Why It's Important to Pay Attention to the Fine Print

A week ago I was reviewing our online banking statement and saw a payment for over seventy dollars. It was for musicmatch.com and we hadn't authorized it. We ordered the service over a year ago and rarely used it, so we had forgotten all about it. I wondered why they were charging us for another year without asking. I decided to further investigate because we had no interest in purchasing this service anymore.

I called customer service and of course I spoke with a representative with an almost unintelligible and indistinguishable accent. I explained the situation to him and asked politely for Yahoo to refund our money. He very politely told me that he couldn't do that because their Terms of Service stated that Yahoo could automatically renew our account and if we didn't respond within their deadline it was non-refundable. I asked what their "deadline" was and he told me seven business days, and that it was now 10 days past. I very patiently explained that the charge only appeared on our statement four working days ago. He didn't care.

I then proceeded to explain a few things to him. First of all I told him that I understood he was just a representative and had no control over this issue. I then went on to tell him that if this was in their TOS then it was a sneaky and underhanded way for Yahoo to conduct business. I didn't like that they could automatically take money out of our bank account without even asking if we still wanted the service. What was even worse was that they didn't send us an email or some sort of notice about the charge and the deadline. I said that Yahoo could either refund my money or I would go through my bank. I also told him that we might have wanted to use this service in the future but now that I knew their "fine print" sneakiness I wanted nothing to do with them. He said he would give me the refund but it would take 7-10 business days. I have my confirmation number and if I don't see it in my online account next week I will be making another call.

Afterwards I looked up their TOS agreement online. It said absolutely nothing about automatic renewals and deadlines for a refund. It did state at the beginning that they reserved the right to change their TOS at any time and the consumer was responsible for looking up the updates. How many people have the time to spend looking up TOS updates for all of their accounts? This is ridiculous legalese that they seem to feel gives them the nod to plunder a bank account without real consent. Can they suddenly decide that they're going to raise their rates and legally take that from our bank account? According to the TOS and the fact that by agreeing to them you automatically agree that they can change them at any time, they can do pretty much anything. I beg to differ. That is my money, my account, and my time wasted.

The one thing I've learned from this is that's it's important to stand your ground with these companies. Don't blow it off because that is what they're counting on. Nobody has a right to take your money without your true consent. I also kept in mind that the representative on the phone is not the person at fault and kept my voice firm, controlled and yet demanding. I wasn't going to let him tell me that I couldn't have my money back. Instead I channeled my anger and annoyance into an article that I hope helps someone else and alerts people to watch their bank accounts for unexpected charges. If you're not sure why something is being charged to your account, ask your bank for more details. It's your money, you earned it and you decide how to spend it.