What are unethical subscription practices?
Without knowing it I accidentally subscribed to another year of Skillshare.
I didn't want to, and it's quite expensive ($100). Skillshare didn't send out any renewal reminders. In contrast, Egghead, which also is an expensive subscription sent me at least two or three reminders before making the charge.
In combination with their 7-day refund policy I can't shake the feeling that this is quite unethical... and on an indie hacker level a really good example of how not to act.
I feel cheated by Skillshare and the result is that I'll in the future always warn people too make sure they're on top of their renewals or too make sure to cancel before.
It's totally changed my view of the company to a negative one instead of positive.
Is it unethical? What do you think?
Update: I did get my refund now after making a fuss about it on Twitter.
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Yes I really hate this too and find it ridiculous. I bought a year worth of courses on interaction-design.org too and only then found out that while you are able to get your course completion/distinction certificates, they will only be verifiable as long as you keep paying them (the platform) every year. You can't even cancel the yearly payment renewal without deactivating your entire account therefore making your certificates unverifiable.
I still find some of their courses useful and plan to finish quite a few of them. But for sure I'm making a notification for myself one year from now to cancel my membership before they charge me the whole amount again just to keep my certificates. I'm fine with PNGs.
Wow, that's unbelievably terrible. Talk about predatory price practices. I imagine people who rely on certificates often are trying to break into the industry and might not have a massive financial means. Hope your expensive PNGs make a difference!