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Bad news and beware of Picarto
🕑 Added 2024-06-18 23:06:53 +0000 UTCHi everybody,
Bad news and I'm making this public to warn you. 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. :(
Comments
Xss
The problem is I've already paid, and I'm afraid I could get stuck in limbo with no possibility to cancel. :/
L. Bear
It's terrible to see that they've done such a nasty movement... Because it's hard to think this is just a bug if they're not replying anything to people. Sorry to know you will stop using their services, but in a way I feel it's better than just be a potential victim of fraudulent behaviour.
