda missing the point, but thanks for the unsolicited lecture on corporate policies.
Don’t play games with companies and then complain they’re playing games.
It’s a free trial; you haven’t paid for any period of time.
I have “Apple One”, and under the “Cancel All Services” button, it says if I cancel now, they will remain active until the end of the current subscription period.
Yep. This is more manufactured discontent.
Most free trial subscriptions let you cancel but keep the subscription active through the trial period, Apple included. I normally cancel immediately so if I forget about the thing because I stopped using it my card doesn’t get charged. All these free trials require a card on file so they can just automatically start the subscription.
Apple doing this makes it more likely people will forget to cancel if they don’t care for the product and automatically start the subscription. At which point it is far harder to cancel/get your money back.
subscription
"Free trial »
Yeah…when I cancelled Apple TV (as a paying customer) I had access until end of pay cycle.
As far as malicious subscription practices go, this doesn’t even register. If anything, the fact that there’s a button right there to cancel is almost refreshing…
They better refund the rest
“Cancel Free Trial” - I’m sure they would happily refund $0.
Ah shit, I missed that because it blended in with the red circle
Apple wants you to know you lose access immediately. They probably had lots of complaints. Some places will grace out the rest of your subscription before removing access (netflix for example, lets you finish out the month you paid for, as expected). If I cancel service I paid for, and the month was already paid for, I expect service to remain active for what I’ve paid for.
I don’t think Apple feels compelled to grace “the rest of your subscription” when you are on a free trial.
I don’t think it’s legal to cancel service in the US if it’s pre-paid monthly without a pro-rated refund. That’s straight up theft. I’ve never had that happen.
In the case above, it says Free Trial, so no payment yet.
Except apple doesn’t take away any time you’ve paid for just like your Netflix example. If I were to cancel my apple one sub it would remain active until the 22nd….because that’s what I’ve already prepaid for. Apple does cancel you’re unpaid for free trial immediately because you didn’t pre pay for anything.
The truly, mildly infuriating thing is that they will most likely charge you as soon as the trial ends unless you cancel.
As someone who already likes the product: The trial is just a bonus - you get that time for free.
As someone who actively dislikes the product: You’ll likely only use the trial if it’s absolutely necessary.
As someone who is skeptical of the product: You may want to use the trial to help decide whether you like the product.
As someone who is frugal: You would not want to get charged for something unnecessarily.
If I’m skeptical and frugal, I’d be wary of starting a trial which automatically charges me at the end. I’d be more likely to seek alternatives. Apple may not target this demographic to begin with so the point could be moot with this example… but regardless, the fact that many “free” trials do this is probably mildly infuriating to anyone who is skeptical and frugal.
Additionally, when I do find a true free trial, I would be inclined to take that as a sign that the product speaks for itself and that I’m not going to get ripped off.
Honestly this would just make me feel even more justified in not paying for the “service”. They’re only interested in your money, not in actually serving anyone.
It’s a free trial. If you flat out say you have no interest in having their service, why would they continue giving it to you for free‽
If you pay for the service, you get it until the end of the payment period.
Oh, I see, it’s a money thing.
They’re only interested in your money, not in actually serving anyone.
What’s wrong with that?
Monetary self-interest without a corresponding societal responsibility is inherently destructive in the long term.
