Trust is the most important aspect for users of the Internet. Without it, usage will still grow as broadband usage increases, but healthy growth is hampered by anything that causes distrust. Deceptive, or even just innocent misleading, online buying processes by sellers can negatively affect trust. Just making the consumer wade through a lengthy T.O.S. to find the important "fine print" can break trust. So, I believe it is the seller's first responsibility to make sure that trust is never broken in any way. Oh, and yes, it does work both ways!
That said, I've found this WebmasterWorld forum thread entitled "Improving Site Subscription Renewals" that has a 9/27/06 post by "Beagle" on the first page saying "There are some automatic renewals that I appreciate as a customer because they give me one less thing to do, but they always have two things in common: I specifically signed up for automatic renewal (it was opt-in, not opt-out), and I get an email a week or so ahead of time reminding me of the renewal and saying that unless I tell them otherwise, my account will be billed on [date] etc., so I have a chance to cancel if I want before my account is billed (which saves charge-backs and, hopefully, angry members)."
I feel that one early notice e-mail, and doing it only one week or so before the renewal date is not enough! Because, reminder e-mails can get caught in spam filters, or never arrive, or are never read, for a variety of reasons (no matter how remote the reasons may be like a change of e-mail address). Also, what if the consumer is taking a holiday for a week or two before the renewal date that he's forgotten about, and is not looking at his e-mails, or has put all his e-mails on "vacation hold" with an auto-responded message that the publisher's computer doesn't process properly?
Let's take a closer look at some other postings on that same thread. Plus, if you havn't read my first post in this series, it is "Is an "Automatic Renewal" a Deceptive Marketing Tool ?"
"D_Blackwell" says: "Typically, the longer the term, the lower the ethics. If the service is valuable enough to me, I will renew. If not....." I don't know how true that really is as you have to go on a case by case basis. As for WebmasterWorld, I really believe that Brett Tabke is just trying to increase his subscription rate, while having fewer hassles with the renewal subscription process from his stand point. I also believe Brett's ethics to be above par. The reason is that he discloses the auto-renewal upfront in a clear and conspicuous way, and when I sent him a cancellation e-mail notice, he responded promptly without any quibbling whatsoever. But, I did have a reminder note in my Goldmine calendar to cancel before the renewal date, and I actually read it to follow through on it in time. Many people get busy with other things in their life, or are not very organized to begin with.
"D_Blackwell" brings out a very important point about the service being "valuable enough" that is mine, also. It is the reason why I'm against all automatic renewals to begin with no matter how well they are carried out. They put the final responsibility on the buyer to notify the seller that he/she wants to cancel. It doesn't matter how much "good will intent" there is on the part of the seller to "help" the buyer not miss out on the seller's buyer benefits. Just doing a series of reminder notices alone is fine without the "penalty" of "auto-renewal" (with a pro-rated refund, if available), especially if the buyer wants to go, or has already gone, to a competitor for whatever reason.
Another good point on that same thread is made by someone who suggests doing what Amazon (one of the most trusted online retailers) does. That is, they let the user turn auto-renewal off in their account control panel for their Amazon Prime account. If a seller doesn't operate with an "account control panel", then here is the "reminder e-mail notice" schedule that would suit me (others may disagree). The first reminder should be sent at 3 months out, the second at one month out, then once a week until the last week. A reminder every day for the last three days should be e-mailed, if the subscriber hasn't already sent in a renewal or a cancellation. Those reminder e-mails should always have the renewal date prominently displayed!
I haven't much gone into why I think people can be fools if they do automatic renewals, without having the benefit of an online Virtual Credit Card Number as I use. I'll do more on that in my next post, but Virtual Account Numbers will cause the automatic renewal to not have access to your funds unless you want it that way. Here are CitiBank's options:
"Generate a number with a $ limit - Setting a limit provides an added level of security by ensuring the merchant will charge no more than the set amount. For example: if your purchase total comes to $34.16, set a limit of $35.
NOTE: Purchases cannot exceed your account's available credit limit."
"Generate a number with a $ and time limit - This feature lets you use a virtual account number with the same merchant for 2 or more transactions over a period of time (you set the expiration date)."
"Increase your limits - If you ever need to increase the dollar amount* or extend your expiration date for an active virtual account number, just choose the Increase Amount/Date link."
CitiBank Virtual Credit Card Numbers - This page was temporarily unavailable at posting time, so I used the "Cached" version.
Since, the "options" information is only available to account holders right now (they used to be public, I think, and I'm hoping Citibank won't mind me promoting their product), here is a link to a CreditCards.com explanation of how it works: "Citi Offers Virtual Account Numbers to Wary Online Shoppers".
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