AppSumo Plus Yearly Plan Reviews

I've bought 47 deals in the last 4 years on AppSumo. Sadly, my experience with customer service over this Plus service has left such a sour taste in my mouth that I've unsubscribed from the AppSumo newsletter I used to open regularly and will be walking away from this company entirely.

I felt kind of dumb buying three different deals (~$370) after subscribing to Plus this weekend and then receiving the $25 coupon immediately after. I could have bought the one deal that I was after and then just waited a half hour before buying the others in order to redeem the coupon. I reached out to Support hoping they would understand and might offer a gesture of understanding and appreciation to a loyal customer. I've spent thousands on AppSumo over the last few years, and I have also been a Plus member in the past, so I thought it was a reasonable request.

I believe this email thread I'm sharing below demonstrates that they really don't care about you or your business. They'll just respond with a fake nice tone and tell you to go kick rocks.

Me:
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Hi there,

Thanks for welcoming me as a Plus member.

I have a request. I did not realize that the first $25 coupon would be issued immediately. Therefore, I purchased three different products today totaling aroun $400; it seems it would have been better to wait for the coupon and purchase another of the products today using the coupon.

Am I able to have the value of my $25 coupon refunded from today's purchase; alternatively, am I able to return one of the products and then purchase it again using the coupon?

Thanks for your help.

Them:
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Hey,

Thanks for writing to our Support team!

Please know that coupons must be added to your cart prior to completing the checkout process in order for them to be applied to your order. Unfortunately, we're unable to retroactively apply coupons or provide coupon equivalent discounts to completed purchases.

We appreciate your understanding! Let me know if there's anything else we can do for you and I'll be glad to assist.

All the best,

Me:
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Ick. This strikes me as such greedy behavior toward a years-long loyal customer. I've gone ahead and refunded those ~$370 of recent purchases and I will certainly be reluctant to use or recommend you guys any more in the future. I care more about great customer service than getting any deal on software. I appreciate your understanding.

Them:
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Hi Sumo-ling,

Thanks for writing back in!

We appreciate your feedback on this. We make a lot of changes and improvements based on feedback from Sumo-lings like you, so we really appreciate you taking the time to share.

Again, we're so sorry for inconvenience. If I can assist with anything further, please let me know!

All the best,

whanks to exist appsumo, you make miracles for the b2b busienss, thanks!

A huge percentage of the "deals" on Appsumo.com are half-baked or incomplete products that later change direction and do not deliver on the sales promise. Purchasing "Plus" to get a discount on an overpriced or incomplete app and an extended return window is not worthwhile—smarter to just not buy any app on Appsumo that is not well-established, because the sellers do not abide by their own terms (for example: I purchased VelocityPage Unlimited, only for VelocityPage to tell me it was limited and required annual renewal, which was not correct), and Appsumo or Sumo Group do not stand behind the products they sell. So why give them more money to save on poor products? It makes no sense. Learned this the hard way after it happened to me; Appsumo disabled my Plus membership and refused to refund it too, and Appsumo's response was simply, "Sorry, too bad you misunderstood." Well, I understand now, Appsumo is dishonest and Plus is a ripoff. No amount of tacos could make these people better. It is sad to see the once humble founder now represent a company that behaves so poorly.

I just read the following review https://appsumo.com/products/plus-2019/reviews/first-year-and-last-year-345202/

AppSumo gave this person a "one-time courtesy" re-issuance of their $25 coupon after the person refunded a product.

When I asked for this same "one-time courtesy," I was flat-out refused. Not only was I refused via AppSumo chat, I was again refused in an email from a whole different person who replied to my chat transcript.

And, this is not the first time it appears that AppSumo has a double standard position on things where someone else has been given an opportunity that I have been flat-out refused.

My Plus membership renewed today, which is the only reason I even came to read why there were so many low reviews.

I said the following in my email to support, and I'll say it here: "It seems unfair that AppSumo would give us a $25 coupon as an incentive for becoming Plus members and then not re-issue that incentive at least once when we use our benefit of 60-day returns. It's like AppSumo is saying to us, "If you use this incentive, then make sure you don't use your benefit because you'll lose your incentive. Either keep the lousy/defective product, or you'll lose your incentive by taking advantage of your benefit, and you can't use your incentive on another product you'd like to keep."

I've already saved the amount of the yearly plan with the extra 10% off, and gotten a bunch of freebies that have made my business that much easier to run! I just started hitting the walls where the free-service options were limiting me, and AppSumo showed up just at the right time when I needed it most. I grew up on freeware and shareware--this subscription culture just makes me mad. I'm loving the opportunity to support smaller businesses like mine as we grow up together! And the 60-day risk-free option means I'm less nervous to try something new. Thanks so much AppSumo!