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

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5380927

by propercoil • 13 years ago

7 20 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

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.

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:

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=u1Frh4BJ

Mirror: http://pastie.org/6514771

(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)

matthuggins2• 13 years ago

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.

propercoil4• 13 years ago

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• 13 years ago

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

Peroni3• 13 years ago

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.

UnoriginalGuy5• 13 years ago

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.

Peroni3• 13 years ago

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?

UnoriginalGuy5• 13 years ago

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.

gesman• 13 years ago

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.

UnoriginalGuy5• 13 years ago

The OP clearly wanted to cancel completely...

Peroni3• 13 years ago

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.

propercoil4• 13 years ago

This is definitely the case with ISP's but mailchimp is in a different space, It's a web service and it's common to suspend your monthly plan

11235813212• 13 years ago

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.

propercoil4• 13 years ago

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

11235813212• 13 years ago

Yes, Github only removes access to your repositories. And some from my list allow a downgrade if enough projects are archived, not deleted, so they are still available. Still, it's not too common yet.

Heroku is different because they don't charge you to host code with them; they charge for number of dynos which only makes your app faster or slower. However, I don't think you can downgrade a large production database to free and keep it, or downgrade all of the add-ons to free.

noodle• 13 years ago

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.

JulianMiller520• 13 years ago

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?

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

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