Office-PDF Online - is this subscription method legal ?

Pollycat

UncleJunior said:

Am sorry but I am struggling to see how you can argue their case.

How does stating 'basic membership is valid until 24/09...' become a clear statement telling you that after that point you are enrolled in a subscription where you will be charged £40 per month going forward?

And then how does a * after the '48 hour trial' text point you to text that is barely readable to the naked eye? 

There is no * at the start of the unreadable paragraph so how do you know you are meant to read it?  

Bear in mind as well that you have agreed to pay 50p for the conversion so naturally you would not expect any further charges.

There is nothing in the e-mail that clearly sets out in plain sight the significant subscription charge that you will be signing up to - I come back to my earlier point regarding who would pay £40 to convert a single PDF file into excel??

It is obvious that they have done everything they scan to hide any mention of the subscription.

And finally why is it they do not clearly set out the subscription in clear readable text that cannot be missed - the answer is obviously because they know that if you were aware of this, you would not proceed.  That is a scam by any definition. 

Use of the words joined/joining and subscription would have alerted me to the fact that I had almost certainly committed to a monthly/annual fee.
That is not in small script.

And it is not hiding any mention of the subscription.

It is not a scam by any definition.
You made a mistake by not checking.

GingerTim

Pollycat said:

UncleJunior said:

Am sorry but I am struggling to see how you can argue their case.

How does stating 'basic membership is valid until 24/09...' become a clear statement telling you that after that point you are enrolled in a subscription where you will be charged £40 per month going forward?

And then how does a * after the '48 hour trial' text point you to text that is barely readable to the naked eye? 

There is no * at the start of the unreadable paragraph so how do you know you are meant to read it?  

Bear in mind as well that you have agreed to pay 50p for the conversion so naturally you would not expect any further charges.

There is nothing in the e-mail that clearly sets out in plain sight the significant subscription charge that you will be signing up to - I come back to my earlier point regarding who would pay £40 to convert a single PDF file into excel??

It is obvious that they have done everything they scan to hide any mention of the subscription.

And finally why is it they do not clearly set out the subscription in clear readable text that cannot be missed - the answer is obviously because they know that if you were aware of this, you would not proceed.  That is a scam by any definition. 

Use of the words joined/joining and subscription would have alerted me to the fact that I had almost certainly committed to a monthly/annual fee.
That is not in small script.

And it is not hiding any mention of the subscription.

It is not a scam by any definition.
You made a mistake by not checking.

Exactly. The word 'membership' is a very clear alert that you are not just paying 50p for a PDF conversion, but for something more.

UncleJunior

It is in small script - why are you denying this?

They are doing their very best to hide the automatic subscription which is obvious to anyone. 

And once again, I ask the question - who would knowingly pay £40 per month to convert a single PDF into an excel file.

It is most certainly a scam.

For the people on this thread who have been caught out by this I encourage you to call them and try get a refund.  Without being paranoid, I suspect that some responses on this chat may be trying to stop you going down this route.  

If they do not refund, I suggest you post a genuine review on TrustPilot.  There are already hundreds of similar reviews for people who have been caught out unwittingly.  But I should also add that you will also see the hundreds of fake positive reviews that are posted on a daily basis by this company to attempt to hide their nefarious practises.

I would also contact your credit card company - you may also be able to get a refund through this route.

GingerTim

Failing to read the Ts and Cs, which are directly below the text that says '48hr trial*', does not a scam make. 

And of course, no-one would pay £40 to convert a single PDF. But no-one would pay 50p either given there are so many free options. Clicking on the first sponsored result from any Google search is also inadvisable.

UncleJunior said:

Without being paranoid, I suspect that some responses on this chat may be trying to stop you going down this route.  

Ah yes, the 'you disagree with me must have some ulterior motive' argument. 

UncleJunior

GingerTim said:

Pollycat said:

UncleJunior said:

Am sorry but I am struggling to see how you can argue their case.

