Individual Basic Plan subscription issues

[Jeffrocop]

I have been experiencing an issue with this for 2 months now. There have been multiple reports in the media (Martin Lewis- MSE) about the ability to downgrade from Individual Premium to Individual Basic for £1 less a month if, for example, you have have no need nor desire to access audiobooks. 

When I have tried, however, on multiple occasions, I physically have not been able to find this option under my account subscription settings. Only if I clear my history and cache, then login again, am I then able to view it’s existence, however, when I try to subscribe to it the website says “Sorry but this plan isn’t currently available for you. Please choose another plan.” with no explanation as to why. 

Does anyone have any further info on what’s going on with this? Are Spotify trying to make this as difficult as possible for people? It really really irks me that the company have put their prices up twice (20%) in the last year with the reason for the second raise apparently being due to the addition of an audiobooks service I am convinced 99% of users have not asked dor.

[Maxim]

Hey @Jeffrocop,

Thanks for coming to the Community.

The Basic plan is available to existing subscribers, and if you're eligible, you'll be able to see the plan on the Manage your plan page.

I hope this clears things up 🙂

[Jeffrocop]

Hey, thanks for your reply.

So,

I have premium individual and have had for a few years. And the price has
slowly crept up over the last year from £9.99 to £10.99 and now £11.99 in
the space of about 6 months.

I have no need for audiobooks, and would like to downgrade to basic. But it
is saying I am not eligible. I understand that, plainly. But WHY am I not
eligible? Why is it only available to some and not others?

Regards

[Maxim]

Hey again, @Jeffrocop,

Thanks for getting back.

The eligibility to downgrade to a basic plan is influenced by several account-related factors.

We, the Community, don't have access to the accounts of other users, so if you'd like to know the exact reason you're not eligible, feel free to reach out to Support: https://www.spotify.com/about-us/contact/ 🙂

[musix1]

every time i try to press “get basic individual” this comes up - “ Sorry, you are not eligible for that plan.”
theres no explanation as to why im not eligible and what to do instead.

[Jeffrocop]

Hi there,

Here’s the reply I got about this from the escalations team. To be honest,
I don’t think even they fully understand what’s happening because there
seems to be mixed signals in communication.

“Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out to us through our Web Messaging channel. My name is
Ivan and I'm from the Escalations team, the highest tier of support in
Spotify. I'll be sure to provide more information about the Premium plan
that you're inquiring about.

I understand that you're looking to sign up for the Basic Premium plan
however I checked your account and I can confirm that you're not eligible
to take advantage of this plan.

The Basic plan subscription was launched last May 9, 2024 and one of the
eligibility requirements is for you to have an existing Premium
subscription to be eligible for this offer. At that time though, you're on
our free service and just upgraded to Premium Individual last May 11th
rendering your account ineligible. I believe this information was also
relayed to you when you first contacted us via email.

I'd really love to help you further however your subscription is entirely
system automated so there is really no option for you to get this plan at
this time. But no worries, I've forwarded your inquiry to the relevant team
as a feedback since we're always looking for better ways to provide deals
and service to our users.

I do apologize if you find our current set up is not exactly as you
preferred it to be, but don't worry, we're always aiming to improve our
features so we hope you'll continue to use it and find it gets better in
the future.

Hope you understand us on this matter and if I could further help you with
anything else, we're always just an email away.

Best regards,

Ivan

Escalations Team - Spotify Customer Support”


Sent from Gmail Mobile

[Katie_]

I switched to Basic individual from premium last month, and this month (the first month I was going to be charged at the basic price) billing makes one unsuccessful attempt and downgrades me to free. The same payment method that I used for premium last month (and, coincidently, is the same one that was attached to my account this month) does not have a declined payment on it from this “attempt” and amazingly worked immediately when I upgraded to premium again. Convenient. I don’t want to be paying for audiobooks that I won’t use, but basic is no longer being offered to me.

Country

USA

[Jeffrocop]

Yeah, I think it’s a bit of a scam to be honest.

I have a feeling there was maybe a bit of misinformation around it for a
while in the media, and was maybe announced temporarily for people, but has
since quietly been removed. It’s really frustrating for those with no
desire to use or pay for audiobooks.

Thankfully I have since been able to change to student membership since
taking up an online course with the Open University which was a good fix so
I would recommend trying this as an alternative option.

Regards