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Gary, I too was nearly caught in the DTN vice briefly in the late 1990s,
but luck was on my side. I learned of the hook a few months before the
automatic renewal from a friend's alert. And there's a recollection the
contract specifies a particular window of maybe 30 days prior when a
written notice must be provided to them.
I'd used DTN satellite feed since 1995.
I wish you well. DTN might not care to test that " a successive
renewal" language
L
Gary Fritz wrote:
Caution: if you currently subscribe to a DTN data feed, be very
aware of your contract date.
Due to some construction upheaval, I haven't been able to find my
DTN contract. I foolishly assumed they had a reasonable
subscription term, like Quote.com and BMI before them: one year
contract reverting to a month-to-month renewal. Bad assumption.
After 2.5 years I decided I'd had enough of DTN and attempted to
cancel. They informed me that my subscription ran through
August, and they would continue charging me every month until
then. I protested, demanded to speak to a supervisor, said if
they were going to renew for a year they should have the basic
decency to notify the customer before the rewewal date (and he
sounded surprised that I *hadn't* gotten a notice), etc, but
their response was basically "too bad sucker, we've got your
gonads in a vise so we're going to take another $774 from you."
I'm sure they get a large amount of their profits from customer
errors like this. They probably have a lot of churn in their
subscriber base, and this significantly increases the dollars
they can squeeze out of each customer. Fairness and customer
satisfaction be hanged.
I intend to fight this based on the principal of the thing. The
contract actually says "Upon expiration of such initial (12
month) term, this agreement shall automatically be renewed for a
successive renewal term of one year..." Note: **a** successive
renewal. By the language of their contract, they had no right to
renew after my 2nd yearly term expired. If they're going to hold
me to the letter of the contract, then by God I'll hold them to
it too.
Whether or not I get anywhere with this, I want others to be
aware: DTN cares only for your money, not for your satisfaction,
and they will take your money if they can. I recommend you do
not do business with them.
Gary
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