My grievances with Proton

banana:

Some of the things they offer, are only offered under the condition that you remain a paying customer – even things that are expected to be long-term foundations to online identity, like aliases.

For example, if you have gratuitously used your @pm.me or your aliases to sign up on various important websites, then if you decide to downgrade your plan to the Free plan, your aliases will be deactivated until you become a paying customer again. Which is to say that Proton will essentially hold your online accounts for a ransom, from my perspective.

I didn’t think this is where you would be going. Unfortunately, whichever alias provider you choose, it will be the same. At best, you may find an alias provider who gives you a week grace period after your subscription fails to be renewed, but as far as I know, that doesn’t exist.

TAKING AWAY PROTON ANNIVERSARY GIFT IS DISAPPOINTING

With that being said, there is one thing Proton takes away if you end your subscription, which to me is disappointing, and that is the extra storage they give you every year as a gift for being a paying subscriber.

Every year, Proton Mail Plus and Proton Unlimited subscribers get at least 1 GB of extra storage on their subscription anniversary as a thank-you gift for being a paying subscriber. That is how it is marketed.

However, I asked Proton if I would get to keep that extra storage if I cancelled my subscription, and they said no. They would take it back. To me that is very lame. It’s not really a gift if they can take it back. Plus, it’s not like having that extra storage with all the other premium features gone would not still be very limiting.

Suppose I have been a paying user for 10 years and got 10 GB extra over that period. If I cancel my subscription, I lose those 10 GB, but if I resubscribe within a month, do I get it back? NOPE!