Post Published on October 6, 2015.
Last Updated on October 28, 2016 by davemackey.
[Update: 10/28/16 – Some international users of SugarSync have reported issues using the link I included in this post. Thanks to Bill & JN for an updated link that appears to work internationally as well: https://www.sugarsync.com/account/cancel]
I started with SugarSync many hears ago and I’ve been a paying customer since October 2009 and have been a fairly avid supporter of them.
Over the last year or so I’ve found myself moving away from SugarSync and towards Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox. I decided to cancel SugarSync and assumed I’d be able to login to my account and quickly cancel…if only I were that fortunate!
One can upgrade one’s account via the website, but you can’t cancel it.
Okay, slightly annoying. So how do I cancel? There is no contact info. I can find on the main site but there is a “Contact Us” link in the footer of the support page – that seems hopeful…
Nope, just a mailing address and instructions to use the support site from which I found the Contact Us link.
Fine, lets try searching the help desk (okay, I actually did this before looking at the contact info., not sure why I record this out of order). Entering cancel into the search area returns a link to this article: “Canceling a Paid Account.”
Here is where things get really frustrating. Take a look at the screenshot below:
Notice anything? Let me highlight three items:
- The cancellation department is only open from 10 am to 2 pm (4 hrs.) Monday – Friday. What?!
- In step 2 one is directed to “Open this article” and provided with a link, this link leads back to the article you were already viewing.
- The screenshot with “Chat with Cancellation Department” button is really great, except for the fact that it doesn’t exist outside of those 4 hours each day! It isn’t greyed out, it simply doesn’t exist.
(Okay, let me rephrase that, there is a chat button down at the bottom but clicking on it outside of hours makes it disappear (and nothing else) AND the button is in a different location than where it is shown in their screenshot)
Great. I’ve now let several months go by, I am no longer using SugarSync but every time I remember to cancel it it is outside of the specified hours or I’m busy. Finally, today, I decided to give it another go.
I happened to notice when I was logged out of the site a phone number for sales questions (1-877-442-1693, there appear to be multiple versions of the homepage, the phone number only sometimes displays). The automated menu had an option for billing so I selected it and was soon speaking with a nice man who assured me he would help me. He put me on hold and then sent me an email which he asked me to check. I opened it and to my surprise saw that he was not going to cancel my account, instead he was just directing me back to the same window:
I reached a real person who was responding to billing questions but apparently couldn’t cancel my account.
I’ve typed out this email while waiting for SugarSync’s cancellation department to open for its very limited hours.
I finally got into a chat with a cancellation department representative. After all that they gave me a URL to visit to cancel my account: https://davidshq.sugarsync.com/account/cancel. My guess is that this URL will work for anyone just by changing the davidshq to whatever your SugarSync username is.
I’m also guessing that one can use this link 24/7/365 to cancel an account…but you might still want to go through their cancellation department as they could claim that it wasn’t properly cancelled, etc. and you might end up still being billed.
And thus ends the story of my travails canceling SugarSync (I hope).
Thanks for the link (with your name) to cancel the account. I was logged in SugarSynch and when I clicked on yours, it took me straight to the page to cancel my account. Honestly SS showing itself as being dishonest once more in making it so difficult to cancel an account (what s that thing about contacting a chat during office hours ? ). Very borderline and illustrate exactly the kind of reply I had from their support when I had issues with Pages and Numbers documents (Mac user) last year. Poorly treated, I got stung by an automatic renewal but never again. Thank you and SugarSync, never again.
Thank you for that link Dave. It appeared to work when I cancelled my account just now as well. Shocked at Sugarsync’s devious and unethical business practices.
The link works! Thank you! Your post saved me a lot of frustration!
Thanks for the link. You save my life.
Thanks a lot Dave! You save my life.
I am very frustrated with the SugarSync’s practices.
I got two accounts that in not in active for almost 2 years.
I tried to cancel the subscription few months back, but could not find a way and forgot to do it until the next charge came in (which is last month, and I forced to pay via PayPal). Yes, USD 249.99 for yearly subscribe without using it at all, and by March I have to pay USD 49.99.
Luckily I found your website.
God bless you man.
The link worked for me also. Thank you!
My experience was similar to yours, except that now it appears that it is impossible to chat with the “cancellation department” even within the specified hours of 10am-2pm. Just as you did, I emailed customer support and they replied with the same instructions you got to go to the “Canceling-a-paid-account” page. But even though I logged on there at 10:30 am PST, there was no chat button to click on. Forunately, I found you advice, and it seemed to work.
Thank you thank you thank you!
https://YOURACCOUNTNAME.sugarsync.com/account/cancel
worked for me.
And of course I wanted to cancel on a Saturday with the next charging happening on Sunday.
Thank you again!
You are awesome for sharing this with everyone!
I, too, was a big fan of Sugarsync. However, all my clients use Dropbox, and I’ve migrated away from Sugarsync. I was dumbfounded when I went to cancel and found the same thing you did – the ludicrously brief cancellation window each day, etc.
