Beware the Fine Print Backlash

Businesses seem to be competing fiercely for customers. As a result, advertising has become more important and more you seem to have to be more and more creative with the ?hook? - the magical ingredient that pulls the customer to your premises and allows you to complete the sale or even upsell them to something more than they planned to buy.

In most cases, the hook has a catch.  In most cases, the catch is buried in the fine print, perhaps so that the hook looks better and in the hope that the customer will not read the catch until after you have had the opportunity to convince them to make the purchase.

The risk that you have as a business is that the catch can sometimes be bad enough to turn the customer away, permanently. 

A friend of mine was recently contacted by the local telephone service provider.  The phone company was offering a free 30 day trial on an additional service.  Somewhat reluctantly, my friend signed up for the 30 day trial.

About two weeks into the free trial, my friend realised that they had used the service all of two or three times.  They did not want to spend several dollars per month for something that was of little use to them.  So, my friend contacted the telephone company to cancel the free trial.  Here's where the fine print bites back with a vengeance!

My friend was advised that they could not cancel the free trial until the end of the 30 day trial period.  Of course, if you allow the service to stay connected for 31 days, you now have to pay for the second month.  In other words, the only way you can get out of the free trial and not have to pay is to cancel on exactly the 30th day. My friend complained and pleaded that they wanted the service cancelled now, however, the telephone company was adamant that the terms of service required that the service be connected for one month and that, if it was cancelled before the end of the month, they would be charged for one month.

My friend then obtained a copy of the terms of service, which was likely referred to in the fine print that accompanied the offer, where it has set out that service ordered is ordered for a minimum of one month.