Great article, shame it happened. I'm really curious as to how this idea didn't really succeed - seemed like a slam dunk service. Anyone know more?
A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#12A friend of mine has recommended https://www.entropay.com/ for these kinds of online purchases : since it's a pre-paid virtual credit card, you cannot get charged beyond the pre-paid amount, if I understood it correctly. The initial loading fees of 4.95% seems quite high, but my immediate next thought was : I would personally still pay it for the security! Warning : I have yet to try it out myself; this is just word-…
You cannot be charged but you can be sent to collections and have your credit ruined. So be careful, people think closing a payment account is akin to a cancellation, it is not.
Collections? Good luck. Its going to go through 1-3 collection agencies, who are then going to have to prove its a legitimate debt (no, your photocopied spreadsheet listing just creditor names and amounts is not proof). The FCRA has some real teeth when it comes to that.
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#13Saying things like "Now Techstars has lost complete credibility in my mind" is taking things too far and just being petty. Techstars doesn't market itself as some bastion of credibility to consumers. Yes, this a great example of what not to do when you know your company is doomed, and the founders are killing their long-term prospects of future ventures with all this bad karma, but there's no need to drag Techstars i…
Not to mention: there's not a whole lot Techstars can even do about this. They're a minority investor and their involvement is limited to the first few months of company operation. This comes up every once in awhile with YC, too.
I initially completely agreed, but now I'm less sure. I used to mentor someone, and if he was found using skills I taught him to act fraudulently, I would accept partial responsibility.
Obviously Techstars can't force people to stop shenanigans, but I hope for a society where we expect more of each other, where behaving ethically is not more or less important that profits but simply completely necessary.
I'm not sure I can, in good conscience, condemn someone for expecting more of a renowned institution, however minor that renown is. I also think that the author of this post is in a place to understand what is possible and expected of investors, given she is an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures.
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#14A friend of mine has recommended https://www.entropay.com/ for these kinds of online purchases : since it's a pre-paid virtual credit card, you cannot get charged beyond the pre-paid amount, if I understood it correctly. The initial loading fees of 4.95% seems quite high, but my immediate next thought was : I would personally still pay it for the security! Warning : I have yet to try it out myself; this is just word-…
You cannot be charged but you can be sent to collections and have your credit ruined. So be careful, people think closing a payment account is akin to a cancellation, it is not.
Are you sure about this? That sounds like a fairly basic flaw in the product.
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#15A friend of mine has recommended https://www.entropay.com/ for these kinds of online purchases : since it's a pre-paid virtual credit card, you cannot get charged beyond the pre-paid amount, if I understood it correctly. The initial loading fees of 4.95% seems quite high, but my immediate next thought was : I would personally still pay it for the security! Warning : I have yet to try it out myself; this is just word-…
Just get a Citi credit card that includes virtual account numbers (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_payment_number). There's no fee to sign up, with the DoubleCash card you get 2% cashback, and you can easily create a new virtual credit card number for each online purchase. Also allows you to set a Dollar limit for virtual numbers and to close numbers.
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#16Saying things like "Now Techstars has lost complete credibility in my mind" is taking things too far and just being petty. Techstars doesn't market itself as some bastion of credibility to consumers. Yes, this a great example of what not to do when you know your company is doomed, and the founders are killing their long-term prospects of future ventures with all this bad karma, but there's no need to drag Techstars i…
I think the basic idea behind the assertion is that someone coming out of Techstars should know better, either due to the fact they have smart/savvy enough to be accepted in the first place or that they have been provided with enough information to make decent decisions like shutting a site down when the business has folded.
Techstars may not market themselves as a measure of credibility, but i'm sure it is something they care deeply about. If an incubator constantly spat out startups making deeply questionable decisions like this one they would have far less startups knocking on their door.
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#17A friend of mine has recommended https://www.entropay.com/ for these kinds of online purchases : since it's a pre-paid virtual credit card, you cannot get charged beyond the pre-paid amount, if I understood it correctly. The initial loading fees of 4.95% seems quite high, but my immediate next thought was : I would personally still pay it for the security! Warning : I have yet to try it out myself; this is just word-…
You cannot be charged but you can be sent to collections and have your credit ruined. So be careful, people think closing a payment account is akin to a cancellation, it is not.
Collections for what? Unless you pre-committed to a certain term and stop paying for it, payment gets declined, services stop, and that's that. You don't get to send someone to collections just because they stopped paying you without asking nicely first.
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#18Maybe this post got their attention? (edit: doubtful as it was posted 4 minutes ago) We're Sorry Whimseybox is no longer taking new subscriptions, gifts, or shop orders at this time. https://whimseybox.com/subscription/new
The home and signup pages have no mention of this at all
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#19I literally just tried to sign up for this as a gift for someone this past weekend.
I tried to buy a year gift subscription and got an error message. It showed me a silly error message which included Ryan Gosling promising a foot massage for me to keep my calm. I mistakingly tried 2 more times and now see 3 charges on my credit card.
For what it’s worth, they use Stripe. I saw the $1 pending transaction they tried. Hopefully Stripe can shut them down.
Re: A cautionary tale about subscription services and how not to shut down a startup
#20Great article, shame it happened. I'm really curious as to how this idea didn't really succeed - seemed like a slam dunk service. Anyone know more?
Funny, I was thinking exactly the opposite about the idea...