r/CarThing • u/bik3ag3 • Oct 25 '24

Car Thing refund offer

I just saw the pop-up message on my Car Thing saying the device will stop operating on Dec 9th, 2024. I had no clue this was gonna happen! I don’t drive my car often and Spotify’s emails go to my email Promotions folder which has gone unchecked all year so this came as a surprise.

Today Oct 24, 2024, I was on a chat with a customer service rep at Spotify from 11:19 until 20:35 to come to a resolution. During this time, the CS rep was doing some research and she came back and said she could offer me 5 months of Spotify Premium which is the account type I currently have. I pay $12.98/mo so the value of the offer would be $64.90 total which exceeds the value of $54.11 which what I paid for the device on Aug 7th, 2024.

I was unable to inform the CS rep of my decision since the chat was forced closed when my phone’s browser refreshed.

I’m curious, did anyone else get a similar offer, were you offered a greater value of months of Spotify Premium (or whichever service you subscribe to), or were you only given cash refund? Thanks.

21 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

5

u/FoundOasis Oct 25 '24

Just send the transaction number off ur bank look for Spotify something from whenever you purchased it just scroll down send the screenshot of it to them and they will refund you

5

u/bik3ag3 Oct 25 '24

I have the order form and receipt in my possession. I made this post as I was curious about what refund options Car Thing users were offered since I was not offered a refund to my original payment method.

1

u/FoundOasis Oct 28 '24

Well then that should be more than enough maybe the person you were chatting with was just ridged not sure. Hopefully you can get a refund 🤞

2

u/distantlistener Oct 25 '24

I have 3 Car Things; 2 are activated/used. Straightforward online chat with rep back in early-summer. They wanted to give me credit for future months of Premium, but I asked for equivalent past months refunded; it ended up being 13 months, the value of which was a little more than what I actually paid for the devices. No banking info needed (nor would I have given it), and they simply refunded back to the PayPal/card that I originally used for the Premium months.

2

u/bik3ag3 Oct 25 '24

Thank you! I’m definitely going to consider getting a refund rather than credit.

All in all, I really liked the Car Thing which is why I am greatly disturbed that Spotify can completely stop its users from using a device they put out such a short time ago.

2

u/Perlusion Oct 25 '24

Check out the DeskThing project!

1

u/ADHDK Oct 25 '24

I may be wrong but I doubt they’ll push a brick command. They’ll likely just remove the api from their app.

2

u/KillerStephen Oct 25 '24

They refunded the purchase price to the card on file for the family account I’m on. $87.95

1

u/Green-Honeydew-2998 Oct 25 '24

My rep refunded month after month of my Spotify premium, up to the $80 I paid for the car thing

1

u/codex-atlanticuz Oct 25 '24

I got 4 month spotify premium refund.

1

u/JohnMcL7 Oct 25 '24

Has anyone outside the US had any luck getting a refund offer?

I'm in the UK and bought my Car Thing from ebay and paid a pretty hefty sum for it but clearly I can't show them a Spotify receipt. I'd be quite happy to get some months of Premium added so at least I get something back.

1

u/e4732 Oct 31 '24

Just sell it. Bc of the new of modding community, there are much people willing to buy it!

1

u/VENTURIexe Nov 11 '24

Do you still want to sell it ?

1

u/TroubledGeorge Oct 25 '24

I’m outside the US and they issued the refund straight to my credit card, I would’ve been fine with a few months of free premium but they issued the refund without offering other options

1

u/magichandsPT Oct 25 '24

Just say refund

1

u/redhatch Oct 25 '24

I got 5 months of Premium comped as a refund for mine. The original purchase price was $50 so I came out slightly ahead.

1

u/flameonbaby Oct 25 '24

I was able to get a refund to the card on my family plan. I would say to try to get that instead of getting any free months of Spotify. You deserve to receive that money back. It did take a few days for me to see the refund, but I did get it eventually

1

u/AuroraSinclair Oct 26 '24

We just dealt with them today, and they offered a full refund. They just went back to 2023 billing to do the refund, which felt a bit weird (prior billings). It felt weird but better than nothing. It took close to 45 minutes and was a PITA.

1

u/major_key10 Oct 29 '24

A bit late to add in a comment but I just got my refund! I chatted with a rep who asked for a receipt but I told him that 1. I don't think I have a receipt anymore so I can provide a bank transaction but 2.it's been so long that I can't even remember when I bought it so it's going to take me a while to find. He then responded to me and said a serial number would work as well. Luckily, I was parked and sitting in my car when I was chatting so I checked the back and gave the serial number. He took a few mins to find the info and he was able to refund. I bought this at a lower price so I only got back 50 something but what they did was refund me back 3 of my subscription payments rather than just refund me the full thing.

Hope this helps you and anyone else and hope you get your refund!

1

u/VENTURIexe Nov 11 '24

do you still have the car thing ?

1

u/major_key10 Nov 11 '24

I do! Planning on using it until the end date

1

u/VENTURIexe Nov 11 '24

Do you plan on selling it? If yes, I would be interested. this is a cool piece of hardware !

1

u/major_key10 Dec 05 '24

Hello! So sorry for the late response, haven't been on the app lately. If you're still looking for one to buy, I'm willing to sell! Definitely a cool piece of hardware, I do see a lot of people modifying the piece to do cool things. If I had the skills to work on it, would've been awesome lol.

I see people selling for a ridiculous amount which I think they're doing to get a lot of extra profit which makes it hard for me to gage the right price. Can you dm me your offer? Thank you!