u/Affectionate_Power99

I just wanted to try Opal. I started their 3-day Pro trial directly from their website on my Mac. Entered my card, subscribed, done. Super easy.

Then I tried to actually access what I had just paid for.

The website showed an “Open App & Redeem” button. I clicked it on my Mac. Nothing happened.

At this point, they had my card and a subscription that would automatically charge me in 3 days, but I had no properly connected account and no obvious place to manage or cancel it.

Thank FUCK I hadn’t closed the original browser tab.

Here’s what I eventually had to do:

1. Inspect/copy the redemption URL from my Mac
2. Send it to my iPhone
3. Download the Opal app
4. Create an account on my phone
5. Open the redemption URL manually on my phone
6. Finally get the subscription connected to my account
7. Contact their AI support to figure out how to cancel
8. Get sent to a Stripe customer portal
9. Discover there was NO cancellation option there
10. Ask the AI again
11. Get a completely different RevenueCat link
12. Finally cancel the subscription

It took me roughly 30 fucking minutes to cancel a trial that took seconds to start.

And I’m very comfortable with tech. What the fuck is a normal person supposed to do here?

If I had simply closed that original browser tab after subscribing, I genuinely don’t know how I would have found my way through this mess before the trial renewed.

Maybe this is just an unbelievably broken subscription flow. Maybe making cancellation this difficult happens to be great for conversions. Either way, this is exactly the kind of hostile UX that deserves to be called out.

Making the Subscribe button effortless while turning Cancel into a fucking treasure hunt across two devices, an AI chatbot, Stripe and RevenueCat is asshole design.

https://preview.redd.it/kf914u2ie3kh1.png?width=1198&format=png&auto=webp&s=05eca9f21a5f36bc2f10854390f67da5c05c910a

I don’t usually make posts like this because I don’t like speaking negatively about other products.

But I’m seriously considering moving from Polar to Stripe, and I’d love to hear from people who have been in a similar situation.

The funny thing is that most migrations seem to go the other way. People move from Stripe to Polar because the Merchant of Record model removes a lot of headaches around taxes and compliance. That’s one of the main reasons I chose Polar in the first place.

The issue is that over the last few weeks I’ve had multiple customers tell me they couldn’t complete their purchase because they were getting errors during checkout.

I’m using Polar’s hosted checkout, so there isn’t much I can investigate or fix on my side. I’ve already contacted support and I’m waiting to hear back.

Maybe this is just bad luck with my account. I honestly don’t know.

But once a customer tells you they couldn’t pay, it’s hard not to wonder how many other people simply closed the tab without ever sending you a message.

That alone makes me question whether I want to keep building on top of it.

So I’m curious:

• Has anyone else experienced checkout issues with Polar?
• And if you moved to Stripe, how painful was the migration, especially for existing subscriptions?

I’d really appreciate hearing about real experiences before I make a decision.

https://preview.redd.it/zvn1p7asm4gh1.png?width=1254&format=png&auto=webp&s=d634560a2eb68c1edb3073c13e5acade583bd07b

hey 👋

i launched my saas at the beginning of the year and it's actually going pretty well so far

the only downside is... i've been working from home every single day, and it's starting to feel a bit lonely 😅

i'd love to meet other founders, indie hackers or self employed people around copenhagen. maybe work together from time to time, grab a coffee, exchange ideas, whatever.

does anyone know any cool coworking spaces where people actually talk to each other? or maybe any communities/events you'd recommend?

thanks! :)

hey 👋

i launched my saas at the beginning of the year and it's actually going pretty well so far

the only downside is... i've been working from home every single day, and it's starting to feel a bit lonely 😅

i'd love to meet other founders, indie hackers or self employed people around copenhagen. maybe work together from time to time, grab a coffee, exchange ideas, whatever.

does anyone know any cool coworking spaces where people actually talk to each other? or maybe any communities/events you'd recommend?

thanks! :)