Mailchimp charges you money as a penalty for stopping using their service
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)
20 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 50.5 ms ] threadYour 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
...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.
To stop using the service entirely is to cancel. He wanted to stop using the service entirely so therefore he wanted to cancel completely.
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.
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.
Heroku offers metered billing and a free account. So does MailChimp. You weren't using either.