You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I downloaded the Strava app onto my phone a while ago but I'm not interested and have never used it. I've just found out from my bank statement that they've started a subscription for me and taken £48 out of my account. I'm now pulling my hair out trying to get this money back. As soon as I try it tells me I'm not authorised to view the page I need. Is there a simple way (i.e phone number) so I can actually talk to a real person, or am I stuck with something I don't need, didn't authorise and can't afford?
You could try tweeting @stravasupport they might get back to you there.
How did Strava get your payment details if you didn't give them to them? (Free accounts are possible) That would have authorised them to take payment... so you may be reliant on goodwill to get your money back.
As above they can’t take money from you unless you agreed.
Good PSA though £48 for Strava is a bit steep, I do t think I will be renewing again at that price !
Payment details would have come from the app store on the phone.
Doesn't help get the money back but the most likely reason is that you clicked something. E.g. a trial.
You'll never get it back. Strava customer support involves raising a ticket to which they will not respond. As far as I'm aware you can't call them.
I accidentally used the @gmail instead of @googlemail version of my email to log in once - my usual password let me in to an account for someone that wasn't me, using what was effectively a different email address. Strava never got back to me about it.
Apple have a page for reclaiming any App Store purchase or subscription. I used it when I accidentally let Disney+ go past the free trial period.
Good PSA though £48 for Strava is a bit steep, I do t think I will be renewing again at that price !
How much are you willing to pay?
How much are you willing to pay?
Everything should be free right 🙄.
Premier Icon
nixie
Full MemberPayment details would have come from the app store on the phone.
Doesn’t help get the money back but the most likely reason is that you clicked something. E.g. a trial.
Yeah sounds like he’s gone for the Premium trail on top of just using a free account
Just had a mild panic thought I'd accidentally triggered another unwanted year of totally pointless functions 😂
If its any consolation OP your misfortune has saved me a wedge.
How much are you willing to pay?
About £25
The premium features are not great, the relative fitness thing is no rocket science and quite frankly very inaccurate, the estimated power is just crackers.
I’m struggling after paying for over 1yr to see what it’s actually giving me
I was double charged earlier this year, two payments, one through apple and another on my card.
I did manage to get my money back (well, half of it) but as mentioned above the process to do so is deliberately opaque and long winded.
I raised a ticket with them, generating a ticket number, and then waited…and waited…and waited some more.
Eventually came to messaging on social media (twitter and facebook) to get a response.
Had to send copies of my bank statements showing the double payment, and after a bit more waiting they did refund the excess.
And no, you cant ring them!
HTH
How much are you willing to pay?
I'd likely pay a bit for the Routing, not too bothered about Segments, Beacon or the Fitness stuff as I'm either not interested or have other programs/subscriptions for that stuff. A one-size-fits-all pricing model often loses out in this way.
You’ll never get it back. Strava customer support involves raising a ticket to which they will not respond.
I've found they've been okay at responding.
When they mischarged me earlier in the year, getting it refunded was fairly straightforward.
How much are you willing to pay?
I would pay about £5 a year for the features I want which are mostly just being able to see my own data! (historical timings)
I got my money back when I missed cancelling before the renewal, I emailed their customer services about it - or maybe raised a ticket via the website (can't remember).
Mentioned that I'd just lost my job (which was semi-true), and that might have helped sway them.
I would pay about £5 a year for the features I want which are mostly just being able to see my own data! (historical timings)
Twice that gets you VeloViewer which would give you what you want (and more).
Sorry OP - but like others, you have reminded me to cancel mine as after a year of paying I am not sure what I'm getting from it! Routing and fitness stuff covered by OS maps, Komoot and Garmin. Like Kerley I would happily pay £5 to get my historical data though.
I accidentally used the @gmail instead of @googlemail version of my email to log in once – my usual password let me in to an account for someone that wasn’t me, using what was effectively a different email address.
That's really odd. Although I understand that Strava would see them as different addresses, Google regard @gmail and @googlemail as equivalent (I can use either with my address) so I can't see how anyone else could have the @googlemail version of yours. Are you sure you didn't have an old Strava account with the same password and @googlemail address?
