Resumeimproved refund

londonerryan

Hi everyone,

I hope this is the right place to write this.

My friend recently discovered she had been paying a company called EmploymentOnline Ltd on PayPal for the past 9.5 years a fee of £3.49 a month. That's almost £400. I discovered this when i was helping her with some PayPal stuff. I asked her what the payments were for and she said she assumed they were 'PayPal fees' - she has sold stuff on eBay before so knew about fees, but thought they were just monthly fees. I informed her that PayPal doesn't take fees just when you buy stuff through them. This is when i looked into it closer.

She has no recollection of signing up to the website resumeimproved.com. She tells me she's never needed a CV as she's worked for her current company for nearly 7 years and other jobs before that for several years. She can't ever remember writing a CV. Obviously it was 10 years ago so she may have forgotten signing up. It's possible. Perhaps she clicked on 'start for free' then skipped the website and decided to do it herself. It's also possible that somebody signed up using her email by mistake or fraudulently. What is certain though is she hasn't used their website - this would surely be seen if anybody logs into her account details and analyses her usage.

She signed up to Amazon Prime but she didn't use it. They sent her an email 6 months or so later saying she wasn't benefiting from her subscription. She canceled it. This company has sent her no emails and had no contact. They told me on the phone they have no time for such things as they have 'hundreds of thousands of subscribers'. And Amazon doesn't, i presume?!

I called them to ask for an address to send a letter to and informed them my friend would be requesting the money be paid back.

PayPal says we need to contact them directly to ask for the money to be paid back and if not to go through the bank with 'Chargeback'.

We called PayPal and downloaded all of the receipts to this company. EmploymentOnline Ltd are linked to Resumeimproved.com. On the receipts it states both of these names.

Reviews for them online aren't good: https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.resumeimproved.com

People seemingly fell for their 'free trial' then forced 'subscription trap'.

Trying to find them took a little searching. Their website doesn't have a UK contact number attached (http://www.resumeimproved.com/contact.php) although i found a contact number by searching for EmploymentOnline ltd.

The website 'sign up' page, which you get to by clicking on 'Start now for free', has no information about subscription fees: http://www.resumeimproved.com/join.php

I've recently read articles about the government cracking down on 'small print' and 'subscription traps' - i believe this case includes elements of both of these things.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39167860

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/04/budget-2017-chancellor-philip-hammond-announce-ban-baffling/

My questions:

1. Their sign up page has no mention of fees. Not even any small print. Is this a significant point to make to them? (i.e. misleading customers). After all, their negative feedback online mentions words like 'misleading', 'not free' etc.

2. Does the government's recent talk of 'crackdowns' deserve a mention in our letter to their company? Will it add strength to her demand for compensation or is the fact their talk is at an early stage mean it's irrelevant?

3. Are there any laws currently which forbid this sort of thing? As i said, it's possible she signed up by mistake and completely forgot. It's possible somebody signed up with her email. But, what is certain is she hasn't used their product, at least not since that very first potential 'accidental sign up'.

4. Does this constitute fraud in any way?

5. As stated already, some companies (e.g. Amazon Prime) contact their subscribers to remind them of their subscription etc. This company has made no contact. Is this significant?

6. I'm presuming they'll merely reject our demand. If they do, she has the option of going through her bank (Chargeback). Before she does that, can she take the case anywhere else, e.g. trading standards?

7. I've read their T&C's: http://www.resumeimproved.com/terms.php

a) In section 1 'Acceptance of terms....', it states: "Use of or access to the ResumeImproved.com web site shall constitute acceptance of this Agreement."

The fact she hasn't used their website, does this invalidate her 'agreement'?

b) In section 2: "ResumeImproved.com will require you to use any debit, credit card accepted by 2checkout.com for subscriptions made to ResumeImproved.com".

I've never heard of 2checkout.com. She has been paying them on PayPal. That site isn't mentioned on any PayPal bill. Is this significant?

c) Nothing in the T&C's point to a specific cost for subscription (i.e. £3.49 a month). Nothing on the sign up page does so either. I am not going to sign up myself and she certainly isn't going to sign in (even if she has an account, she won't know the password and won't sign in because it invalidates her claim), so i don't know if the site even mentions this fee. Is this significant?

We've written most of the letter but i'd like to know how significant some of these details are.

Thanks for any help in advance.

-taff

Looks like she makes a habit of signing up for things she forgets she has.

She can ask for her money back, but going in guns blazing wont help.
She probably signed up to a continuous authority payment when she used this site ,

No-one can use her paypal details without her authorisation, she would have had to have agreed to it, and instructed paypal to agree with it.

If someone knew her details, again, that's her fault, she should have kept her passwords secret.....

londonerryan

I have a few friends who aren't computer literate or who clearly don't check the small print. Unfortunately i think a lot of companies mislead people on the fact the small print exists - this company seems to have misled a few people on that basis considering they have mostly negative reviews online.

I suspect what might have happened is my friend was between jobs and thought about doing a CV, found this company, signed up for 'free', let them access her PayPal because it all seemed legit, took a look at the site, didn't like the look, then forgot all about it.

I don't think people should necessarily be punished for naivety though, hence why i think the government are talking about cracking down on 'subscription traps' and 'small print'.

-taff

There's a difference between being naive and never checking your statements for unknown deductions.

Paypal send me an e-mail every time I use it, does she never receive these?

Lucky she has you to sort her out now.

Nasqueron

londonerryan wrote: »

I have a few friends who aren't computer literate or who clearly don't check the small print. Unfortunately i think a lot of companies mislead people on the fact the small print exists - this company seems to have misled a few people on that basis considering they have mostly negative reviews online.

I suspect what might have happened is my friend was between jobs and thought about doing a CV, found this company, signed up for 'free', let them access her PayPal because it all seemed legit, took a look at the site, didn't like the look, then forgot all about it.

I don't think people should necessarily be punished for naivety though, hence why i think the government are talking about cracking down on 'subscription traps' and 'small print'.

Firms will always attract bad reviews in situations like this thanks to buyer's remorse - people sign up for things without reading and then complain when they get charged, I wonder how many bad reviews are about the service itself vs people complaining they were billed?

She can ask nicely given she hasn't used the service but they are under no obligation to refund especially given how long it has been, a complaint in the first month after she was charged has some weight, a complaint years later looks like a try it on