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Geocaching.com Premium without auto-renewal


Tungmar

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Without auto-renewal can be done by giving yourself a PM Gift Card.

 

https://shop.geocaching.com/default/12-month-premium-membership-gift-card.html

 

This is what I do. Someone gives me a gift certificate. I use it the buy the premium membership gift card. And if I order it around Christmas, usually the postage is free. Works for me!

Though usually Groundspeak tells me there is nothing in my account, and I have to e-mail Customer Service. Gift certificates do NOT expire. And I have to remind Customer Service of this fact.

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Thanks for all your replays. As I always buy a yearly membership (but not every 12), it's likely that this "feature" is in place since a year. I personally relay hate that!

 

I tried the gift membership but it does not work on the site and as I don't live in the u.s., the real gift cards are no option for me.

 

So I went on and buy one whit auto renewal. I tried to cancel it right after following the description here in the forum. But there was no option to do so. Only now, after several days, the option shows up at the exactly same spot where I checked before.

 

Also the answer from the suport was not helpful and they don't replay to additional mails.

 

I'm really disappointed by Groundspeak.

 

 

Here is how I did cancel the auto renewal:

 


  1.  
  2. Open https://payments.geocaching.com/membership/edit
  3. Cklick on "Stop Recurring Membership."
  4. Wait a few minutes as the site is crappy slow.

  • Helpful 2
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My PMO is up for renewal. I don't want the auto-renewal option, so my plan was to buy 1 year with auto-renewal option, and then stop/disable auto-renewal in paypal.

 

I chose "1 year 29,99 euro, with auto-renewal", but after completing the payment I ended up with only "auto-renewal". Now my membership status says:

"Your Geocaching Premium membership will automatically renew for 1 year on 2017-05-07 and will be charged 29.99 EUR"

 

So I have to remember in future to cancel the auto-renewal permission in ppal.

 

I think the product should be renamed, to better indicate what it is. Something like:

"sign up for auto-renewal, current rate 29,99 euro/year"

 

As it is *not* buying one year membership (plus auto-renewal). It is *only* signing up for auto-renewal.

 

Ys

DkMumrik

Edited by DkMumrik
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My PMO is up for renewal. I don't want the auto-renewal option, so my plan was to buy 1 year with auto-renewal option, and then stop/disable auto-renewal in paypal.

 

I chose "1 year 29,99 euro, with auto-renewal", but after completing the payment I ended up with only "auto-renewal". Now my membership status says:

"Your Geocaching Premium membership will automatically renew for 1 year on 2017-05-07 and will be charged 29.99 EUR"

 

So I have to remember in future to cancel the auto-renewal permission in ppal.

 

I think the product should be renamed, to better indicate what it is. Something like:

"sign up for auto-renewal, current rate 29,99 euro/year"

 

As it is *not* buying one year membership (plus auto-renewal). It is *only* signing up for auto-renewal.

 

Ys

DkMumrik

 

Thank you for telling us that!

 

I think they should simply bring back the option for no auto renewal.

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Do "they" listen to comments here?  I don't think it does any good to send a message via the help center.  I did that last year, and if they replied I cannot find any record of it that I might have saved.

Anyway - I am so frustrated by this whole business of requiring automatic renewal of premium memberships. I feel that they should "trust" us to renew on our own, and not have the sole option of automatic renewal.  I've learned how to work around it, but it's a big bother to wait a couple of days and then go to PayPal and cancel it.  Then when it's time to renew I have to cancel the overdue premium membership and go through the whole process again.  This is for two family members at different times of the year.

I have no objection to paying for premium memberships, I just find this auto renewal requirement to be insulting and a bad business practice from the "customer's" point of view.

  • Upvote 3
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Yes, I agree with NYhiker, the auto renewal trick may be touted by many businesses as a way of  making payments more "convenient" for customers, but it seems more like a dubious trick to get an extra payment from the absent minded ex customer. I simply don't give my business to insurers and other service providers who give it as the only payment option. It's far too easy for them to "innocently" make the method for cancelling the recurrence as obscure and awkward as possible, a truly reprehensible business practice.

In England not allowing cancellation of auto renew is against the law, should be interesting to see what options present themselves when my premium membership comes up for (non- auto) renewal by credit card in the new year ...

  • Upvote 1
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I did send a note to Groundspeak and got this very helpful list of instructions.  (I think I had made it more complicated by having cancelled the preapproved payment at PayPal last year, plus I had let the GS membership expire so I didn't see the option to stop recurring payments.)  And, I think that I do not need to also disable the preapproved payment at PayPal.

Copied from the email I received:

If you purchased an automatically renewing Premium Membership on Geocaching.com (including via Waymarking.com or Wherigo.com) and would like to stop the subscription from automatically renewing:

  1. Log in to Geocaching.com
  2. Select the down arrow next to your username
  3. Select "Settings"
  4. Select the "Membership" tab, then "Edit Membership" and "Stop Recurring Membership."

If you purchased an automatically renewing Premium Membership through Google Play or Apple iTunes/App Store you cannot cancel on Geocaching.com. You must turn off auto-renewal through Apple's iTunes/App Store or Google Play.

