What billing company doesnt encourage a member to cancel a subscription?
 

My current billing company is great but I feel they make it a little too easy to cancel. As soon as you sign up you get a link to go right to support and from there a big link to unsubscribe.
As soon as they subscribe they're practically asked to unsubscribe right away.

Im looking to switch to a billing company that of course allows customers to cancel, but makes it less in their face to do so.

In CCBill the default approval email has a cancel link, but you can make your own custom emails for stuff like that too with the link as vague or obvious as you want, or missing altogether.

Can't speak from experience with Epoch, etc, but I'd be surprised if they don't offer that option too.

thanks I didn't know that :thumbsup

Yeah, go to Account Info and then Custom Emails on the far right of the drop-down. Make sure you have the correct sub-account selected in the control panel header. You can change pretty much all automated emails, both webmaster & customer side.

If this isn't a... get your own merchant account, then I don't know what is.

Finally, someone understanding 1 aspect that kills sales! And believe me, there are not many people who question the member emails sent by third parties... most have no idea what they say.

Well..... not saying a merchant account doesn't have its own merits.... but like I said, it takes like 5 minutes to make those emails appear exactly how the webmaster chooses. I'm not really sure how CCBill could make it any easier.

How do you know op has ccbill?

Regardless... what is the point of receipt? To show consumer what the paid, right?

Tell me how you can simply email buyer with just what they paid thru ccbill? Not that other rebilling garbage.

I gathered that when he said "I didn't know that" it was sort of registering surprise because that's his processor. Maybe not.

And I dunno - I think it's fair to offer some kind of cancellation link at list on the initial receipt. Doesn't have to be super obvious. If the content is satisfactory and regularly updated, the subscriber will usually stick around.

The idea for me with rebills being automatic is to avoid the customer having to make that decision "Can I live without this subscription?" that manual renewal would prompt each time. But I'm not out to sneak it by him/her if they're done with the product.

But YMMV. I'm pretty sure you can remove the cancellation link in CCBill emails altogether and just have the purchase receipt say "You have paid $XX.XX, thanks for your business" if you want.

I have my own issues with 3rd party processors, but ease of cancellation isn't one of them.

Why not let them cancel with ease if they want to? No reason to try to fuck them over once they decide to leave your site. Offer them a cancel discount. If they don't accept that, let them leave and mail them offers later. They will bite again eventually, so long as you didn't make their experience a bad one.

You can't just show the price paid. You would have to ask for that special.

The email, itself, is 1 way for customer to cancel. No need for extra verbage, hit reply, cancel... thatsit.

It's all a ploy to keep the masses at under 1% chargeback ratio. Remeber john, you bought a $30 subscription for 30 days then $30 every 30 days until infinity... dont worry though, just click the big ass link at the bottom of this email. Better do it now!

Thats how perceive the typical email receipts.

You mean if I did just show the price paid and say subscription # or whatever, CCBill would contact me to say it's against their terms? Because as it stands I can go into that custom email and literally change every bit of text, layout, and printed variables. I could technically make it say "beaner and Damian 4eva" and nothing else.

But regardless, I think it's good practice to have some kind of unsubscribe link at least in the first receipt. IMO we shouldn't be in the business of gaming customers out of their money, adult got a deserved rep for being shady with all the prechecked x-sales, card banging, malware, etc, back in the day... best be relatively up-front at this point. Again, if people like your product and you keep updating, they'll keep their subscription.

I'm a member of a site that is $6.95/month. When I think of unsubscribing they make it a total pain in the ass, you have to look things up and go to a different website and find the right place and then go through all that.
So I dont cancel, I keep it running.

I want to do the same thing on my own site.

You cant parse out the price description. You either have the price, or you dont. If you keep the price it will have $30 for 30 days then $30 every 30 till canceled. You cannot make it just say... thank you for the $30 payment without special approval and customized code from ccbill.

Ohh, I see what you're saying. Yes, the %%price%% variable does describe whether it's a recurring charge or not.

That being said, that variable isn't mandatory - you could just have it say "Thank you for your purchase to beanersite.com" or something, without the %%price%% info. And/or remove the cancel link. I'm just not seeing why it's all that important (or ethical) to completely conceal that it's a recurring charge in the receipt, we'll agree to disagree on that one....

Then we are back to... what is the purpose of the receipt? Because it is no longer transaction receipt.

When i pay my car insurance i get a thank you for your $110 payment. Save this for your records.

I havent said anything about removing the cancellation link, however, like op said... it is redundant, in your face, and not needed.

Ive done both ways, and i know, without question, which way makes more money.

I completely changed my welcome emails when a customer joins one of my paysites about eight months ago. Rebills have absolutely gone way up. (Also, let's be clear: "unsubscribe", to me, denotes email lists while 'canceling' refers to paysites. Perhaps technically it is 'unsubscribing' from a 'subscription' but I find it confusing. LOL Just sayin'.)

What i did was delete any references to canceling, rebilling charges, etc. But I also agree with your point of NOT being deceitful. So what to do?

Well, I went with assuming the customer is smart enough to know that 'click here for any website or billing issues' is where he would want to go to cancel. LOL But I also agree with Beaner. HOW something is presented (or described, as with my annoying 'unsubscribe/cancel' example above) goes a long way in communicating to a Member. Sometimes it's unconscious but I do not want them to even SEE the word 'cancel' (or 'unsubscribe' - unless it's on an email. Oh - and ever notice how clever mainstream is with THEIR 'unsubscribe' links on THEIR emails? Like making the link an off-white so you can't see it, or a tiny 4 point font, or burying it inside a paragraph of text. Just sayin' LOL).

There are ways of being ethical without leaving money on the table OR deceiving your customers. Again, compare Adult to mainstream and it's really quite shocking. :)

Hit up Media Revenue :2 cents:

Op.... you seem to be diligent enough to understand some of the finer details.

I will get you making at least 50% more money within 3 months. Do everything i say and you will be on a train with a lot more cash.

Only thing i request is post back in this thread anddo not text me after midnight saying you deleted everything i (and others) did because you get cold feet.

hell if Microsoft can make it difficult to cancel everyone should be able to make it difficult. trying to cancel my xbox live gold auto renew and I get the error
"An error occured cancelling automatic renewal."

go to contact support and there is not email.just a chat thing that says I have to wait 30 min to chat with someone...they really think after this I would ever join again....

I may be in the minority, but I agree with this. Better a cancellation from an unhappy member than a chargeback. Sites that make you jump through unnecessary hoops to cancel may squeeze a few extra dollars in the short term but when those people do finally manage to cancel, you can bet your ass they won't be back.... ever.

Who decided that a receipt requires all the recurring info and then decided to put large cancellation links and images?

Who decided that their way is the right way?

You provide a receipt of purchase and none of the other bullshit is needed or required.