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Bad news and beware of Picarto
a year ago
Hi everybody,
Bad news and I'm making this public to warn you. I've posted this same message on my patreon and you can find a twitter post I made here, feel free to share it just in case: https://x.com/XssArtist/status/1803189832232964242
Basically Picarto doesn't allow you to cancel a premium membership once you take one. I know it could be a bug, a simple hiccup that will be solved in two days, but after checking online I'm not the only one. When other users are in the same situation, hear nothing back from Picarto, and when something as basic as a "unsubscribe" button can't be implemented, it looks less and less like a hiccup or a bug.
It's poor business practice at best, malice at worst. I feel betrayed since I trusted Picarto and have been using that platform for a year.
"But Xss, it's just 15 euros". Yeah, so? Imagine they change their TOS tomorrow and it becomes 20 or more. Just like when your subscription services raise their prices yearly. Now imagine you can't unsubscribe become of some legal loophole. :/
The reason I tried to cancel my Picarto premium membership is because the private streams are not being successful: basically no patrons showed up to them in the last two months. It could be because of time conflict for the patrons who selected that tier, but since no one contacted me with their schedule I figured people selected that tier for the alts.
I feel bad streaming when no one is watching: it's taxing on my computers, on online servers, it's quite a carbon footprint for nothing. I'm taking a break from fetish art next month anyway, and I'll figure out what to do with that tier since it is now a bit expensive for just some alts.
That's when I realized I couldn't cancel my membership.
Basically what happened is: I took a monthly subscription with my debit card, then due to a bug or simply malice Picarto shows the subscription on my account is going through my paypal, so it's impossible to cancel...Which is not the case since I never gave them my paypal info. What I suppose happened (I can't be certain) is that when I selected to pay for the membership on Picarto, I was taken to a paypal page where I paid with my debit card.
Now every month I am charged to Picarto's paypal directly from my bank account.
After checking online for some answers, I realized I am not the only one being affected by that: other users can't cancel their Picarto membership, even after contacting the help desk.
I obviously sent them a message, but I don't know when they'll answer, nor if they'll help: I'm certain I'll receive a bot answer telling me that "to unsubscribe with paypal do this this and this".
My only option for the time being has been to contact my bank and request them to block the payments, which is not ideal since who knows what the legal ramifications of all of this will be.
Needless to say I am not happy and I've lost a lot of trust in Picarto: those type of practices are very fishy and borderline fraudulent.
As a result I'll no longer be using their services until this is fully resolved, even for free streams, and I doubt I'll ever subscribe to their premium offer ever again. I might be a rash decision, but I'm not putting my trust on a platform that doesn't allow some users to easily unsubscribe and keep charging them.
Obviously if this is promptly solved without any issues I'll let you know ASAP, but in the time being be wary about Picarto and know what you're getting into if you take a subscription to do private streams.
That means that even if there's suddenly an interest for private streams, I'll have to find an alternative place to stream. I'm really sorry. :(
Bad news and I'm making this public to warn you. I've posted this same message on my patreon and you can find a twitter post I made here, feel free to share it just in case: https://x.com/XssArtist/status/1803189832232964242
Basically Picarto doesn't allow you to cancel a premium membership once you take one. I know it could be a bug, a simple hiccup that will be solved in two days, but after checking online I'm not the only one. When other users are in the same situation, hear nothing back from Picarto, and when something as basic as a "unsubscribe" button can't be implemented, it looks less and less like a hiccup or a bug.
It's poor business practice at best, malice at worst. I feel betrayed since I trusted Picarto and have been using that platform for a year.
"But Xss, it's just 15 euros". Yeah, so? Imagine they change their TOS tomorrow and it becomes 20 or more. Just like when your subscription services raise their prices yearly. Now imagine you can't unsubscribe become of some legal loophole. :/
The reason I tried to cancel my Picarto premium membership is because the private streams are not being successful: basically no patrons showed up to them in the last two months. It could be because of time conflict for the patrons who selected that tier, but since no one contacted me with their schedule I figured people selected that tier for the alts.
I feel bad streaming when no one is watching: it's taxing on my computers, on online servers, it's quite a carbon footprint for nothing. I'm taking a break from fetish art next month anyway, and I'll figure out what to do with that tier since it is now a bit expensive for just some alts.
That's when I realized I couldn't cancel my membership.