Twice that gets you VeloViewer which would give you what you want (and more).
All I'm really interested in is my heartrate zones data, has really helped me not overdo it on longer rides and also help me with regards my arrhythmic heartbeat (if it's playing up I struggle to hit 150bpm+ on efforts). Had both Strava Premium and Veloviewer Pro to see what was best and Veloviewer won so cancelled the Strava package (at the time they still had 3 options) that did heart rate but then Veloviewer couldn't pull the data across from Strava anymore! Veloviewer flagged up that I needed a Strava sub to let them pull the heartrate data across so I've gone back to Strava and dropped Veloviewer. Annoying but not the end of the world as for just under £4 per month it's worth it for me.
As soon as I try it tells me I’m not authorised to view the page I need. Is there a simple way (i.e phone number) so I can actually talk to a real person, or am I stuck with something I don’t need, didn’t authorise and can’t afford?
If that is all true then surely you should be contacting the bank because your account has been compromised. It seems extremely unlikely to me that Strava got hold of your banking information from the app store / play store and opened an account in your name without any reference to you.
On the other hand, if you have let a trial period expire then follow the suggestions above and / or chalk it up as a reminder to keep on top of your finances.
Twice that gets you VeloViewer which would give you what you want (and more).
Two things
1. I said I would pay £5 not £10
2. I want to see my data from the last 8 years that was recorded on Strava (when it was free to see it all)
Twice that gets you VeloViewer which would give you what you want (and more).
Another vote for VeloViewer combined with free Strava . Much better for looking at your previous rides/segments than Strava.
The main thing you'll miss out on is leaderboards and data associated with leaderboards, which is why I'm still a Strava Premium subscriber, but as long as you don't care about that, it's really really good.
Re: the original post. Why is it I'm legally obligated to have a contact telephone number on my tiny online shop and loads of these massive companies get away without one?
Two things
1. I said I would pay £5 not £10
Genuine LOL. I'm sure he'll try to make a more-helpful suggestion next time.
All I’m really interested in is my heartrate zones data, has really helped me not overdo it on longer rides and also help me with regards my arrhythmic heartbeat (if it’s playing up I struggle to hit 150bpm+ on efforts).
Curious how seeing this in retrospect is useful? Would you not just look at your heart rate live on your Garmin/other device?
I’d be happy to pay £48 a year for it if they just charged me £4 on a 12 month contract but for some reason I can bring myself to from £48 for strava in one go.
I like it for road riding but couldn’t careless for mtb, I only want it to track milage and routes etc for that.
This has reminded me to drop from £5.99 a month to £44.99 a year.
Genuine LOL. I’m sure he’ll try to make a more-helpful suggestion next time.
Here's hoping. Just make sure it fits the only criteria that I mentioned of £5 though eh.
I used to like Strava’s native route planner but opted out once they pushed it to premium. Trialled OS Maps’ version and found it excellent. Much more accurate for tracking and I now use that when exploring and use Strava solely for recording.
I'm always amazed at people's idea of value whenever these threads come up. Perhaps you could spend £5 worth of time a year coming up with your own solution for seeing your historical timing data and see how far you get? Pay for it or don't, that's obviously your call but I think people underestimate how much work these things are to design and run.
Log in to Strava on a computer and go to support and then login there. Raise a ticket about cancelling and getting a refund and it should get sorted...mine was done in 24 hours.
After raising the ticket go back in to the ticket and type another response so the ticket sends to Strava to action, if you don't it seems to sit wil you and won't be picked up.
I’m always amazed at people’s idea of value whenever these threads come up. Perhaps you could spend £5 worth of time a year coming up with your own solution for seeing your historical timing data and see how far you get? Pay for it or don’t, that’s obviously your call but I think people underestimate how much work these things are to design and run.
I agree 100%; however, you give it away for free for so long it’ll always be a difficult sell. Add to that it’s based on the data you harvested while being free 🤷🏻♂️.
Im in that bracket of people who don’t really need it but would like it and that’s the one that’s difficult to crack.
