Hi Everyone,
Having just had a very bad experience with Streamload (now called Mediamax) I thought I would post my cautionary tale.
Streamload provide a web-based storage and download service. I have used it infrequently to send publication page layouts to clients. It is a good service that only costs just over two pounds sterling (if you're in the States you work it out) for a month.
In their Terms and Condition of Business it says that renewal is automatic and accounts need to be cancelled by email to the Billing Department prior to the renewal date.
I only needed my account to send one document so a few days before renewal I wrote and ask for it to be cancelled. In return I got a trouble ticket number and a holding letter. Come my renewal date, still no reply. And then they took another sum from my bank account. So no cancellation either.
I contacted my bank for advice and got them to stop any further payments and then I wrote to Streamload demanding a refund. I got an almost immediate reply saying that they had written to me a four days after my cancellation letter asking for a reason for my cancellation. Although in three years I have never had an email that got lost in transit, it seems that this one did. As they had not heard from me, they had not cancelled my account. When I suggested that it was unethical to disregard a customers instructions in such a cavalier fashion, I was advised that it was not at all unethical. My suggestion that it is unlawful to take money from a bank account when authority has been specifically denied was ignored.
Although Streamload did come up with a refund and the amount of money was small, if I had not been on top of this thing it could have gone on forever. It was annoying to have to spend an hour talking to my bank about this and then to engage Streamload in an exchange of correspondence. Needless to say I will not be using them again.
When other subscription sites have a simple Yes/No option covering renewal, it is extremely sharp of Streamload to make cancellation so difficult.
Okay so that is it. If you need a storage site on the web watch out for Streamload. The facilities they provide are good but the company ethics stink. Just a warning.
David
Having just had a very bad experience with Streamload (now called Mediamax) I thought I would post my cautionary tale.
Streamload provide a web-based storage and download service. I have used it infrequently to send publication page layouts to clients. It is a good service that only costs just over two pounds sterling (if you're in the States you work it out) for a month.
In their Terms and Condition of Business it says that renewal is automatic and accounts need to be cancelled by email to the Billing Department prior to the renewal date.
I only needed my account to send one document so a few days before renewal I wrote and ask for it to be cancelled. In return I got a trouble ticket number and a holding letter. Come my renewal date, still no reply. And then they took another sum from my bank account. So no cancellation either.
I contacted my bank for advice and got them to stop any further payments and then I wrote to Streamload demanding a refund. I got an almost immediate reply saying that they had written to me a four days after my cancellation letter asking for a reason for my cancellation. Although in three years I have never had an email that got lost in transit, it seems that this one did. As they had not heard from me, they had not cancelled my account. When I suggested that it was unethical to disregard a customers instructions in such a cavalier fashion, I was advised that it was not at all unethical. My suggestion that it is unlawful to take money from a bank account when authority has been specifically denied was ignored.
Although Streamload did come up with a refund and the amount of money was small, if I had not been on top of this thing it could have gone on forever. It was annoying to have to spend an hour talking to my bank about this and then to engage Streamload in an exchange of correspondence. Needless to say I will not be using them again.
When other subscription sites have a simple Yes/No option covering renewal, it is extremely sharp of Streamload to make cancellation so difficult.
Okay so that is it. If you need a storage site on the web watch out for Streamload. The facilities they provide are good but the company ethics stink. Just a warning.
David
