A year ago, with a potential client who wanted sort of standard design, I signed up for a service that allows you to download pre-made templates, called Boxed Art, owned by a company named Big Resources, Inc. They also had some music loops I thought I could use for another project. Both projects ended up not happening and I sort of forgot about them. Last week, via a subscription I'd set up with PayPal, they auto-renewed my subscription for $99.
Now, I hadn't visited their sites for months and had no desire to renew. So I asked them to cancel my subscription and refund the payment. They not only refused, they pointed to a bit in their fine print where they said they "cannot" refund renewals.
Cannot? Cannot? Are their fingers broken? Did PayPal go offline? PayPal will allow them to refund it, so "cannot" is a big, fat, baldfaced lie. They are not unable to refund my payment. They refuse to refund my payment.
I have worked in businesses that did subscription services. If someone forgot to cancel an auto-renewal and immediately asked for a cancellation and refund when they were billed, they got it. Why? Because fighting with them over it and generating all that ill will and bad karma was bad for business. But apparently the liars at Boxed Art (sister company of Built 2 Go and Stocked Photos) think that it's more important to keep my $99 than to have a happy former customer. So they're not only liars, they're stupid too.
I guess because I think "customer service" means not screwing your customers, but instead thinking about the long term, I just can't understand their bullheaded obstinacy about keeping money they're not going to earn, and instead making an enemy of a former customer.
It may be legal for them to keep my money, but it's neither moral nor ethical. So besides making them liars and morons, they're crooks too, using a loophole to keep money to which they're only entitled due to "gotcha" fine print.
So, if you're ever considering a subscription to Boxed Art, Built 2 Go, or Stocked Photos... think again. You'll be giving your money to lying, stupid crooks who will use small print to try to screw you if you forget to cancel when you no longer need their service.
But just warning you about these particular companies doesn't solve the overall problem. What's the best way to deal with autorenewing subscriptions? Should legislation be introduced to require a 72 hour advance notice of an impending renewal (from the vendor or from PayPal) so you have a chance to cancel before you're billed? Would it be a good idea for someone to code up a FireFox extension that keeps a calendar of your autorenewals for you (click a button when you subscribe, select the subscription period, and Firefox warns you of impending autorenewals when you boot it)?
I don't know the best answer, but comments are welcome.
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Just FYI. If you do a search for “web site templates” on Google, an ad for Boxed Art comes up in the righthand column of ads. Since it’s Pay Per Click, you ought to do that search daily and click on their ad.
I’m sure that 365 clicks over the next year for that keyword set ought to cost them at least $99.
A reminder script that reminds you of auto-renewals would be useful - if people rememered to use it. Outlook users could drop the initial confirmation on their own calendars, and then change the date to remind them before the autorenewal kicked in.
In the current situation, if you haven't already done so, you should complain to PayPal.