The Shrine

Yesterday I tried to cancel my WoW account again and I'm reminded why it took me a long time to reactive it, because when you cancel you got to fill out a mandatory questionaire before you can even cancel. Like last time I don't remember what options I actually choose and I had to go through 2 screens before I actually cancel. Now I'm sure this is hardly the most obnoxious canceling process out there. I remembr hearing AOL for example runs you through a lot of loops when you try to cancel their subscription. But I'm curious if these policy actually help the company question. I'm pretty sure part of the strategy is to make the tedium enough that people might end up subscribing for a few more months because it takes a while. Sure if I'm starting no-name company I might be just interested in keeping people annoyed while raking in some money, since I don't have much of a reputation to worry about. But we're also talking about some stuff that definitely will stick around for a while. I don't think I'll just activate my WoW account again without a good reason just because it's annoying to cancel it. I'm sure people who canceled from AOL through all the loops aren't likely to subscribe to it again anytime soon.

Even stranger still is that you have these annoying canceling policy on stuff where payment is not negotiable, like a MMORPG. If I called up Blizzard to cancel WoW and they say 'but wait, we'll let you play WoW for 1 year for $50' I might change my mind. But there's no such thing in a MMORPG system as far as I'm aware of. If I ever do change my mind it's not exactly rocket science to resubscribe, and they have your email address, so you'd think they can just send something like 'in case you ever change your mind here's what's so great about us!' mail to your email address. If I was actually going to be convinced by that I'll look at it after I cancel and then resubscribe, and if I'm not going to be convinced it'd save my time.

In the end I just don't see how having these policies can possibly be beneficial to a large, well-known entity because it seems like people who remember how much it annoyed them will easily cost you more than whatever small gain you make from people not being able to cancel on time.

I've probably canceled my WoW account around 6 times or more. I don't remember it being so bad. I usually just chose other and put in a sarcastic response.

But I'd love if they offered me a year of WoW for $50.

The best way I found to get WoW to pay for itself was going to Blizzcon and reselling whatever in game thing they gave me. Murloc suit went for $300 on ebay and reimbursed me for all the WoW I ever played I think.

Well when I cancel something I sort of expect to hit 'cancel payment' and be done, not first select a reason on why I'm quitting, and then have to sort of read their explanation on why I shouldn't be quitting, and double check to make sure you can continue canceling without actually filing out something in the 'please comment' box, and then actually being able to quit.

The way I figure is that if you want people to not cancel something, you should offer them a better idea, not have some bogus reasons like 'WoW has something for everybody, it's awesome' and actually expect someone to change their mind. I realize if they do this then everyone will cancel, but if they don't seem to actually try to offer any incentive to not cancel. In fact there are some promotions you only get if you canceled (scroll of resurrection or something) so it's actually advantageous to cancel, assuming you're not in a hurry to play the game.

I must have canceled my subscription... 3-4 years ago now? I don't remember the cancellation process angering me, at best there was a feedback survey to fill out which took all of 3 minutes. I'd imagine if it was nearly as bad as you describe I'd have remembered it being so irritating.

Annoying cancellation to me is having to cancel a service by calling in and them trying to keep me on the line 10 minutes to try and sell me on staying.

Blizzard is quite painless. Two links is no worse than reading forums.

I don't remember any MMO's being tough to cancel, including WoW. But maybe they changed it since I played. Beyond an occasional exit survey and confirmation of adding to a mailing list, I've never encountered any obstacles.

Now AOL...holy fuck at those tards. This was years ago mind you, but it took me 9 months to cancel those fucks. Offering to give me free months and trying to convince me their "portal" service was actually worth it's weight in gold...and when I finally said "fuck off, cancel it" and thought it was done, I peeked at my visa bill and saw those pricks charging me months later still.

AOL = COCKS. Don't one of you work there? Tell your co-workers they are cocks.

kali o. wrote: AOL = COCKS. Don't one of you work there? Tell your co-workers they are cocks.

That'd be Flip-- go get 'em

I'll admit AOL is a little annoying when you cant even get good tech support in the headquarter building.

I think our current policy is keep customers, fire employees = win.

WoW's canceling policy changed at some point. Originally you could've just clicked cancel. Now you got to at least choose why you're leaving, and maybe fill out a text box. Of course they'll take 'asdf' as an answer too.

While it's certainly not obnoxious, it makes me wonder why they have to go through the trouble to bother people, because it seems more likely they'll annoy someone into never coming back as opposed to keeping people around.

Don wrote:WoW's canceling policy changed at some point. Originally you could've just clicked cancel. Now you got to at least choose why you're leaving, and maybe fill out a text box. Of course they'll take 'asdf' as an answer too.

While it's certainly not obnoxious, it makes me wonder why they have to go through the trouble to bother people, because it seems more likely they'll annoy someone into never coming back as opposed to keeping people around.

To be honest man, I think you're blowing the issue way out of proportion. They required you to fill out a 1 page survey on why you're cancelling. That's not obnoxious, that's not any dirty way of trying to get you to stay (how lazy would someone have to be to decide NOT to cancel because they don't feel like filling out a quick exit survey?). It took, what, 4 minutes of your time? And it's information I bet they actually care about collecting. Finding out WHY people stop playing your game is pretty damn important.

If Blizzard made you call up and do this shit I'd see your point, but the way it is now (which I'm pretty sure is what I had to do years ago as well) is far from intrusive or obnoxious.

Yeah Don, stop being a lazy bastard, sheesh. :p

Something oddly funny about a dude who posts 8 page diatribes on the mindset of manga characters complaining about answering a survey to cancel something.

Sephy wrote:Something oddly funny about a dude who posts 8 page diatribes on the mindset of manga characters complaining about answering a survey to cancel something.

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