You will need to do so in Google Play or your Apple iTunes/App Store account directly. Instructions can be found here:

Please Note:

  • Uninstalling an app will not automatically stop your subscription. Canceling a subscription will not refund subscription payments.
  • We do not refund outside of 30 days of initial purchase, nor do we refund monthly memberships.
  • If you have an auto-renewing subscription purchased through Paypal IPN prior to April 28, 2010 (the subscription number starts with S-)*, then you will need to cancel this subscription in your Paypal account.
  • If your payment has been voided, the system has canceled the Premium subscription for your account. If you do not want to renew your Premium Membership you can simply ignore any reminder emails and you will not be charged again. Your account will go back to Basic/free status after a grace period.
Edited by NYhiker
Add comment about PayPal
  • Upvote 2
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On 12/15/2017 at 3:27 PM, NYhiker said:

If you purchased an automatically renewing Premium Membership on Geocaching.com (including via Waymarking.com or Wherigo.com) and would like to stop the subscription from automatically renewing:

  1. Log in to Geocaching.com
  2. Select the down arrow next to your username
  3. Select "Settings"
  4. Select the "Membership" tab, then "Edit Membership" and "Stop Recurring Membership."

These instructions from the help file are out of date. There is no "Edit Membership" tab or option to "Stop Recurring Membership.". I do not want to renew my Premium but cannot find any setting that explicitly disables auto renew. I went through this a year ago figuring that if there was no setting saying to auto renew I was good and would drop back to a regular membership but my premium membership was auto renewed anyways.

 

How do I stop auto renewal???

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19 minutes ago, PDOP's said:

These instructions from the help file are out of date. There is no "Edit Membership" tab or option to "Stop Recurring Membership.". I do not want to renew my Premium but cannot find any setting that explicitly disables auto renew. I went through this a year ago figuring that if there was no setting saying to auto renew I was good and would drop back to a regular membership but my premium membership was auto renewed anyways.

 

How do I stop auto renewal???

 

The option to edit is actually labelled ‘Manage Premium Membership’ - it’s a big green button.  Otherwise, instructions as above.

Edited by IceColdUK
  • Upvote 1
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11 minutes ago, PDOP's said:

These instructions from the help file are out of date. There is no "Edit Membership" tab or option to "Stop Recurring Membership.". I do not want to renew my Premium but cannot find any setting that explicitly disables auto renew. I went through this a year ago figuring that if there was no setting saying to auto renew I was good and would drop back to a regular membership but my premium membership was auto renewed anyways.

 

How do I stop auto renewal???

 

I just checked my profile and it looks that stopping auto-renewal is indeed no longer available or it's very well hidden. Come on GS, stop this sneaky way to get extra revenue from people who left the hobby or no longer want to be PM.

No honest company does stuff like this. I haven't auto renewed ever but the first time GS tries to charge me automatically I will have my CC company reverse the charge.

 

  • Upvote 2
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6 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

 

The option to edit is actually labelled ‘Manage Premium Membership’.  Otherwise, instructions as above.

 

Look again... There's no option to "autorenew" or "not autorenew".

I can only renew membership and view printable receipt. Nothing more.

 

GeocachingPM.jpg

Edited by on4bam
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4 minutes ago, on4bam said:

 

I just checked my profile and it looks that stopping auto-renewal is indeed no longer available or it's very well hidden. Come on GS, stop this sneaky way to get extra revenue from people who left the hobby or no longer want to be PM.

No honest company does stuff like this. I haven't auto renewed ever but the first time GS tries to charge me automatically I will have my CC company reverse the charge.

 

 

Settings > Membership > Manage Premium Membership > Stop Recurring Membership

 

A066810C-6D9E-47D6-8889-E956B31F785C.png

Edited by IceColdUK
Adding screenshot
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4 minutes ago, on4bam said:
8 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

 

Settings > Membership > Manage Premium Membership > Stop Recurring Membership

Nope

 

I added my screenshot to the earlier post.

 

I’d assume, you only get the option to cancel if you’ve set up autorenewal.

 

If you click on the Renew Membership button (on your screenshot), does that give the option to autorenew?

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4 minutes ago, IceColdUK said:

If you click on the Renew Membership button (on your screenshot), does that give the option to autorenew?

 

When clicking renew there's a 1 year or 3 month autorenewal ONLY (bad business to do so! ) Autorenwal should be OFF by default with an option to turn it on, not ON and have people search to turn it off. 

In any case, GS only has to try this once :ph34r:

 

  • Upvote 1
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3 minutes ago, on4bam said:

 

When clicking renew there's a 1 year or 3 month autorenewal ONLY (bad business to do so! ) Autorenwal should be OFF by default with an option to turn it on, not ON and have people search to turn it off. 

In any case, GS only has to try this once :ph34r:

 

 

I agree with you there, but at least we’ve found where the options are ‘hidden’. ;-)

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1 minute ago, IceColdUK said:

 

I agree with you there, but at least we’ve found where the options are ‘hidden’. ;-)

 

At least this thread reminded me to warn a friend, who stopped geocaching because of health issues, to make sure he checks his account so no money is taken from him automatically.

 

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One option depends upon your credit card company.  Some offer 'one time only' temporary numbers for online purchases.  These can't be used for any auto-renewals since they're only good for the one instance in which they're initially used.  Also handy when dealing with companies like Sirius/XM.

 

  • Upvote 1
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My PM is about to expire in a month or so. I´ll let it hapen, I´ve deactivated the autorenewal. And one of the reasons for that is the issue discussed here in this thread.

It´s just another verry unsympathetic trick for profit maximization and I don´t wanna feel like a utilized cash cow.

 

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