Earlier this year I was cold called by Social Media People with regards to running a campaign to promote my business on facebook. I agreed to a trial limited to only as many clicks as a budget of £99 would allow for which I felt was a fair trial to assess whether this service would prove to be effective.
I was therefore surprised to receive another invoice 3 months later from this company advising me that I was being billed yet again. On closer inspection I examined the invoice more closely – certain things didn’t look right (no VAT number, despite charging me for VAT, no supplier address, no reference of the invoice period). At this point I made further enquiries to investigate why I had been sent a further invoice.
I am 100% certain that I did NOT undertake an agreement to repeat the use of this company’s services. No contractual relationship with the company had been entered into. I was therefore very surprised to note their claim that I did in fact have a contractual agreement to continue on a rolling basis with them. I never heard from them again after the initial set up calls. All initial transactions were conducted by telephone and no paperwork was exchanged to confirm or commit to the arrangement.
When I called to complain that I had been misled about being committed to a contract, I was told that for a £10 fee I could receive a copy of the conversation confirming their representative’s conversation with me which they claim clarified the rolling monthly contract had been made clear to me. I am absolutely certain this was never the case. It is just not in my nature to commit to anything without trying it out first, especially where the marketing of my business is concerned.
To cancel this so called contract, you have to submit notice in writing (to a PO Box which you cannot send recorded mail to!), and once received (if it does get received that is!) your account is only cancelled after 30 days. Only when you refer to the terms and conditions on their website do you realise that in addition to this notice period and the costs incurred therein, they require 40% of the contract to date.
I also have reason to doubt that the service was even delivered. No copy of the ad was ever received nor any evidence hereto. No evidence exists that the ad was even placed. Nobody reported seeing it. Monthly statistics provided by my web hosting supplier confirm no increase in website views. Neither was there any increase in telephone call enquiries received. When I flagged this up I was told that a copy of the ad and monthly reporting information was sent by email. All receipt boxes for my email account have been checked and I can confirm that these were never received.
This company will try to be very clever when you speak to them in refusing to accept any responsibility, instead they use 'reverse psychology' to make it look like its all your mistake.
I doubt the ad ever went out, all this company wanted was my credit card details - its a cash cow scam scheme they will keep milking if we let them.
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