It's Called Forced Continuity

It's a trick and a bad marketing strategy that puts a blotch on your brand. It goes like this:

There was a promotional offer, where you were able to purchase this title at no cost after enrolling into a free trial. Once the trial period is over, your membership would automatically continue unless discontinued. With this being said, you are scheduled to be charged $14.95 each 19th of the month. I apologize for any misunderstanding or inconvenience this may have caused.---- audible.com

It's an opt-out approach. Continuity (also known as recurring billing) is a payment model in which customers are billed once a month until they ask to cancel. Yes, I should have read the fine print, but who does? It's tricky and I no longer trust the brand. Has this happened to you?

Comments

[Becky Jenkins - Internet Marketer]

It's a really interesting question, many internet marketing membership sites use this model and I have been tempted to use it myself for my own products. I don't think it is the wrong thing to do IF you are emailed more than once to say that the free trial is about to end, and the way to cancel the ongoing membership is very clearly marked out.

[Karen Barranco]

Agreed