Pointed out that the free trial of the paid service is not working due to the design ``dark pattern'' that deceives the user
Designs that make users do things they didn't intend to do when purchasing something or creating an account on the Internet are called '
Tim Gadanidis - Caught by MuseScore's dark patterns
https://gadanidis.ca/posts/2021-11-09-musescore.html
It is pointed out that the dark pattern is adopted by MuseScore, an online score sharing platform that can be used for free. MuseScore allows you to download not only scores of public domain songs, scores of original songs created by MuseScore users, but also arrangements of copyrighted songs. Public domain sheet music can be downloaded with a free account, but in order to download sheet music related to copyrighted works, you must sign up for a paid subscription service.
Below is the top page of Musescore, at the bottom of the screen there is a display prompting you to join MuseScore PRO + , which is one of the paid services, and in the upper right is a button that allows you to participate in the free trial of the paid service. .
Musescore.com | The world's largest free sheet music catalog and community
https://musescore.com/
The dark pattern hidden in such MuseScore was discovered by Tim Gudanidis, who is studying sociolinguistics and computational linguistics at the University of Toronto. In order to play Joseph Kosma 's ' Autumn Leaves ' with his partner, he tried to download the sheet music of the piano and violin arrangements of the same song and registered with MuseScore PRO.
MuseScore PRO is a paid service that requires an annual membership fee of 7189 yen, MuseScore PRO + requires an annual membership fee of 10,289 yen, and if you use a free trial, you can use these services for free for 7 days. After the free trial period ends, it is assumed that you have automatically agreed to pay the annual fee, and it seems that the fee will be automatically charged within 2 days.
Guadanidis wanted only the above sheet music, so he was planning to register with MuseScore PRO, download the sheet music during the free trial period, and then cancel. However, although it was easy to participate in the free trial, he wrote that it was 'difficult' to get out of it. In fact, MuseScore doesn't let you cancel until at least an hour after you create an account and start a free trial.
This is also documented on the MuseScore Help Center page 'Cancelling your subscription in MuseScore for the web'. The instructions on this page clearly state, 'Please note that you cannot cancel your subscription while your account is being set up. You will need to wait approximately one hour for your account to be ready.'
Cancel MuseScore website subscription – Musescore Help Center
https://help.musescore.com/hc/en-us/articles/209540009
Regarding the fact that the subscription cannot be canceled within one hour of account creation, Guadanidis said, ``This is clearly bullshit because, except for editing subscriptions, you can immediately access all functions related to your account, such as downloading music scores and editing your profile. The real reason for not being able to edit the subscription is obvious: MuseScore allows the user to start a free trial, download one or two scores, and then the free trial ends. We want you to forget about the existence of the subscription until the annual fee is automatically charged.' In fact, Mr. Gadanidis forgot to cancel the contract and ended up paying an annual fee to MuseScore.
Gudanidis also points out that MuseScore uses dark patterns on the subscription cancellation screen. The following is the cancellation screen, and on the screen, ``The benefits are still valid during the current paid period.'' right) must be pressed. Regarding this screen, Mr. Gadanidis said, ``If you press the 'I do not want benefits' button, it seems that you will not be able to access paid services immediately, but that is not the case. Guadanidis points out that this is a type of dark pattern known as confirmscheming .
Additionally, MuseScore's Terms of Service state that 'For yearly subscriptions, you may receive a refund from MuseScore if you cancel your subscription during the first 14 days of the subscription period', but in reality it is online. It seems that it is impossible to cancel the subscription from above. It seems that it is only possible to stop the automatic renewal of the subscription from the Internet, and it can not be canceled. It seems that you need to contact support directly to actually cancel the subscription.
There are also reports that even if you contact support and offer to cancel your subscription, MuseScore will not inform you of the terms of service and will offer you a 35% refund of the annual fee, which is far below what you should actually receive. there is.
Therefore, Mr. Gudanidis seems to have contacted MuseScore's support, 'According to the terms of use, please cancel the subscription and receive a refund.' However, MuseScore's support still seems to have presented an offer of 'free extension of subscription' or '35% refund'. And here again, we adopt confirmheming to display 'free extension of subscription' as an easy-to-read green button and '35% refund' as a grayed out button.
Beneath these two buttons are text options with the most refunds, but you'll need to contact MuseScore support again to receive them. In addition, Mr. Gadanidis has successfully received a refund of the annual membership fee after this repeated exchange.
Mr. Gudanidis pointed out the dark pattern of MuseScore in 2021, but the fact that the subscription cannot be canceled for one hour after account creation remains the same at the time of writing the article.
Related Posts:
in Web Service, Design, Posted by logu_ii