Not happy, online subscription increase from $180AUD to $432AUD per year due to plan changes

[RobbieJewellery]

I have just seen a message to say that my current online subscription is no longer available and I will be upgraded to the 'Plus' plan when my subscription renews. Didn't think much about this until I discovbered that this will mean an increase from $180/year paid in July 2023 to $432/year this July. This increase is hard to justify, but I have little choice given the time and effort I have put into my site and inventory. I have a custom domain name, so downgrading to the free plan is not an option. 

I have been very happy with the service, but I'm feeling very let down right now.

How many other small businesses are impacted by this change and are they aware of the increase costs?

[Breffni · Accepted solution]

Hi @RobbieJewellery, thanks for your post and feedback. 

We completely understand that this price change may affect your operations and overall business costs. You should have received emails from us starting in August 2023 regarding the updated Square Online pricing plans. 

This is not something we take lightly. We have never made a price increase with Square Online. But as we continue to build more advanced features, we need to make this update, so we can continue investing in the product.

Additional information is available in our support centre about the plans and features included. 

If you have any questions, please let me know. 

[RobbieJewellery]

Hi Breffni,

  Thank you for the reply. Seems like something went wrong, I just searched my emails from 'square online' and I have received two in the last year. The first was dated just after I last renewed my subscription on 29th July 2023. The second was a few days ago on 29th June telling me about changes to my subscription. Interestingly the confirmation of my payment states that the next payment will be $180 on 28th July 2024.  I could not find any other emails from Square mentioning the change. Hence my surprise at the announcement. 

 The above emails also got sent to an email address I rarely use, but still check regularly for incoming messages. All other square emails are sent to my current active email address. I have checked every setting I can find and all show the correct email address, so I don't know why these are being sent to the old address.

I guess I'm going to have to call someone to discuss this and to discover why I did not receive earlier notice. I can't afford a $252 increase with less than a months notice.  I stress than I'm not against a reasonable increase, I know as well as everyone that price increases are inevitable, but 140% is slightly above inflation.

Robbie

[Laurie_]

Hi @RobbieJewellery,

Thank you for sharing your honest feedback about this situation. I understand that it may come as a shock if you haven't received the emails sent to all Sellers last year.

Here are a few steps I recommend: first, please contact our phone Support Team at 1800 760 137 (Monday - Friday, 9 am - 5 pm Melbourne time) to ensure you are receiving product update emails at your preferred email address. Upon checking your account's email dashboard briefly, I can confirm that regular product updates are being sent and received, with the most recent update delivered on Friday, June 28th, around 3 PM. However, we are unable to disclose specific account information, such as email addresses or subjects, through the Seller Community platform.

Our team can help track down the email address to which the Square Online pricing update was sent. Additionally, we can review your current plan and the specific features you're using to provide recommendations on which plan will best suit your business needs moving forward.

Should you encounter any issues connecting with our team over the phone, please let us know.

[RobbieJewellery]

Hi Laurie,

  Thank you for the reply. I will contact the support line.

Regards,

Robbie

[GoulburnWestern]

How do I see which plan I'm on ?

When I look at my account it says that I'm on Performance Plan but I can't find anything about that on the link above ?

Thanks, Leanne

[RobbieJewellery]

Hi Leanne,

 I can't find any mention of the 'Performance plan'. Is if for your online website account or general square activity account. I have no experience with the general square account as I find the free service is enough for what I do. I only sunbscribe to the online/website plan.  You can see which online plan you are on by going to the 'online' - 'overview' page. From this page you should see in the top right hand corner you should see the support button followed with the site name (mine simply says 'untitled site'. If you click on this it brings up a list of options, one of which is 'account settings'. If you select this one it brings up another dashboard and from here you can see your subscriptions, along with order history, credit card payments, etc. 
If this is where you are seeing the 'performance Plan' listed then I can't help you. Suggest you call Square support.

Actually, I just searched for 'Weebly Performance Plan', since square uses "weebly' for the website service and there is a Performance plan listed there. Hence you could be on an old plan that has been renamed by square. But I'm just guessing. Think you need a response form a square employee to confirm.

Cheers,

Robbie

[Girlvic]

I'm on the Performance Plan as well and as mentioned, I think it's because I started on a Weebly plan.
It would be good to know what the differences are between that and the Plus Plan, but I can't find them anywhere.

[RobbieJewellery]

Hi,

 I just searched the Weebly site and found this info about their plans. www.weebly.com/au/pricing

 It shows the various features ofeach option. I explaine how to see the square plans in a previous reply. You can see exactly what is included in each by selecting 'upgrade' located in the top right corner of the square  'online' dashboard page.

 Cheaper than the square options, but still seems to be linked to the square system. The only difference I could find was that the fess are slightly higher on sales. There may be more differences. I actually decided to stick with square because after seeking adbvice it seemed that despite thje large increase, converting to another host/system would end up at a similar cost, plus the additional time and effort in rebuilding my site. Had I known about the Weebly direct procimg I would have investigated this option further.

 I'm now looking at changing how I promote my online items and make better use of the website in the hope that I can pick up extra sales and make the higher cost worthwhile. 

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Robbie