What Do You Consider 'Shady' Billing Practices?

[Lee]

I know a lot of us are concerned when it comes to the sponsors we use billing our customers more than just what is detailed as the 'price' for a sites membership but i was wondering, other than pre-checked upsells on the join page, what other billing practices do you consider to be 'shady' when it comes to surfers actually getting ready to buy a membership to a site?

I think the major one for me is when something is billed as 'free' but the surfer needs to 'verify' their age using a credit card.

What else is there that you would consider 'shady' when it comes to billing surfers for paysite access?

Regards,

Lee

[raymor]

I think the major one for me is when something is billed as 'free' but the surfer needs to 'verify' their age using a credit card.

That's a big one. I called out a "free AVS" for that pretty strongly.
I don't want to make a list of ideas for shady people, but I figure
I have to ask "how would I feel if someone did that to my sister?"
If it would be shady of someone to do it to my sister, than it's shady
period. Billing needs to be clear and upfront. For me, I can't get
info a "gray area" because if I allow myself to look at shades of
gray regarding honesty I can easily convince myself that the words
on this page aren't black, they're just dark gray. So I have to look
at this type of thing pretty much in black and white. Either you're
treating the customer the way you'd want to be treated or not.
If you have to think about whether it's OK or not, it's not.

[thejungle]

Hi!

I think it's shady back in the days of free trials - eg free for 7 days rebills at $40 for 30 days etc, they would bill upfront for an initial $40 for 37 etc days - so you got your 7 days free but you were still charged.

That is fine if it's annouced upfront but not in Section 12.3.4.7 -b Paragraph 7 of the T&C. But now that free trials are all but gone....

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Also = there was something else but it's gone...

[Rich]

I hated when certain sites would ask for 1 dollar for a 3 day period. Then they would say cancel if you dont want to be charged... But hiding in the cracks was a asterisk that stated you couldnt cancel before the 3 days...so you would be charged the min. purchase.

[hdkbill]

It's the "X" selling that I hate especially when it is hidden waaaay at the bottom of the page and the average consumer can't see it. We just cancelled an affiliate we caught doing it after one of our customers complained. When we contacted the affiliate about it, he could have cared less and said the customer should have been smart enough to figure it out.

Bill