Napster

[Redhat]

A letter I just sent them, I am NOT HAPPY :

Sir/Madam,

I have just got off the telephone with my bank. I am not a happy bunny. Your company charged me £18.95 for a FREE TRIAL. No warning was given for this.At the most I would have expected a £9.95 autorisation hold, but instead your company CHARGED me 9 x £1 and then £9.95 standalone. I would like to know where you got these figures from. I would also like to know how you can charge for an advertised FREE trial. I am seriously considering placing a complaint with both the advertising standards authority and any other organisations that handle IMPROPER business practise. I am now buying a new MP3 player so I do not have to be associated with Napster in anyway shape or form.

Awaiting a response,

Avoid them LIKE THE PLAGUE.

[andsome]

I would NEVER go anywhere near them.

[Scarecrow Man]

I use iTunes

[Redhat]

I use iTunes

I was going to, but then I saw "UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS, £9.95 A MONTH" and I thought it was a good deal. I guess there is no such thing as a free lunch.

[Scarecrow Man]

There is according to Belatucadrus' Signature :P

I have never had a problem with iTunes, and since the P2P networks like fasttrack, gnutella etc are now 90% viruses and 10% garbage, iTunes is a good alternative and it's very reasonably priced.

[Rebel=UK=]

edonkey all the way

[Scarecrow Man]

edonkey is the same Rebel. All P2P networks are subject to potentially harmful viruses. Just think... Joe Smith has a song you want, but he doesn't know what a virus scanner is. Therefore a worm has come in a infected nearly 90% of his files. You happened to download one of them, and because you don't update you anti-virus every day now you have one.

Think of P2P like a busy, un monitored room with people comming in and sharing EVERYTHING they have (viruses and all).

iTunes, Napster and other services like this are monitored, cleaned and usually better quality. But they require a small fee for doing this.

[Rebel=UK=]

ive been using it for years and im cush :Cool Smile:

[Redhat]

Their reply:

Hi,

Thanks for contacting Napster Support.

If you signed up for a free trial that required the submission of a form of payment, your financial institution may place an authorization hold on your account to verify fund availability. This may appear as a charge, but please be assured that you will not be billed the monthly subscription fee if you cancel during the free trial period. Please contact your financial institution to answer further questions about authorization holds. The time for this hold to be removed from your account varies depending on your bank.  We regret any confusion this may have caused.

When responding on this issue, please reply with email history or copy the entire body of this email and paste it into your reply to ensure that all information is retained. Not providing the email history could delay our response time.

Thanks for using Napster!

The Napster team

My response to that:

Can I repeat please, that my bank did NOT place an authorisation holds on my account. My bank explicitly informed me of a CHARGE to my account on the 8th of August, the day after I cancelled my free trial, from your company. I would still like to ask for a complete explanation of where £18.95 was found, instead of a £9.95 authorisation hold.

Thank you in advance,

LIKE THE PLAGUE.

[andsome]

Surely it's a lot less hassle in the long run to buy a C.D? If you want to go the cheap or free way, then borrow one and copy it. Surely that's no more illegal than downloading?

[Redhat]

Surely it's a lot less hassle in the long run to buy a C.D?  If you want to go  the cheap  or free way, then borrow one and copy it.  Surely that's no more illegal than downloading?

Napster is one of the few services where you pay for legal downloads. It was advertised as £9.95 per month for as many tracks/albums/compilations as your computer could take.

I do also buy CD's :) But not HMV prices. I get them off Play.com :D

[andsome]

The big problem is though, that no matter how well the site is protected, and no matter how long you have got away with it, one day you are likely to get much more in the way of downloads than you bargained for.

[scuzzman]

edonkey is the same Rebel. All P2P networks are subject to potentially harmful viruses. Just think... Joe Smith has a song you want, but he doesn't know what a virus scanner is. Therefore a worm has come in a infected nearly 90% of his files. You happened to download one of them, and because you don't update you anti-virus every day now you have one.

Think of P2P like a busy, un monitored room with people comming in and sharing EVERYTHING they have (viruses and all).

iTunes, Napster and other services like this are monitored, cleaned and usually better quality. But they require a small fee for doing this.

Can someone please explain to me where you lot came up with the idea that you can catch virii/spyware from MP3s which, by their very nature, cannot contain binary data?

[Chris]

They made a mistake matt, big deal!

It can be a pain when things go wrong, but things DO and ALWAYS go wrong. It's the truth i'm afraid!

I think you're blowing it all out of proportion like it's never happened before. Would you stop buying from your newsagents if they delivered the wrong paper or short changed you?

Avoid them LIKE THE PLAGUE.

:(

When a company comes along and does not make a mistake, wake me up.

[Scarecrow Man]

edonkey is the same Rebel. All P2P networks are subject to potentially harmful viruses. Just think... Joe Smith has a song you want, but he doesn't know what a virus scanner is. Therefore a worm has come in a infected nearly 90% of his files. You happened to download one of them, and because you don't update you anti-virus every day now you have one.

Think of P2P like a busy, un monitored room with people comming in and sharing EVERYTHING they have (viruses and all).

iTunes, Napster and other services like this are monitored, cleaned and usually better quality. But they require a small fee for doing this.

Can someone please explain to me where you lot came up with the idea that you can catch virii/spyware from MP3s which, by their very nature, cannot contain binary data?

Most P2P are not restricted to mp3's anymore...

[Redhat]

They made a mistake matt, big deal!

It can be a pain when things go wrong, but things DO and ALWAYS go wrong. It's the truth i'm afraid!

I think you're blowing it all out of proportion like it's never happened before. Would you stop buying from your newsagents if they delivered the wrong paper or short changed you?

Avoid them LIKE THE PLAGUE.

:(

When a company comes along and does not make a mistake, wake me up.

I gave them a call yesterday. Not only was the lady RUDE, she denied all knowledge of any money being taken from me, and refused point blank to do anything to rectify the situation. Her words were, and I quote:

"You're talking rubbish. We never charged you, take your business elsewhere if you want, as we haven't done anything wrong."

Is this what you expect when you ring customer service? So I'm £20 short and can't get any more money till pay day. That means my direct debit for my hosting isn't going to clear and I'll have to shell out MORE money.

What angers me is their total lack of respect for the customer. From the offset she denied that it was humanly possible for them to charge me anything.

[andsome]

Send a copy of your credit card statement when it arrives, with a letter explaing everything. Refer to the telephone conversation. Give them 14days notice of action in the small claims court, unless a refund is forthcoming. If you have to take action you will have to pay a deposit. When you win your case they will have to pay all expenses including this deposit.