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Matt Mullenweg cited a Reddit thread on Xu to promote the idea that WP Engine makes it difficult to cancel accounts. Turns out his own hosting company does exactly the same thing.
Post by Redditor “Grab the Money”.
Someone posted that they canceled their WP Engine account on Friday, December 6th. They subsequently learned that WP Engine has a 30 day notice cancellation policy so they called customer service and were assured that they would not be charged, despite not sending a 30 day notice.
They wrote:
“On December 6th, I canceled my WPEngine service that I have had since 2015. …I then discovered that WPEngine requires 30 days notice to cancel. An obvious money grab. The user should be able to immediately cancel the hosting environment in one place with the click of a button. In fact, it will soon be the law, born of this unscrupulous cancellation tactic.
WPEngine Support informed me that my site will be canceled on January 3rd. …Surprise, surprise… It’s January 5th. My account was not canceled and I was charged $300 today for another year of service.”
Hours after they started a Reddit post complaining about WP Engine, they updated it to say that WP Engine had refunded them.
They published:
“UPDATE: WP Engine Support got back to me, canceled the account today and initiated a refund that will take up to 10 business days.”
Mullenweg drops the WP engine
Mullenweg published on X compare WP Engine to an unscrupulous gym, accompanying his post with a screenshot of a Reddit post:
“One of the ways @wpengine increases its profits at the expense of its customers is by making it difficult to export or cancel your plan, like one of those bad gyms.”
He followed that up with another publish boasting that WordPress.com has a flexible cancellation policy:
“The WordPress philosophy is to make it easy for people to leave, so they’re more likely to stay. Give freedom and choice.”
But the reality is such is WordPress.com’s cancellation policy also requires 30 days notice:
“You must cancel at least one month before the scheduled end date of each annual subscription…”
What’s going on?
It is clear in WP Engine’s contract that they require 30 days notice to cancel service. But it’s not like once you pay you’re committed to a whole year of hosting. The contract allows customers to cancel their annual hosting plan at any time (with 30 days’ notice) and the difference for any remaining months will be refunded.
The Redditor canceled his account with less than 30 days’ notice (on Friday), was charged 24 days later, and then refunded on Sunday, before the weekend was over.
Answer on Reddit
While many Reddit users supported the person who started the discussion, others pointed out that it was the weekend and didn’t give proper notice.
Redditor under the name ThePresidentOfStraya published:
“Not affiliated with WPEngine. Voted against. This is a boring billing issue, you are not oppressed. Irritating for sure. But just call them Monday, my friend.”
Another Redditor downplayed the events:
“Oh, shit happens. It’s not at all abnormal to have a 30-day shutdown before renewal.”
Another Redditor put the situation with the original posters into perspective, commenting:
“Grab the money? You know the rules…
Get informed. You should have canceled earlier. Now be polite and ask them for a solution instead of ranting about it on the internet.”
Read the original Reddit post:
Featured Image Shutterstock/Nicoleta Ionescu
