Bluecruise 1.4 officially being sent out to F150 & Lightnings starting today (12/11/24)!

[TaxmanHog]

If it's a bait to auto renewal of subscription, an ethical company should send a reminder ~30 days prior to let us opt-out or select an appropriate membership billing method yearly or monthly before anything happens.

I'll calendar it, who doesn't celebrate the anniversary of their vehicle acquisitions ?!?

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[PrimeRisk]

I'll give Ford props for the extra year, but do we really have to go through a simulated purchase to get it. They can't fun a quick sql update query and just do it on the back end for us. Any intern can do that for them.

A few possibilities:

1) It's a carrot to get us enrolled in automatic renewal. Most people are lazy and over a year from now will forget that they've provided a credit card number and will automatically renew. If they just tacked on the extra year and sent you an e-mail then they wouldn't be able to capture your billing information.

2) They need to show subscriber conversion numbers following the end of the trial growing, not falling off of a cliff. Those getting this offer aren't getting an extension of the trial, they are subscribing for $0. It doesn't generate revenue, but it allows them to report larger successful conversion numbers. Anyone who signed up for this free extension is now a signed-up subscriber in the record books. Just extending your trial via a script does not make you a subscriber.

3) They screwed up and only intended to offer this to a subset of owners like those that have actually paid for the subscription before the price drop and this is something they'd offer if they complained. Let's face it, some people just think BlueCruise is the best thing on the planet and why give them a freebie if they're willing to pay without it?

#1 is likely the value proposition that internally got them to give away the free year. Just like other software, they give away a free or very reduced price first year so they can capture your billing information. They know that a significant percentage of people will forget about it and then get billed for the renewal before they realize it. Often companies will bill early for the renewal, thus forcing you to go through the hassle of contacting them before the actual end to get your money back in you intend to cancel before the trial is up. Most simply won't.

Apple TV did this to me over the holidays. I signed up for a 3-month free trial on a Black Friday deal. I should still be over a week away from the end of the free trial, but they tried to hit my credit card 2 weeks ago. Bummer for them, I used a Virtual Account Number from my credit card company that wouldn't allow them to charge me.

Good for Ford, at least they're trying to do something other than spend money on advertising trying to convince people that BlueCruise is the best hands-free driving software out there.