It’s odd to me that so many businesses behave as they do. Instead of spending their time making you want to stay with them, they spend their time trying to prevent you from leaving. It’s the difference between that company taking your money from you versus them earning your money.
- Some gyms require an initiation fee so that you’re hesitant to cancel your membership if you stop going for a month or two.
- Some software uses proprietary formats simply for the sake of locking you into their software.
- Some cell phone companies are built around requiring you to sign asterisk-riddled multi-year contracts.
One of the questions I received frequently this afternoon in a public chat about the issue tracker was about the ownership of data in our application. Our stance is simple. If anyone signs up with us, we have a responsibility to enable you to leave our service with as little effort as possible on your part. In fact, if it’s possible, I’d like to provide the tools to help you switch services.
Now, we might not be able to cover every import/export option right off the bat, but I guarantee you that we’ll do our best. Leaving our service should be up to you, not us. It’s only fair. If you signup and use our service, and then you decide there’s a better option for you, then we need to either accept that we can’t meet your needs and let you go, or we need to bust our ass to satisfy those needs.
This might be a little bit idealistic, but in my mind, it’s really just about doing what’s right. I only wish more companies felt this way.