The product doesn't matter. It's the same story, whether it's diet pills or anti-wrinkle cream, or vitamins or magazines or whatever. Customer sees an advertisement for a "free" sample... except, of course, they must pay shipping and handling, and thus they must give their credit card or debit card number.
And then they are shocked,completely flabbergasted, to find that they are being charged a monthly fee for the fine print attached to that "free" sample. If they are lucky, it's only around $19.99. Today's was $79.99. Twice, because they charge the first two month's service up-front. I've seen higher.
Perhaps customer contacts the company first to complain. In which case, they will discover that the cancellation period for the additional products ended before they even received the first "free" sample. Generally, the place will still cancel future charges (Do NOT trust this. Change your card number immediately.) but will tell them they are out the charges already made because they failed to meet the cancellation policy.
So, customer comes to the bank, whether before or after complaining to the company, and they will scream "scam" and "I didn't authorize this!". And we will put in a dispute, and it will FAIL, because however crappy the company was to slip in the fine print underneath the customer's radar, and however completely unjust the incredibly short cancellation policy is, they are just enough within the letter of legal regulations that they win the dispute. And the customer is OUT that money. And we can do nothing.
And then the customer turns SC and yells at the bank for not getting their money back when they didn't authorize the charge! We're supposed to have zero liability on charges when the number was stolen and that company that they gave their card number to STOLE it to do extra charges that they failed to notice when they were getting their "free" butt cream.
*sigh*
So just, PLEASE people, think before you buy, even when what you are buying is "free".
...on a similar note, when you sign a year-long contract with a gym, they WILL take your bill to collections even if you change your card number so they can no longer take automatic payments from your card. And again, we can't successfully dispute charges unless they are done AFTER you have canceled via the company's own cancellation policy. A contract is a contract folks, however crappy the companies sales policies might be.
And then they are shocked,completely flabbergasted, to find that they are being charged a monthly fee for the fine print attached to that "free" sample. If they are lucky, it's only around $19.99. Today's was $79.99. Twice, because they charge the first two month's service up-front. I've seen higher.
Perhaps customer contacts the company first to complain. In which case, they will discover that the cancellation period for the additional products ended before they even received the first "free" sample. Generally, the place will still cancel future charges (Do NOT trust this. Change your card number immediately.) but will tell them they are out the charges already made because they failed to meet the cancellation policy.
So, customer comes to the bank, whether before or after complaining to the company, and they will scream "scam" and "I didn't authorize this!". And we will put in a dispute, and it will FAIL, because however crappy the company was to slip in the fine print underneath the customer's radar, and however completely unjust the incredibly short cancellation policy is, they are just enough within the letter of legal regulations that they win the dispute. And the customer is OUT that money. And we can do nothing.
And then the customer turns SC and yells at the bank for not getting their money back when they didn't authorize the charge! We're supposed to have zero liability on charges when the number was stolen and that company that they gave their card number to STOLE it to do extra charges that they failed to notice when they were getting their "free" butt cream.
*sigh*
So just, PLEASE people, think before you buy, even when what you are buying is "free".
...on a similar note, when you sign a year-long contract with a gym, they WILL take your bill to collections even if you change your card number so they can no longer take automatic payments from your card. And again, we can't successfully dispute charges unless they are done AFTER you have canceled via the company's own cancellation policy. A contract is a contract folks, however crappy the companies sales policies might be.
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