How online “agreements” end up dinging consumers
Ran into 2 incidents over the past few weeks where I wondered just how “binding” online Terms of Service were when they were tucked away on the bottom menu of a vendor’s website.
First surprise I came across is when I phoned Star Choice (now Shaw Direct) to cancel our satellite TV service. The customer rep explained that they required a 30 day notice for cancellations. Why? It makes no rational sense – it’s not like they need 30 days to throw a bunch of switches or punch in the cancellation on their keyboards. When I told the rep I never agreed to this when I signed up, nor was it explained to me, AND – what I consider the BIGGEST act of omission – there was not a scintilla of info about it in their “current customer FAQ”, she told me it was typed in the monthy statement on page 2 or 3, and stated in their online Terms of Service.
The terms (a pdf document) start out with:
“You (the “Customer’) acknowledge and agree that by paying for any of the Services offered by Shaw Direct, you agree that the following terms and conditions (“Terms of Service”) apply to the provision of the Services.”
If you’re a lawyer and reading this post, I’d like to know whether “paying” for a service – unless you’ve received a copy of the agreement when you signed up and agreed to it – constitutes a contract just because someone says so in their online terms. As a consumer, it seems like a fairly liberal stretch.
The other case that left me a bit rankled involved an account I had set up with bandmix.ca. I paid for premiere membership for a month (to access some of the for-fee features), using the pages shown below (screenshots):
Page 1
Page 2
A month later, I got an email notification saying they had charged a second month to my credit card. Huh? After going back to the site, and digging a little deeper, I discovered they made recurring billing the default, while giving you the option of disabling it.
I sent them an email telling them I didn’t agree to the recurring charge, and asked them to reverse it, or I would. This was their response:
“We apologize if there was any confusion. The auto-renewal feature is listed in the terms and conditions, the FAQ, and the final checkout page. However, we understand if you did not intend to renew and have refunded you $9.95. You should see this posted to your account in the next 5 business days. “
I revisited the final checkout page, and lo and behold, the auto-renewal feature WAS listed on the checkout page – well below the Submit button. Unless you scrolled down further after you were ready to press the pay button, you’d miss it. I did. Here’s the bottom part of page 2 after scrolling some more:
The question I had to ask myself: WHY wasn’t the auto-renewal alongside a checkbox you specifically had to agree to ABOVE the submit button? One answer: more “renewals” the way they currently have it. Reminds me of the attempt by cable companies a few years back to automatically add on new channel charges to customer accounts unless they opted out.
It IS stated in the Terms section, but once again, it would be simple to put this clause in front of the customer on the payment page – and would firmly show where the company’s ethics lay. The clause:
“Subscription. Subscriptions on monthly and quarterly billings will be automatically renewed unless cancelled by the member within 1 day of the next billing date. Any coupon code applied at the time of the initial transaction will not be applied to any following renewal charges for any account.”
In my early twenties, once of my first jobs was selling vacuums. Door-to-door sales over the years had gotten away with a number of dubious practices, and by the time I started, the provincial government had caught up with the most grievous, especially the specification that the consumer’s right to cancel the sale within 10 days be printed in large type at the very top of contracts.
Simple precept: if you want the customer to agree to something that’s going to cost them extra money, put it front and center where they can find it, see it, and understand it easily. If you’ve dealt with an online company that has charged you extra without following that principle, complain loudly, and use the BBB and other avenues to make them realize that, in trying to get extra honey, sometimes they’re gonna rankle a bees’ nest.
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