This year I took the plunge and went for the plus yearly plan as the value proposition seemed quite good. Like many other users here, I agree that the $25 voucher usage window is way too short.

I recently forked out a few hundred $'s for an AI chatbot product and used one of my quarterly vouchers, being polite the software was nowhere near production ready, so I asked for a refund. I then had to email the AppSumo team to ask them to reinstate the coupon too, while they objected mildly they did so as a “One time courtesy”.

I then spent another couple of hundred dollars and wasted way too many hours trying to get yet another support bot solution to do what the vendor advertised. This not only had the most confusing UI I have ever seen (advertised as easy to set up), but after finally figuring out the UI and managing to train the bot, it was hallucinating and giving out incorrect pricing for our services. Information that had clearly been provided. Again I refunded. Again I asked for the coupon back, as neither of these problems were caused by me, but by software that did not do what it claimed. This time, AppSumo flat refused to reinstate the coupon. Bearing in mind these are not free coupons, they are part of the value of a paid for membership package.

Result: I lose 25% of the value proposition of this plus yearly plan because the products were either not fully production ready, underdeveloped, badly supported or faulty.

Like other users, I too have had auto refunds turned off. The fact that AppSumo even has that restriction suggests they receive a LOT of refund requests. Perhaps instead of looking at this as us your clients “Abusing” the refund system, you should be looking at the “Why” so many refunds are asked for.

Most of us are website owners or web agencies, looking for production ready, working solutions, not start up investors looking to take a risk and prepared to wait out another 12 - 24 months of dev time and bug fixes. It is us AppSumo clients having our valuable time wasted, when products are not production ready. Adding an extra barrier to refund does not help when there are no free trials available for business evaluation. I do not appreciate having to send “Please sir, can I have my money back?” emails because an advertised product does not work as it should or has slow or poor support.

Even after two bad experiences on the trot, I continued to support AppSumo and was prepared to make a THIRD attempt to get my support bot by purchasing a tier 4 deal with “Support Board”. I was just waiting for the coupon to be re-issued. After Appsomo refused, it was time to re-evaluate the relationship here. It boils down to this, I don't even feel like a valued customer, never mind a premium member.

I have decided to not only discontinue the $99 a year plus membership, but not to go ahead with the $270 tier 4 deal either. I will instead just hunt the web for a solution that actually works.

Way to go AppSumo support team, you saved $25 and lost $369

The bare business facts here are: I am a client of yours with a challenge I need to be solved with the right software, not a scammer trying to cheat you, which is how you made me feel.

I also took the time to look at my history with AppSumo over the last 7 years, it is as follows:

Purchased really useful deals for which I am truly thankful: 68
Refunded deals that were not fit for purpose or did not match their promises: 66

I think some more thorough vetting of vendor products might be required.

OR

Dare I suggest these companies actually offer AppSumo members trials so we can all save some time, messing around and establish the product truly fits our needs before we buy.

Sadly, my gut feeling is AppSumo these days are a little more interested in their bottom line than me as a loyal customer of over 7 years.