Cloud Computing

Canceling a SQL Azure Account

or…not…

I wanted to cancel my account before I got hit up for “hidden charges” or something ridonkulous like that and could not find any way to cancel my subscription short of calling someone on the phone which could be my least favorite thing to do.

From what I could tell, I should be allowed to “opt-out” of an automatic renewal, except I don’t appear to have that option. I am wondering if I am simply not getting a proper user experience because I am part of some trial program, but it is rather annoying to not be able to simply click a button and say “stop charging me at the end of this month”.

As of right now I owe $1.06 for usage charges over the past month. I would be fine with that except for the fact that I was under the impression I was not going to be charged anything at all during my trial period. I find it hard to believe that Microsoft needs my $1.06 that badly but apparently they do. And they also need it again next month, so that may be why they won’t let me cancel my account so easily.

I suppose I could just drop the server I am using, essentially ending any chance of them charging me for SQL Azure altogether, but something tells me they would find a way to keep billing my credit card. So instead I will just open a new credit card, change my billing information to use the new card, and then just cancel the card.

That should take care of them trying to charge me for a trial service they don’t want me to cancel easily. And yeah, I understand that opening the card and closing it is a lot more effort than just calling someone at Azure support, but I am annoyed to the point that I would go out of my way to circumvent the “process” they have configured.

© 2010 SQLRockstar.