Forum Subscription Membership Issue

moneysaver79_2

Hi all,

I was hoping that someone may be able to help me with the following issue.

Sometime I ago I joined the following forum econsultancy.com and the membership type was the Bronze package which allows for free, but no access to paid reports.

In June 2010 I decided I would like to upgrade my account and then I could take advantage of the benefits the Silver package had to offer; therefore I attempted to make the initial payment of £295 online; however, it transpired that you could not use Maestro online, thus I called and they stated that they would invoice me for the amount and they activated my account from Bronze to Silver on the phone.

At no time and during this process have I signed anything or agreed to anything; however, I reviewed the Sliver package that evening and on reflection it appeared that you received very little that the free account didn't offer, other than access to the reports for download.

I emailed a representative the day after the account had been activated to state that I did not wish to proceed with registering for the Silver package and for them to not proceed with invoicing me.

I soon received an email from a representative stating the following:

Hi X

Good to talk to you over the phone yesterday. Yesterday, using your new silver membership, 442 downloads were accessed. Cancelling the invoice, that I agreed to raise for you, would mean you have paid nothing for the entirety of our content. Our terms and conditions include the following:


If you are acting as a consumer, under the Distance Selling Regulations 2000, you have a statutory right to cancel any distance contract within 7 days of the date of purchase as long as you have not yet accessed the relevant Services.


These downloads have to be paid for, and are priced at £150 each when purchased individually (totalling over £60,000) - we consider the price of the silver membership (at £195 + VAT) to be good value.

Regards
Mr x

I stated that I had not downloaded any reports; therefore I did not accept what they had stated; however, they claim that because I logged in I therefore accessed the site and thus they are billing me. At this point my account was frozen and to date I have received 3 emails demanding money from me.

I have today received the following:

Your account is still seriously overdue and this letter is a final demand for payment.

If we do not receive payment in our bank account by Friday 17th September, we will have no alternative than to commence with further debt collection procedures. This will include instructing our debt collection agents to recover this debt.

This action can be avoided by settling the outstanding amount of £229.13 re inv xx-xxxxx.

Many thanks,


I do not agree with the fact that they claim I downloaded all the files and equally I surely have a cooling off period and if dissatisfied I have the right to cancel (within a specific time frame) and I would have thought it very difficult for them to prove that (and as stated I didn't) download some reports from the site.

Can anyone assist me with this further and a course of action as it would now appear that I'm being bullied into making a payment for a service which lasted all but a day and one for which I requested to cancel the day after.

Many thanks,