Am I alone in being a little peeved at the subscription/payment model at Learnable.com?
You can only pause it one month at a time
You can’t remove your credit card details to stop them charging you
They don’t send you an email when they charge your card for monthly subscription with payment details
I got an email that a new month was about to start while I was paused. I went online and paused it again on the first day. Unbeknownst to me, they charged my card anyway without sending me payment details. They are not available on either chat and phone when I try, only email. I can’t remove my credit card from my profile to stop them charging me.
This is a bit like the old “Book of the Month Club” marketing model. I don’t want to cancel my membership entirely but pretty much that’s the only way to make sure they don’t charge me when I don’t want them too. I don’t see why you can’t pause for longer than a month at a time or remove a payment method. If you aren’t paying, you can’t access their site. This is not out and out crooked, but it’s borderline sleazy…
Hey gfbhwo — thanks for your feedback here. I’ve replied to your email to us, but I thought I might provide some more detailed replies here too.
This is a limitation in our system at the moment. At the moment, it’s targeted more towards users who are keen to maintain their current membership plan but need to take a short break (for example, members heading away on holidays) where it doesn’t make sense to cancel outright. However, we do have to balance the needs of our users with our need to make money!
Many other membership-based sites don’t offer this option at all, so I don’t think this is a particularly onerous requirement. However - your feedback is very welcome, and it’s something I’ll share with the team.
Cancelling your membership is one way to prevent any charges — otherwise, you will receive notice a few days before your account comes out of pause. At the moment we require a valid credit card for your membership to remain active. You can also contact us at any time to have your credit card information deleted from our payment provider. (It isn’t stored with Learnable, but rather Stripe, the secure service which handles all our payments.)
Your point about notifications for charges is a good one, though. Over the last few months we have been working on some changes to the way our transactional emails work, and monthly payment invoices is at the top of the list. I can’t provide a firm ETA but it’s certainly something that we’re keen to implement.
This doesn’t sound right at all - I’ll check up on this case in your account, and process a refund for you.
We don’t currently offer customer support over the phone, but during the US time zone one of our staff members should normally be available for chat. Otherwise, we respond to just about all our emails (something like 97% at last count) within 24 hours. So you should never need to wait long for a response from us
You are also welcome to contact me on my direct SitePoint email address — it’s identical to my username here, @sitepoint.com. Or send through a DM.
