Road Angel Classic - When is Lifetime Subscription not for Life?

cofi53

Flyboy152 wrote: »

For a "Newbie," you're not doing yourself any favours. I'd suggest you turn the rhetoric down a bit.

This is a free and overt forum, open to anyone, as a result, anyone is free to post where they like. It is not up to any other member to ask that anyone stops posting.

Noted Flyboy and I heed your advice. Please understand however that I am not here to do myself "any favours" as you put it. But as an oldie to a newbie, to suggest that my writing is rhetoric....

I am here because I came across this blog off a Google search and, if you have not already guessed, I am quite annoyed by the whole saga. I am actually one of those people who purchased a reasonably expensive high tech product a few years ago. Within twelve months, as the product performed in quite an exemplary way, I purchased a lifetime subscription for updates to the product for £99. Like many others I was told last week of the intention to withdraw lifetime support. I wrote to them last week, by both email and recorded delivery, and have had their (holding) acknowledgment.

The helpful blog from Grizzly1911 prompted me to do a quick credit check on the company (which I should have done in the first place). Thanks Grizzly and I am now going to sit back and wait to see what they do. They have not as yet terminated my service and I suspect have not terminated any other service contract and so all of this hyperbole (to adopt Flyboy's rhetoric) is conjecture at this point. I do think that all recipients of their intended notice should write to them to express their disagreement and should make sure that they receive an acknowledgement. We do not know what the company's reaction will be but it is at that time that we may need to consider whether further action is necessary.

At that time we can also decide whether any action can be justified against the fact that the company posted a turnover down 33.3% since 2009, posted a pretax loss of 17% to turnover in their last published accounts for May 2011.

I consider that we should now sit back and wait for the company to make their next move and see if they break the contract.

evilcartman

cofi53 wrote: »

I've had a brief conversation with my solicitor who considers that a class action could be th best way to deal with this if there were sufficient people joining within such a scheme. I'll post further information when available.

Count me in. I've already emailed them as an individual, rejecting the inadequate "offer" and saying that I will pursue the matter in small claims if need be. But obviously the more of us join forces, the better.

evilcartman

k3lvc wrote: »

Indeed and my apologies if I've misread and there are people in this situation - I read it that the offer was a historic one from 2006/07. If not I withdraw my comment from those more recent purchasers

The company are lying about it being an offer that was only made to a limited number of customers at the product's launch. The offer was still on their website's RA Classic page, which was still up just a few days before they sent out the letter.

The page was taken down when the letter was sent out. What could they possibly be trying to hide, eh?

banjo_2

I have looked on this site but cannot find any reference to the RA Classic

evilcartman

banjo wrote: »

I have looked on this site but cannot find any reference to the RA Classic

Unfortunately for them, it was still on Google's cache when the letter came out. Saved.

Anyone bringing a case to court will have no difficulty obtaining this evidence from Google. RA will be perjuring themselves if they maintain this lie about the lifetime subs being a "launch offer".

DUTR

I never had a lifetime subscription offer for my RA pro, the bracket had broken last year and they wanted too much for a replacement, in the end I opted for roadpilot on my mobile, costs £15 pa and to be fair works as well as the RA less the radar detection of course (which has only ever gone off twice in the years I have had it) .

evilcartman

DUTR wrote: »

I never had a lifetime subscription offer for my RA pro, the bracket had broken last year and they wanted too much for a replacement, in the end I opted for roadpilot on my mobile, costs £15 pa and to be fair works as well as the RA less the radar detection of course (which has only ever gone off twice in the years I have had it) .

I think you mean the laser detection, as the RA has a laser detection module but not radar. The laser detection is pointless, though, as the moment it detects laser on your car, you've already been clocked. It would only help if it picked up scattered laser radiation from a vehicle in front.

cofi53

evilcartman wrote: »

Count me in. I've already emailed them as an individual, rejecting the inadequate "offer" and saying that I will pursue the matter in small claims if need be. But obviously the more of us join forces, the better.

Thanks for this, evilcartman, and suggest we monitor their response to our objections. If they do terminate our support in due course we'll need to decide whether and how best to pursue them. My main concern is that they may well be experiencing financial problems and their latest accounts are shortly due. They last made a profit in 2009, made a pretax profit of £4k in 2010 and a substantial loss in 2011. They seem perhaps to be thinking of ways to raise capital and one way perhaps would be to get us lifetime subscribers to spend money with them again.

jetskidia

Might it be a good idea to make them aware of this thread?

banjo_2

It would be a good idea to let the the majority of owners of this package that there is an alternative to just rolling over , I don't know how to do it other than contacting Watchdog which I have done without reply !