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How Dropbox handles downgrades

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Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#11

Post by jessriedel »

nrki wrote: post #3

How Dropbox makes customers jump through sales hoops before doing what they actually want.

Yea, I can't understand the author. He's fine with Dropbox wasting his time and forcing him to give feedback info that the user is not obligated to give, but he doesn't like the way the de-emphasized buttons make him feel?

There should be a fast way to downgrade, whose only confirmation dialogs are ones to prevent accidental mis-clicks or irreversible damage. (Buttons designed to make me feel certain ways will certainly lower my view of Dropbox's classiness, in the same way as a desperate salesman, but as long as I can clearly understand the UI, I haven't been wronged.) If Dropbox wants to try and persuade the user, they can do so after they confirm the user will be downgraded with no further action.

Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#12

Post by khuknows »

jessriedel wrote: post #11
nrki wrote: post #3

How Dropbox makes customers jump through sales hoops before doing what they actually want.

Yea, I can't understand the author. He's fine with Dropbox wasting his time and forcing him to give feedback info that the user is not obligated to give, but he doesn't like the way the de-emphasized buttons make him feel? There should be a fast way to downgrade, whose only confirmation dialogs are ones to prevent accidental mis-clicks or irreversible damage. (Buttons designed to make me feel certain ways will certai…

I guess it's personal opinion, but I find it understandable that business want to learn and improve from cancellations, hence why I don't mind spending a minute letting them know why I'm taking an action.

You're right though, users aren't obligated to give feedback.

I don't like the de-emphasized buttons because they're essentially trying to trick me into clicking the more prominent buttons, which are actions I don't want to take at all.

Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#13

Post by badwolf »

scblock wrote: post #10
nrki wrote: post #3

How Dropbox makes customers jump through sales hoops before doing what they actually want.

Agreed. While this is better than many services, which make it easy to upgrade on the web but impossible to cancel without a phone call, it is still user hostile.

I ended up having to make a similar flow for subscription cancellation. We've been spending lots of time removing obstacles to subscribe. CEO got a brilliant idea to hire a call center and require call-to-cancel.

After weeks of "debate" we settled on a 5 page "are you sure?" "are you super duper sure?" "Everyone loves you and will miss you. are you sure?" with confusing buttons "Cancel" cancels your subscription deactivation process (subscription is still active) you have to choose "I want to deactivate my subscription" on each page. I feel a bit dead inside.

Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#14

Post by skjerns »

oevi wrote: post #5

It is also interesting how the handle forced downgrades. I just lost some GBs from previous promotions (like Dropbox Campus Cup) and are now stuck with the following situation: - all files are still there, downloads are possible - they disabled syncing between devices and sharing - in case of upgrading to a paid plan I can continue as before

I remember still being able to delete files and synch those changes. So that should be no problem.

Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#15

Post by paulie_a »

badwolf wrote: post #13
scblock wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. While this is better than many services, which make it easy to upgrade on the web but impossible to cancel without a phone call, it is still user hostile.

I ended up having to make a similar flow for subscription cancellation. We've been spending lots of time removing obstacles to subscribe. CEO got a brilliant idea to hire a call center and require call-to-cancel. After weeks of "debate" we settled on a 5 page "are you sure?" "are you super duper sure?" "Everyone loves you and will miss you. are you sure?" with confusing buttons "Cancel" cancels your subscription deac…

I will attempt to cancel with a company through the normal flow, but sometimes a simple email works just as well to get things done.

If there are too many hoops to jump through, I will contact my credit card company instead, they are more than happy to resolve the situation and just not process the payments anymore.

Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#16

Post by piracykills »

benliong78 wrote: post #7

Audible has something similar: they require that you use up all your credits before cancellation is even possible, so that is obstacle #1. Then they ask for reason and sub-reason, and give you either a $20 coupon if you say the reason is because it's too expensive, or a 3 months praise on your account if you say you can't catch up to one book a month. Pretty clever. But having to choose 6 books immediately at the poi…

Yeah, they tried to do this to me so I complained to support and they refunded all my credits. At least their support staff treat you right, if not their software.

Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#17

Post by Spooky23 »

nrki wrote: post #3

How Dropbox makes customers jump through sales hoops before doing what they actually want.

Dropbox is infuriating. I love the app but will be switching this year. The Apple, Google, and Microsoft products are offerings are either good enough or close to it and are cheaper.

I pay a premium for their basic service, which lacks features like search, but even then I can’t escape ads and nags. If I was a business, I might be interested in Dropbox business, but I’m not. Leave me alone!

Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#18

Post by dismal2 »

I think the core problem is that you lose that available space even if you paid out through the month/year. I have a suspicion this is an intentional dark pattern to keep people from downgrading and not some weird engineering constraint. So it’s a bad and maybe unethical user experience.

Why couldn’t it be: “Thank you for using Dropbox, you have access to your 1t (or whatever) until X date, after that your files will stop syncing unless you do Y. Come back any time!”

Re: How Dropbox handles downgrades

#19

Post by kristianc »

Personally, I'm done with these kind of mind hacks.

While not quite in Facebook 'Your friends will miss you' territory, it still feels quite scummy.

They belong to an era of the Internet where growth and retention stats trump all. Just let me cancel.

Oh, and if you cancel and are over the limit and login, Dropbox will give you a nag screen and hold your files hostage till you cough up.

How this is in any way an example of good practice is beyond me.

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