Last week’s article discussed situations in which free merchandise might not actually be so free. It could, for example, contain hidden costs of your time or health, or it could lock you into purchasing other complementary items. In other words, free isn’t always so free.
Despite these hidden costs, however, marketers often use the concept of free to lure in new customers—particularly with promises of “free trials” or “money-back guarantees.” These programs can offer great opportunities to explore a product and decide if it is for you, but they aren’t really risk-free. In fact, if not used properly, free trials and money-back guarantees can wreck havoc on your decision-making.
Want to get the most out of your free trials and money-back guarantees? Here are some important tips to keep in mind:
1. Watch out for dual-enrollment.
Many programs will condition your free offer on your also signing for some supplemental program. These programs, however, are typically not free. For example, the different advertisements you see for free credit score checking programs almost always require enrollment in another program—a program that is not free. That doesn’t necessarily mean the credit score programs aren’t worth it—I think it’s probably worth taking the free trial just to check your score once as long as you cancel it on time and avoid charges. But if you don’t know about the supplemental charge, it’s hard to make an appropriate decision.
Where are these dual-enrollments often listed? A good place to look is at the bottom of the Terms & Conditions, where there will likely be a series of boxes for you to check off. One of these boxes will likely mention enrollment in some program other than the one for which you have attempted to sign-up. If you don’t recognize the program name, and you don’t know what it entails, then you should be weary of the offer.
2. Be prepared to talk to someone on the phone to cancel your membership.
Although many of the companies that offer free trials will also tout easy online cancelation, my experience with ending the relationships has usually been different. For instance, on a few occasions I’ve received pop-up notifications that the website is experiencing “server problems” and cannot cancel my request at this time. Needless to say, I’m skeptical when I get such messages.
What’s the solution to these deceptive enrollment practices? I’ve found the key to be calling up customer service and really advocating for yourself. Depending on the company and the scope of its unfair practices, the customer service representative might claim that they are powerless to help you; do not believe them.
In my experiences with getting free trials canceled, I’ve found that every representative backs off their claims of powerlessness when you threaten to report the company to the Department of Consumer Affairs. At that point, they usually apologize and say that they will fulfill your cancelation request. Make sure to get some identifying information about your customer service representative, as well as to record the date and time of the call, in case you need to refer to it at a later date.
Of course, this is a lot of effort required to cancel a free trial that you might not have even really wanted. With this knowledge going on, you might decide to enroll in fewer of the trials and thus commit yourself to fewer phone calls and confrontations.
3. Check your credit card or bank account statement.
Although I’ve seen this less frequently than the required-phone-call-to-cancel, some of the sleazier companies out there will bill you even if you cancel your membership on time. For that reason, it’s important to be vigilant in monitoring your financials after the cancelation.
An easy way to do that is with a company like Mint, which categorizes your spending and will alert you to any unusual charges. For example, last week Mint notified me when I had improperly been charged an annual fee for my no-annual-fee credit card. Because I knew of the charge, I got it revoked, and I avoided a $40 fee.
Another way to make this easy is to set a consistent time each month to sit down and review your statements. It doesn’t take more than five minutes, and it helps to make sure that you don’t have any unusual activity. Given what’s at stake (your account balance; potentially your credit score), it makes sense to be attentive.
How do you go about getting the charge erased if you happen to find one? Although your bank or credit card might give you the option to dispute the charge/report it as fraudulent, I would not take this option right away. Instead, I would call up the company’s customer service and explain to them that you did cancel the account on time and that you will report them if they do not refund the charge.
It’s easier to get the problem resolved without the bank’s involvement, if at all possible, and this is a good approach to doing that. To aide in getting a potential charge waived, remember to use any past calls to your advantage. You should have some identifying information about your phone call on hand (as recommended in Tip Two), so make sure to advocate for yourself and insist that you did, in fact, cancel the account.
None of these tips really speak to why it can be so difficult to cancel a free trial even when you don’t need the product. That explanation will be coming in a later article. But for now, rest assured that you are better prepared to understand the free trials for which you sign up. Remember to be vigilant and to look out for your interests, and be careful in navigating what can sometimes be a deceitful marketplace.
Image above available here.
No comments:
Post a Comment