Dishonest cancellation practices
I am the recruiter for a small environmental consulting firm. We purchased a one-month ZipRecruiter subscription to help hire experienced environmental engineers. Unfortunately, the service did not deliver qualified candidates for our specialized positions, so I decided not to continue the subscription. Before the renewal date, I logged into my account and selected what appeared to be the option to cancel the automatic renewal. Based on the website, I reasonably believed my subscription had been canceled. Despite this, ZipRecruiter charged us for a second month. When I contacted customer service, I was told that using the online cancellation option was not enough. According to the representative, customers must also call ZipRecruiter to complete the cancellation, and this requirement is communicated only through a small message at the bottom of the page. I never saw that message because the interface gave every indication that my cancellation request had been completed. I immediately requested a refund, explaining that I had intended to cancel before the renewal date and had taken the steps the website appeared to require. My request was denied. I escalated the issue through customer service and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but ZipRecruiter still refused to refund the charge. My concern is not simply that the service did not work for our company. My concern is that the cancellation process appears to lead customers to believe they have successfully canceled their subscriptions when they have not. If a customer follows the online cancellation process and still must make a separate phone call to prevent future charges, that requirement should be presented clearly and prominently—not as an easily overlooked message. I encourage prospective customers to carefully review the cancellation process before subscribing. My experience was that what appeared to be a successful online cancellation did not actually stop the automatic renewal, resulting in an additional month's charge that ZipRecruiter refused to refund.