

Mailchimp charges you money as a penalty for stopping using their service - propercoil

This is just weird. I had a $50 monthly plan with mailchimp with 3500 subscribers and I wanted to stop sending emails (and stop paying for next month) until I can afford it and then jump back again.<p>I was surprised when I found out there wasn't a way to stop the monthly payment other than switching and paying for a different "pay as you go" plan. I haven't encountered this sort of practice in any other decent web service, Ever. I contacted support and this was Mailchimp's response:<p>http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=u1Frh4BJ<p>Mirror: 
http://pastie.org/6514771<p>(tl;dr you just have to pay a penalty if you want to stop for a while or spend a whole day unsubscribing 1500+ users to get it to 2000 subscribers)
======
1123581321
That support rep dealt with you very reasonably, and to depart from my usual
demeanor on HN, you come off as rude and an ass.

There are some services that offer the ability to suspend an account, i.e.
freeze the account as is, remove access to features, and pause payment. That
seems to be what you are asking for. The majority of SaaS services do not
provide this, and it's not reasonable to demand it (yet, anyway. Perhaps
someday.)

Whether it's removing active projects in Basecamp, contacts in Mailchimp,
deals in a CRM, or active clients in Freshbooks, reducing usage down to the
level of the free tier before downgrading is a standard action SaaS users
take.

~~~
propercoil
yep I was pissed i'll give you that and no this is not the way the majority of
SaaS services work. Take for example github and heroku

~~~
noodle
If you downgrade your github account you don't get to keep the extra repos
above the level you downgrade to.

Heroku offers metered billing and a free account. So does MailChimp. You
weren't using either.

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matthuggins
I love how quickly you jump down his throat rather than talking to him
rationally. I'm not saying I agree/disagree with the way MailChimp handles
this kind of request, but it's obvious you were ready to jump on "the customer
is always right" bandwagon from the moment you started this conversation.

~~~
propercoil
This was my genuine response Matt. I guess this is how I act when someone
takes money out of me in exchange for nothing. How can that not piss me off?

~~~
kenrikm
Not nothing.. that $9 buys emails that can be sent on a "Pay as you go" basis.

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UnoriginalGuy
It does seem rather bad business for them.

I mean if their users drop their address numbers down to below 2000 just in
order to suspend their account they likely won't re-add those addresses later
when they need to renew since the whole thing is a massive hassle.

Plus a $9 cancellation fee is going to leave a bad taste in most people's
mouths which they'll remember when it comes time to send e-mails again, I know
it would me.

And all this for what in return? To make $9 once? Lose potential repeat custom
for $9? Meh.

It is their business so their choice. I'm sure they have run the numbers on
this to see if it makes the most money, but I try to avoid companies that
operate like that (both in my professional and personal life).

Just for one example, a DVD rental company (similar to Netflix) make it SO
difficult to cancel their service when I wanted to rent DVDs again I decided
to take my business elsewhere, since the competitor let me start and stop it
online as I wanted...

So it might discourage some from cancelling their subscription but once people
do successfully cancel they will never return, because you never forget how
big the hassle was to cancel it.

It is just classic MBA short term profiteering where they pretend metrics like
reputation and long term growth don't exist. Just as long as THIS year looks
grand.

------
Peroni
You complain that you don't want to spend a whole day deleting your users so
surely a $9 investment is trivial?

Your request is senseless. You're receiving a discount for the service and
expect to be able to suspend and reactivate that service as and when suits
you. As far as I'm aware, that business model doesn't exist in the real world
without some form of financial penalty.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
It isn't a $9 "investment." He wants to cancel, they are charging $9. He is
investing in cancellation?

If I understand the OP's discussion correctly he is not receiving any kind of
discount. They have two kinds of payment model - Pay&Go and Unlimited
($50/month).

They're calling the unlimited model a "discount" since presumably if you send
enough it is cheaper. So it isn't unfair to call it cheaper, but it is kind of
silly to suggest he should eat a fee because of the "discount" he may or may
not be benefiting from.

In general that business model is extremely common in the real world. My
current phone, Netflix digital, and broadband subscriptions are all
"unlimited" and I can cancel for free whenever I want (except in the first 12
months with broadband).

I think you're confusing a "unlimited fixed fee" service with a "12 month
commitment at a reduced fixed fee" service. Not the same thing and this case
appears to be a month by month rolling fee, not a discounted longer duration.

~~~
Peroni
That's just it, he doesn't want to cancel, he wants to stop paying for a month
or two and start again later without losing his list of subscribers.

Would Netflix allow you to cancel right now and return in two months with all
your preferences and viewing history intact?

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
> Would Netflix allow you to cancel right now and return in two months with
> all your preferences and viewing history intact?

Yes. And my phone company would let me keep the same number if I did that.

------
JulianMiller520
Change the name David to your mother's name and change Tom to any random
person talking to her at work. Still happy with the tone?

------
gesman
I don't think Mailchimp is doing something unusual here.

It's like asking not to be charged by your ISP because you're leaving for a 2
months vacation. You either cancel it completely or be charged the same
monthly.

PS: There are much stronger reasons to not like Mailchimp, but it's beyond the
subject of this post.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
The OP clearly wanted to cancel completely...

~~~
Peroni
He clearly didn't.

 _...wanted to stop sending emails (and stop paying for next month) until I
can afford it and then jump back again._

and

 _...so my idea was to stop sending emails until I can afford it and then
start sending emails again._

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
Right? So he wanted to cancel completely.

To stop using the service entirely is to cancel. He wanted to stop using the
service entirely so therefore he wanted to cancel completely.

