Purchasing a Product On-Line That Involves a Subscription
- by Marianne Van der Wel
A year ago I had difficulty removing a virus from my computer using the software I had installed. A friend in the computer business had recommended another antivirus program so I downloaded it, paid for the package with a credit card and tried it out. It did successfully remove the virus but subsequently brought my PC to an unusable crawl. Within two days I abandoned the second package and switched to a third, which worked much better. I totally forgot about the second package.
In August 2009 (a year later), I got an email congratulating me on renewing my subscription for another year and a charge of $39.95 USD was levied to my credit card account. Quite an unpleasant surprise!
Since the message I had received was an automated one, I could not respond directly. I did send a response to the company guessing at what I thought was their email. It went unanswered. Hence after a day or so, I called my credit card company.
The Legal Versus the Ethical
My credit card company informed me that this transaction was perfectly legal as I had implicitly agreed to have my subscription automatically renewed each year by not writing to the antivirus company to cancel. I was told my only recourse was to ask the company for a refund, and was given an 800 number to call.
I phoned immediately to discover a recorded message that this antivirus company does not offer phone support and to check out their web site. I did that next. After searching the company's web site for over half an hour, I submitted a request for cancellation to the company’s webmaster using an interactive form as I could no longer remember the original details to submit the cancellation to their sales department.
Protecting Yourself When Purchasing a Subscription Online
- If you subscribe to anything online, save the information the company sends you regarding your purchase.
- When you receive the purchase confirmation notice, read the WHOLE notice. If you do not find the ”Terms of Service”, (the fine print!) which should include renewal information, check the company's web site. If you can't find it, contact the company.
