
How Dropbox handles downgrades - khuknows
https://userflowpro.com/blog/dropbox-downgrades/
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kristianc
Personally, I'm done with these kind of mind hacks.

While not quite in Facebook 'Your friends will miss you' territory, it still
feels quite scummy.

They belong to an era of the Internet where growth and retention stats trump
all. Just let me cancel.

Oh, and if you cancel and are over the limit and login, Dropbox will give you
a nag screen and hold your files hostage till you cough up.

How this is in any way an example of good practice is beyond me.

~~~
notyourwork
What if you rent a 2000 sqft apartment and don’t renew your lease because of
price. You decide to move to a smaller apartment with cheaper rent or move
back in with your parents where rents free. Can you keep your stuff in the
original apartment?

I don’t disagree with you but your analogy is flawed. At least Dropbox keeps
your stuff to reclaim whereas a landlord would kindly shuffle it to the
garbage while cleaning your old apartment.

That nag screen is a nice way of sayig we’re still paying for your hard drive
space.

~~~
clairity
“That nag screen is a nice way of sayig we’re still paying for your hard drive
space.”

i don’t remember what the nag screen says, but saying that they’re still
paying for hard drive space for me would feel a bit more straightforward and
genuine.

~~~
kristianc
It is also a sunk cost. Dropbox has already paid for your hard disk space -
they run their own data centers. Okay, there is an opportunity cost, but
unless Dropbox is running really close to capacity in its data centers, it is
quite a small one.

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dismal2
I think the core problem is that you lose that available space even if you
paid out through the month/year. I have a suspicion this is an intentional
dark pattern to keep people from downgrading and not some weird engineering
constraint. So it’s a bad and maybe unethical user experience.

Why couldn’t it be: “Thank you for using Dropbox, you have access to your 1t
(or whatever) until X date, after that your files will stop syncing unless you
do Y. Come back any time!”

~~~
chipperyman573
So if I pay for a year, then cancel 6 months in, I lose my 1tb immediately?

Do they give you a pro-rated refund for canceling? Otherwise (unless I'm
misunderstanding your comment) that seems like they aren't giving you what you
paid for.

~~~
dismal2
Yes, or at least that was my experience a few months ago. I’d have to check if
anything changed.

~~~
radley
"In most cases, canceling your Plus or Professional subscription before it
expires means you'll finish your current subscription without receiving money
back. Once the subscription expires, your Dropbox will revert to a Basic
account, and you will no longer have the additional storage quota or features
granted by the Plus upgrade."

[https://www.dropbox.com/help/billing/plus-
refund](https://www.dropbox.com/help/billing/plus-refund)

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benliong78
Audible has something similar: they require that you use up all your credits
before cancellation is even possible, so that is obstacle #1. Then they ask
for reason and sub-reason, and give you either a $20 coupon if you say the
reason is because it's too expensive, or a 3 months praise on your account if
you say you can't catch up to one book a month.

Pretty clever. But having to choose 6 books immediately at the point of
cancellation sucks

~~~
piracykills
Yeah, they tried to do this to me so I complained to support and they refunded
all my credits. At least their support staff treat you right, if not their
software.

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nickm12
I cancelled my New York Times digital subscription this year. It required a
phone call and talking to two individuals. Of course I couldn't do it the very
first time I tried because I wasn't in a position to make a phone call at the
time.

I find Dropbox's approach middle of the road. I think the thing that annoys me
the most is that the button that does what you are specifically trying to do
is de-emphasized. It shows a lack of respect.

~~~
ascagnel_
FYI, Apple and Google both now resell subscriptions to various newspapers. And
unlike this case, you can unsubscribe from them without having to call anyone.

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oevi
It is also interesting how the handle forced downgrades. I just lost some GBs
from previous promotions (like Dropbox Campus Cup) and are now stuck with the
following situation:

\- all files are still there, downloads are possible

\- they disabled syncing between devices and sharing

\- in case of upgrading to a paid plan I can continue as before

~~~
leni536
I can't really imagine a better solution though. Is there any grace period? I
assume you can delete files and directories to get below your quota.

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robertbryan
Thank you for posting this. I have been putting off downgrading my Dropbox
account because I thought it would be painful. Now I'll just go do it.

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ufmace
I'm not sure whether it's better than usual that they actually do let you
cancel online, or worse that they make you drill through apparently 20 screens
or so of trying to get you not to cancel, answering questions, and finding de-
emphasized buttons to click on. Thinking about it, I think that's the biggest
obstacle to signing up to more services - not that I'll miss the money, but
that it's going to be a royal PITA to cancel when I decide to.

I should give props to Google Play's subscription system for making the cancel
interface work well. I subscribed to HBO Go for a few months to watch some
shows, and wanted to cancel when I was done and didn't see anything else I
wanted to watch. I just clicked one button in the play store, and it cancelled
the renewal right away AND also kept my access active until the end of the
period I already paid for. That's much better than I expected, and I will have
much less worries about subscribing to things on the Play store in the future.

But yes, please go away "retention mind hacks".

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barkingcat
None of this is "good". User wants to downgrade, let them downgrade without
asking a bunch of questions and clicking next 5 times.

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Doxin
I still love how netflix handles cancelling subscriptions. settings -> cancel
subscription -> are you sure? -> done and done. Feel free to re-subscribe
anytime. They'll have kept your watching progress and personal recommendations
safe in the meantime.

No weird psychological tricks to get you to not cancel, just a button and a
confirmation.

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sambe
My interpretation: “no big deal, not scummy, better than average by a
distance”. And: please buy userflowpro.

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newscracker
I feel the downgrade flow could still be shorter (fewer steps) without
affecting the amount of information provided on the downgrade or the level of
influencing that happens in these screens to get the user to stay.

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vondur
Off topic, but I wonder how much money they are not getting by offering a
lower priced tier of like 5$ per month?

~~~
nerdponx
This is a deliberate pricing decision. They would lose money on people
switching to the cheaper plan, who were otherwise willing to pay a higher
price but not use the full plan's potential.

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Zarathust
Wow, dropbox made it long and annoying to give them less money. Verdict : I
love it!

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nrki
How Dropbox makes customers jump through sales hoops before doing what they
actually want. _

~~~
raverbashing
True, but clicking the button is still easy

What is not clear is what happens if you're using more than 2GB of space and
downgrade

~~~
jffry
It's shown in that screenshot in the "Overcoming your objection" section of
the article, next to the fish tank graphic:

"If you've already reached your quota, this means that: * Your Dropbox will
stop syncing * You won't be able to add any new files to your Dropbox * You
can't restore any files removed from your Dropbox"

