my correspondence with spotify.

on tuesday, february 7, 2012, i submitted a message to the spotify website. what follows is that message and the ensuing email correspondence.

TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT, I HAVE CHANGED THE NAMES OF THE SPOTIFY CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS TO NAMES OF MEMBERS OF THE JUSTICE LEAGUE:

i signed up for the free trial of spotify premium and i meant to cancel it before being charged $9.99, but i was confused about the renewal date and the charge went through before i canceled it. i have no interest in paying ten dollars for this service as it is beyond my budgetary means. may i please be refunded this money in exchange for immediate suspension of my premium account? thank you.

-diego

Re: Contact Spotify Support
February 9, 2012 4:50 AM

Hello Diego,

Thanks for getting in touch.

I have checked your account and there is no record of you successfully cancelling your trial before you were charged on 03/02/2012.

When you started the trial you needed to cancel before the 30 days were up in order to not be charged. Since you didn't cancel within this time your account began a paid subscription.

Therefore, i'm afraid, we will not be able to issue a refund on this occasion as you have already logged in to your account in a Spotify application since the payment was billed.

However, I have checked your account and see that you have now cancelled your subscription renewal. Therefore, you will have Spotify Premium until the end of the payment month (03/03/2012) Then your account will revert to Spotify Free.

If you have any further queries, please don't hesitate to get back in touch.
Kind Regards,

Huntress

Customer Service Cambridge

Re: Contact Spotify Support
February 9, 2012 10:24 AM

i am aware that i needed to cancel my subscription before the 30 day trial was over, and that that is why i was charged. what i am telling you is that i was confused about when to cancel the service. if i had known i could cancel at any time and still retain spotify premium for the extent of the 30 day trial, i would have done so the second i signed up. you guys are COUNTING ON people forgetting so you can get that first charge out of the users who do not wish to continue using spotify premium. if that weren't the case, the first charge would not be automatic.

you say you cannot issue me a refund because i logged in after the payment was billed. well, of course i did since i was NOT AWARE at the time that the payment was going through. i did not receive any sort of reminder from the spotify service, which is of course all part of your design. everything about this free trial is crafted to massage people into paying for something they otherwise might not have.

i tried spotify premium because i wanted to sample the service and see if it would be worth paying for. i was dissatisfied with its performance and did not intend to renew past that first 30 days. since i obviously canceled too late, what i would like is at least a partial refund of my money. this is what other companies have done when similar misunderstandings occurred. if you cannot grant me this, i will have to reconsider my opinion of your company.

-diego

Re: Contact Spotify Support
February 13, 2012 1:58 AM

Hello Diego,

I'm sorry you feel that way, it is not our intention to make people feel tricked into paying for something they don't want.
When starting the trial you have to enter payment details to be eligible, as a subscription to Premium is started along side the free trial. This is so that once the trial is over users that would like to continue with a Premium subscription don't need to change anything.

When starting the trial, we try to make it as clear as possible that if you would not like to start a paid Premium subscription after the 30 days you need to cancel your subscription. The charge for the Premium subscription is taken exactly 30 days after the trial is started, however it can be cancelled at any point during the 30 days.

If you have purchased access to the Spotify paid for service, you have the right to cancel the purchase and receive a refund within 14 days of purchase. Please note that if you log into the Spotify service within the 14 day period you will no longer have a right to cancel or withdraw from the purchase.

Best Regards,
Shining Knight
Spotify Customer Services

Re: Contact Spotify Support
February 14, 2012 7:25 PM

hello huntress or shining knight or potential third representative of spotify,

it may not be your intention to make people feel tricked, but it still happened.

i did not mean to allow my 30-day trial to lapse into a paid subscription. you have already told me that once i log in after being charged, i lose the right to receive a refund. but like i said in my previous email, i was not conscious of the fact that that the charge was going through, so it never occurred to me to NOT log in to spotify. and if a reminder email had come my way saying "your free trial is about to end and your paid subscription to spotify premium is about to begin. would you like to proceed?" i would have said "no. thank you for the helpful reminder." you clearly don't send that reminder for a reason.

i paid for a service that i did not want. when i became aware of it, i notified you immediately and asked to be switched back to spotify free. i am not trying to get away with anything. if i could log in to spotify free right now, i would. i just want my money back because i never meant to pay it in the first place. i quite enjoy spotify free, but i cannot afford to throw money away on something as useless to me as spotify premium. i made the decision to SAMPLE spotify premium, and i didn't think it was worth ten dollars. i never made the decision to pay for it. it just happened out of my own ignorance of how the site worked, despite how clear you made the instructions. i got confused. i'm human. but i really need that ten dollars back. do you understand?

because let's be honest-- you guys could issue me a refund at any time. it is your policy to administer as you see fit. you just don't want to. i wish you would say that. i wish you would say:

"hello diego,

we are aware that you did not mean to pay us ten dollars for this service. we have the ability to issue you a full or even a partial refund. but we've decided that the best policy for us right now is to keep all revenue, including that which is given to us inadvertently."

you guys can apologize all you want for making me feel used. you can also refuse to make it right with a gesture such as a refund. if that is how you want to make your bottom line. i would just like to know if that is the case. because i really need that ten dollars back. please give it to me. please.

-diego

Re: Contact Spotify Support
February 16, 2012 2:57 AM

Hello Diego,

I would Love to say:

"we are aware that you did not mean to pay us ten dollars for this service. we have the ability to issue you a full or even a partial refund. but we've decided that the best policy for us right now is to keep all revenue, including that which is given to us inadvertently."

But I am vey sorry. I can not. These are your words. Mine are:

I am sorry that my colleagues have applied our protocols without fully reading between the lines and understanding your intensions. We all forget or make little boo boos. So it seems unfair not to agree a refund. I have therefore carried it out. The funds will be winging their way back to you as you are reading this. The funds should reach you with in the next 3 to 5 working days.

I have also added your request for a reminder email to our feedback data. We what our service to be the best. Not just the best that there is available but the best that it can possibly be. I am sorry we fell short of this.

I hope that you continue to enjoy Spotify using the free service. Please let us know if we can be of assistance in the future.

All the very best for the time being.

Kind Regards and a friendly smile,

Elongated Man
Spotify Team
Customer Support
Cambridge
UK

Re: Contact Spotify Support
February 17, 2012 6:51 PM

elongated man,

thank you so much. i really appreciate it. i love spotify and look forward to the day when my income allows me to pay for all the services you have to offer. until then, i will be singing your praises to all who will listen. thank you again and have a great weekend.

-diego