davidstarkjava

Hey guys, quick warning about a crazy MS 365 dark pattern I ran into last night. I was testing the business basic plan for a side project. Decided to upgrade to the annual tier to get the discount ($3.45/mo). Clicked convert to paid, put my burner card in, and got a $0.00 confirmation email. Thought we were good. Woke up today to my bank blocking a charge for exactly $1,035.00. Turns out when you hit the annual upgrade, Microsoft silently defaults the quantity dropdown to 25 licenses. No warning prompt at all. (25 seats x 12 months x $3.45 = $1,035). They send the zero-dollar invoice to make you think it's an auth hold, then try to drain your card while you sleep. The best part? When I went to their support chat to ask why my billing was so high, the system conveniently gave me a "System error, try again later" message. You can't even get help. Luckily I used a virtual corporate card with a strict limit for this test, otherwise my bootstrapped project would be out a grand today. Watch out for that hidden quantity field guys.