In my case, the card on file is actually my old debit card, which got stolen, so I could’ve just waited and let Sugarsync cancel me when they had no way to charge me, but I prefer to officially cancel, y’know?
That link is crazy handy.
You are a hero! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for the link! you saved me so much time and money…
So glad you found it helpful!
THANK YOU! this worked for me.
Yikes! Glad I went with Sync.com instead…
God bless you!
David – Just left a comment. Also wondering which provider you’re using now. I am looking into idrive (I have a Mac). Have never been too keen on Drop Box for some reason. Thanks for your advice. Ellyn
Hi Ellyn,
I wish I had a good answer to that question…
The answer is that I use multiple methods currently, but I’m always looking for something better.
I use Microsoft’s OneDrive, which is usually great, but lacks versioning for files that aren’t Microsoft Office files (it is on their roadmap someday…). This deficit is unacceptable and would make me not recommend OneDrive too much to anyone else.
I also use Dropbox…although, like you, I haven’t been a huge fan of it…though I can’t put my finger on why at the moment.
The final option I’m using is BitBucket/Git. This is primarily meant for programmers, but it works well for other files, as long as they aren’t too large. This involves a manual command each time you want to push a file, but really helpful if you are working with a lot of files – I use it for ebooks I’m working on.
If you find something you really like, let me know!
Thanks for the info David, I’ve been trying to cancel my subscription for over a month as I knew the anniversary and therefore a charge was due on 20 April. With your help, the cancellation occurred, effective 20 April and you guessed it, the charge hit my credit card on 20 April!!!
Hi Steve just curious — do you mean that despite “cancellation” they still charged you for another year??? If so, I am really shocked at the lack of ethics of this company. I received a cancellation email (by using the great advice on this site) but am now not at all sure it will work! As someone else mentions, this smacks of a massive scam. Thanks for any info 🙂
Thanks so much! I was a loyal sugarsync user for 4 years, but it broke last year when I changed OS on my Macs. Stumbled along for a while, but finally stopped working. It autorenewed in August 2015 and I got too busy to cancel, but I wanted to head it off before August 2016. My “cancellation” experience was much the same as yours – in navigating through the site it gradually dawned on me that I was dealing with a bunch of crooks. I followed your instructions and it says that the cancellation will take effect on my former auto-renew date. Let’s see. I’ve made a note to check. Will be such a shame if I have to fight a battle then. Hopefully they will have been charged for fraud before then.
Followup on this earlier post: It seems that my account was indeed cancelled on 8/8/16 as scheduled, my card was not charged and my account has apparently been deleted. Thanks so much!
So glad to hear! Thanks for letting us know it worked for you!
Thank goodness I found your blog and this particular post. I was having exactly the same problem as you and others have described. The link you provided was effective. So now I have to wait and see if the cancellation actually happens and if SugarSync gouge another year’s subscription from my credit card.
What crooks!
Just curious Barney — seems like a few of us in same boat — was the cancellation carried out successfully or did they try to charge you?
Cathy, the cancellation was carried out successfully, I’m glad to say. I don’t think they tried to charge me…
What a bunch of idiots they are !!! Thanks to you – I used the link and will ensure that no-one else in my life ever touches this service. I am now an active anti-SugarSync promoter !!!
THANK YOU! This worked for me as well, just using my ID instead of yours. After going all Office 365 for my home I found that OneDrive was a better choice for me too and included in the subscription.
FYI, my one concern with OneDrive is that while they say they offer “versioning” – it is actually only for Microsoft Office files. Thus any file created outside of Office will not be versioned (e.g. photos, music, programming code, other files created by software other than Office, etc.). I’m hoping they will remedy this someday soon, it is a gaping hole in their solution.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don’t use Sugarsync at all these days and was getting desperate to cancel — I live in Asia so calculating the time difference for the 4 hours window was a pain and even when I got timing right, the chat box just disappeared on each click! So I rang them and just got their ansaphone. Very unethical. Am a bit nervous they will still try to charge me despite getting a seemingly valid cancellation email. Appreciate very much however that your method hopefully worked and you were willing to share 🙂
Thank you for the link. The ONLY option they give you is ridiculous, especially for the thousands not living in the PST time zone. Before I’m switching over to a new Cloud option I will first check their cancellation options. Thanks again.
You are an internet angel 🙂
Thank you soo much for this link! Those rat bastards charged me again today because I had the same problems as you ‘coordinating’ with their account cancellation procedure. SS would make AOL blush.
Cancelled using your link, modified for my user name. My user name had a space between the first and last name. I used the underscore character to replace the space when typing in the link. Also, cancelled 8-18-16 but still charged through 2-03-17. Glad to be done with this company!
Hi SJ,
Sorry to hear about the difficulties you’ve experienced canceling SugarSync. Did you cancel on 8-18-16 using this link? Or did you use another method last time?
