People sign up for things — and then they forget about them. Often they don’t want to spend the time to unsubscribe or cancel, or they just say domani (tomorrow), like an Italian winemaker.
One of the chief ways consumers get reeled into recurring monthly charges is the use of pre-checked checkboxes at the bottom of payment forms.
Many times the verbiage around the checkbox has some kind of bait-and-switch offer like, “Charge me $2 now and $30 per month thereafter.” Sometimes the service provider will appear helpful by telling you about the pre-filled checkbox — and encourage you to leave it checked so you can allegedly benefit from whatever scheme they are cooking up. “All you have to do is remember to unsubscribe later,” they’ll tell you.
I’ve seen how well people remember in their bank statements:
- $30 per month for AOL
- $50 monthly dues to a veterinarian for a deceased pet
- $9.99 monthly dues to be someone’s Super Follow on Twitter
- $39 per month for unused virus protection
- $19.99 for predatory “credit monitoring”
At JHA we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients to act in their best interest. In plain English, that means we like finding erroneous charges and getting them reversed. Unfortunately, if you’re not looking at your statements — and balancing your checkbook — once a month, companies will continue to get away with it.
I remember the good old days, when a company was happy to sell you something without trying to extract a monthly income stream out of you for no reason other than the fact that they are able to do it. At JHA, we’ll deal with the opportunistic mega-corporations on your behalf, so you can keep your hands clean.
Contact us to learn more!
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