A question for discussion and comment, feel free to pile in!
We recently clocked over a year using Bubble and as a product I love it. We have built an enterprise level MVP and now have a large beta customer and have 2 more coming online soon. We are still on a professional plan and will consider a dedicated in the new year.
We were recently billed for annual by bubble which in $AU was about $1300 which is still darn good for a year at the current stage of the company.
This is not my first rodeo so I am pretty happy with the way things are going. That is until I recently reached out to support to make a complaint about billing and I was reminded who was actually in control of my application.
My beef is the way Bubble charges for plugins and it’s support response does not in anyway instil confidence that as a customer my application is in safe hands!
Let me begin by saying when I signed up for a plugin there was a lack of communication about how annual plans were charged for plugins, but this was sorted once I went out to the community and contacted bubble last year when the response I received was a little warmer!
So this is how it works, when charged for plugins on an annual account based on my experience and there way I was charged:
You sign-up for a plugin and you are on an annual account you get charged for it on the anniversary of your sign-up, not at the time you signed up for the plugin, but when the bubble plugin falls due. So if you are a plugin builder don’t book that holiday just yet because if I subscribe to your plugin I wont be charged until next year when the anniversary falls due. 
Now if the plugin builder offers a one off fee - which I assumed was an annual fee - you wont be charged that you will be charged the monthly fee x 12 - how does that work you ask, well that was what I wanted to know! I was more than pissed so I unsubscribed to the plugin, sorry @levon it was the CSV download - it wasn’t the plugin, but the way bubble took the money and the response I got from support. I wanted to know whey I was paying $84 and not the one off $25. - big difference right! How does that work?
Well the response I got from Bubble support was sharp - like being slap in the face with a rolled up contract followed by a “you moron!”. If we responded to customers like that I would be out of business quick sharp!
So what was the response? I was reminded that when selecting the plugin it says that you will be charged for annual and you will be prorata if you cancel and it was done by giving me a screen shot of what I selected many moons ago - yes if it is annual it would have been last year - so make sure you take a screen shot so you don’t forget.
When cancelling the subscription I did not receive a notice or refund receipt, so based on the way I have been billed I probably wont see the refund or receipt until the same time next year 
So how does the one time fee work - well based on the response I got - not a clue. Maybe a plugin seller could enlighten me.
Now, being a glass half full kind of guy, how would you handle this you might ask? Good question!
Here is a basic billing protocol and lets see if we can’t help Bubble improve the way billing support is managed. It maybe also something us as app providers can apply to our own products.
When you have customers on an annual contract, consider that this customer’s life time value is going to be between 3 and 5 years (you want more of them).
- When responding to a complaint don’t start the email response with “See attached screen shot” (I added the “You Moron” bit previously but it seemed fitting based on the response).
- Before the annual billing cycle send out a reminder to the customer telling them what they will be charged for and how it will be charged and any changes that have occurred since last year.
- Remind the customer of the terms of subscription and if changes have been made, such as the introductive of a one-time fee let them know how this works and give them the option to unsubscribe and choosing this, or just bill the one time fee if it is based on an annual billing cycle (is it? I have no idea!)
- And most importantly when responding to a complaint start by empathising with the customer, this can be done simply by acknowledging the complaint - if you have zero empathy then you can pretend by just repeating back the complain in a simplified form.
And end with “thank you” or “kind regards” , or just regards not “Best” because I am not your “Best” and certainly don’t feel like it when being asked to look at your screen shot.
I hope we all learn something from this and I hope bubble do too!
Thank you.
Steven
) Subscription works better I guess for those who are on monthly payment with Bubble and who are not sure if their app would be a success or if they will keep paying for the plugin and subscription after couple of months.