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.
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 to count. 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
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.
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.
Eh don’t love it but “first 24 months” implies ‘news accounts’ to me.
I forgot to renew my license with Proton and lost access to my password vault service they offer, and got permanently locked out of all my passwords. I thought it was safe to only have it all within Proton Vault and delete it from other services, but i was wrong.
After that bullshit, I self hosted my password vault with Vaultwarden and my own domain to access it from wherever i want, and I never will pay a single dollar to this dogshit company.
They pull shit like this in OP’s image and somehow the entire internet continues to glaze this companies’ nuts all day like it’s the manifestation of a messiah, almost as if they weren’t a for-profit corporation that only gives a fuck about money.
I’ve had similar frustrations with trying to a change a bundle of services. Once you add any service to your account, it’s basically impossible to remove. That’s why my account lapsed in the first place. I just wanted to remove the unused Proton drive. I had to cancel the renewal, wait for the current term to expire, and then purchase a brand new service with just the VPN.
I understand they are a business and they want to market their bundled services, but I also am more likely to patronize a company that respects user choice.
People trust them with their data, their photos, their browsing history, and their passwords. Their customer service policies do nothing to earn that trust.
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.
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.
I allow existing customers to use coupons :3 It’s kinda like a neat treat for people who carefully read my newsletters :3
no use crying over spilled honeypot OP—small victories hide everywhere; just gotta know where and when to find em👍
I believe in celebrating every small victory! To be honest, the main reason I wanted to post this is because it was a small hassle and I hope to help someone else avoid it.
I figure I’m probably not the only one on Lemmy who might be shopping for a VPN.
Imma just leave this here.
Mullvad
port forwarding
Yup. That’s why I’m still on Proton.
Been beat up on here, twice, for suggesting people just roll their own. Took me a couple of hours of carefully following directions, never touched it again, been 6 years. LOL, don’t think I can even log into it anymore, key’s lost.
is this not standard for every service? black friday deals are usually for new users or everybody would keep renewing their subscription on prepetual sale every black friday.
There are a lot of companies and subscriptions that offer annual deals. It’s a two year agreement fully paid.
They even have a login for existing users after accepting the deal. What kind of sense does that make?
That’s a US company thing. Maybe in other countries, too. But definitely a US company thing.
And yet Proton is Swiss.
I think some of their Black Friday deals can be “upgraded” for existing customers, though. Like upgrading from just VPN to Proton Unlimited or whatever it is. But not staying in the same tier.
I’m a previous customer looking to start a new account. I never had any problems with their VPN, and the pricing is fair, but it’s hardly the only option out there.
They could have just labeled it for new customers only and I wouldn’t have an issue.
Instead, when I click on the offer, there’s an option to log in with an existing account. When you log in, the price doubles with no explanation. They could remove the option to log in from the deal, or they could have a simple pop-up or explanation when you log in that the deal is only for new accounts. Without any indication on the ad or the terms, or even after logging in directly from the ad, it creates a frustrating and mildly infuriating experience.
There was another deal for existing customers. OP probably just missed it.
I didn’t miss it. You can pay double as an existing customer on the same two-year plan, which is still a discount from the “official” price. As far as I know, that’s not a Black Friday deal. It’s just their regular discount that they run periodically.
The frustrating part is only that they didn’t give any indication on the ad or the promotion or the terms that this was for new accounts only.
