Can't upgrade to Dropbox Professional

[pollycat]

I am a Dropbox Plus subscriber and want to upgrade to Dropbox Professional to take advantage of SmartSync.

In the "Settings" section of my account on the Dropbox.com website, it says "Contact Support to change plan", I can't just click a button there to upgrade directly.

So, I contact support.

Support says that, because I have a legacy account of some kind, I can only upgrade by first "downgrading" from Plus to Basic, then "upgrading" to Plus again (!), then upgrading to Professional.

I have 166 GB of files on Dropbox at the moment.  I asked support if, by "downgrading" from Plus to Basic, which only has a 2GB allowance, whether I would then lose all my files.  

Support isn't responding.  So, I'm asking here if anyone can help.

Some observations:

* Dropbox support is among the worst I have experienced.  They don't respond and don't seem to be customer-focused.

* Why should it be so hard for a customer to upgrade their account?  Why am I required to jump through all these "downgrade / upgrade / upgrade again" hoops?

To be honest, after years of using Dropbox with satisfaction, this experience is making me evaluate alternatives now.

[Jay]

Hi there, we’ve located your ticket on the system and can see you were in communication with a senior agent.

For now we’d recommend not downgrading your account, since you are on an older plan, and the senior agent is looking into this further.

Just so you know however, downgrading an account will never result in your files getting deleted. All that will happen if your account is overquota is that it will stop syncing.

[pollycat]

Thanks for your response.

After a long delay, a billing agent got in touch to say I MUST downgrade to Basic and then upgrade to Plus and then upgrade to Professional.  The agent told me to “inform him once I’d done this”.  But I cannot do this as my Settings page still says “Contact support to change plan”.

This goes round and round in circles, and any message to support takes a long time to receive a reply.  I’ve replied that I am unable to implement any of the downgrades / upgrades myself but then silence.

Dropbox “support” is truly awful.

[Rich]

Tagging @Jay

[Mark]

That really doesnt seem like a good solution Pollycat.

As Rich has done I'm also seeing if I can escalate for you - you also need to be informed what you are going to 'lose' by being a legacy customer and upgrading... from experience I doubt its all positive if I'm honest.

[Walter · Accepted solution]

Hey there @pollycat - sorry to jump in on this and apologies for any inconvenience this might have brought so far.

I just wanted you to know that I have been monitoring this thread as well and I have also passed your comments along to the expert handling your case internally. At this point I would suggest that you continue via email with them directly as this would be the quickest way to get this resolved. 

Thank you for your patience so far and happy Monday!

[pollycat]

I appreciate the support for my situation.

Dropbox support has finally been in touch to warn me that I will lose some legacy features I currently enjoy (e.g. Packrat) and also won't get a pro-rated refund if I "downgrade" and then "upgrade" to Professional before my current subscription period runs out in 2019.  I've responded that I understand and accept this and would still like to go ahead with the downgrade / upgrade to get the Professional plan features I want to use.

Let's see what happens next, and I'll keep this thread updated, mostly to help other customers in a similar situation to my own in the future.

[Walter]

Thank you for keeping me posted @pollycat!

I've passed your additional comments along to the experts handling your case and gave 'em a little nudge as well - they should be reaching out soon so make sure to check your inbox regularly 

If there's anything else I can do, please let me know!

[pollycat · Accepted solution]

Glad to say my situation has been resolved now.

Dropbox went ahead and downgraded me to "Basic" from the previous legacy "Plus" plan.

I was then able to re-purchase a new non-legacy Plus plan.

They then upgraded me at their end to "Professional" at no extra charge.

I've now got what I set out to achieve and am satisfied with the result.

Thanks for the support shown here, I appreciate it.

[Walter]

Thanks for following up on this @pollycat - most appreciated!

All's well that ends well, right? 

In any case, I am glad to hear this was resolved and should you need anything else, just let us know. Thank you for using Dropbox and enjoy your brand new Professional plan!