Kmacaroo
Avon,#2Consumer Comment
Wed, November 12, 2008
I too received a $49.90 charge to my account from "DRI*Element.Com". The day it was charged I wasnt even home or on the net at all, and I have never heard of DRI*Element.Com. I did my research and long story short, this is what I found. 1. DRI*Element.Com is a processing compnay that provides services for many compnaies. 2. In my case I purchased software form PCtools, a well known and reputable company, though some of their retention practices are questionable, see below. 3. After I connected the dots with pctools and DRI, I called pctools customer support. Ther first thing he said was "did you read the terms of agreement before you clicked I accept?" I said yes, and he said in that agreement you agreed to be automatically renewed and billed each year and to use your credit card. No miond you this is before he even looked up my account which makes me think they get a lot of these calls. Well, he looked up my account by my original email addy I ordered with, and explained that DRI is just the company that does the billing. 4. I calmly explained that imbedding autobill terms in the body of the TOS while techinically legal, is a bit underhanded and that most reputable vendors have a radio button with very conspicuos opt in opt out procedures for auto bill. He said that the renewal gets me all updates and imporvovements and is a good service to keep me aprised of improvements. I told him I never received any updates, and no notifications of updates or renewal notices like I do from other vendors. I asked him what the current rev level was and he said 8. My level was 6! 5. So for me, this turned out good because technically, I agreed to be billed. BUT since they didnt provide the service I agreed to, they refunded my money. 6. They gave me the number to DRI ( 800-406-4966 ) and asked me to call them to update my email addy so they could send a copy of the cancellation agreement. The refund has already been processed and I was pleased with the result. Both csr's at pctool and dri were very professional and skilled at handling my inquiry. My suggestion is that if you have a debit from DRI and dont know what it is, go back to your records one year prior to the recent dri and you wil probably find the company and the same type of auto bill "agreement". Try to get your refund through the company you place your original order with.