Another day, another story! Do companies really think we remember their ‘auto-renew’ fine print a year later? Yesterday, I got one of those emails: “We're happy to have you as a member.” (... and we automatically charged you for another year!) 🤬 If they can charge me automatically, surely they could have reminded me before doing so, right? So, I log in to my profile to review my options. Guess what? No way to avoid the auto-renewal. Instead, I get this lovely message: “You still have 364 days left on your membership! By canceling, you will lose your account, your trips, your lists, and all of the features and benefits associated with your plan.” Yes, I’m talking about you, Harvest Hosts and all the other SaaS or membership-based companies who do this. I contacted their support and minutes later, I receive a reply that left me baffled: Was this a human who skipped empathy training and customer service classes or just a robot? “When you joined us, you were presented with a notification on the payment page stating it was a yearly renewal membership. We also include the same information in our Terms and Conditions page. We kindly ask that anyone purchasing a membership take the time to read and consent to those terms. If you’d like, you can easily turn the auto-renewal feature off from your Membership Management by clicking your name menu through the website login.” (the last statement is actually false) Seriously?! Even if I had read those details a year ago, do they really expect me to remember them now? And let’s be honest — who reads a 13,521-words Terms & Conditions document? (yes, I counted 🤪...) Instead of hiding behind legal jargon, they could have just done this: → “We understand your frustration, would you like us to cancel and refund the renewal?” → “You’re right, we should inform our members in advance. We’ll review our process.” But no. They chose the lazy route. After contacting them again to formally request a refund, they proceeded and I received a response that was clearly human since it got my first name wrong.... A rather generic statement saying, “We do appreciate your feedback and we will consider these changes” and a somewhat passive-agressive tone asking me to reread my first correspondance... At first, I didn't ask for a refund and I was still OK staying on as a member - I was merely expressing my frustration and asking them to review their practice. The customer support reply is what broke the trust which is essential to any marketing. Customer trust should come first. Is that too much to ask?