UseNeXT contract problems

[Bacon_Botty]

Good morning,

 

I am being chased for money by UseNeXT on a contract that was automatically renewed without my consent,

other than it is mentioned in their Terms and Conditions.

 

 

The contract was automatically renewed on 30th August and I have most definitely not used the service from at least 1st October 2015.

As I could not be sure if the service had been used between renewal date and 30th September,

I offered to pay them for that month and for me to be released from the contract.

 

I have sent numerous emails to them - in one instance, it took them 49 days to respond.

 

Below is my latest correspondence, followed by their response:

 

QUOTE

Good morning,

It has taken you 49 days to respond to my email - I believe that to be unacceptable practice.

I wish to inform you that I am disputing the monies owed as the terms specified with regards to cancellation,

do not conform to the Unfair terms in Consumer Contract Regulations,

in line with the fact that I was not specifically made aware that it was an automatic renewal,

and that I was not given a reasonable opportunity to prevent the renewal,

in that you did not notify me of the upcoming renewal.

The contract was renewed without my approval or permission,

and I feel you have failed in providing fairness and in being reasonable.

I should have been notified that my subscription was due to be renewed

and then given the option to cancel. This did not happen.

I have not used the service from at least the 01/10.

I have asked you to cancel the contract which I have not had confirmation that you have done.

I feel I have acted in good will by offering to pay for the service until the end of September 2015 despite my grievances.

The service has not been used since and you should have records on your system of my usage.

I would hope that you don’t intend to pursue this matter any further after taking into consideration all of the above.

If you feel it necessary to continue with this pursuit of monies owed for a 'years' worth' of service that

I have asked you to cancel and have not used, then please make your next move.

UNQUOTE

 

 

Their response was:

QUOTE

Thank you for your e-mail.

We are sorry for the late reply.

As agreed within the terms and conditions, a termination has to be made in writing, either by letter, by fax,

within the membership area of UseNeXT or via support order form.

Other forms are not sufficient, and so stopping payment is not a termination.

Also it is not possible to cancel your account by phone.

If not terminated in the above described way, the account renews automatically into another full service-round, liable to pay costs.

It does not matter whether you use this account or not, for this is the customer's very own decision.

If a termination was made properly you would have received an automatic reply with the confirmation of your termination.

The account is prepaid, for which we have not received your termination in one of the described fashion

and so our claim remains valid and we kindly ask your to settle your debt within the given deadline to avoid further costs.

After payment is made, you will have access to your account again, to use up the volume, you were charged for.

If you have no use for your account after the current service-period runs out,

we offer you to forward your termination to the responsible department from where you will receive a confirmation.

Just let us know your decision.

UNQUOTE

 

I cannot think, in my own experience, of any other service provider I have that has an automatic renewal,

whereby they do not contact you before the automatic renewal date is due,

giving you the option to actively take control of the situation.

 

If anyone can offer advice on what my next step should be,

I would be very interested to hear.

I am prepared to take this wherever it goes.

 

Yours faithfully

B

[dx100uk]

usually a spoof if you read a few threads already here

 

 

https://cse.google.co.uk/cse?cx=partner-pub-0964707606882478:652l7hswbgv&ie=UTF-8&q=UseNeXT&sa=Search+CAG#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=UseNeXT&gsc.page=1

 

 

pers I'd ignore them.

 

 

dx

[Bacon_Botty]

dx100uk,

 

Thanks for your reply and link. However, I would say that the threads appear to be more regarding users signing up for free trials and not cancelling them rather than the issue I am facing.

 

I have been a member for many years, but this is the first time that my contract has been automatically renewed. Before, I would renew my contract manually by going to the website and 'recharging' my account.

 

I have since been in contact with them again, here is the reply to their previous email, mentioned above:

 

Good morning,

 

Firstly, I want you to cancel the account as from today.

 

I feel you are in breach of your terms and conditions, and also what you state below.

QUOTE

As agreed within the terms and conditions, a termination has to be made in writing, either by letter, by fax, within the membership area of UseNeXT or via support order form UNQUOTE

 

By clicking within the membership area of UseNeXT, choosing CANCEL, the message on your website reads:

QUOTE

"Do you still want to cancel your subscription? We would therefore ask you to contact us so we can process your cancellation request, or submit you a suitable offer:

We are happy to assist you from Monday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 08:00 p.m. (CET) and Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 06:00 p.m. (CERT) via phone: +49 89 - 20 17 20 16 (charged locally)"

UNQUOTE

 

So whilst you are saying that cancellations cannot be made over the phone, your website is saying that I must ring +49 89 - 20 17 20 16 to cancel my subscription. The conflicting information is not in line with your terms and conditions.

 

Final confirmation:

I am not paying for a service that I am not using. I have offered to pay you for the service up until end of September 2015, which, for a prepaid service of which hasn't been paid for or used, I think is very generous.

I did not give my consent for my contract to be automatically renewed, and regardless of your terms and conditions, I feel that you have acted unfairly be not offering to remind me, or any user for that matter, that the contract is up for automatic renewal. I have not been given the opportunity to take control of the automatic renewal and decide whether it is something that I want to keep. Furthermore, I have not paid for the prepaid service, therefore I should not have a service. If I don’t pay for a prepaid mobile phone service, I do not get a service.

 

I will not allow you to charge me for a prepaid service that I am not using.

You should not be providing users with access to pre-paid services without paying.

If you do, then that is your mistake.

If you don’t, then you are chasing me for money for nothing.

 

I have also had to wait an astonishing 49 days for a reply to an email regarding the situation and have incurred 'dunning' charges because of your failure to reply within a reasonable period of time. You have since added a disclaimer to your automated response.

 

I would also point out that your terms and conditions must have changed during the period of my contract, and would like for you to prove that I had notification of any changes.

 

In August 2013, I received an email reply from you regarding an initial question I asked about why my account had been blocked. Your reply was that the account had not been blocked, but the current package had been used up and that I would need to upgrade to a new package. If I needed to 'manually' upgrade then, then I question why I am now finding myself in this position of having to deal with an automatic renewal. I would also point out service outages that I have experienced during my time as a UseNext member, again of which I have support emails documenting my issues, and some instances whereby I don’t.

 

I will not be bullied by your company for paying for a service I have not had or want -I really don’t understand what you are trying to achieve here.

 

I will also not entertain any collection agency requests for money should you decide to go down that route. I will immediately reject those claims.

Therefore, your only option is to file court papers.

 

As a final good will gesture, I will once again, generously offer to pay you for the service up until 30th September and cancellation of my contract.

I don't have to offer this gesture, but as it was my original offer, I stand by it.

 

Best regards

Stuart Eade

 

 

and now their response:

 

Dear Mr. Eade,

 

Thank you for your e-mail.

 

We will forward your termination to the responsible department, from where you will receive a conformation on this issue.

This does not affect the currently running service round but prohibits a further renewal at the end of this contractual period of time.

It is not possible to cancel the service retroactively.

 

According to our terms and conditions it is irrelevant if you have used the provided contractually agreed services, because we have provided our service without limitation.

 

We kindly ask you to settle your debt until 14th December 2015 to avoid further reminder cost.

 

For further questions please contact us any time.

 

Kind regards

 

 

It very much seems like they are playing games with me - constantly failing to address points that I am making and just delaying the process so that I accrue more 'dunning' charges.

I just don't understand their stance - how they can claim to provide what they call a contractually agreed service, that is a pre-pay service, and that they have provided their service without limitation - if I was to sign into my account now, my service would be blocked, due to having not paid.

 

Any comments, help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Best regards

B