The Microsoft 365 renewal dance: uncovering deceptive patterns | by Heenesh Patel | Apr, 2025

Lessons from Microsoft 365 aggressive subscription renewal plans

I received an email a few weeks ago to renew Microsoft 365 family subscriptions that said it would automatically renew, one thing that failed to mention was that the new price was 30 % higher than last year.

Still during these inflation, it feels like a ridiculous heavy price collision, considering that in 2024 Microsoft had net income of net income of $ 88b (negative costs, interest and tax) of $ 88b There is an increase in 2023 to 22 %. If you are thinking that perhaps Office 365 sales was not very good at 2024 – well they had seen 11 % N growth is driven By Office 365. Recently. , Microsoft is working beautiful, very well, so why bump? Well, it seems that they want subscribers to adopt their embedded coat AI and aggressively pushing it forward with their new and renewal subscriptions.

After reading this first email, I went to my Microsoft Account Management Area to find out if my current 365 family could find a renewal option, without any co -coil, I got no one. Microsoft’s website only showed a new 365 family plan With Copilot. At this point it felt as if they had pulled the carpet from under me. I have been well subscribed for a decade and use their apps and cloud storage, I was formally tied to their platform and they were tactful to remove more from me.

I did not have bandwidth to migrate the data from my family and 365 platforms so I resigned to pay more fees despite much angry and noted that the next twelve months to find alternative office suite and cloud storage providers.

About Eight Eight hours I received One more Email, saying that my subscription has changed the price.

I rejected this email because I had already come to the conclusion that I was somewhat stuck with Microsoft 365 in the next twelve months.

The fraud samples were exposed

Due to my renewal, a few days ago, a friend told me that there was a way to maintain the original 365 family plan without a co -coproat. It is only available to existing users who try to cancel their membership, the location at which they are presented with this cheap renewal project.

Now this option is very hidden, it does not mean that you are not canceled and click on this cancel button. Now I never thought as an option, because I had no intention of clicking on a button that was at risk from losing all the data in the cloud to turn into a different project.

After re -examining these original emails, I noticed that the second email is a link to a support article that describes your two main options and added to a small fit note style, mentioning that there is a way to make a plan without Copylot. But of course you have to follow another link to ‘more information’ about how to eliminate the final steps in this dance.

So I can finally renew without the pilot’s feature, but Microsoft somehow some of the most beautiful fraud samples of hiding and renovating this renewal option from its existing users.

Let’s take a quick review of the methods deployed in this fraud manner,

1. Misleading email messaging
   Email messaging leaves information to users just to offer the options they offer.
2. Lack of transparency on renewal options
   Were current users Not clearly Shown or told All By email or on the platform their renewal options.
3. Hidden renewed instructions
   Directed to maintain the current project is deeply embedded in support articles.
4. Hidden User Control
   The action is hidden behind the cancellation button to maintain the current project.

It seems that Microsoft is betting on consumer connectivity to raise fees and sell to consumers, for which they have not really signed up and hope they will swallow the bitter pill. I expected more than Microsoft, which has also developed a solid design system (flow) as well as Even the design included in their new product packaging made the champion. Then he hit me that I had seen this behavior even before …

Xbox Shuffle

If you have an Xbox you will be familiar with it Xbox Game PassA subscription service to access the sports net flix styling library, as well as it comes in a series of different core, standard or ultimatis and you pay a monthly subscription fee of access to the platform.

Now you breathe this section, a feature of the gamepass where if you pay for several months using gift card codes at cheap levels, you can change them to a slightly less month and save them on overall subscriptions during the period. In short, if I buy 3 months of cheap (core) level, I can only change it to more than 2 months (ultimat) and save the monthly payment for advanced (if you are inclined here. Explanation on Game Pass conversion; And Official article about Game Pass conversion,

I have done many times to renew my subscription and this is quite a dance – to make sure you buy the code for the right region, so that you can add them to your account and finally change them. This is a game for yourself.

Microsoft Subscriber is nothing new to take advantage of, in 2022 he was forced to change the auto renewal of Xbox subscriptions in the UK because it is a matter of concern that many users were receiving the services they were not using. (Source, Reuters:Microsoft agrees to change the Xbox Auto Renewal methods in the UKJes

Designing system for trust

In each of these instances, the methods of employing me felt a sense of confidence with Microsoft. I was not the only user I felt as an exploitation and fraud, in the view of the organization I was just a revenue that was extracted more and more.

This type of methods sow the distrust through their nature, as they are Intentionally Designed To mislead, when consumers expose them, they are not easily forgiven as if a poor outdated UI can be.

Good system hugs design principles that promote TransparencyFor, for, for, for,. Clarification And Empower to gain control of the userThey can promote consumer loyalty and drive advocacy because their roots mean integrity.

I believe that as a design community we need to highlight these fraudulent patterns and objectionable methods, so we can continue to maintain the importance of responsible design in our design discussions.

We can work together to set the principles of better industry that prefer user confidence and give rise to more honest and equal experiences. Since the digital systems are more powerful and control our maximum data, the stake is just getting rise and the moral design cannot take back.