Unclear Figma billing practices

I’ve just been through a similar discussion in private support. Figma’s current approach is basically to double charge people who wish to collaborate. It’s a terrible customer experience and should be fixed.

Either offer free collaboration (editing) between paid accounts, or if it really is expensive service for Figma to provide, make an explicit charge, e.g. £2 per month per project.

Why am I unable to give another PAID SUBSCRIBER edit access without my account getting charged for another design seat??? I keep realizing I’m paying for extra seats without my knowledge.

I was charged unexpectedly on 16th September of $280 for 50 seats. Initially I applied 1 seat of $15 on August. However, the Figma account upgraded me to 50 seats without any notice. I have never shared files in the new team to so many people. It should be a bug that it automatically brought related people in the history file on second month.

Hence, I claim a refund on the matter.

In addition, for the 1st time of subscription on August, I had to untick all 50 seats one by one (No batch deletion) so that I can apply a new team with 1 seat. Then the following months, it still automatically add up to 50 seats. How poorly designed is this flow.

I think the Figma should no longer ignore the biling issue. Don’t bring this unpleasure experience to your user.

I still remember when Figma first came to the market, you said you would always focus on experience and make free tools for designers. Now the billing bugs start to drift away from your initial visions.

Please refund in this case and start to listen to your users on these bad cases!

ticket [#1124093]

Hey @Season1, sorry for the frustration!

I can confirm that our support team received both of your requests on ticket #124065 and #1124093 (as you already provided). We escalated your 1st ticket on your behalf, and our team is already reviewing your account. Someone from support will reach out to you as soon as they can.

Hi Dvaliao,

Thank you for your reply. The Figma Support team has processed very efficiently in this case. Much appreciated! In addition, to help Figma product team better understand this case. I can provide more details of the flow.

First of all, I have shared the file in the new team to 7 people, and they are all viewer access. None of them upgraded themselves. The bugs appeared first time I applied for 1 seat of Figma Editor Access of a new team. The interface automatically showed and ticked 1 editor seat & 47 FigJam seats. I guess it’s related to some history file sharing access. I had no idea why 47 FigJam seats appeared though because I did’t create any FigJam Files for a long time. Therefore, I untick all 47 FigJam seats one by one.

The payment wasn’t charged successfully the first time, and then I went through this process again unticking 47 FigJam seats one by one because there were no batch deletion. It was very frustrating.

I used the account of 1 Editor seat for the first month quite smoothy, cost $15. However on the second months when the bill came. I found that the seats adding up to 3 editor seats and 47 FigJam Seats again without any operation.

I think there must be a flaw in the flow in the case. Please revise the flow and fix it.

1. Revise the flow of history file access and new subscription, confirm with users if they still want to keep the old access of files transferred from other teams
2. Add batch deletion of default account displayed when user apply for subscription
3. Revise the flow of 1st month subscription and the subscription of the following month

Hope it won’t happen again.

Many thanks,
Jie

@dvaliao I just realized I’ve been getting billed for 5 seats for at least a year. I am also an independent designer. The crazy part is that all of the other agencies I’m working with have their own company accounts. So…Figma is double charging both sides for things we’re already paying for. How the hell are we supposed to handoff a design cross-company/agencies then? God knows how many indy designers you guys are fleecing due to the same scenarios.

Would it kill you guys to pop up a warning that a seat will be added when inviting someone to share the file? You guys are straight up stealing from people trying to make a living. I’ve never received a notification of increased seats without my consent…ever. Now I dont know WTF to do because if I disable the access, the agencies will lose their access to the files. You guys are the dumbest smart people ever. Jesus…

I recently shared one of my design files with a client, and my client then shared the link with her team. Unbeknownst to me, this action resulted in the automatic addition of more editors, which I now understand has led to an upgrade to a Professional Team plan with five seats, resulting in a significant charge. I was never informed or alerted that adding additional editors would lead to extra costs beyond my current subscription.

I have already cancelled the plan and submitted a refund request, as it was applied without my explicit consent.

ticket [#1132150]

Hey @cai1,

We can confirm that our support team received two support requests from you on tickets #1132163 and #1132150. Someone will review your account and be in touch soon.

Honestly, I think a legal case can be made against Figma here as the government cracks down on these dark billing patterns. You shouldn’t be charged for something someone else did, it should prompt you or charge them (with permission - don’t charge anything until the user okays it).

I bet if Sketch suddenly released a web based alternative tomorrow and had all your features with simple billing they would gain a lot of the market back. Figma has soured its relation with customers the past few years. There’s a clear disconnect between what the designers want and what the product is pandering to (investors) and lack of communication as to what’s being worked on (nothing against support, I feel sorry for them as they have to be the frontline of silly decisions made beyond them). I hope the Figma team realizes that they aren’t above being replaced and focus on what the customers want and the core piece: Figma.

When you grant someone Edit access, it is not clear and stated in that moment that your payment is about to increase. That’s my core issue. If there were big red flags that said, “Hey you can grant edit access BUT this is what will happen to your money” then I’m on board. Otherwise, it’s sketchy and dark and manipulative.