I wanted to purchase a CD ROM of the free download "Open Office". Using a Google search I found that I could obtain one for $4.95 shipping and handling. 4 free CD's would be included in the free CD shipment. (It was hard to envision that "Open Office" really was that bloated.) No mention was made of shipment of the additional disks "on approval" nor on "free trial" nor of any requirements to return the disks at my own expense to avoid paying an outrageous "subscription price" the additional CD's which turned out not to be "Open Office" for what turned out to be poor CDs of readily available freeware. The CD's arrived while I was on a trip to Canada and I was not able to examine them for several weeks.
The cardboard folder containing the CDs notified me without explanation that I was obligated "on or before the 10th day to cancel your FREE CD trial and you will not be charged." Naturally, being unaware of an on-approval trial and having been away the 10 days were over before I even saw the software or read the folder enclosing it and my credit card which I had used to pay the $4.95 shipping charge was now charged an outrageous subscription fee for on-approval freeware I had not ordered and had no interest in.
I pride myself at usually being able to read "free" offers critically enough to find scams such as this one, but I was a bit less careful than usual due to the fine reputations of the "Open Office" organization and the fact that the offer was in a sponsored Google ad.
The slight-of-hand failure of Manay to mention in any way the relationship of offering to send the Open Office CD for only a "shipping and handling" fee to the creation of an obligation to ship back the additional CD's to avoid payment reduced my normal caution. Later I was to find that in the tiny print and very lengthy "terms and conditions" which said that they weren't responsible for any deficiencies of the software on the disk was hidden an absolutely minimal statement of a "free trial" and obligation to return (at additional shipment charges that I would have to pay - not the shipping charges covered in the advertisement).
My impression is that this was a carefully planned scam with major imput from Manay's lawyers to avoid disclosure of the true nature of the transaction while putting enough hidden information deep in the conditions and terms boilerplate that it would constitute enough of a warning to meet the rather lax requirements of Texas law.
In my opinion these lawyers may not have been quite as smart as they thought they were and the company is potentially vulnerable to inspection by Postal Inspectors using 50-60 year-old laws originally adopted to avoid scams associated with disguised approvals used for stamp collectors.
I suspect that they may also be vulnerable to pressure applied to Google about alowing their advertisements to be used for scams. (With Google's upcoming "Google Wallet" electronic payment method soon coming out Google should be particularly sensitive about associateion with scam advertisements.
Finally some of the columnists with major computer magazines are often looking for scams to report to fill up columns that don't fill up their allocated space in a particular issue. The number of complaints about Manay should make them an attractive target and the chutzpah in the ways that they try to deceive make them a potentially attractive target.
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