I signed up for a 'free' offer of Zone Alarm Firewall Pro. It was free, until several months after I had uninstalled the program I realised by chance (checking my bank balance online) that I had been charged 33.14 by Check Point. I checked to find out why and it turns out they were automatically renewing my licence for the software.
According to the company I had checked a box when I installed the free product that allowed them to charge me for ever more for this product. I find this unlikely as I would be careful to check for this. If I did tick such a box it must have been because the clause was carefully hidden.
To be fair the company did complete a refund after I pointed out to them that I didn't want to product and that taking people's money without informing them is at best dubious, and probably illegal.
However, when the money was returned they had given me only 30.39. The difference was caused by my bank which charged me for a currency transaction - the company charged in dollars though my bank charged in pounds sterling. Having twice spoken to people on the customer care helpline it is clear that Zone Alarm doesn't understand, or more likely doesn't care about this problem.
Basically I have lost time and money due to a company: a) using dubious practices to entice a sale, b) not informing a customer they were going to be charged for an item, c) failing ti understand that teir actions cost money beyond the direct cost of the product.
0 comments