[Subscription] Spotify cancelled my Hulu after I upgraded to Spotify Duo

[1228560426]

I had a Hulu account with my Spotify Premium account. I saw a pop-up suggesting I sign up for Spotify Duo and finally took the plunge — I signed up for it and converted my partner from a non-user into a paying Spotify listener.

Then I got an email saying my Hulu had been canceled because I canceled my Spotify account. 

Nowhere in the process of upgrading to Duo did Spotify even mention that I could possibly lose my Hulu account. And I'm not sure how upgrading counts as canceling when I am now paying Spotify even more money than before. 

Has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone else have a great explanation to why upgrading should mean that you lose your perks?

Seems similar to this issue (which Spotify seems to have resolved favorably for the user): https://community.spotify.com/t5/Ongoing-Issues/Hulu-account-cancelled-after-signing-up-for-bundle/i...

[Billy-J]

Hey @1228560426, thanks for reaching out to the Commubity!

I'm sorry to hear this.

This is expected that you would lose access to Hulu when upgrading from Premium + Hulu bundle to Premium Duo. In order to get Duo, you would need to first need to cancel your current plan and resubscribe once you revert back to free. Keep in mind that the access to the Hulu bundle will then be lost and won’t be able to add it back to your account. This also holds true when you’re upgrading to Premium Family or any other plan. 

The link you mentioned is for a different issue, where people's existing Hulu account was canceled when they signed up for Premium + Hulu bundle.

If you'd like to see Spotify include a notice about this before other users upgrade, you can create a new Idea about this here.
 

For your reference, there is some more information on Premium Duo in this Spotify Answer.

I hope this helps! If you need anything else, I'll be right here.

[1228560426]

Hi Billy-J,

Actually this was not expected, because I did not "cancel my current plan and then resubscribe" — I followed Spotify's advertisements to upgrade my account from Premium to Duo, and nowhere along that path did Spotify mention that I would be canceling my account and losing all previous benefits, and then signing up for a new one.

I cannot think of any other subscription service that requires cancellation to add another line, except for Verizon and transitioning from the grandfathered unlimited wifi plan to something new. For anyone considering that switch, Verizon made it explicitly clear what benefits you would be losing (and gaining). And Verizon is no standard-bearer of customer service.

I asked a friend who is still on a standard Premium account to show me what the process looks like after clicking "Get Started" on the Duo landing page (https://www.spotify.com/us/duo/). The below screenshot shows how Spotify presents the option to upgrade to Duo, i.e., it is simply "Get Duo." It is not "Get Duo by Canceling Premium, Reverting to Free, and then Resubscribing and Losing Your Hulu Account."

The language in the T&Cs for Duo (https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/duo/) also do not mention anything about cancelling your existing plan and losing Hulu. This is the only relevant line:

E. Note; If you are a holder of a Premium account, by joining the Premium Duo Subscription plan you acknowledge and agree that no refunds are available for changing from your current Premium plan before the end of your paid subscription period. Upon joining, you will switch immediately to the Premium Duo Subscription, and your access to the Spotify Premium service will remain uninterrupted, but any unused Premium time you’ve already paid for, including any remaining free Trial days, under your current Premium plan will be forfeited.

Again, no mention of cancelling and losing prior benefits under your existing Premium account. Just a lot of heads up that my money will not be refunded.

[bionicchop]

I had the exact same series of events happen to me followed by an equally disappointing exchange with customer service. I received several promotional materials with "Say Hello to Premium Duo: two separate Premium accounts with all the Premium perks..." No where in these materials does it mention losing perks or canceling current subscriptions. It's positioned as an upgrade of an existing plan.

This is a really misleading and intentionally deceptive promotion that I'm sure will leave a bad taste in customers' mouths. I've been a Spotify member for a very long time, but this sort of experience now has me looking at other music subscription services.

[bionicchop]

Just to reiterate the point that this is promoted as an upgrade and not a canceling of a subscription.

[Mperriello1]

Yeah same thing happened to me, very unfortunate. I don't understand how me paying more money than I was initially paying, while recruiting another person to use their app takes away from what I receive out of my monthly payment. It's absolutely insane, and like you said, nowhere did they warn you that Hulu would be taken away in the process. After I switched to duo I had received an email (which I thought was yet another person hacking into my Spotify account which seems to happen once a month for whatever reason) and I was very upset that I had lost that part of my membership. Bad move Spotify. 

[Stephen36]

I’ve been a Spotify user since before the app was available. This just happened to me and making me think about finally switching. It unacceptable that this is not made perfectly clear. I also was very surprised and annoyed to get the “Your Hulu account was cancelled” email. 

[Jana02]

Yes it just happened to me

[Natalia_0813]

This just happened to me and customer service was horrible, basically reading off a script, showing little to no care for the problem. Why have customer service if no help or service will be offered. I had HULU on second and they took it the next. The "Upgrade to Duo" description says you get to keep all your benefits. What it really does is take away benefit and charge more. I am infuriated. Now I have to pay HULU on the side, an additional expense I did not account for.

[rcolace]

It seems like Spotify still hasn’t fixed this problem. I “upgraded” to duo as well and lost Hulu. I believe Spotify is losing money by having Hulu as an additional perk so they spam you with these “upgrades” so that you unintentionally lose your perk. Very shady by Spotify to not even mention you losing access to Hulu. I’ve had it for almost 5 years. 

[AUSyTyIN]

Just happened to me too. Seriously? 2.5 years later, and people are still getting angry and this bait and switch. 

[barnesjrd]

Just happened to me too… I feel like I have been scammed. Hulu is $8 a month so in order to get it back with the Duo account I would end up paying $21 a month. I could have just added a separate Spotify account and would be paying less. It makes no sense and is obviously deliberately misleading since people have been complaining about it for years. 

[Marty51]

For anyone finding this thread, this same thing happened to me. Spotify hasn’t upgrade its marketing terminology as i “upgraded” to duo which advertised “keep your premium account” and add a family member. After I did it, my Hulu was canceled (which means I wasn’t keeping my premium account because I just lost a major feature.

I was able to chat with a representative today and they had a program available to recover my Hulu. They get me a unique code and helped me reactivate premium + Hulu. Thanks to Spotify for listening to the concerns of those that lost their Hulu sub. I’ve been a Spotify subscriber for 8+ years, and this was the first time I’ve considered cancelling because I felt misled. I appreciate that we were able to find a solution. 

[barnesjrd]

You had more luck than I did. I was told that there was no way to
reactivate my Hulu account so I cancelled my subscription altogether and
moved to Apple Music which is higher fidelity although I miss some of the
features that the Spotify player had.

[robc5]

Same thing, I had no idea I was losing Hulu after taking the upgrade offer. Really frustrated that there is no way to recover even if I wanted to switch back.

[bababaybe]

I just went through this. I upgraded to duo from my premium + hulu that I've had since I was a premium student member 5 or more years ago (and no i didnt manually cancel). Spotify canceled Hulu and then I didn't have time to reach out to them for a couple weeks because work and life. I just chatted with someone today and was told that if I reached out the day I got the email then spotify might've been able to undo it. What the heck?! So, basically I'm told it's my fault for not reading a disclaimer in the original email I received when I first got premium + hulu AGES ago about plan changes. And then it's my fault for not wasting two to three hours with an agent right when I got the email. This is literally the disappointed I've been with Spotify. They're telling me I can subscribe directly with Hulu, like ok and who's going to be paying for that. What the **bleep**, I'm so livid. Where was the disclaimer when spotify sent me numerous duo promotions in the past couple months?