Thanks!
Dave
Thank you Dave for the great article and more importantly the link to cancel. I’ve been trying to cancel for a month now and tried to reach them during their ridiculous chat hours, and each time I couldn’t get through to a chat agent. Your link worked and saved me a lot of frustration. Thank you!
It baffles the mind that a company can operate like this. I use to LOVE SugarSyncs service and promoted it to anyone that asked about cloud storage, now I feel bad for doing so. At least I have a link I can share with those in the same shoes.
Cheers!
Pete – I used to be a huge fan of SugarSync as well, argued that it was better than Dropbox – and it was for a while. It really has gone downhill. Glad the link was helpful! Dave
Thank you SO much! I was just beginning to knock my head on the desk. That kind of sneaky behaviour is so offputting. You are a hero Sir!
I’m glad you found the link helpful!
Thanks for taking the time to post this. It’s potentially saved me $100! These guys are total shit-artists for having this setup, which is so ugly and blatant. Imagine living in Perth in Western Australia, where the window of opportunity to contact the “cancellation department” would be from 1am to 5am.
This solution doesn’t work for me. When i’m logged in, the username which is displayed is “contact901”. when I go to : https://contact901.sugarsync.com/account/cancel it doesn’t work…. It says “please contact support”
Do you have an idea ? I’m in France, but I don”t think it’s different than another country?!
Thans for your help.
Unfortunately, I’m unable to replicate as I don’t have an account any more. It may be that SugarSync has finally noticed this loophole in their system and closed it out…hopefully not…we’ll have to see if others are experiencing the same issue. Sorry. 🙁
I’m in the UK and I am also having this issue. Added this to the fact that when I try to call the contact number my phone says ‘The Number has not been recognised’. Contact Support simply redirects to the ‘How to cancel your account article’. I am literally fuming.
I remember the feeling. 🙁 If this isn’t working for you, you might try filing a dispute with your credit card company.
If anyone from the US can update on whether they are having this problem as well? If not, it would seem to be an international issue which may be helpful in figuring out what is occurring…
I just went to – https://www.sugarsync.com/account/cancel and it worked for me.
I’m guessing, Bill, that you are in the US?
Hi, thanks Dave for the link! I was really happy to be able to cancel it without talking to them (living in Australia means their ‘opening window’ is impossible for me to respect…)
Unfortunately it does not work for me either, it just displays a page with a big PLEASE CONTACT SUPPORT, which links to the stupid ‘how to cancel your account’ page again.
Just though I would post it here to let other knows as well.
Cheers,
Romain
Hi Romain,
Sorry I can’t be of more assistance. My recommendation would be to contact your credit card company and dispute the charge that way. Since some are having success with my link, my guess is that it works in the US but not anywhere else. :-/
After much research, I got onto the parent company J2 Global who gave me an email [email protected]. Surprisingly, SugarSync replied to my email overnight (I’m in Australia) and after trying to double my storage for the same price (if you are chasing extra storage might be worth a try), then gave me the link: https://www.sugarsync.com/account/cancel (Same as Bill’s post) Seems to have worked. I suggest also if you are using PayPal to cancel any ongoing payment agreement as a precaution.
Update – I’ve also received a confirmation email from SugarSync that the account will be closed at the end of the currently paid period.
The link https://www.sugarsync.com/account/cancel did not work for me
Bo,
Thanks for letting me know.
Question: Are you in the US? If so, can you try: https://davidshq.sugarsync.com/account/cancel
But change davidshq to whatever your SugarSync login is?
The link you referred to particularly has been working well for those internationally, maybe there are two different urls, one for international, one for US? The above link has been utilized by US SugarSync customers successfully repeatedly.
I also tried to cancel my account via https://www.sugarsync.com/account/cancel but the link didn’t work for me. So I sent my cancellation via email to Sugarsync. They answered to me within a few hours and asked me if I was interested in doubling my storage for the same price. I said no and after that they sent the same link (https://www.sugarsync.com/account/cancel) to me to finish the cancellation. And then (at the same day) the link worked for me … Cancellation was finished without any problems.
Thanks for the update. Can you tell me what country you are from? This seems to help narrow some things down. I’m glad an email worked for you!
I’m from Germany.
Hey there, can you please post the sugar sync email you sent your cancelation request to? Thanks in advance 🙂
I am from Malaysia
I am going to lodge a police report for unable to cancel my SugarSync account.
Thanks for the info. I was able to contact customer support at 6:12am, got someone to assist immediately and the only thing they asked was “why?” . I told them I’m no longer employed and within a few minutes, I received my email confirmation and it was cancelled immediately. Thanks again for this email!
Moe-
Hi Moe,
Thanks for sharing your experience, glad to hear that it has been a much more pleasant experience than most of us have had!
Dave
same problem for me. I’m too tired to try and contact them. I’ve cancelled the Paypal subscription. Presumably they will soon give up trying to renew me.