Intuit sends us a Payroll subscription reminder. I check for same functionality on the Amazon site. Intuit wants to charge us twice as much for the privilege of being a captive customer. They are not alone. It is far cheaper to buy Symantec’s Norton protection off Amazon than from their web site.
The Wall Street Journal sends me periodic notices to come back as a subscriber. Problem is the rates are almost three times as high as those for a new subscriber.
Verizon keeps sending me FiOS marketing. The rates/speeds are better than what they offer me as an incumbent customer. After 20+ years as a customer, sure would be nice to hear them say “Thank you – we just lowered your rates/increased your speed”
No, knowing Verizon, I will have to threaten to leave before they budge. An often they won’t so they have lost many of our subscriptions in the past.
We have not used McAfee protection in years. Yet faithfully they try to charge my card every year and require me to dispute each year.
GoDaddy is our web register for several of my wife’s and my websites. They hound us by phone every time a renewal comes up, and as with McAfee we have to end up disputing several charges.
It’s endemic. Subscriptions should be a nice business model for both consumer and vendor. But aggressive auto-renewals, onerous early termination fees, higher prices for incumbent customers are all conspiring to make subscriptions a word to be wary of.
(Read this and other articles @ Deal Architect)