2. I want to see my data from the last 8 years that was recorded on Strava (when it was free to see it all)
Do a bulk export.... Bulk Export
@chakaping:
Curious how seeing this in retrospect is useful? Would you not just look at your heart rate live on your Garmin/other device?
I look at it while I'm riding but that only gives me a snapshot of how I'm doing on that particular bit. The analysis afterwards can show me if I'm doing better for a particular route, over training or just the general trend so I can have an extended rest period to avoid any issues.
For example my local is Cwmcarn. While riding I can feel if I'm struggling or not on the big climbs at the start and the live data can show if my heartrate is high or not but when I get home I can see my trends for the same ride over time and see if I'm improving. I can have a ride where my heartrate skyrockets on the first climb to the tollgate but is then under control for the rest of the loop, other days I'll be feeling like I'm pushing hard all the way round but my heartrate is pretty low all day (under 160 or so). Looking back at previous trends and knowing what I've been doing off the bike helps me build up a picture of my fitness, fatigue and general level most of the time. I'm at the point now where I can second-guess the data I'll see at home while on the ride, makes a massive difference as I then can tell whether I can push things or slacken off and avoid doing any damage. Hard to explain but I now know my body's response to various things better than I did previously so it's a valuable tool for me. I'm nowhere near going into the detail that a pro would but it does mean that I can choose where to ride and not push myself too much after a hard few days. For example rather than go to Cwmcarn and struggle up the hills on a bad day I can go to the FOD and ride the Verderer's and a bit of fireroad exploration instead, still out on the bike and enjoying myself rather than getting annoyed having to push up climbs I can normally ride. Before I got a HR monitor I could easily feel fine, go to Cwmcarn and blow up half way round as my heart was having a bad day so wouldn't run fast without being painful, now I can predict that being a risk reasonably well so can avoid it.
Hope that helps, works for me anyway.
Joys of being a Strava member forever, monthly is £3.99 and yearly £39.99 for me.
I'm on the monthly, but I'll change it to yearly. I see it as paying for the whole app and backend, not just for the additional features that Premium gives me. If nobody supported these apps, they wouldn't exist, and I'd rather a subscription than more bloody adverts.
as above...
I pay £40 (i think) per year, and I guess it's worth it..
It does what I want, without ads, and i like seeing the data. Ability to import routes into garmin is good too.
I waste more than £40 a month on posh pub booze, so don't feel guilty about supporting a service that works well.
DrP
I loved it when they had packages as I could select what I wanted and paid a good price for it. Now you get everything for a vastly increased price and that doesn't work for many.
I'm happy to pay to support what I use, but not keen on paying twice the price for stuff I don't use, so I cancelled.
If they could offer packages that offered bundles of bits at a lower price, I'd resubscribe - and I'm sure many others would, but for now it isn't worth it for me as even 4 quid a month is too much for the use I give it.
A similar issue to this website - loads of users but converting them all to paying is difficult as the benefit and perceived benefit is different to us all.
The sheer amount of new/secret trails I've discovered via the Strava heatmap make the subscription worth it for me. I do like a good explore! 😉
Well I'm not really sure how I managed to subscribe to anything because I haven't even opened the app since putting it on my phone. It was apple.com who are took the money and I received what I presume is an automated message this morning, to say they're looking into it. Does anyone remember the good old days when you could just ring someone up and they'd sort the problem for you there and then? I swear all these companies make it as difficult as possible in the hope you'll just give up. I also spent an hour trying to sort something out with Wiggle and that was even worse.
Well I’m not really sure how I managed to subscribe to anything because I haven’t even opened the app since putting it on my phone. It was apple.com who are took the money and I received what I presume is an automated message this morning, to say they’re looking into it. Does anyone remember the good old days when you could just ring someone up and they’d sort the problem for you there and then? I swear all these companies make it as difficult as possible in the hope you’ll just give up. I also spent an hour trying to sort something out with Wiggle and that was even worse.
Getting a refund from Apple for an app purchase is the simplest thing I have ever done and much easier than it would be if you phoned a call centre
Tried the above three times last night just to be told that I didn't have permission to access the page whatever that means?
@kerley if you sign up for VeloViewer it pulls in all your historical Strava data.
