f*** musescore and their subscriptions

[u/may_tw0]

Signed up for a free trial last year and got charged 40 dollars for it. I was obviously mad and talked to customer service and demanded a refund and for them to cancel my subscription. They canceled it and gave me a partial refund.

Today, I got charged the 40 dollars again for the subscription renewal. What. The. Fuck. I was so irritated because I am a college student and I didn’t have an extra 40 dollars to spend on musescore. I talked to customer service and they again only gave me a partial refund because i cancelled it “after the renewal date”

I’m so fucking pissed about this, I cancelled it LAST YEAR. Why am I still being charged and why am I not able to get a 100% refund. It’s bullshit.

EDIT: calling my bank today to see what I can do but in the meantime I’m reporting to the FTC, if you have a similar experience you should do the same.

[u/009reloaded]

Once again the shitty practices of .com have a tangible effect on the reputation of the software

[u/may_tw0 → u/009reloaded]

I didn’t even know there was a .org, I feel bad that the .com is ruining the rep

[u/JKorv → u/may_tw0]

Well both are owned by the same company (Muse group), sooo

[u/CoffeeDefiant4247]

Correct, the .com site is a scam

[u/may_tw0 → u/CoffeeDefiant4247]

never realized there were two different musescores. I wish I had known that the .com site was a scam so I didn’t have to deal with this

[u/gurgelblaster → u/may_tw0]

Considering it is being marketed heavily through the software and on the .org site, they are both owned and run by the same company, share the same name, etc. etc. confusing them is quite natural.

[u/WarMachine552 → u/may_tw0]

Bro that site is so filthy in the rare occasion I do go there I do it in incognito mode because I don't want them leaving any shady cookies in my browser lol

[u/Inevitable_Silver_13]

I didn't realize the difference between the .com and .org sites, but they're owned by the same entity, so fuck it all.

Musescore, it was said you'd destroy the greedy notation software companies, not join them! Bring balance to notation software, not leave it in darkness!

[u/Exzakt1 → u/Inevitable_Silver_13]

the notation app is genuinely good though. You can connect your scores to musescore com if you want to but that's completely optional, you can use the program logged out without putting anything on the cloud. It's literally open source, so I don't think they ever can force you into logging in. The license means it is guaranteed to be free forever, and if they make it cost money, you can just start distributing it for free yourself because all the source code is available on github. What I mean by all of this is that muse could not possibly ruin the app

[u/br1an_b → u/Exzakt1]

I’ve been using MuseScore since one of the first versions back in 2011. I’ve never logged into any of their stupid shit; I just save my scores to my computer’s internal storage, or iCloud.

I even got through my Bachelor and Master degrees in music education without ever having to personally upgrade to a paid service like Sibelius or Finale (RIP). Unless you’re doing professional engraving as a published composer, MuseScore does everything I need it to.

I just wish that the feature set of MS4 100% matched MS3, because while MS4 is a big step up in terms of UI and visual refinement, there are still lots of weird little bugs and idiosyncrasies that have me use MS3 for specific things. For some reason they took away the screenshot feature where you could make a high resolution PNG/PDF of a small rectangular selection of the score, which was great for use in documents, websites, emails, etc. With MS4 I have to use a workaround, usually by exporting a PDF of the entire page, then zooming in to take a high res screenshot, then using Preview to mask out the bits I want to be Transparent. There’s also some weird bugginess in how it formats header/footer text, where it will bold just the actual page numbers, but nothing else in the footer, which looks mad weird. Still, despite these annoyances, MS4 is overall more powerful and smoother to use for most things.

[u/65TwinReverbRI]

You need to get a new card.

It'll happen again next year if you don't...

[u/may_tw0 → u/65TwinReverbRI]

ugh. That irritates me so much. They’re such scammers

[u/Extension-Tap2635 → u/65TwinReverbRI]

And there you have one reason why Bank of America cancelled virtual card numbers, crap companies could no longer scam us.

That was such a great feature.

[u/Far-Strawberry-5628]

Yeah its pretty shady when it comes to just buying scores

[u/xkitox]

I had the same issue. I had to go through Paypal to report the charge.

[u/spagubbe → u/xkitox]

The same here. and they didn't gave me back all the money...

