Ecommerce Site Starts Charging Automatically for a Feature That Was Previously Free. Subscription Rights?

• 

  Switchblade88 on 19/09/2019 - 12:59

  -5

  You have no rights, you agree to pay them monthly for whatever services they are offering you at that time.

  If you've been charged for something without being notified/agreeing, then you'd need to complain to the company about it before any potential escalation to the ACCC etc. But all you'll get is anything between nothing up to a refund of $207. If you want those features going forward then you'll succumb and agree to pay that figure going forward.

  If you don't like the subscription then you are free to change providers. You did think about this when you first signed up, right? You didn't lock all you data and facilities inside a proprietary service with no way to cleanly export everything?

  • 

    WhatWouldBiggieDo on 19/09/2019 - 13:33

    +2

    Probably one of the most condescending posts I've ever seen. Well done.

    You also failed to answer the question and just reiterated a lot of what had already been said. Of course the outcome is that they will get a refund of between $0 and $207.

    The point here is that when OP signed up add-on it was free, it then became a paid add-on with seemingly no notice. This is not right and there is no contractual obligation to pay. I would do a credit card chargeback, close my account and then report to ACCC.

    • 

      Switchblade88 on 19/09/2019 - 13:44

      -1

      Question: 'what are my rights?'
      Answer: 'none'

      just reiterated a lot of what had already been said

      Not bad for the first commenter then. None of which was copying the OP.

      Probably one of the most condescending posts I've ever seen. Well done.

      Sorry about that. It's probably current me, yelling at past me about the exact same problems and issues as the OP is facing. I've wasted too much time & lost too much data in proprietary formats & services.

      It may not be a just situation, but there is also no viable recourse. Only option is to put up or shut up, sadly.

  • 

    Bargein on 19/09/2019 - 13:42

    Huh, no rights is an interesting. My expectation would be similar to that of a bank, where they would have to notify you of rate and policy changes at all stages before making the change, or having to opt in for the add-on again if they start charging for it.
    At the stage of complaining to the company now, but wondering if there are any sites or policy I can quote or reference in my argument. The feature is all but useless when it was free, and certainly not worth it now when paid.

    Certainly not locked in, but the effort to change over is the limiting factor. Issues like this are really starting to make me think of changing though.

    Edit: where does the 0-$207 refund amount come from?

    • 

      Switchblade88 on 19/09/2019 - 13:51

      -2

      The feature is all but useless when it was free, and certainly not worth it now when paid.

      Good to know - some critical addons I've used have become paid-for, and it was rather difficult to explain to the bosses that the annual expenditure just jumped 50% for no additional benefit.

      where does the 0-$207 refund amount come from?

      I was extrapolating $69 a month x 3 months = $207

      Certainly not locked in

      Really good to hear. I've got all our critical data like stock details and databases separate (mostly for easier data entry) but that also means it's super easy to import into another alternative for either trial usage or a full changeover. Don't be afraid to try other products; you don't get loyalty bonuses so you have nothing to lose by keeping options open.

• 

  Hellfire on 19/09/2019 - 13:36

  If you have a contract then you could refer to that. Otherwise you would need to look at the terms and conditions that you agreed to when purchasing.

  There might be some recourse under Australian law but that is almost useless if they are an overseas company. And it would cost you much more for legal fees than you would pay each money for the subscription.

  If you paid via credit card you could try a chargeback but you'd probably be cut off by the company from your site.

• 

  garetz on 19/09/2019 - 15:37

  +1

  The question you should be asking is do you want to stay with them or not ? If yes gotta suck it up, if not, charge back.

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  blonky on 19/09/2019 - 15:51

  Likely would've been in the T&Cs when you entered your credit card (assuming they're charging your card) stating something like a free trial period then $69/mo after, or something like they can increase their price with x months notice.

  Common for cloud subscriptions but I'm not sure on what rights you have and what sort of notice they are required to provide you

  Have you asked them for a refund?

  • 

    Switchblade88 on 19/09/2019 - 18:16

    OP was referring to the optional add-ons for their subscription. So they've probably had this service for a while, with free optional features added, and wouldn't fit into the 'trial subscription ended' situation (i.e. forgot to cancel the Netflix trial).

    Because these are add-ons, not the base subscription, then the provider is not generally as forthcoming with notifications & price changes as they would be for base subscriptions. Once they've got you committed, you as the customer have more hurdles to change provider than to stay; so they can start squeezing you wallet in other ways - as they have done to the OP.

• 

  [Deactivated] on 20/09/2019 - 00:13

  I'm surprised at what you've experienced, but the way I see businesses run these days I wouldn't be surprised if no notice is provided.

  I know some that used the cloudatcost service and they had a one-off payment for cloud service but that turned into annual fee service with an annual maintenance fee. I'm not sure how many people they managed to extract that fee from, but I think the same rules about notification for the contract to be valid apply. You might even be able to exercise some rights even after they have billed you depending on how the terms are worded and what a reasonable person would think.

  A lot of people on the cloudatcost reddit have suddenly received notices after not even using the service because it was basically not even fit for development purposes, whereby data is lost randomly and sporadically.

  People just don't know how to run businesses these days.