Vistaprint WARNING !!!!

ANN

Oh how I wish I had read some of this before - I wonder how many people have been ripped off. I KNOW that I NEVER received a membership number or any membership details but I have just realised that I have been stopped £9.95 a month for at least 5 months. I know I should check my account more carefully. I know I should read all the terms and conditions - but how many of us do? Constant e-mails to them have not generated a reply but I have managed to cancel the payment. SPREAD THE WORD - this is a company that needs stopping - NOW!!

mum2one

I am a fan of vistaprint, I have purchased many items from them, when I purchase, I look at evrythinh on the invoice - inc the "free £10", it does give you the option to sign in to rewards.

As the motto goes "theres nothing in life for free" - never a truer word, it would the same on any sites, as long as you look carefully - and know what your paying for there shouldnt be any problems.

angelatgraceland

This happened to me last year. They repaid the money-£30 total when I phoned them. Where we slip up is the part after the order-the add on order parts, which are valid for 10 mins or whatever. Now, once I have placed my order I close my browser rather than click "anywhere" on vistaprint!
I then log in 10 mins later and go to the part where I can view orders to see if the order is being processed. This works-I dont get stung!

hollydays

Listened to an article about VistaPrint (and Interflora who also do this) on Radio 4 yesterday.It seems the law is to be changed in April to make it easier to bring these companies to account.Apparently Trading Standards have had a lot of complaints about them,as have the Office Of Fair Trading.TS think even if you didnt fully read the T & cs-the advertising is not transparent enough.

Kaye

OMG I can't believe Vistaprint is still doing this! This happened to me nearly two years ago! I used to order so much from Vistaprint, the prices were excellent and so was the quality of product - I saved a fortune when I got my save the date magnets from them for my wedding... but since being caught by this scam I've been scared to used them.

Normally I would never get caught out by anything like this so it must have been exceptionally sneaky, I remember doing it as well, I was placing an order and my husband was in my ear about something so I just clicked through to the checkout as you do and then next thing I knew two payments came out of my bank that I knew nothing about.

I did get my money back eventually but they have now lost a very loyal customer, I thought they would have wised up by now, why risk losing custom by sneakily ripping people off??

mum2one

Vistaprint do not rip people off, thescreen processes yourorder then gives you the option of reordering, and its on this screen, if people dont look at what there clicking then there is there fault.

stugib

mum2one wrote: »

Vistaprint do not rip people off, thescreen processes yourorder then gives you the option of reordering, and its on this screen, if people dont look at what there clicking then there is there fault.

Of course it is, they could have made it more obvious months or years ago given the amount of people that have been fooled. They could, and should if they were bound by EU law, have an opt-in system, not an opt-out system. They don't make money out of giving away business cards so the real purpose is to get people signed up, surreptitiously, to the worthless club.

mum2one

stugib wrote: »

Of course it is, they could have made it more obvious months or years ago given the amount of people that have been fooled. They could, and should if they were bound by EU law, have an opt-in system, not an opt-out system. They don't make money out of giving away business cards so the real purpose is to get people signed up, surreptitiously, to the worthless club.

I appricate that they dont make money from giveing away free business cards, in 2 years of transactions with them Ihave hadabsolutelyno probs and would highly recomend them to all.

It would be the same with any transaction,look at what your signing or, accepting.

You would not send a blank cheque in the post, as you would not know who could get to it, the same with any offeron theinternet.

Amazon are another company that offer the extra service, as long as theconsumer looks, there shouldbe no problem x

stugib

mum2one wrote: »

It would be the same with any transaction,look at what your signing or, accepting.

You would not send a blank cheque in the post, as you would not know who could get to it, the same with any offeron theinternet.

I don't think that's a good analogy. A better one IMHO would be that you went into Tesco for a loaf of bread, paid by card, and because you didn't notice a sign behind the counter and told them you weren't interested, they started charging your card every month for their DVD rental service.

mum2one wrote: »

Amazon are another company that offer the extra service, as long as theconsumer looks, there shouldbe no problem x

Amazon would have to have an opt-in scheme. There's a reason they're based in Barbados or wherever it is!

If I'd designed a website where my users were being routinely misled and mistakenly paying for something they never realised they were signing up for I'd (a) probably not get much work as a website designer, (b) be desperately trying to get the site redesigned to remove user 'error'.

adbaz

stugib wrote: »

Only because they're based in Barbados or somewhere. IIUC it would be classed as inertia marketing (or the equivalent of whatever that is where you actually take money off people!) in the EU by making it an opt-out not an opt-in.

Regardless of the legality, I think it's safe to assume it's deliberately
misleading or badly designed judging by the number of people falling for it and the length of time it's been going on.

What would happen if they were taken to a small claims court where the judgement is supposed to be based on fair play and fair expectations?
Has anyone tried any legal routes?