The ad and the linked terms don’t say anything about the deal being available only for new customers and accounts. It’s the lack of transparency that really gets me.
I had the exact experience with surfshark but as soon as I left them, my inbox was bombarded with ‘PLEASE COME BACK TO US!’ 90% off deals.
Ans this is why you need a new persona, to make life cheap enough
the lesson is “loyalty is for suckers!”
Every single company has this kind of thing. Same as drugs. First hit is discounted to get you hooked. You bought from me already? Full price, fucker
It’s easy to become a new customer.
Meh, it’s a deal to get more subscribers. I’m not mad at them for not extending it to all users. It is a little shady that they didn’t make it clear it’s for new subscribers, though. If that’s their target audience, they should make it a little more apparent.
If it’s for new customers only then why do they advertise it in the program for paid users? I’m tired of seeing ads for things I can’t even take advantage of.
From a company POV it’s probally meant to try and encourage you to let a friend know, but it seems that the page in this case might change upon login because it says to sign in to see your deals if you are an existing member. I don’t have it though so I can’t confirm that so I’m running off assumptions based off what the “eligibility” area says
The lack of mentioning it in the fine print is a pretty valid beef, especially given that this is the Mildly Infuriating community
Yep. If it said “for new subscribers only,” I wouldn’t have bothered trying to set it up on my lapsed account. It’s a waste of my time and theirs and slightly sketchy.
Tbf we can’t read the fine print, that’s what the terms and conditions hyperlink is for. This is just the offer
Spoiler alert, there’s nothing about the offer in the link.
The link is just the general terms of service. Don’t use this VPN to do illegal stuff, etc.
Literally the only way to know that this is not available to existing or previous users is to email their customer service and wait to hear back. Hence, mildly infuriating.
I’m on the website looking at each of their deals. There’s no fine print that I can see except this:
“The specially discounted price of US$35.88 is valid for the first 12 months. Then it will automatically be renewed at US$79.95 for 12 months. You can cancel at any time. Renewal pricing subject to change according to terms and conditions.”
The terms and conditions may involved some, but it should be visible on the deals page at least when you click through.
maybe they updated it, for me it says first 12 months and then specifies “new customers only” under the “who’s eligible for this plan” section on the deal page. It also doesn’t give a link to login anymore and informs existing customers to sign in to see their own specialized deal
Same
They definitely updated it because I could see the link for login and my page doesn’t look the same now as it did the first time I went to look.
Eh don’t love it but “first 24 months” implies ‘news accounts’ to me.
I used to be a long-time AT&T customer. One time I wanted a new phone after a long time of being the ideal customer, so I looked into making a new contract. Called their hotline and the rep said “We only do deals for new customers, but you can buy a new phone for full price. It’s no problem.”
It seemed weird to me. Shouldn’t the long term customer loyalty be encouraged? I’m not locked into a contract any more, so why aren’t you worried about me jumping ship for a better deal? I tried explaining this to the rep in different ways, but they were genuinely confused. I finally told them “Alright, I’ll just get a deal through Verizon.” and he asked “Why? I don’t understand. I told you that you could buy a phone at full price?”
Never used AT&T again. I haven’t tried the same conversation with Verizon, because I won’t really have many viable options left if I boycott them too. I hear lots of people say “Well you can’t really blame them, it’s a smart move!” which seems weird to me because the smart move they made was to alienate me in order to get new customers. Of course I can blame them. Me blaming them was the acceptable loss they decided was OK.
It’s only a smart move if you assume nobody will ever call your bluff. Meanwhile my VPN sees I haven’t renewed yet and it’s about to end and they offer me a deal so good I just do a quick check they’re still good enough then accept it. I’m not loyal loyal, but I’ve been a subscriber since the pandemic and I will be for another 2 years at least.
For comparison, I prioritize internet as local carriers > spectrumcast > seriously consider larping as amish > AT&T. AT&T will just offer new customers limited wifi data at low speeds for more money than spectrum and get shocked you won’t switch. Meanwhile spectrum makes me and my wife have to swap who’s name the account is for every year or two to keep the good deal, except when they just sign a deal with the landlord for a mandatory fixed price as a part of my building/complex’s rent. Local carriers offer reasonable prices where I don’t feel the need to keep chasing introductory deals.
