1 yr. ago • 67%

AITA For being Disappointed in Surfshark?

A while back, I sighed up for surfshark with the intention to refund my subscription soon after. I just needed it to access some information I thought was region lock. After I was finished I sent an email to surfshark asking for a refund.

I then received an email that I thought was a confirmation that I would be refined.

However, recently I got an email that my subscription could not be auto-renewed because my account lacked funds (I'm a broke college student).

Their reason for not canceling my account was that they actually wanted another confirmation that I wanted to get a refund.

Is this my fault for not checking back in? I thought it was clear that I didn't want to stay with surfshark.

30 comments

I know for a fact you're an asshole for using services and expecting a refund

40
- Can't tell if this is /s but there was a 15 day refund policy so I thought I was allowed to do that
  
  0
  
  Refunds are supposed to be for faulty products or not meeting your expectations/needs. It sounds like the product did exactly what you wanted it to do, therefore even though allowed, claiming the refund is still a scummy move (all discussions regarding corporate profits e.t.c. aside). You should just cancel the subscription and not pay for any future months.
  
  14
- bootlicker
  
  0
Both assholes. Their "are you sure OwO???" tactics is just typical assholery that I'd have straight up made illegal were I the FTC, but you did go in specifically intending to abuse them, so I would urge you to take the loss as some sort of "lesson learned tax".

Well, the loss of the first month, don't have them be entitled to more. Those three other months are assholery that should never be rewarded.

Edit: I also don't think this belongs in /c/Technology. There's asklemmy for this stuff.

30
let me know what you decide

Yeah you didnt respond. They wanted to know is you wanted to keep the ability to use their sercive until day 15, or cancel it right away.

14
- I've never had to deal with a company that did things like this. I really don't think I will see that money against so I guess Its a lesson learned
  
  3
  
  They're asking you, "How would you like to proceed in this case?" Respond as follows:
  
  Hi,
  
  Thanks for replying.
  
  I misunderstood the previous message. I thought it was transparently clear from my initial email that I wanted to cancel my services. You can either refund me for all months billed me or I will contact my credit card company for a fraudulent transaction made. Please let me know how you'd like to proceed.
  
  Best,
  WeirdAnimeOtter
  
  8
  
  Permanently Deleted
  
  1
You made it clear that you weren't interested anymore. Their unanswered "are you really really sure?" message doesn't entitle them to your money. I'd get in touch with support about refunding and (if your schedule allows) set a secondary objective to cost them at least double what you paid in support staff wages.

10
- I'm down to waste their time, but the problem is I have assignments I need to finish and my mental health is already stretched thin enough
  
  4
Yeah it does say "let me know what you decide" . But it is a sneaky tactic used exactly for this reason. Allot of companies do this which sucks.

9
- Permanently Deleted
  
  3
- :(
  
  1
Yes this is the anti cancel tactics that many companies use and the ftc is working on it: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165527249/ftc-rule-charges-cancel-online-subscriptions

I recently canceled surfshark too (i hope) and I recommend Mullvad if you need a vpn in the future, you pay for one month at a time, no subscription bs.

9
- Thank you for the recommendation, I'll keep it in mind next time I need a VPN. I guess this post is mostly just to show other people my experience with surfshark and hopefully save someone else.
  
  2
Windscribe has a free tier of like 10GB per month, if you need a VPN for rare use cases like what you described.

6
Nah, they just sounded like "Aww, what did we do wrong?" like they're just asking for feedback. They should've scheduled a refund anyway or made absolutely clear that they weren't going to respect your wish instead of waffling at you about how much they want to improve their service or whatever.

That very last bit where they try to ask if you want to wait then just assume you want to not only wait but continue the damn subscription without even getting a response is super slimy and so gross that I'm offended by it and I'm not sure I'd even heard of this company before.

"I would like to refund my subscription" does not mean "keep billing me!"

5
If you don't intend on continuing a subscription cancel it immediately after starting it. You will still get service for the access period you have, it cancels renewal, not service. To be even more safe, use a one time use cc for it with a funds cap. If they charge you after you explicitly cancel your subscription, then you can do a charge back with your card provider.

2

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