accusonus requires a credit card # before letting you demo their plugs. Thoughts?

[lingyai]

Wanted to trial a bundle from accusonus, added the demo to my cart but when I saw they want my credit card # for the privilege, I just closed the page without buying.

I then got an email from them which led to the following exchange.

I'm not saying they've no right to their approach. I just find their, to me, novel explanation unpersuasive, and don't want to have to worry about remembering to tell them not to charge me before the trial is over, and / or risking that that might not go smoothly. (I've had no dealings with them, so I've no specific reason to mistrust them; I have however found that occasionally some companies make the process of canceling free trials a bit "sticky". )

Anyway, would be curious about others' opinions.

=================
"Hi xxx,

My name is yyy and I work as a customer experience manager at accusonus. You recently placed an item in your cart but you didn’t finish checking out.

I just wanted to see if there was a problem or if you can give us any feedback regarding your experience. Please reply to this email and I’ll try my best to help you out.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

================

Hi,

I'm not happy arranging for a payment to be made, even though it can be cancelled, when I just want to demo it.

Regards


=============

Hello xxx,

Thank you for contacting us!

In full honesty, this was a difficult business decision but we felt that this will allow us to optimize the experience.

Let me spend some more time to explain. We are trying hard to educate our trial users on how to use the products. When someone starts a trial they receive a series of onboarding emails with dedicated videos and other useful info. We've recently also enhanced the onboarding process with live webinars. We want this onboarding process to be optimized for users that are seriously thinking of purchasing the products. Asking for a credit card allows us to focus on just those users.

Note that if we remove the credit card burden we will get 5-10x more trials, but they will be biased towards people who are just looking around and they don't seriously think to buy the products. We are a small company and getting more people at this stage is tempting. But it will not allow our customer success team to bring excellent service to users who seriously think about buying.

Please also note that:
-Although we require a credit card, our 14 day trial is indeed free.
-We send you a reminder 48 hours before your trial ends to ensure you have plenty of time to cancel.
-The cancelation process is very easy: check here

Moreover, when you start your trial be sure to add this discount code to get 10% off the plan of your choosing (monthly or annual): Special-Discount-10% (this offer is not compatible with other sales or discounts).

We'll be glad to have you onboard!

Best,


====================

Hi,

I understand your policy makes sense for you. But it doesn't work for me, sorry. Most devs don't impose this condition.

Regards"

==================

[plexuss]

To me, it's not a very smart decision. First of all, who does that? It's not a best practice, at the very least. I don't think the benefits to the customer are sufficient to make up for the benefits to the business so it's not a customer-centric policy, IMHO. I'd avoid vendors with such policies and look for other options or do without.

[bagpipe200]

I'd have had exactly the same response as you - no thanks. They can justify it all they like, but I'm not providing my credit card info if I'm not buying.

[ralfrobert]

Plugin Boutique seem to offer the trials, too. No credit card necessary there. However, I don't know if you have to get back to Accusonus after the download. Don't like their stuff and attitude so I will not try it.

[Aloysius]

An insane policy imho.

[rj0]

It's a very "dumb" company decision. I would have bailed at that point too. Definitely a "no thanks".

[jancivil]

Well, I never have done, and wouldn't. It's their business but it seems almost immature to me.

[Rivanni]

The seem to forget that many people don't have a credit card. In many countries its use is not as common as like for example in the USA.

[Shabdahbriah]

1. Getting a "did something go wrong/can you tell us why you didn't buy?" email from a company that you have closed the check-out page on, after you have done so, is annoying AF.

2. These designations: "customer success team", and "customer experience manager", are not 'small company' terms. They sound contrived at best, and more like hyperbolic pyramid scheme terms.

3. This is a seriously lame-ass idea, that will become obvious after 'enough' people complain (which they will) about giving their credit card information (if they have one) to a company they have no prior experience with, and/or the pressure of having to demo your product before a payment deadline hits them, rather than not 'stress' over it. Not to mention those who were charged because they forgot about the demo, and/or hadn't checked their emails for a few days, so missed your "48-hour courtesy notice", which to me, sounds like what is being 'counted on' with this scheme.

Make your product(s). Make (or provide links to) good walk-through/how-to tutorials on using your product(s), that show its features/uses/benefits to potential buyers/users. This is simply good business practice. Not something 'special' or extraordinary, unless it's done really well, and that is commonly and simply referred to as "professional".

[2c]

[Rivanni]

To download a trial, all I had to do is provide an email address and password and then I could download the installer. Nothing about adding items to a cart or credit cards.

[Ploki]

To download a trial, all I had to do is provide an email address and password and then I could download the installer. Nothing about adding items to a cart or credit cards.

to activate the trial you need to activate a trial sub apparently
https://support.accusonus.com/hc/en-us/ ... rt-a-trial

also i assume a debit card like mastercard debit or visa electron would also work

[vurt]

they could offer a two stage demo process?
normal run of the mill download with no extras.
then for people who find it interesting enough to go to stage 2?

seems silly just washing away customers, when he says himself "we are a small company" you ain't gonna get bigger like this imo.
unless your stuff is so good it sells itself, but then you wouldn't need to do this ..

[GaryG]

I think using the term 'onboarding' repeatedly would send me running.

[jancivil]

heh

I'm not an avid enough consumer to ever fall for that kind of language, it's not that I'm real incisive or clever, or even very suspicious.
If the trial is restricted such as saves can't happen, there are definite things which won't be tested or tried by me, it's either going to be an NI synth or something I more or less trust or I'm just not going to be arsed. I take out 30-day unrestricted trials of Steinberg (Nuendo's is 60 days last I looked) or VSL, you know. I'm spoiled.
And, I also go back to a different time where the trope in business was 'the customer is always right', now it's 'you lot owe us already'.

[TribeOfHǫfuð]

I do not like any service that offers you free periods of this and that and then begin to charge you for real after period ending if you do not stop them. Too many use this model, and it seems shady. Instead they should ask if you want to continue after trial period. If so, they can ask for credit card info, if not, they should back off.