Hacker News Reader

Comment by curiously | Hacker News Reader

FWIW, I personally refuse to do business with companies that utilize this kind of flow

Well, I think you know the river runs both ways, they probably want to filter out people who share that mentality, not judging your views on morality or whatever but it does not support your argument at all. If you are not willing to provide a card up front it means you don't have money to spend right there and then, and those companies probably are more interested in talking to those who have shown they are able to pay if required.

View on HN

I understand the want to filter out people mentality, but I completely disagree with thinking that just because a person does not want to provide a credit card upfront that they are not a valid customer or don't have the money to spend.

I look at it this way. Let's say I come across Acme Corporation's website. They are selling what appears to be a really cool product. I figure I will give it a try and signup for the free trial and at the same time enter my credit card info. I give it whirl, but in the middle of testing it out I get sidetracked with a phone call or whatever and forget to finish testing. I wasn't impressed enough with the little testing I had completed to go back immediately and after a couple days I completely forget I even signed up. Now 29 days later my credit card gets whacked for a $20 monthly fee. I have two choices at this point. I can file a chargeback, which isn't fair to the company. Or I can eat the cost and cancel immediately, which isn't fair to me.

In my opinion, there is absolutely no reason to demand a credit card upfront for a trial.

*Edited to fix a typo.

I think almost all the companies have a X days money back guaranty

Which as recent FDA actions can tell us, are often worth the paper they're printed on.

Sign up now, give my credit card, and to cancel I have to call a phone number which may or may not work and talk to a person who's entire reason for employment is to make it difficult for me to cancel with no assurance that anything has actually been cancelled until the next billing cycle.

When I take over the world, it will be a law on pain of summary execution that any recurring billing which can be signed up for online must be cancellable online :/

Well if you can pay for a trial even better, the credit card requirement is just another step below that,the next which is a free trial with no card. Whichever they offer is valid because businesses differ. To claim requiring a card for a trial is shady is just one small irrelevant aspect for the vendor.

The card requirement is a great way to filter out the less serious ones, if we miss one exception like yourself, it's no biggie, there's always someone who need the solution and willing to pay for it.

The only reason where I'd be reluctant to do a card trial is if it was difficult to cancel or they didn't offer a refund if I accidentally forget.

Plenty of shady people using fake cards to sign up for trial as well.

It means I want to try before I buy and those who use dark patterns probably cut in other areas like security. Online it is too easy to lie about your product and too hard to get refunds in case of false promises.

If someone was selling you a phone at a flea market, would you give them your CC number before you knew the phone turned on?

Irrelevant. You are now on a totally different playing ground. It's an interesting comparison but not at all valid. flea market is cash only usually.

Paying with a debit card isn't much different from using only cash. I know who to file a report against if the product isn't delivered, but the amount that I expect to recover compared to the effort makes it comparable to having paid in cash with no recovery.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com