Cancellation of Hulu after changing credit card number

[KossB]

We are continuing to see reports of subscribers losing their Hulu bundle after changing the credit card number that is on file.

Would anyone who works for Spotify (i.e., a moderator) care to explain why this is happening?

The terms and conditions for the Hulu bundle state that you must have a valid payment method on file.

Simply changing the card number should not cause the Hulu bundle to be cancelled for those who already have it.

Changing the card number or the expiration date is not a change to the type of account, and it should not cause the loss of a promotion.

I do not expect to get a rational, coherent explanation from Spotify about this. My experience with Spotify customer service has been terrible. When they don't know why something isn't working right, and they can't fix it, they simply copy and paste things like "rest assured your issue has been escalated to the right folks," or "sorry you lost your promo. Keep an eye for new promos." They don't answer questions, and they don't actually resolve problems. They make "suggestions," and when those don't work, they say "We don't have any additional info on this."

But I figured I would raise this issue here, and point out it simply does not make sense to lose a promo when you change your credit card number. That is NOT a change in the "payment method." The payment method is the same as it was before; it is simply changing the card number or expiration. And this is sometimes beyond the control of the subscriber, e.g., if your card is stolen, you have to get a new number.

I even have a theory about why it is happening. But I am not optimistic that it will ever get resolved. Spotify would first have to acknowledge that there is a problem, and they have not done that. You can't fix it if you don't admit that it is a problem.

When you change  your card number, the system may be removing the old card number before adding the new card number. So for about one-sixteenth of a second, there is no card number present at all. So in the logic of Spotify's incredibly powerful computers (which never, ever, make mistakes) the result is that for one-sixteenth of a second, you had no valid payment method on file. And therefore, bingo, you've lost your Hulu promotion.

Sorry about your luck, Dude.

In Spotify's world, you can't just change your card number. You have to remove the old card, and then add the new card. That's just how our computers work. And our computers are awesome. So rest assured, we'll keep looking into it. But your promo is gone for good!

[KossB]

This issue has now been reported in multiple threads.

Yet with all of the messages, and all the replies from Spotify moderators, it is still not clear exactly what is happening. Either the Spotify employees are not asking the right questions, or they are just copying and pasting a canned response, without examining the facts of each case.

If your credit card is invalid on the date of your monthly renewal, then the monthly payment will fail, and your account will revert to a free account. When that happens, you will lose the Hulu promotional bundle, and you will not be able to get it back.

It does not matter why the payment fails. It may be fail because the card has expired, or because you reported it stolen. Or it may be because your bank decided to issue you a new card with a new number. Or because you have exceeded your credit limit and the monthly charge was declined.

The lesson here is simple: You have to keep a valid card on file. If you get a new card, you have a responsibility to update the information before your monthly payment date. If you don't do that, and the payment fails, your account will switch back to free, and you will lose any promotion associated with your Premium service.

But if Spotify is cancelling the Hulu bundle even when a user proactively changes the credit card data before the monthly billing date, while the account is still an active Premium account, with an active Hulu bundle in effect, then this is a serious breach of contract.

It would be really helpful if people who have lost the Hulu bundle could explain whether they changed their card data before anything happened, or if they updated it only after the account had already been changed to a free account due to a failed payment.

[rtqhlg_-sufhp]

I don't knoe about you. I'm willing to startba free Spotify revolution. They tricked me into paying them for ad supported Hulu, then made it free. I have let Premium go for months at a time. The only thing that got my attention was the Hulu add on. Then they made it free and that kept me honest. I've lost debit cards in ATMs or to retail clerks that forgot to return and the usual policy is to destroy the card. With ad supported Spotify, Pandora, etc. It seems insane blowing $10 a month for such poor customer service. You lose a card and can't get through to the change payment in the program, dropped. Put your family on the family acct. Dropped. How special does Spotify imagine it is? Paid for Premium for years, we ALL deserve better. While they are NOT restoring this service they say we earned, students can get free Hulu and Showtime fir up to 4 years, customer services response is "Sorry Dude!"