Help! The Email Vendor is forcing me to Re-Subscribe

[ehomepreneur]

Hi,

I've subscribed to one of the USA email service providers for quite sometimes and was really upset over their services. At the end of last year, I told them to stop my subscription and cancel my account before renewal but they told me their billing system had already automatically credited my credit card so no refund will be given. As I live outside USA, I would like to know what is the rights as a customers.

1. Do we have the rights to demand refund if we are not satisfied with their services?
2. Do service providers have the rights to force customers to renew even if customer is not happy? (I've emailed them over the year regarding their services and billing but none of them seem to take it seriously)
3. I've contacted them several times over this issue but they are not resposive. Which authorities in USA can I turn to for help?

I would appreciate any advices or pls share your solution if you encountered similar problem before.

Thank you very much.

[chandrika]

I would contact your bank and tell them it is an unauthorised payment. They will send you a form to fill out and should credit it back into your account and their legal team will deal with the issue. That is what happened with me one time and the bank dealt with it all.

[Tarzanna77]

I agree, it's called a charge-back. If a vendor gets enough charge-backs their merchant account can be in jeopardy. So I ONLY recommend this if the vendor is completely uncooperative in resolving the issue themselves.

It may be different since you are outside the US, but that is the route I'd try since the company is not cooperating. You need to be able to back-up your side of the story though. If you have copies of any email regarding the complaints and/or issues you've had, as well as the email where you told them you wanted to cancel the account... It would be a good idea if you can find the start date of your initial subscription/invoice with them, so you can verify that you tried to cancel BEFORE the subscription renewal date.

Worse case is if you paid for a year in advance, I'd agree to pay them for maybe 1 month worth of service, but would expect a refund of the other 11 months.

Good luck!

[deepsand]

As I live outside USA, I would like to know what is the rights as a customers.

1. Do we have the rights to demand refund if we are not satisfied with their services?
2. Do service providers have the rights to force customers to renew even if customer is not happy? (I've emailed them over the year regarding their services and billing but none of them seem to take it seriously)

There are potentially at least three different jurisdictions in play here, determined by the locations of :

• Yourself;
• The ASP; and,
• The card issuer.

Absent such information, the questions re. the rights of either yourself or the company in question are unanswerable.

At the moment, then, the best that can be said is that you should, as above advised, begin by contacting your card issuer or servicer.

[deepsand]

I would contact your bank and tell them it is an unauthorised payment.

Not necessarily "unauthorized." Whether or not such is the case depends on the terms of the contract.

... verify that you tried to cancel BEFORE the subscription renewal date.

It is entirely possible that such contract stipulates that notice of intent to not renew must be provided on or before a certain date relative to the renewal date, in a specified manner, and/or to a specified address.

Automatic renewal transactions are almost always executed prior to the renewal date, so as to allow time for the customer to act in those instances where such transaction is declined, thereby reducing the likelihood of an interruption of service.

[ehomepreneur]

Thanks all for the prompt and excellent reply. I've checked with my bank but unfortunately it has exceeded the required days and they couldn't do anything now.

Now I just wish to clarify, do customers have the rights to cancel anytime if the services provided by the service provider were not satisfactory?

This is because I've bought up numerous times to them but they avoided giving me any direct answer and kept on revolving on the billing issues.

Any advices? Thank you once again.

[deepsand]

... do customers have the rights to cancel anytime if the services provided by the service provider were not satisfactory?

As noted above, the answer to this question will depend on the jurisdictions involved.

And, of course, it also depends on the construction of the service contract and the nature of the dissatisfaction.

The only certain answer that can here be given is that the customer does not have the unqualified right to void or breach a contract based solely on the claim of being dissatisfied with the service provided. The customer must, at the very least, be able to prove that the service provided was not the equal of or better that which was promised.