How does stating 'basic membership is valid until 24/09...' become a clear statement telling you that after that point you are enrolled in a subscription where you will be charged £40 per month going forward?

And then how does a * after the '48 hour trial' text point you to text that is barely readable to the naked eye? 

There is no * at the start of the unreadable paragraph so how do you know you are meant to read it?  

Bear in mind as well that you have agreed to pay 50p for the conversion so naturally you would not expect any further charges.

There is nothing in the e-mail that clearly sets out in plain sight the significant subscription charge that you will be signing up to - I come back to my earlier point regarding who would pay £40 to convert a single PDF file into excel??

It is obvious that they have done everything they scan to hide any mention of the subscription.

And finally why is it they do not clearly set out the subscription in clear readable text that cannot be missed - the answer is obviously because they know that if you were aware of this, you would not proceed.  That is a scam by any definition. 

Use of the words joined/joining and subscription would have alerted me to the fact that I had almost certainly committed to a monthly/annual fee.
That is not in small script.

And it is not hiding any mention of the subscription.

It is not a scam by any definition.
You made a mistake by not checking.

Exactly. The word 'membership' is a very clear alert that you are not just paying 50p for a PDF conversion, but for something more.

Right - so the word 'membership' should alert you to the fact that you are signing up to a subscription for £40 per month - that's just nonsense.

GingerTim

UncleJunior said:

GingerTim said:

Pollycat said:

UncleJunior said:

Am sorry but I am struggling to see how you can argue their case.

How does stating 'basic membership is valid until 24/09...' become a clear statement telling you that after that point you are enrolled in a subscription where you will be charged £40 per month going forward?

And then how does a * after the '48 hour trial' text point you to text that is barely readable to the naked eye? 

There is no * at the start of the unreadable paragraph so how do you know you are meant to read it?  

Bear in mind as well that you have agreed to pay 50p for the conversion so naturally you would not expect any further charges.

There is nothing in the e-mail that clearly sets out in plain sight the significant subscription charge that you will be signing up to - I come back to my earlier point regarding who would pay £40 to convert a single PDF file into excel??

It is obvious that they have done everything they scan to hide any mention of the subscription.

And finally why is it they do not clearly set out the subscription in clear readable text that cannot be missed - the answer is obviously because they know that if you were aware of this, you would not proceed.  That is a scam by any definition. 

Use of the words joined/joining and subscription would have alerted me to the fact that I had almost certainly committed to a monthly/annual fee.
That is not in small script.

And it is not hiding any mention of the subscription.

It is not a scam by any definition.
You made a mistake by not checking.

Exactly. The word 'membership' is a very clear alert that you are not just paying 50p for a PDF conversion, but for something more.

Right - so the word 'membership' should alert you to the fact that you are signing up to a subscription for £40 per month - that's just nonsense.

No, the word 'membership' would alert me to the fact I was not just signing up to a single use of something, but an ongoing commitment. I wouldn't do that without reading the Ts&Cs.

born_again

UncleJunior said:

It is in small script - why are you denying this?

They are doing their very best to hide the automatic subscription which is obvious to anyone. 

And once again, I ask the question - who would knowingly pay £40 per month to convert a single PDF into an excel file.

It is most certainly a scam.

For the people on this thread who have been caught out by this I encourage you to call them and try get a refund.  Without being paranoid, I suspect that some responses on this chat may be trying to stop you going down this route.  

If they do not refund, I suggest you post a genuine review on TrustPilot.  There are already hundreds of similar reviews for people who have been caught out unwittingly.  But I should also add that you will also see the hundreds of fake positive reviews that are posted on a daily basis by this company to attempt to hide their nefarious practises.

I would also contact your credit card company - you may also be able to get a refund through this route.

There is no right to claim money back via your bank unless you have cancelled. Spoken to many over this type of thing.

Sadly in the OP it can not be any clearer that this is a subscription based product.
TRIAL OFFER* & UNLIMITED OFFER

This really is one of the clearer ones I have seen. All on the front page, not like some buried in T/C or added when getting to payment page.

