I closed Birdboar’s WP Engine account today. Or at least tried to. I’m only leaving because we now have the expertise to put together a self-managed setup that meets our needs at a fraction of the cost. WP Engine’s platform is solid, the dashboard is useful, and the support is top-notch. They are a fantastic host and seem like a genuinely good company in many ways, so it was disappointing to find out that closing my account would be difficult. I encountered several dark patterns along the way.

No self-help option to close account

To close my account, I could not simply go to my account settings and close it or cancel my plan. I have been able to do this in pretty much all other online accounts I’ve closed, especially in web-dev-related services. With WP Engine, I had to “request cancellation”, which created a billing support ticket. This feels more like trying to cancel a cable subscription. Even downgrading is not a self-help process and requires contacting support.

Additionally, I didn’t hear back from them after 24 hours and had to chat with support to find out what was going on.

30-day notice on cancellation

To be fair, this is clearly stated in their support docs, and I’m sure it’s in the terms I agreed to. But it’s unexpected and unnecessary at best. I can understand requiring advance notice for enterprise clients, but Birdboar is a tiny fish in a huge pond. WP Engine won’t even notice we’re gone. This is simply meant to slow the process.

Unwillingness to share information about prorated refunds

24 hours after submitting my cancellation request, I contacted support via chat to get an update. They told me about the 30-day notice, which meant I would be billed next week for my annual plan, and said I’d get a refund for the prorated amount when my account was ultimately closed.

They said they couldn’t tell me what the refund would be, which was a big red flag, especially considering the other dark patterns I had already encountered. I pressed them for information about how it’s calculated, but they gave me nothing. Obviously, this is not the rep’s fault – they’re simply doing their job – and it’s possible the refund would be fair, but at the very least, the company does not want to be transparent about it.

I’m not saying WP Engine is evil. It’s an excellent platform and I enjoyed using it. It was just really disappointing to see them resort to these shady retention tactics when everything else has been great. Especially because it’s short-sighted. When I have a good experience closing an account, it increases my brand loyalty. But in this case, I thought WP Engine was great… until I tried to leave.