The ad and the linked terms don’t say anything about the deal being available only for new customers and accounts. It’s the lack of transparency that really gets me.
I find tuta.com much better than proton. I always found proton unnecessarily expensive.
I love how businesses say “Fuck you, pay up.” to longstanding customers and blatantly tell you that the good stuff is only for new customers.
Fuck you, cancel my subscription.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to give everyone the 20% off for the month or whatever? You’d be like “Yeah! What an awesome company!” and stick with them.
so what they’re saying is you should cancel your subscription and keep deal-hopping around different providers i guess!
It’s unfortunate that that was not on any of the pages that I saw. I actually did look and I actually did read the terms and conditions to see if maybe that was the case.
I did let them know in my response that they should probably include that for legal reasons at the very least.
Proton as a company is mildly infuriating all by itself.
I had the exact experience with surfshark but as soon as I left them, my inbox was bombarded with ‘PLEASE COME BACK TO US!’ 90% off deals.
I saw the new promo for proton duo, marketed as $119 for two users this black Friday. I spent $220 some dollars on an individual plan for a 2 year term for a single user abt 2 years ago. I want a prorated refund or a better deal on individual rates because this is becoming major bs the more I’m thinking about renewing my subscription
Meh, it’s a deal to get more subscribers. I’m not mad at them for not extending it to all users. It is a little shady that they didn’t make it clear it’s for new subscribers, though. If that’s their target audience, they should make it a little more apparent.
The lack of mentioning it in the fine print is a pretty valid beef, especially given that this is the Mildly Infuriating community
Yep. If it said “for new subscribers only,” I wouldn’t have bothered trying to set it up on my lapsed account. It’s a waste of my time and theirs and slightly sketchy.
Tbf we can’t read the fine print, that’s what the terms and conditions hyperlink is for. This is just the offer
Spoiler alert, there’s nothing about the offer in the link.
The link is just the general terms of service. Don’t use this VPN to do illegal stuff, etc.
Literally the only way to know that this is not available to existing or previous users is to email their customer service and wait to hear back. Hence, mildly infuriating.
I’m on the website looking at each of their deals. There’s no fine print that I can see except this:
“The specially discounted price of US$35.88 is valid for the first 12 months. Then it will automatically be renewed at US$79.95 for 12 months. You can cancel at any time. Renewal pricing subject to change according to terms and conditions.”
The terms and conditions may involved some, but it should be visible on the deals page at least when you click through.
maybe they updated it, for me it says first 12 months and then specifies “new customers only” under the “who’s eligible for this plan” section on the deal page. It also doesn’t give a link to login anymore and informs existing customers to sign in to see their own specialized deal
They definitely updated it because I could see the link for login and my page doesn’t look the same now as it did the first time I went to look.
Same
If it’s for new customers only then why do they advertise it in the program for paid users? I’m tired of seeing ads for things I can’t even take advantage of.
That happened to me before. I immediately cancelled the new contract. I had told them before I signed up that I was an existing customer and they still sold me the deal. But then when I tried to avail of the lower rate they said no, because I was an existing customer.
From a company POV it’s probally meant to try and encourage you to let a friend know, but it seems that the page in this case might change upon login because it says to sign in to see your deals if you are an existing member. I don’t have it though so I can’t confirm that so I’m running off assumptions based off what the “eligibility” area says
the lesson is “loyalty is for suckers!”
I got annoyed with this too many times. Next to my paid Proton account I also have a free account so I see all the deals they offer me.
But to be fair, they don’t need to offer deals to their loyal customers because their service is really good which keeps those customers from walking away. So why offer them less paying deals when you don’t need those tricks to keep them? You just need to lure in new people then to get them hooked on your proper well made service.
Edit: I just opened my mail and got a notification from Proton they added 10GB extra storage for free, to thank me for being a customer for so long.
This is why Mullvad doesn’t do deals. The price is the same, regardless of whether you get a month or 5 years at once. Nobody needs to be pissed off by missing out on a deal someone else is getting.
Idk what the big savings is with storage. I have 200GB from my plan but store abt 2 GB of photos and documents. Am I just not using proton to the fullest potential?
I use my NAS as storage. The only stuff stored on the Proton cloud is emails.
Every single company has this kind of thing. Same as drugs. First hit is discounted to get you hooked. You bought from me already? Full price, fucker
I don’t actually get that with drugs, just legal things
English calls medicaments drugs too (why ever).
My church that I grew up in had this thing where coffee and pastry and stuff was free for first time visitors. Otherwise it was like $2 or whatever.
Eh don’t love it but “first 24 months” implies ‘news accounts’ to me.
Ans this is why you need a new persona, to make life cheap enough
I used to be a long-time AT&T customer. One time I wanted a new phone after a long time of being the ideal customer, so I looked into making a new contract. Called their hotline and the rep said “We only do deals for new customers, but you can buy a new phone for full price. It’s no problem.”
It seemed weird to me. Shouldn’t the long term customer loyalty be encouraged? I’m not locked into a contract any more, so why aren’t you worried about me jumping ship for a better deal? I tried explaining this to the rep in different ways, but they were genuinely confused. I finally told them “Alright, I’ll just get a deal through Verizon.” and he asked “Why? I don’t understand. I told you that you could buy a phone at full price?”
Never used AT&T again. I haven’t tried the same conversation with Verizon, because I won’t really have many viable options left if I boycott them too. I hear lots of people say “Well you can’t really blame them, it’s a smart move!” which seems weird to me because the smart move they made was to alienate me in order to get new customers. Of course I can blame them. Me blaming them was the acceptable loss they decided was OK.
It’s only a smart move if you assume nobody will ever call your bluff. Meanwhile my VPN sees I haven’t renewed yet and it’s about to end and they offer me a deal so good I just do a quick check they’re still good enough then accept it. I’m not loyal loyal, but I’ve been a subscriber since the pandemic and I will be for another 2 years at least.
For comparison, I prioritize internet as local carriers > spectrumcast > seriously consider larping as amish > AT&T. AT&T will just offer new customers limited wifi data at low speeds for more money than spectrum and get shocked you won’t switch. Meanwhile spectrum makes me and my wife have to swap who’s name the account is for every year or two to keep the good deal, except when they just sign a deal with the landlord for a mandatory fixed price as a part of my building/complex’s rent. Local carriers offer reasonable prices where I don’t feel the need to keep chasing introductory deals.
Check into USMobile - they’re effectively a reseller of services on all the major networks, for far less. (I pay $17/mo for 2 lines and 4GB of data. If I need more data in a given month, I can get 2GB “extra” for like $5). Larger plans are a better deal, I just don’t need more than 4GB right now.
I’ve traveled across the US using it, and I see it connect to different vendor towers (Verizon, ATT, etc) with 5g a lot of the time.
At home my phone shows US Mobile, as soon as I leave I get Verizon 5G.
I deal with this at one of my jobs. We offer the moon to new customers, but existing customers are constantly getting screwed over. People complain about it constantly, but corporations have no incentive to reduce the amount of money they’re receiving from you, which could open the doors to losing income from every other customer who decides to ask, when they can just roll the dice on whether you decide to go through the hassle of leaving. It’s scummy and I don’t agree with it on a personal level, but the agent you’re talking to has no power to change the system.
Verizon was always the best for me. Moved to T-Mobile because Verizon wouldn’t activate my funky new phone. Promptly lost the phone and wish I had never changed. T-Mobile isn’t awful, but they are compared to Verizon.
It’s easy to become a new customer.