Basically what happened is: I took a monthly subscription with my debit card, then due to a bug or simply malice Picarto shows the subscription on my account is going through my paypal, so it's impossible to cancel...Which is not the case since I never gave them my paypal info. What I suppose happened (I can't be certain) is that when I selected to pay for the membership on Picarto, I was taken to a paypal page where I paid with my debit card.
Now every month I am charged to Picarto's paypal directly from my bank account.
After checking online for some answers, I realized I am not the only one being affected by that: other users can't cancel their Picarto membership, even after contacting the help desk.
I obviously sent them a message, but I don't know when they'll answer, nor if they'll help: I'm certain I'll receive a bot answer telling me that "to unsubscribe with paypal do this this and this".
My only option for the time being has been to contact my bank and request them to block the payments, which is not ideal since who knows what the legal ramifications of all of this will be.
Needless to say I am not happy and I've lost a lot of trust in Picarto: those type of practices are very fishy and borderline fraudulent.
As a result I'll no longer be using their services until this is fully resolved, even for free streams, and I doubt I'll ever subscribe to their premium offer ever again. I might be a rash decision, but I'm not putting my trust on a platform that doesn't allow some users to easily unsubscribe and keep charging them.
Obviously if this is promptly solved without any issues I'll let you know ASAP, but in the time being be wary about Picarto and know what you're getting into if you take a subscription to do private streams.
That means that even if there's suddenly an interest for private streams, I'll have to find an alternative place to stream. I'm really sorry. :(
Thanks for the warning!
Un truc aussi simple que cela he bien non, le bouton est la pendant le mremier moi pui il disparaît et ne reviens plus...
Heureusement il y a des lois que ces commerciaux sans scrupule ne peuvent pas ignorer, ils sont dans l'obligation de te rapeler que ton abonnement sera renouvelé 1 moi avant la date butoire pour un paiment annuel.
Grâce à cela le bouton est mystérieuxselent "réapparu" dans le mail de rappel...
En revanche en ce qui te concerne c'est clairement différent vu qu'il s'agit d'un mensuel....malheureusement sans solutions proposée par Picarto lui-même l'opposition au prélèvement semble le seul moyen de "forcer" l'arrêt de ton abo.
En revanche du côté lois et legalité c'est vrais qu'ils seraient capable de saisir un huissier de justice pour récupérer leur due.
Cependant il y a une solution, tu peut envoyé une lettre recommandée afin de saisir un médiateur du commerce et dans ce cas obligé "légalement" Picarto à faire cesser ton abonement.
Regarde au niveau des lois pour les abonement/achat en ligne il y a un médiateur pour chaques "situation" et la manière de les saisir.
En tout cas crois moi je suis déjà passé par des médiateurs et jusqu'à présent j'ai toujours gagné, sa leur fait peur car il peuvent avoir des problèmes de légalité si ils ne respectent pas la décision prise par ces derniers.
C'est le dernier recour en cas de problème avec un commercial aussi bien en ligne que physiquement, c'est très annuyeux car il ya plusieurs papiers à faire (surtout des lettres recommandée avec accusé de réception).
En revanche je te garentie qu'une fois le médiateur saisie tu as toutes tes chances en tant que client et victime !
En espérant voir ton problème résolu sous peut et dans sa totalité >÷< !
(Dsl pour les fautes, dur d'écrire depuis un tel XwX..)
J'ai parlé avec ma banque, et la seule solution serait de désactiver ma carte et d'en commander une nouvelle, donc une semaine sans carte c'est légèrement embêtant...Mais comme tu dis, rien n'empêche les autres de m'envoyer leurs huissiers/avocats internationaux.
Bref, affaire à suivre...
Enfin si la solution de faire opposition /bloqué la carte est suffisante pour arranger la situation une semaine ce n'est pas cher payé plutôt que de payer un abonement dont tu ne veut plus.
Et dans le pire des scénarios ils auront juste à désactiver tes fonctions et avantages "prenium" ainsi tu ne sera plus légalement obligé de les payer.
Bref bon courage et en espérant que tu puisse te sortir de cet engambi (expression du sud, si tu veut connaître la signification regarde sur le net il y a un spécialiste qui expli toutes nos expressions bizarre qu'ont utilise chez nous XD...)
Mouais, j'ai l'impression que Picarto ne fera rien : ils conserveront mes avantages premiums et soudainement deviendront très réactifs quand ils ne seront plus payés. Je peux toujours désactiver mon compte chez eux, mais en théorie il reste "actif" durant 6 mois.