Matt Mullenweg cited a Reddit thread on X to promote the idea that WP Engine makes it difficult to cancel accounts. Turns out that his own hosting company does the exact same thing.
“Money Grab” Post By Redditor
Someone posted that they cancelled a WP Engine account on Friday December 6th. They subsequently learned that WP Engine has a 30 day advance notice cancellation policy so they called customer service and was assured they wouldn’t be charged, despite not giving 30 days advance notice.
They wrote:
“On Dec 6th, I cancelled my WPEngine service that I’ve had since 2015. …That’s when I discovered that WPEngine requires 30 days notice to cancel. An obvious money-grab. A user should be able to cancel a single-site hosting environment instantly with one click of a button. In fact, this will be the law soon, created because of unscrupulous cancellation tactics like this.
WPEngine support informed me that my site would be cancelled on Jan 3rd. …Surprise, surprise… it’s Jan 5th. My account hasn’t been cancelled, and I was charged $300 today for another year of service.”
Hours after starting the Reddit post to complain about WP Engine they updated it to say that WP Engine had refunded their money.
They posted:
“UPDATE: WP Engine support got back to me, cancelled the account today, and initiated a refund that’ll take up to 10 business days.”
Mullenweg Dumps On WP Engine
Mullenweg posted on X to compare WP Engine to an unscrupulous gym, accompanying his post with a screenshot of the Reddit post:
“One way @wpengine juices its profits at the expense of its customers is by making it hard to export or cancel your plan, like one of those bad gyms.”
He followed that up with another post touting 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 that WordPress.com’s cancellation policy also requires 30 day advanced notice:
“You must cancel at least one month before the scheduled end date of any annual subscription…”
What’s Going On?
WP Engine’s contract is clear that they require 30 days notice to cancel a service. But it’s not like once you pay you’re committed to a whole year of hosting. The contract enables customers to cancel their yearly hosting plan at any time (with 30 days notice) and the difference for any remaining months will be refunded.
The Redditor cancelled their account with less than 30 days notice (on a Friday), got charged 24 days later and then refunded on a Sunday, before the weekend was over.
Response On Reddit
While many Redditors were supportive of the person who started the discussion, others pointed out the obvious that it’s a weekend and they failed to give adequate notice.
A Redditor named ThePresidentOfStraya posted:
“Not affiliated with WPEngine. Downvoted. This is a boring billing issue, you’re not being oppressed. Annoying sure. But just call them Monday mate.”
Another Redditor downplayed the events:
“Meh, crap happens. It’s not at all abnormal to have a 30 day opt-out prior to renewal.”
Another Redditor put the original posters situation into perspective, commenting:
“Money grab? You know the rules…
Inform yourself. You should have cancelled sooner. Now be polite and ask them for a solution instead of ranting about it online.”
Read the original Reddit post:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Nicoleta Ionescu