Check into USMobile - they’re effectively a reseller of services on all the major networks, for far less. (I pay $17/mo for 2 lines and 4GB of data. If I need more data in a given month, I can get 2GB “extra” for like $5). Larger plans are a better deal, I just don’t need more than 4GB right now.
I’ve traveled across the US using it, and I see it connect to different vendor towers (Verizon, ATT, etc) with 5g a lot of the time.
At home my phone shows US Mobile, as soon as I leave I get Verizon 5G.
I deal with this at one of my jobs. We offer the moon to new customers, but existing customers are constantly getting screwed over. People complain about it constantly, but corporations have no incentive to reduce the amount of money they’re receiving from you, which could open the doors to losing income from every other customer who decides to ask, when they can just roll the dice on whether you decide to go through the hassle of leaving. It’s scummy and I don’t agree with it on a personal level, but the agent you’re talking to has no power to change the system.
Verizon was always the best for me. Moved to T-Mobile because Verizon wouldn’t activate my funky new phone. Promptly lost the phone and wish I had never changed. T-Mobile isn’t awful, but they are compared to Verizon.
I forgot to renew my license with Proton and lost access to my password vault service they offer, and got permanently locked out of all my passwords. I thought it was safe to only have it all within Proton Vault and delete it from other services, but i was wrong.
After that bullshit, I self hosted my password vault with Vaultwarden and my own domain to access it from wherever i want, and I never will pay a single dollar to this dogshit company.
They pull shit like this in OP’s image and somehow the entire internet continues to glaze this companies’ nuts all day like it’s the manifestation of a messiah, almost as if they weren’t a for-profit corporation that only gives a fuck about money.
I’ve had similar frustrations with trying to a change a bundle of services. Once you add any service to your account, it’s basically impossible to remove. That’s why my account lapsed in the first place. I just wanted to remove the unused Proton drive. I had to cancel the renewal, wait for the current term to expire, and then purchase a brand new service with just the VPN.
I understand they are a business and they want to market their bundled services, but I also am more likely to patronize a company that respects user choice.
People trust them with their data, their photos, their browsing history, and their passwords. Their customer service policies do nothing to earn that trust.
Imma just leave this here.
Mullvad
port forwarding
Yup. That’s why I’m still on Proton.
I settled on AzireVPN for port forwarding. Just as capable and works basically fine. Plus they don’t advertise prices only available to new customers. Only limitation is no convenient client, but at least I know what the fek connection my stuff is using, and it’s easily automated.
I’m sure many Mullvad servers are similar, but figured anything with working port forward could be worth a mention.
Been beat up on here, twice, for suggesting people just roll their own. Took me a couple of hours of carefully following directions, never touched it again, been 6 years. LOL, don’t think I can even log into it anymore, key’s lost.
I allow existing customers to use coupons :3 It’s kinda like a neat treat for people who carefully read my newsletters :3
is this not standard for every service? black friday deals are usually for new users or everybody would keep renewing their subscription on prepetual sale every black friday.
There are a lot of companies and subscriptions that offer annual deals. It’s a two year agreement fully paid.
They even have a login for existing users after accepting the deal. What kind of sense does that make?
Well it says it right there, it will renew at $80/12 months.
I’m sticking with proton cause I’m grandfathered in to their old plan
no use crying over spilled honeypot OP—small victories hide everywhere; just gotta know where and when to find em👍
I believe in celebrating every small victory! To be honest, the main reason I wanted to post this is because it was a small hassle and I hope to help someone else avoid it.
I figure I’m probably not the only one on Lemmy who might be shopping for a VPN.
I think some of their Black Friday deals can be “upgraded” for existing customers, though. Like upgrading from just VPN to Proton Unlimited or whatever it is. But not staying in the same tier.
I’m a previous customer looking to start a new account. I never had any problems with their VPN, and the pricing is fair, but it’s hardly the only option out there.
They could have just labeled it for new customers only and I wouldn’t have an issue.
Instead, when I click on the offer, there’s an option to log in with an existing account. When you log in, the price doubles with no explanation. They could remove the option to log in from the deal, or they could have a simple pop-up or explanation when you log in that the deal is only for new accounts. Without any indication on the ad or the terms, or even after logging in directly from the ad, it creates a frustrating and mildly infuriating experience.
