B2B Charge For New Service Without Customer Approval
Discussion
My VOIP provider, who I have used for all my businesses since 2007, has come up with an interesting way to increase revenue.
In June they emailed every customer to say they had added a service as a free trial. It is not a telephony service but “fraud protection”. For every domain name used in the customer account (even from just the customer email address), they give 30 days free then charge £9.99 a month. I did not receive the email but have seen another customer’s, the service just had a one line description and did not state how to opt out or cancel.
They simultaneously added a new set of terms of conditions to their website (which was not mentioned in their email or any other communication) to their website, which stated:
“Where the Service is provided as a promotional ancillary service subsequently the Agreement in relation to the Service shall be effective on the date upon which the Service is provided by the Supplier and shall continue in force unless terminated:”
On discovering, by accident as the amount was lost in the noise of the regular costs, I asked for it to be credited to our account as we did not sign up to the service. No can do was the reply, check our terms.
What does the collective here think, sharp practice or illegal?
For context they are low millions turnover, guesstimate high 5 figures number of customers.
In June they emailed every customer to say they had added a service as a free trial. It is not a telephony service but “fraud protection”. For every domain name used in the customer account (even from just the customer email address), they give 30 days free then charge £9.99 a month. I did not receive the email but have seen another customer’s, the service just had a one line description and did not state how to opt out or cancel.
They simultaneously added a new set of terms of conditions to their website (which was not mentioned in their email or any other communication) to their website, which stated:
“Where the Service is provided as a promotional ancillary service subsequently the Agreement in relation to the Service shall be effective on the date upon which the Service is provided by the Supplier and shall continue in force unless terminated:”
On discovering, by accident as the amount was lost in the noise of the regular costs, I asked for it to be credited to our account as we did not sign up to the service. No can do was the reply, check our terms.
What does the collective here think, sharp practice or illegal?
For context they are low millions turnover, guesstimate high 5 figures number of customers.
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