LinkedIn is greedy. They work hard to get you to upgrade to a premium account and then make it nearly impossible for you to downgrade back to the free version.
They intentionally hide the steps to downgrade, make those steps as manual as possible, and don’t remind you that you are paying for their premium services. All together, this clearly shows a pattern of intentional behavior designed specifically to keep you paying for their service and to discourage you from downgrading to the free service when you realize the premium services are not worth the money.
A few highlights:
- Upgrading to premium account is extremely simple and painless. They clearly know how to design a sign-up process effectively.
- Once upgraded, there is no clear method to downgrade your account.
- There is absolutely nowhere within your account settings or emails you get from LinkedIn that provides details of how to cancel the premium service.
- They charge you in advance and require you to pay for the full 30 days even if you want to cancel immediately.
- There are no emails sent out to remind you of your monthly premium subscription.
Let me take you through the sign-up and cancellation process. You can then come to your own conclusions.
Sign-up is a cake (click to see a larger version):
Here are the “terms” you agree to during the sign-up process. This is the only place now or later that you are told how to cancel:
So, LinkedIn tells you at this specific moment that you can email them to cancel. However, let’s say it is three months later. That cancelling information was not sent to you, is not available on any of your account settings pages, and is clearly being intentionally hidden.
The account page shows the free option but allows no action to be taken for it yet allows you to upgrade to the other premium accounts (click to see larger view):
So, how do you cancel if you don’t recall the email address from the terms of service during the sign-up process? Here is what you do:
- Click on Customer Service at bottom of page
- Enter ‘cancel premium account’ as your search query
- Select “Downgrading Your Premium Subscription” from the FAQ list
They then provide you with 9 steps you must follow with no links at all. Here is the FAQ:
Downgrading Your Premium Subscription
How do I cancel or downgrade my current premium subscription account?
A request to downgrade your premium subscription changes your account to a lower level premium subscription while still offering features like InMails and expanded people search. Changes will be made effective with the billing expiration date of your current subscription. To downgrade to a lower premium subscription level or to cancel your premium account and switch to a free personal account, follow the steps below:
- Click on ‘Account & Settings’ found in the upper right hand side of the home page.
- Click on ‘Compare Account Types’ and identify the account type that best fits your needs.
- Click on ‘Customer Service’ link found at the bottom of the page.
- Click on ‘Ask Customer Service’ tab on the ‘Customer Service Center’ page.
- Enter your account’s primary email address in ‘Contact Information’.
- In the ‘Subject’ type ‘Downgrade My Subscription’ (if you want a lower level premium subscription) or ‘Cancel My Subscription’ (if you want to just keep the free personal account).
- In the ‘Question’ text box, identify what type of account you want to end up with through this request. For example, “I would like to change to Business Plus account” or “I only want a free personal account” .
- Click on ‘Continue’.
- Click on ‘Finish Submitting Request’.
Of course, all you have to do is email them at ‘cs@linkedin.com’ as stated in their sign-up terms but they don’t menion that here, do they?
LinkedIn has some really good user experience people on their team and has done some really neat things. This is clearly not a mistake or something they have overlooked. Instead, it is intentional decision on their part to make this process as difficult and painful as possible. What do you think and what other large, well-known companies exhibit similar behavior?
PS. I followed the steps above to cancel my service. Received an email that said it would be cancelled at the end of the month. I wrote back and said that was unacceptable and they ended up giving me the full refund for that month.
Am impressed with the information and opinion you had put on this post on canceling/downgrading to the linkedin free account.
I, myself, actually had the same trouble looking for this option until I found your blog.
Do you have any idea how do I refund if in case I pay them for a full year for a business plus account when I decide to cancel premium to the free account?
Thanks for this information.
BTW, saw your tweet about suggestions with your new blog design. Few comments, I suggest you remove the footer “Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Cutline by Chris Pearson.” and lastly change your favicon icon from the wordpress icon to the one of your choice as your blog looks like a free wordpress blog.
Hope it makes sense.
Thanks.
BPO – I would suggest that you go ahead and make the request following the instructions as listed above. They should respond via email to you at which time you can demand that they give you a prorated share of your subscription fee back.
You can also send your request directly to the email address though I have seen and heard that it is less effective that way.
Finally, thanks for the suggestions. The blog is actually at wordpress.com so I cannot change those items.
