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| You're smiling now ... but wait til the 'stealth bill' arrives! |
Grrr ... slightly off topic, but this one angered me. I bought a product called PC Cleaner Pro last year. My PC was slow and needed cleaning out. £25 for a PC cleaner to do the job didn't seem that bad. It worked brilliantly - I thought, great job. Anyhow ... I checked my credit card randomly and saw a bill, a year later, for PC cleaner.
Hang on a minute, I already bought that. Apparently, it a stealth subscription product. Why? Is a few updates and some patches worth a whole payment. It's hardly World of Tanks or Warcraft, I haven't noticed any new 'worlds' turn up on the PC cleaner front. Maybe I don't play it enough, if I really put in the PC Cleaner hours perhaps I could level up and get access to a whole new vista of cleaning products, deep clean areas, eradication missions .... Oh wait ITS A FECKING SPAM CLEANER!
I contacted customer support - only to be met with this:
Your chat number is 10C-189CF2B3-050D
Chris: I got billed on 26/1/13
for a pc cleaner product I bought last year...
Gio: Hello! Welcome to PC
Cleaner live chat! My name is Gio, I will be assisting you today.
Chris: Hi Gio
Gio: Hello! Welcome to PC
Cleaner live chat! My name is Gio, I will be assisting you today.
Gio: You can also locate by
SafeCart number found in the confirmation email sent to you by safecart
following your purchase. The order number will begin with NWPC.
Chris: yes you said that
Gio: I'm sorry for that
Gio: You can check it with our
online look-up. https://www.safecart.com/purchase-lookup
Chris: I have no email from you
or safecart. I purchased this product last year.
Chris: Why am I being billed
again?
Chris: There is no record of my
credit card on safecart.
Gio: Please check your safecart
if you are enrolled in automatic renewal.
Chris: Is this an annually
renewed product?
Gio: Yes
Chris: Why?
Chris: That isn't made clear in
the purchase process.
Gio: To disable auto renew
please send your request to billing@pc-cleaners.com
and they will assist you immediately.@@SPACER
Chris: I don't like this
approach ... its underhand.
Chris: The products good, but it
feeling like you're stealing money for a product I've already paid for. Do I
get anything else for the renewal price?
Gio: It is stated in the terms
and condition
Chris: Yeah, fineprint backside
cover - real upstanding. You just got screwed because you didn't read every
page of the EULA. Never saw that before. Doesn't improve how this feels, does
it?
Chris: I like this product, I'd
like to use it on multiple computers... that would make it worthwhile. Can I do
that?
Chris: Round robin PC
maintenance would make the £25 a year worth it.
Gio: One license key one
computer policy.
Chris: You're not winning me
over are you? You really don't give a damn about your customers do you?
Chris: This is it, take it or
leave it. We'll stealth bill you and take your money... and the customer
service amounts to 'told you so, hahaha' - cute
Chris: I would like my invoice
sending to cd****@****.co.uk, as you
are legally obliged to provide. Otherwise I cannot claim the payment and I'll
have to bounce your payment as fraudulent and without my consent.
Chris: You have given no
notification of an invoice, I have had no notification of your renewal from
your 'payment handler' and the payment handler has no record of the charge.
Please issue me the invoice.
Gio: Please send your request
for refund to our billing department they will just notify you an email the
status of your request.
Chris: Will they refund me?
Gio: Yes
Gio: Thank you for contacting PC
Cleaner PRO Support, have a nice day!
This live chat session is no longer active
Now there's charm for you eh?
Professional Sales Hat Talk
So what's wrong with this picture? I like the product, I would have renewed but the company weren't interested in sales. They had spent so much money invested in product development, but have a mindset where 'product = auto sales'. By shying away from the price (a common problem and something to be learnt), they opted for underhand payment tactics, ass covering T&C's and poor sales approach. The 'customer service' (STOP SNIGGERING AT THE BACK) guy had an easy response for me, here it is:
"We're really sorry that the subscription came as a surprise, it is in the terms and conditions, but some of our customers have missed that. As a conciliatory gesture, would you be happy if we enabled your account to work on another computer?"
Cost to them - none. Value to me - I get to keep the product I like and feel I'm getting 'special treatment'. Value to reputation - priceless.
I may have been writing a better review.
