Tidal accidentally charges former customers

After a turbulent 2015, during which it lost key executives and two CEOs and was accused of being too pricey and not as convenient of its main rivals, the high fidelity Tidal music streaming service must have thought that 2016 would be a different story.

After all, this month the Jay-Z fronted, superstars-owned service’s latest CEO (Jeff Toig, former SoundCloud chief business officer) whose arrival came on the back of rising subscribers. Jay-Z’s announced last October that it had hit the 1 million subscribers mark – and 45% of them had opted for the higher $19.95 hi-fi rate.

However in a blow to brand credibility, Tidal has been sprung taking money from former customers who quit after its free trial, and charged them for a service they no longer used or wanted. Hundreds of thousands of customers were reportedly affected.

Unfortunately for Tidal, one of those affected was The Verge journalist Chris Welch. He double-checked that many others had also been affected. He then ran a story complaining that US$19.95 deducted from his credit card without authorisation after cancelling a few months ago.

Tidal sent out a wave of emails offering profuse apologies for the mistake. It’s not only refunded the affected customers their money, but also gave them an extra three months free of its premium $9.95 service … and promised they would not be charged after the trial.

“Your Tidal account is now active, and you can log in with your existing username and password,” the email read.

However the question should be asked: if you want to give those who tried you out and opted for a rival, another three months of trialling your service, wouldn’t you give them the top tier to entice them back to possibly re-signing? Especially when Spotify already has 20 to 25 million subscribers and Apple Music has 10 million of them?

It was obviously an honest mistake. But nevertheless, keep an eye on your credit card or bank statements just in case.