CCBILL Cancel Discounts
 

Here's another great thread by me, almost single-handedly keeping this forum interesting and relevant.

Does anyone here offer cancel discounts to anyone who is cancelling their subscription?

https://ccbill.com/doc/cancel-discounts

I didn't know that CCBILL offered this option.

I've seen this cancel discount before on various porn sites I've joined (for research purposes).

I've always disliked it. It seems a bit desperate as well, like begging you not to leave. And unfair to all the members who don't cancel their subscriptions. So you'd end up with some members paying 50% less for rebills just because they were going to cancel.

I was just interested to know if anyone uses these cancel discounts or has used them. And how effective they are in retaining renegade members.

I have tried them but, like free joins or $2 one day trials etc I found this just de-values your content. Of course, it all comes down to VOLUME so for a bigger program (who probably isn't using CCBill anyway) it may be worthwhile, especially if their brand is saturated.

But for 'niche' sites, smaller Programs and sites, I always say never de-value your content unless it benefits you, and it usually doesn't. I much prefer to offer discounts for longer Memberships rather than discounts after the fact.

It will be interesting to see other Program Owners' experiences with this strategy. :)

Good points you make. I also like to reward long-term members by giving them discounts. And I often email ex-members to offer them discounts. To me offering someone a reduction when they are wanting to cancel is a bit desperate and just not fair to the loyal members who keep their subscription going. Big porn sites tend to do this, like Bang Bros and Brazzers that have huge volumes. I remember once joining such a porn site (for research purposes) and cancelling the same day. I only wanted a month's subscription. So when I started to cancel I got a discount offer to remain. I declined this and then got another! It was a considerable reduction. It gave me a bad impression of the site.... I imagine some porn surfers are aware of this practice and deliberately cancel their subscription in order to get a reduced rate.

I'll never do this. But I was interested to know if other webmasters did this or have done it before.

You are thinking of it from the site OWNERS perspective. Think from the punters perspective. If they are leaving cause they didn't like your content, then they are gone - Fuck em... A discount won't make blind bit of difference...

But what about to someone more on the fence? Perhaps they had been a member for a while and just had enough... Or, if they genuinely just couldn't justify the cost of another months subscription, with the cost of living crisis???

They won't be thinking about it possibly being unfair to other members... They will just think, yeah, well OK then, or 'Nope, fuck it - I ain't paying anymore'...

There's only a handful of reasons why someone will pull out a card and JOIN a site, but hundreds of reasons why they will cancel...

Offering a discount wont hurt your bottom line... To be fair, you probably won't get much uptake on it anyway, cause if you are gonna leave, your gonna leave... But I cant see it causing an issue...

That is written based on my experience of running my wifes site, along with many others on ccBill back in the early noughties. Yes, we offered a half price to stay automatically...

Mainstream sites that do this drive me crazy. You order something you see online by going to the website and, as you checkout, they offer you this and that. But when you keep saying NO you only want what you came there for they keep dropping the price....LOL yuck. Makes me want the product LESS. But that's me. :)

Yes, I also don't like that. My sister had been with Sky for about 15 years and she phoned to cancel. They really didn't want her to leave and kept offering her better and better deals. So you only get the best deal when they think they're going to lose you. I just think the whole idea is desperate and almost a con. I'll never use those sorts of cancel discounts.

I suppose I just really dislike the idea. It just seems desperate, begging them not to cancel! And I don't like the idea that someone will be paying half the price for rebills whilst lots of other members will be paying the full price. Also I think if a member knows he's going to be offered a discount when he cancels he'll just cancel the next time he joins to get the offered discount. I'm not scared of members of my sites cancelling. In fact I make it easy for anyone to cancel as I have a prominent cancel link on every page of all my sites.

I much prefer to offer long-term members discounts to rejoin.

We have many merchants that offer cancellation discounts, and it's built into our gateway software as well. What is also effective is thatour call center offers cancellation discounts for customers that are calling to cancel, when merchants want that option as well.