PDFSmart - underhand business practices

Scamoff7

Hi all, I just wanted to share my distressing experience with this company having signed up for a 1.99 7 day trial and ending up being charged £200. I see online many people who have been caught out in the same way so please beware. They use misleading wording and small print. I've had to cancel my bank card and have notified my bank. It's hard to know where to turn as there doesn't seem to be any sort of body that can step in to help. All in order to help my in-laws with one issue, and now I've lost £200.

Brie

did you not cancel the subscription within the first 7 days?

I'm not sure who might help you with this - the company appears to be in the US.

edited to add: have you tried to reclaim any DD/continuous authority set up through your bank/card?

Caz3121

from their site

"What happens after the free trial?

Your 7-day trial gives you full access to all features. After the trial, you'll be charged according to your selected plan unless you cancel beforehand."

It appears to be £49.99 per month after the trial so I assume you have been billed for 4 months…you will continue to be billed / owe them money until you cancel the contract..cancelling your card does not cancel the contract

to cancel your PDFSmart subscription:

1. Sign in to your PDFSmart account.
2. Go to your customer/subscriber area.
3. Look for Settings, Subscription, Plan, or Billing.
4. Select Cancel Subscription and follow the prompts. PDFSmart states that subscriptions can be cancelled directly from the subscriber area and that access continues until the end of the current billing period. 

flaneurs_lobster

Almost been caught by those iffy sites myself. Allow you to copy/edit/whatever your PDF but don't announce the charging until you try and save/send/print your efforts.

So yes, they can advertise free editing of PDFs, you just can't save the result without a subscription.

Pollycat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6671971/pdfsmart-underhand-business-practices

I've looked at this website.

It seems pretty clear - and not in the small print - that after the 7 day trial you are charged £49.99 per month.

So - the key question (and already asked) is

did you not cancel the subscription within the first 7 days?

OP

Please take note of the comment about cancelling your card does not cancel your contract.

Edited to add:

This is taken from the PDFSmart website:

About us

The Comprehensive PDF Editing solution For Your Business

It all started with a simple idea: businesses needed a faster, easier way to handle their PDFs. So we built PDFSmart, a powerful, easy-to-use PDF editor designed to simplify your document workflows.

So - are you a business?

Brie

what boggles me about the site is that you can get trial of limited access for £1 and full access for £1.99 but whichever you choose the monthly charge is £49.99.

oldernonethewiser

You need to read the terms of any site offering a free period otherwise you can easily get sucked into paying for something you hoped to use for free.

john1

I got caught by this company last year, fortunately I paid via Pay Pal and was eventually fully reimbursed

I had to use PayPal to get the refund and the threat of US Better Business Bureau This seemed to stir their response

Re those respondents saying to check terms and conditions of the company have a look here and here also do a web search for "Softflakes, Inc"

Pollycat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82030774#Comment_82030774

If this is a business to business transaction, there are no consumer rights.

And…I've checked the links you supplied.

Didn't you see - not in the small print - that if you didn't cancel within the 7 day trial, you would be charged £49.99 per month?

john1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82030868#Comment_82030868

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82030868#Comment_82030868

My transaction was NOT business to business and I cancelled within 2 hrs of orignal contact

Pollycat

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82030875#Comment_82030875

So why did you choose this company that says:

About us

The Comprehensive PDF Editing solution For Your Business

It all started with a simple idea: businesses needed a faster, easier way to handle their PDFs. So we built PDFSmart, a powerful, easy-to-use PDF editor designed to simplify your document workflows.