As per many clearly have done. Press in haste, get billed per month.

Pretty sure word has this feature to convert to PDF. Or at least I have done quite a few conversions via word.

GingerTim

born_again said:

UncleJunior said:

It is in small script - why are you denying this?

They are doing their very best to hide the automatic subscription which is obvious to anyone. 

And once again, I ask the question - who would knowingly pay £40 per month to convert a single PDF into an excel file.

It is most certainly a scam.

For the people on this thread who have been caught out by this I encourage you to call them and try get a refund.  Without being paranoid, I suspect that some responses on this chat may be trying to stop you going down this route.  

If they do not refund, I suggest you post a genuine review on TrustPilot.  There are already hundreds of similar reviews for people who have been caught out unwittingly.  But I should also add that you will also see the hundreds of fake positive reviews that are posted on a daily basis by this company to attempt to hide their nefarious practises.

I would also contact your credit card company - you may also be able to get a refund through this route.

There is no right to claim money back via your bank unless you have cancelled. Spoken to many over this type of thing.

Sadly in the OP it can not be any clearer that this is a subscription based product.
TRIAL OFFER* & UNLIMITED OFFER

This really is one of the clearer ones I have seen. All on the front page, not like some buried in T/C or added when getting to payment page.

As per many clearly have done. Press in haste, get billed per month.

Pretty sure word has this feature to convert to PDF. Or at least I have done quite a few conversions via word.

It does indeed. As does OpenOffice, Google Docs, and any number of free online tools.

UncleJunior

born_again said:

UncleJunior said:

It is in small script - why are you denying this?

They are doing their very best to hide the automatic subscription which is obvious to anyone. 

And once again, I ask the question - who would knowingly pay £40 per month to convert a single PDF into an excel file.

It is most certainly a scam.

For the people on this thread who have been caught out by this I encourage you to call them and try get a refund.  Without being paranoid, I suspect that some responses on this chat may be trying to stop you going down this route.  

If they do not refund, I suggest you post a genuine review on TrustPilot.  There are already hundreds of similar reviews for people who have been caught out unwittingly.  But I should also add that you will also see the hundreds of fake positive reviews that are posted on a daily basis by this company to attempt to hide their nefarious practises.

I would also contact your credit card company - you may also be able to get a refund through this route.

There is no right to claim money back via your bank unless you have cancelled. Spoken to many over this type of thing.

Sadly in the OP it can not be any clearer that this is a subscription based product.
TRIAL OFFER* & UNLIMITED OFFER

This really is one of the clearer ones I have seen. All on the front page, not like some buried in T/C or added when getting to payment page.

As per many clearly have done. Press in haste, get billed per month.

Pretty sure word has this feature to convert to PDF. Or at least I have done quite a few conversions via word.

But it is not on the front page like you said - you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the bit about prices and membership.  If you just load the the file to convert, you never get to see the bit with the prices set out.

This is all intentional on their part and am sorry to say it goes to the heart of why this is a scam.  You wouldn't knowingly sign up to a £40 per month subscription to convert a single pdf file - office-pdf do everything they can to hide this subscription as best as possible in plain sight and by paying 50p they want you to think that this is the end of the process.  You give credit card details because you think you have to pay 50p not because you are entering into a £40 per month subscription.

To suggest this is not an attempted scan is absurd unless you work for them.

UncleJunior

GingerTim said:

 But no-one would pay 50p either given there are so many free options. Clicking on the first sponsored result from any Google search is also inadvisable.
.

I take your point re clicking on the first sponsored result - not a great idea but saying no one would pay 50p, I beg to differ.  Just look at all the poor sods on TrustPliot who got caught by this and paid 50p for a PDF conversion and then found themselves subscribed to a £40 per month PDF converter service. 

And then, just out of interest, what do you make of all those 5 * reviews on TrustPilot for Office-pdf - do you think they are genuine? Companies that spend their days posting fake positive reviews on TrustPilot may be trying to hide something - just saying....