Thanks for posting this. I signed up for the paid service for a specific use and then found I couldn’t cancel automatically. Lame…
Hi JC
I just read your blog on downgrading from the Linkedin premium account.
I am trying to figure out what are the real benefits to having a Linkedin premium account. I read the Linkedin blurb on premium accounts but it was all marketing and didn’t tell me much.
One of my contacts who will be graduating soon with a Marketing degree and looking for a job just signed up for a Linkedin premium account. I am asking myself why and wondering how the premium account will help her in her job search.
Thanks
Tim Kivlin
Tim Kivlin, my opinion is that for 99.9% of the people out there, the premium membership is simply not worth it. They do have an account comparison chart available at:
http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=business_info_more&trk=acct_set_compare
It doesn’t include everything you get for upgrading (for example, if you have a free account, they limit how much they share regarding who has looked at your profile), but it gives you an idea of the differences. And truthfully, most people I know (including business owners) simply don’t need anything beyond the free account.
We can put a man on the moon, build nano technology and we are on the brink of finding a cure for cancer and Aids but the college educated guys from Linkedin cannot find it within the realms of their intelligence to provide a simple way for their customers to downgrade their account.
I can just picture it now – the production meeting where the already rich guys behind Linkedin figure out exactly how much more money they are going to make. One eager employee stands up with a PowerPoint presentation with the following charts.
1. How many people sign up for internet subscriptions and will forget about it.
2. How many people will give up if you make it hard for them to cancel their subscription
3. How much money they will make from the % of people who sign up who fall into the above category.
4. How many cars you can buy with all that money.
I, obviously, am a disgruntled customer who has tried and failed on several occasions to cancel my Linkedin account. I filled in the online customer form several times. The clever guys at Linkedin made it so that you cant contact them directly so you have no record of any disputes. “What email? We never got that one?” they will ask when you argue with them.
Now Mastercard informs me I am $200 poorer and Linkedin are $200 richer for a service which I only wanted to send one bloody email from and tried to cancel 3 times.
Well, I have a statistic for all the other disgruntled customers out there like me.
If 1% of Linkedin’s credit card transactions are disputed by their customers, Visa and Mastercard will close their account and will suspend Linkedin’s ability to take money from any credit cards for a very long time.
If you, like me, have been ripped off and ignored by Linkedin the please ensure you notify your credit card company and dispute your payment.
Assholes.
I just had the same problem. What a rip off. LinkedIn sucks. If this were any other business, they’d be marked as spam, spyware, or something similar. Horrible, horrible, horrible.
Thanks for posting the steps to downgrade!
Hey JC,
I found this page when googling, “linkedin premium account terms conditions.” I’m in the throes of trying to downgrade my account to free.
Here’s what pisses me off: The date they’ve chosen to cancel my service is… SURPRISE!… the bill date. So, as a thank-you for my business, they’re charging me another month out the door? I just emailed the CSR to let her know that yeah, NO. It’s good to know you were successful getting that charge canceled.
Thanks for exposing this bullsh*t.
Hi Will, hopefully it helps. I found that if you get no satisifaction from the service provider, most credit card companies will actually remove it from your bill (which is what I had to do with Classmates.com).
Hi JC,
I just had exactly the same experience with LinkedIn. Your blog is brilliant as I couldn’t find a way to cancel at all from LinkedIn.
It may also help in a dispute with LI if you’re in the UK, they will be covered by the Distance Selling regulations – whereby you get a 7 day “cooling off” period to cancel.
I received no email from LI, no correspondence or confirmation that the subscription had started (Free Trial).
This is a very unprofessional example of sharp practice from a professional social networking site.
Thanks for your help,
DR
It’s definitely pretty fishy. I initially emailed Customer Service 7 days before my free trial expired to cancel my account, never heard back! I did get an email from someone else in Linkedin saying my credit card had been declined and my premier account would expire in five days (a bad virus take hold of my laptop a few days ago and had to change all my bank accounts).
Very strange…
Does anybody have an email address for a real person at LinkedIn Customer Service? I want to send through my own email so I have a record that the request was made … cancelling through the LinkedIn site doesn’t give me a record … too easy for t he record to disappear. I want the documentation in case I have to fight with them over this …
Contract terms has you notify us by “…telephone or email…”.
They don’t offer phone support. Isn’t that a violation of contract? I think this has to be reported to BBB or some other agency. I would like to join a law suit against this company.
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Your information is very old. It didn’t help today 4.12.12