Why we don’t auto-renew your subscriptions

Subscriptions were supposed to make life easier. Back when we just subscribed to a gym membership here or a cable TV account there, it felt convenient to pay automatically. One less thing to remember in a world of admin.

But now? Almost everything seems to come with a subscription. Films, sports, music, recipes, meal kits…The average American now juggles around 6 subscriptions at once.

Things that used to be one-off purchases now come broken into monthly payments that never end. BMW even tried to get customers to subscribe to heated seats.

It’s starting to feel like the bleak future imagined by the Black Mirror episode ‘Common People’, where even a brain transplant can be paid for with an ever-increasing subscription fee.

No wonder, then, that Deloitte’s Media Trends survey recently found that 47% of US consumers are put off by the increasing number of subscriptions. And 42% admit they’ve continued to pay for a subscription that they forgot to cancel.

Auto-renewal is a big part of the problem.

What is auto-renewal?

Auto-renewal is a setting that means when your plan ends, it silently restarts. You keep paying, sometimes without even realizing. Some companies argue this is more convenient. And it is – for them.

They are banking on you forgetting about your subscriptions. The ideal would be you paying for a service that you never use. It’s not legally wrong; everything is backed up with fine print you would have had the opportunity to read when you signed up for that free trial or introductory offer. But it’s not exactly right either.

And it’s certainly not how we want to do things.

What we do instead

If you’re subscribed to a MOO Business Plan, we want you to get real value out of it. So when you reach the end of your plan, nothing happens until you decide it should. There are no silent restarts. No shady rollovers. Just a simple choice.

“A lot can change in a business within twelve months, including marketing and stationery budgets. A client may decide they have grown to a state where they need more services, or less. Our plans are designed to serve our clients in different stages and our team is always ready to recommend the best options we can provide,” says Brittany Fasulo, Head of Sales at MOO.

 If you want to renew your plan, you can (and we hope you will). And you can opt in to auto-renew if you want to. But it’s not a default option. Because we want to earn your subscription, not slip it past you.

Make it so good they won’t leave

We don’t want our Business Plans to be an invisible service you forget you signed up for. For one thing, our team would get pretty bored. Instead, we want to give you great value by helping you bring your brand to life with incredible print.

On our plans, you get dedicated account support to help manage your orders and help create exactly what you need. You can manage your assets easily from one place, and call in support from our expert team of designers when you need extra help.

Already, an amazing array of MOO customers are using our Business Plans to do remarkable things around the world.

The Branson Principle

Richard Branson once said the goal is to always give people the opportunity to leave, but treat them so well that they would never want to. That’s how we feel about our customers.

We want you to get so much value out of your plan that you want to keep using your subscription. So we’ll always give you plenty of notice before your plan ends, and we’ll always make it easy to renew. Just not automatic.

Because earning your trust feels better than tricking your to-do list.

Ready to see how a MOO Business Plan can work for you?

Get in touch with our team, we’d love to hear what your business needs and recommend the right plan.