I was just filling out the paypal membership information, but then I stopped and read through the membership FAQ. I am not comfortable paying for a membership that will be autorenewed unless I contact you to cancel. Couldn't there be an option to autorenew or manually renew? Other subscription sites I have done business with have this option.

Just buy the Lifetime subscription and your set :P

shinrikyo wrote:

Sasha-Mulligan wrote:

Just buy the Lifetime subscription and your set :P

Sigh. Saw that one coming.

I agree with jdthompson... I would really like to be able to manually renew instead of auto-renew too.

 Cancel your subscription, I believe this solves the auto-renewal problem.

excalibur8 wrote:

 Cancel your subscription, I believe this solves the auto-renewal problem.

Yes, but that requires me to keep track of the time when it will autorenew and the FAQ doesn't even make clear exactly when the autorenew kicks in. If I cancel after the autorenew kicks in, I have to pay for that time and it isn't prorated. The FAQ states "No refunds will be offered on any subscription products with the exception of yearly subscriptions that are cancelled within 7 days of a renewal". If I don't cancel within those 7 days, I will pay for a whole year even if I didn't want to. A manual renew would remove those issues.

Indeed. Just a simple automatic email "Your subscription has ended. Would you like to renew?" would be just fine instead of automatically charging money.

Perhaps an administrator would help with this issue?

All credit card subscriptions are auto-renewed until cancelled by the subscriber

This is the extract from the FAQ, if you are paying by Paypal, I can't see you have an issue.

jdthompson, I sent you a personal message regarding your concerns for a membership subscription.

I was also a little hesitant when I signed up for the membership, for the very same reason the first poster stated in this thread.  I don't like the fact that it is being re-newed automatically.

I would much rather prefer for there to be a simple check-box, that asks whether I want auto-renewal or not.  And to prevent accidental lapses, a week or so before my membership expires - reminder e-mails should be sent to me prompting for renewal.

The way it is set up right now, gives this perception of you trying to trick people into renewing, and I'm sure a number of people will find that off-putting.

Gym memberships, Netflix, credit monitoring, health insurance... these are all auto-renew (at least they are in my world!). We're not doing anything different. We have thousands of people using subscriptions and we've tried to give the tools to make it most convenient. 99%+ of people renew each month, so to default it to favor the 1% doesn't seem right. It is only 2 clicks away to cancel your membership renewal - doesn't get much easier than that. :) So, if you're worried, just cancel. Then, if you want to renew, you can do it after you expire, or enable it when you're close. You don't lose anything by letting it lapse. Anyway, it's a convenience for most people, and for those who don't like auto-renew, we've made it darn easy to cancel. We're not tricky people

erik wrote:

99%+ of people renew each month, so to default it to favor the 1% doesn't seem right.

My problem is that there is nothing to default, because there is no option not to auto-renew.  The ideal solution would be to add a check-box, and set it to checked by default - everybody's happy.  People who renew anyway don't have to worry, because the checkbox is checked for them.  People who don't want to auto-renew, have the option to uncheck the box.

Sure - the workaround for me is to cancel the subscribtion, and then renew as I'm about to expire, but as a software engineer you have to admit that's not the way interfaces should be designed.

And just because Netflix does it one way doesn't mean you can't do it better.

I received a message from Patzer24 who walked me though it and now I have a membership that will not autorenew. So, problem solved! Thanks chess.com team.

how do you cancel auto-renew?

You can do it by going to the My Account page of your homepage. The option to cancel autorenew is there. Chess.com is a reputable site known for its integrity and professionalism. I doubt very much that they're trying to take any unfair advantage through their autorenew function.

I think this function is convenient in case people forgot to renew or intend to renew but something happened and they missed the target date for renewing. I had a problem with a site that still autorenewed my membership even after I've cancelled my subscription but I don't believe this will happen here.

I couldn't find the option on the My Account page.

However you can simply update your billing information with a fake credit card number to cancel autorenew...

 100% risk free sign up. hmmm