Tried the above three times last night just to be told that I didn’t have permission to access the page whatever that means?
Is where you need to go
I’m always amazed at people’s idea of value whenever these threads come up.
Me too, the idea that Strava "premium" is really worth £50 odd p/a to a typical plodder like me is ludicrous.
I'd happily pay them a fiver a year to simply maintain my harvested data, I don't really care about leaderboards or other toss, the 'social meja' bit is fine, but again it's user generated content, how much are they really having to do?
Veloviewer earn their tenner from me for being useful, so yep I'm of the opinion that for processing, storing and presenting my data back to me about £15 a year would be fair... But Strava seem to chop and change their plans, prices and features so often they can just eff-off, it's sporty Facebook with bolt-on bullshit...
They apparently have 76 million users, how many pay to subscribe I don't know... I don't believe the pricing reflects true value, more likely the tipping point between people willing to pay an exorbitant amount and cheapskates like me... Whatever they might claim, subs ain't their only revenue stream.
They're not gonna staff a worldwide phone contact centre to sort out your issue if no ones willing to pay owt.
They’re not gonna staff a worldwide phone contact centre to sort out your issue if no ones willing to pay owt.
Exactly. Think of all the £10 subscriptions they're missing out on!
@kerley if you sign up for VeloViewer it pulls in all your historical Strava data.
Not you again, I told you my max budget was £5. Seriously though, thanks for the tip I may take a look at it.
My own problem is I like simplicity so having another app to just look at historical is overkill and I have lived without the data since whenever it got removed from free service.
I may actually be happier without anyway as at 53 years old I sure ain't get any faster!
Your mistake was starting when too young and fit.
I paid the 48 quid this last year so I could see full leaderboards. Turns out you can’t see the full leaderboard even with premium
Cancelled it now, complete waste of money that was
Turns out you can’t see the full leaderboard even with premium
You can on desktop.
You can on desktop
Yeah true but who’s opening Strava on a desktop? Maybe everyone but I’m not. For 50 quid I can’t see why it isn’t included
Yep, it should be added to mobile - not hard for them to do. It's just that someone made a decision to unnecessarily limit it - happens often with mobile interfaces. You can probably get it from your browser on mobile too.
I don't know how well veloviewer works on mobile either. I always trawl through the data on desktop, but then I'm sat at my desktop 8 hours a day anyway.
I don’t know how well veloviewer works on mobile either. I always trawl through the data on desktop, but then I’m sat at my desktop 8 hours a day anyway.
Slowly on my mobile but all the functions I use are still there. The explorer companion app is really useful if you're into collecting the explorer tiles, again this can be slow to update after a long ride.
£48 refunded.
Nice one Apple.
Got there in the end.
Markhraylish
As a free account I’ve always had access to heatmap on desktop and now it appears in the segment explore map in the app (though is this because I’ve switched from android to iOS?)
The problem with the single subscription model is a lot of people will never use all the features and/or they use features elsewhere. I use bits of Strava and bits of trailforks but I don’t want to pay full price for both. I’d be okay with a half price half feature option at the level of the old free Strava. I reckon they’d pull in more money that way overall
the pricing model is a bit like this though :
charge £50, and you'll probably get 20% of your subscriber base who are into leaderboards, or stats, or whatever subscribing
charge £50 or £10 and you'll probably have 5% of your subscriber base on the top tier, and 40% on the low tier. You've just dropped your profit margin significantly, despite selling more than double the number of subscriptions
given how much this matters to their bottom line, I recon they've modelled it pretty carefully
Nearly 50 quid is too steep for me. Affter uploading every ride for nearly the past decade, I've decided to try the revolutionary tactic of enjoying riding without uploading everything to the internet, and so far, it's really nice.
I’d be okay with a half price half feature option at the level of the old free Strava. I reckon they’d pull in more money that way overall
I would agree, but I can only assume they've done the sums and concluded they'll get more revenue from a single higher price.
I certainly caved when I couldn't see my position on segments any more, and still feel I'm getting my money's worth in terms of what it adds to my riding. Though Trailforks is by far the more useful product and much cheaper.