Redesign an Existing Squarespace site Without a Disruption for the Client

Hi folks: I have a few clients with existing Squarespace sites that would like to redesign those sites. I've thought through most of what we would consider to be best practices and they are probably pretty obvious to you. Looking through the Circle forums, it seems like the best general advice is to spin up a new Squarespace site, build the redesign, and then cancel the old Squarespace site. 

My specific problem related to this post is with billing. I've done redesigns (Squarespace to Squarespace) before and have been given a partial refund for the unused amount on the old site. In fact, most of the advice I can find in the Circle forum states that partial refunds will be given when trying to redesign a Squarespace site using the "spin up a new site and replace the old one" method (the most recent post I could find was from 6 months ago via a Cirlce Leader).

As of today, the support team is now saying that partial refunds will no longer be given for any site after 14 days. So what this means in practice is that if we redesign an existing Squarespace site for a client and that client has — for example — 6 months left on their current subscription, we will no longer be able to ask for a pro-rated refund on the old site when the new site is launched.

Am I thinking through this correctly? Has the billing policy changed? Most importantly, are there suggestions you can provide that makes redesigning an existing Squarespace site less painful (beyond the obvious like using the site duplication feature)? 

If you’re a Circle Member, see my post here:

If you’re not a Circle Member, see: 

On 1/14/2020 at 1:55 PM, ThompsonWebDesign said:

If you change your billing cycle from yearly to monthly you will receive a prorated refund for the year you paid for and then  be billed one month at the standard rate. Then you just need to cancel your new monthly subscription.

Wow. Thank you @paul2009 - this was not offered as an option when I was working with the customer service team.

I will use this workaround in the future and really appreciate the help. In your reply to the embedded post you wrote, "Good workaround Brad. I wasn't aware that non-Circle users could get a prorated refund." Does this mean that Circle users can get prorated refunds and I was just misinformed via a customer support chat?

The workaround still feels like something Squarespace could yank at any point in time, maybe even for an unrelated reason without realizing that it would affect something Circle members rely on for refunds.

If the Squarespace team is out there and reading this could you help with the question as well? 

3 hours ago, gregt said:

Does this mean that Circle users can get prorated refunds

See this post:

On 10/6/2016 at 8:42 PM, ErinPetree said:

If a subscriber cancels their subscription within 14 days of purchasing an annual plan, they’ll receive a full refund. The refund will apply to the card that was charged and will appear in the subscriber’s account shortly after cancellation. Many of you voiced that this policy may present issues for you or your clients. Accordingly, any Circle member’s client that purchases a yearly subscription but no longer needs it or the website can contact our Customer Care team for a prorated refund.

Thank you again @paul2009! The customer support team pushed back when I asked for a pro-rated refund (when moving a site from one account to another due to a design refresh). I was pretty sure they had done this before for me quite a few times. 

On 2/18/2020 at 4:26 PM, gregt said:

The customer support team pushed back when I asked for a pro-rated refund

@gregt As a Circle Member, you can cancel a site and then email Customer Care to request a pro-rata refund of the remaining annual* subscription on your client's behalf.

*There are no refunds for monthly subscriptions. 

This benefit is specific to Circle Members, and allows you to do this on behalf of a client. Squarespace did this again for me again this week without question (on behalf of a client).

Update: This Circle benefit was subsequently removed.