Platinum Club cancellation conflict [ETA: Paypal issue, not Daz Inc. choice]

mindsong

Edited to Add: warning, To avoid getting everyone stirred up, enter this discussion knowing that Paypal's auto-charge function is not under the control of DAZ Inc., once it's been enabled by a customer/purchase, so Daz Inc. is NOT actually charging the customer, and Daz Inc. cannot 'fix' this problem as complained about in my rant below. It's a mechanical issue, not a values decision. --ms

--- original rant:

Is it just me? Seriously, I'm asking the community here if I'm off-base in my extreme (and principled) frustration with this repeating pattern:

This morning I get a pleasant pop-up banner warning in my daz3d.com webpage:

"We see you cancelled your Platinum Club Plus Membership. If you were paying for your subscription with PayPal, you will need to cancel it through your PayPal account. If you fail to do so, you will be charged for an additional period of Platinum Club Plus on your designated renewal date, and your membership will be reactivated. There will be no refund issued for this charge, so please update your PayPal account to avoid this.

If your subscription was unintentionally cancelled, you may need to repurchase it. Please contact Customer Support for assistance.

While the note/warning is sincerely appreciated, technically, I have to ask what part of "We see you cancelled your Platinum Club Plus Membership." does Daz Corporate not understand? It's their own words!

How in heavens name can they justify

If you fail to do so, you will be charged...

While I admit that I'm hyper-sensitized to this issue having gone around with them maybe four times now with similar issues on credit-card auto-charges and fighting for refunds *before the purchased service was even useable*, etc., but take that all away, and the simple paragraph I received this morning screams (to me) of a deep-rooted attitude about DAZ Inc., and how they perceive customer's accounts, subscriptions, and money.

As a customer, I don't care how many ways Daz Inc. describes the 'proper' PC+ cancellation steps, I have to wonder how on earth a company can say 'we see you've cancelled' and 'we'll charge you anyway' in the same breath.

And clearly, Daz Management is not lacking in intelligence. What they've created here is nothing short of genius, and their products/vendors/community are brilliant, which is why it's in my continued (begrudging) interest to even bother with them. They're doing everything else right! What gives? or what am I missing?

Boggles my mind, and absolutely extinguishes virtually any good will and support I might have for this corporation and my purchasing from them. It repeatedly reminds me and re-confirms my instincts that this is purely a business relationship, and I should get as much as possible from them for as little as possible invested. If that sounds adversarial, it's because it's practically the definition of the term. I explicitly *give* my money to get products, nobody takes it.

That's not how it used to be around here, and based on this repeating pattern, I'm certain they have no idea how much damage they're causing themselves in terms of customer goodwill and (my) future busines/spending.

Am I missing something? I've been known to look right past the obvious.

confused,

--ms

For those that would want to avoid this whole issue, the 'right' way to buy the Platinum Club subscription without continued obligation, is to purchase a gift-card for the required subscription amount using any means you choose, and purchase the desired PC+ term (monthly/annual, etc). with that Gift-card as payment. Immediately cancel the PC+ membership once it's enabled, and your membership will continue for your specifid term and have no long-term 'strings' tied to it, and your choice to continue to 'subscribe' will be under your control when the period is complete. Maybe next-time I'll get it right.

Chohole

If you have cancelled your PC membership, and you paid by PayPal as a recurring subscription then you will need to cancel at PayPal as well, otherwise they keep sending Daz the money each month.    They are not saying that they will charge you, they are saying that PayPal will keep on using the automatic renewal, until you cancel that yourself.   They are trying to help you not be overcharged.

mindsong

Ahhh, OK, that's a HUGE piece of the pzzle here! so 'you will be charged' is a function of Paypal...!

Honestly, that accounts for a large part of my confusion!

If Daz can't disable the Paypal auto-pay that is enabled by the customer in the act of buying the subscription, then it really isn't Daz doing the charging...

OK, so the mechanism that Daz is stuck using kind-of sucks, but Daz is also at the mercy of it as well.

I don't know how to fix that, and having any corporation able to dig into the Paypal accounts of customers is probably a bad idea too, so I can't recommend that either.

Thanks for that info, it *does* make a difference! A big difference!

Maybe the wording of the notices/instructions should clarify that it's the *Paypal* mechanism doing the charging and reactivating of the service, NOT Daz Inc.

Thanks and apologies if warranted, as this has been a source of frustration for years. Maybe I can finally put this to rest.

--ms

Chohole

I even go straight to Paypal and cancel my AV auto renew normally,  I forgot this year, and they renewed it about 10 days early,  which didn't really give me a chance to upgrade if I had wanted to, or to cancel.

mindsong

I simply hate subscriptions of any kind, and really feel violated when they occur unexpectedly. urg.

It's really good for folks to understand this Paypal detail, so I hope the thread now proves more productive than provocative.

I wonder if Daz could refuse the payment if the account shows PC+ as cancelled? That would solve a lot of problems in the customer-service dept, I'd bet.

Thanks again for that clarification,

--ms

mjc1016

mindsong said:

 

I wonder if Daz could refuse the payment if the account shows PC+ as cancelled? That would solve a lot of problems in the customer-service dept, I'd bet.

Thanks again for that clarification,

--ms

And open two or three other cans of worms...

It's not just Paypal that works that way, either.  If you do any kind of auto-debit, it can happen. 

mindsong

mjc1016 said:

And open two or three other cans of worms...

heh - good point

--ms