screen select -can they do this?

Wig

alecpr wrote:

BUT... I would argue that IF they responded to an e-mail to cancel and did cancel the account all be it after the free period expired I would say that e-mail is a valid way of cancelling an account. After all they have the processes in place to carry out that cancellation and proved it by doing so. So how the account was terminated is not an issue, only when.

Alecpr, you are replying to the OP from way back in July/August. The thread has been bumped up by another user a few posts up who has fallen foul of the same company, and afaik is not complaining about the effectiveness or not of cancelling by email.

Notken,

I see your point, and maybe it could be argued as an unfair contract, that they say you can cancel at *any time* and any DVD's at that time must be returned, but that the contract is not cancelled until they are recieved. This is in itself an impossibility if you cancel at the end of the period.

However, for them to knowingly send you a DVD to arrive right at the end of your frre trial period, and not allow reasonable time for that DVD to be returned and still qualify for the free trial, is again unfair.

The terms and conditions as laid out on the bottom of the page you linked to say 10. please see full terms and conditions @ ..... You cannot argue that the t&c's were not made available, you have to argue that they were unfair.

Good Luck

notken

Hi everyone, and really appreciate your comments, and sorry for the confusion of bumping the thread rather than starting a new one.

I obviously was a bit blind in the case of point 10, "please see..." Is that an invitation to look, or a commandment?

Yesterday I went through the process of signing up using fictitious details to see what happens, and at no point during the signing-up process do you have to read or accept the terms. Of course, to this end, how do we know they haven't changed the terms since I signed up anyway?

It seems a fairly petty fight for the sake of £15, but, well, that's why they do these free trials, isn't it? To lock you in, or in the hope you forget to cancel. I didn't forget to cancel. I did what they told me I had to do, in the time frame they specified, and it was only at that point that they told me I had to return the DVDs in the next two hours, which was a physical impossibility since they'd just sent me one that day.

If people are interested I'll post a follow-up, but at the moment I've asked Egg to issue a chargeback, and their response so far has been very positive. They agreed that it certainly seemed like Screen Select had broken its own terms. We'll wait and see. As for Screen Select, their three replies have all been virtually identical, so I suspect we're just getting stock replies. I've asked them to pass it on to a manager for comment.

Cheers,
Steve

Wig

Plus I would't be surprised that if they wanted to have their t&c's as they are then legally they would be required to explain that cancellation must be made in good time before the end of the free trial period to allow you to return all unwanted DVD's before the cut off date of 30 days. i.e. to make this perfectly clear in the t&c's.

I reckon you'd win on this one if you went to court.