If you’ve ordered a free product online, keep a close eye on your credit card statements.
A North Vancouver woman is learning that lesson after she ordered a skin care sample online from a pop-up ad which surfaced on her Facebook .
“I felt I was duped,” said Natasha Vignal.
Vignal says after she placed her order for $1.99 to cover shipping costs, she received two full size skin care products seven days later. Her credit card statement also showed four charges.
“Little charges, two dollars, one dollar and each from a different company name which is fairly close to the name of the company of the cream I had purchased,” said Vignal.
Those charges, however, jumped to hundreds of dollars on her next credit card statement. She was shocked.
“I felt like such an idiot. That is money that is going to feed my family,” said Vignal.
Natasha is likely a victim of negative option billing: tactics used by companies to automatically bill customers unless the customer specifically declines. In some cases, the “opt out” disclosure message to the consumer is buried in fine print.
“Under Canadian law, it’s illegal to do,” said trial lawyer Chris Carta. The law, however, explicitly excludes internet transactions.
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“The problem is there’s not a lot of remedies for the consumer when they get tagged with these things, so the practice continues. People just keep getting duped by these things.”
Carta also says the Business Practices and Consumer Protections Act is weak in terms of consumer protections. He says it allows for a lot of exemptions and puts tight limits on the consumer to challenge bogus transactions. The best advice, says Carta, is to always be aware and know your rights. He also recommends checking your credit card statements and report strange transactions right away.
Vignal’s credit card issuer says it’s investigating the matter and a settlement with the merchant is being attempted on Vignal’s behalf. In the meantime, a temporary credit has been applied to her account.
Consumer Matters tried contacting the skin care company in question, but no one returned our calls.
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