Horizon Subscription Inquiry – Free Trial Charge and Annual Plan Benefits

Hey there inthecl, thanks for reaching out about the Meta Horizon+ subscription. 

We'd be more than happy to take a look into this for you. 

In order to do so, would you mind sending us a private message so we can gather some account information? You can do so by going to our profile page or by clicking here. This will then allow us to investigate further.

Hope to hear from you soon!

I know exactly what happened. It happened to me too. After the 3 months, I was also given the option of another month free and continued. Then I realized that I was charged for a month, then got the next month free. The offer itself is not very clear on this. It's a bit confusing. They need to clarify that you will pay a month in order to get another month free. When I realized what happened I was ok with it I will be honest , I think the Horizon subscription is really great value so I decided to go for a full years subscription for $59.99 and I also got a welcome gift of $25 to spend on games. And I'm playing a lot of premium games that get added each month, for example Asgard's Wrath 2, which is brilliant. I'm not trying to promote it but it's really a great value proposition. 😁

Deceptive subscription plans, often called "subscription traps" or "dark patterns," trick consumers into paying for ongoing services they didn't intend to purchase, such as using manipulative design, pre-ticked boxes, or making cancellations extremely difficult. These schemes often begin with a free trial or one-off purchase, but the true cost and difficulty in cancelling are not clearly disclosed, leading to unwanted charges and eroded consumer trust.

How Deceptive Subscriptions Work

Hidden Costs & Free Trials: Businesses may offer a free trial but fail to clearly disclose the ongoing subscription fee, or they bury this information in fine print or on separate pages. 

Manipulative Design: Websites and apps use "dark patterns," or manipulative design, to guide consumers toward expensive choices or subscriptions, making it harder to opt-out. 

Pre-Checked Boxes: A common tactic is using pre-ticked checkboxes for optional services, meaning consumers might unknowingly agree to ongoing payments unless they remember to uncheck them. 

Difficult Cancellation: Businesses deliberately make it very difficult to cancel a service, sometimes referred to as a ""Hotel California" for subscriptions, leading to "forced continuity" where consumers keep paying unintentionally. 

What You Can Do

Read Carefully: Always read terms and conditions and be wary of fine print or confusing language, especially with free trials. 

Look for Pre-Ticked Boxes: Actively check and deselect any pre-checked boxes for additional services or subscriptions. 

Understand the Final Cost: Don't just focus on the initial advertised price; add up all the potential charges to understand the total final price you will pay. 

Be Prepared to Walk Away: If you feel that information isn't clear or the terms are unfair, be prepared to back out of the transaction and shop around for a better offer. 

fish_whisperer_01 This is very good advice. I will admit that, when I look back on the agreement, I didn't read the details closely enough and thought I was just getting a 4th month free. Obviously other people missed it too. I  my case I'm happy anyway as I went for the year subscription, but I can imagine that people who didn't want to continue could be very annoyed. Certainly, if I had no plan to continue the subscription I would have been annoyed, but more at myself for not reading it properly !