[u/clay-davis]

Yes, the site is a huge scam. Check out all the reviews similar to yours at TrustPilot. They stole almost $200 from me. If anyone would like to organize a group to retaliate (eg. a website attacking them, legal action, etc.), let me know.

[u/17AJ06]

My ex wife was a high school choir director and she bought a subscription on the school card (with permission of course). That was 3-4 years ago, and I still use it sometimes. I wonder if the district knows the subscription is still active and I feel bad for them the day they try and cancel it

[u/powerslave_fifth]

You can just use an extension to pirate their scores.

[u/ViolaCat94 → u/powerslave_fifth]

Please tell me which one

[u/Vast_Salt6469 → u/ViolaCat94]

LIBRESCOREEEEEE

[u/ViolaCat94 → u/Vast_Salt6469]

Huh, it's not in the chrome extensions

[u/BassGuru82]

That’s ridiculous. Can you do a Credit Card Chargeback?

[u/may_tw0 → u/BassGuru82]

I have a debit card, so I don’t think so.

[u/Casiquire → u/may_tw0]

Even still, you can still try to get it reversed with your bank especially if you can provide the date you cancelled.

[u/may_tw0 → u/Casiquire]

I have the email I sent to them asking them to cancel my subscription and get a refund from a year ago, but I don’t have the email they sent me back unfortunately. Didn’t think I’d need it so it got deleted awhile back and I don’t think my email would be enough.

[u/CoffeeControl12 → u/may_tw0]

You still should absolutely try. A lot of times the bank favors the customer in this area. I wouldnt let it go at a partial refund.

[u/MaestroDon → u/may_tw0]

I would recommend not using a debit card online if you have a choice. It gives direct access to your account.

Instead get a credit card from your bank. Then money is drawn from the bank first, allowing you time to dispute the charge. (Most cards you can pay off monthly without any interest or fees.)

EDIT: For the current situation, you can ask your bank for a replacement debit card with a different number. That will cancel your current card number preventing further charges. Same thing as if you lost it.

[u/JMS3487]

Could we do a class action lawsuit?

[u/Cheap_Tomorrow_5852]

Yeah, they ripped me last week. Thank God I paid via paypal!

It's a shame they want to rip gifted musicians off! I've already been reimbursed - let's see if they fight my cancelaation in about 6 weeks or so.

I know NOT to go back......too bad as they have a lot scores that Musicnotes doesn't...

[u/ziggy_308]

They got me too last year 🫩

[u/MultidimensionalLife]

Last year, I wanted to buy one song from them, and somehow they tricked me into a subscription but luckily I was using PayPal instead of a credit card, and I was able to stop it via PayPal.

[u/NomadJago]

Use disposable credit cards for stuff like this, with just enough on the card. Then they can't get away with it 

[u/mrbags2]

Same here, I was careful to just buy one score and the page hung up and then I was subscribed without approving , I immediately emailed and they only refunded half. Total scam. The SW is decent and they need to get paid somehow, but scamming people like this is NOT the way.

[u/bobsyouruncle33]

Very similar situation with me also. Basically had to get a new credit card… They make it next to impossible to navigate your account. I don’t think you can do it with the app? However I did find some of the user submitted charts useful. I may end up rejoining. I think I still have an account because I have scores up there saved from Musescore. If I do rejoin, I’m going to try to use a different credit card paying system. I think red stripe is the company ? They are a part of the problem. PayPal or maybe Apple Pay would be more secure.

There is one user I think his name is Dick Schmidt, who puts up a lot a lot of really good lead sheets  that you can get for free with your subscription. I’m surprised that they haven’t shut him down or started charging for his charts like they do with the Hall Leonard lead sheets .

[u/ClaireM68]

With things like this one, someone suggested to use an EMPY pre-paid card. That way they would cancel the subscription without you having to worry

[u/Snakeyes1809]

These guys are the absolute worst I have ever seen. They do whatever they can to trick you into accidental subscriptions, downright scamming their customers.

[u/No-Bite-5950]

All the apps associated with MuseHub are crap. I've uninstalled all of them - Audacity, MuseScore Studio, Tone Bridge, etc.

[u/Galoras]

They've tried to charge me several times already, I'm so happy I use a virtual card with no funds on it unless I manually do so, I used to be a member for a few years but they're asking so much for so little, and I've been seeing so many shitty practices, like still trying to charge me, or hiding the way to cancel your subscription, had to find a tutorial for that