AIBU to find Atom Learning unscrupulous over hidden automatic monthly charges

[2ndheartbeatnme]

Has anyone had a similar experience with Atom Learning? I signed my 9 year old up for a free trial after clicking on their Try For Free tab (which mentions nothing about payments kicking in automatically). I have now realised that payments have been made for £59.99 a month and they refused a refund saying that the small print in a welcome email states that payment will start after 5 day free trial! The Try for Free tab says nothing about five days!

I find it shocking and unscrupulous that an educational tool would fleece parents like this! AIBU?! Has anyone else experienced this?

You must have had to give them your payment details in order for them to take any money. What did you fill in?? Surely it must have been clear that you would be expected to pay at some point. The website is clear that it is not a free service and they have good reviews overall and none mention the issue you raise.

It says on the website it’s a five day trail.

How long did you think the free trial was for?

I found the system very clear and fair. Cancelled with 1 day notice.

It's also brilliant for the ISEB 11+

@2ndheartbeatnme this is standard practice once a free trial period ends. The clue is when you type in your cc details.

I got stung too but in a different way - I’d used a free trial two years previously for my older child so when I signed up for the “free trial” for my younger child I got charged. Apparently you can’t get two free trials with the same email (even if it’s for different children). But they didn’t tell me this when I signed up… it just said free trial.

Yes you have to put cc details in but usually no charge as long as you cancel before the free trial is up.

Business charging money for goods and services shocker: Freeloaders outraged. 🤦‍♀️

Standard.

No objection to paying for a service. But I do object to being tricked into paying by following a “free trial” link without at any point being told I was ineligible. I wouldn’t have signed up if it had been made clear.

I’m sorry but I think that it would be obvious that you can’t just change a child’s name and expect another free trial. You’d already received a free trial.

@youplonkerdave I don’t think a customer should have to rely on clues!
@hopspot I thought it was free for limited content and you paid if you Upgrade. My daughter even received an alert that she had reached the limit for unpaid content. And the Upgrade tabs are all over the site so I assumed it was the option they were plugging, obviously with payment.

i just checked and it seems adverts must publicly announce the trial period, not just bury it in small print. I will be writing back to them and update here!

Again, I am shocked that an educational service would apply such sharp practices! Maybe I shouldn’t be!

Why would it be any different to any other business? They’re not doing it as a favour to you. It’s a business. It’s not ‘sharp practice’ it’s very common practice for any kind of subscription service.

You provided your card details

I managed to get my older son into a workshop for 5 days over the summer hols a few years ago, it was totally free as long as the child passed the course which he did. It was to do with aerospace engineering and aimed at getting children into NASA/Space programmes around the world. Right up DS street. He had a great time, produced some good work, had to really think and be able to critically view other peoples work. It was fantastic. All classes were in person in a local community centre and were incredible.
I was then hounded for two years about how brilliant he was, how he needed to go onto the next course (which was over £1k), how he had real potential and was a total genius. I explained we hadn’t the money for the next course and they lowered the price to about £400 before I finally told them to stop harassing me. At that point, a mum who HAD signed her daughter up told me that they had been given a bunch of paperwork, some YouTube videos and told to work it out themselves. Those amazing, dynamic tutors the kids had originally had weren’t allowed to take the second course and the kids were expected to carry on themselves. This was for a bunch of 9-11 year olds, not exactly GCSE students who know what they are doing with home study!!!
I was glad I’d said no!

Unfortunately that’s the problem, you use the word ‘assumed’ a lot and your assumptions were incorrect. You didn’t read the small print and therefore were charged. This is on you I’m afraid. Just because they’re an educational service doesn’t make it a charity.

That's literally what every free trial does. Everyone knows it's not really free. The fact that it's an education website makes no difference.

I've just had a look and after inputting a few fake details, it makes it very obvious that you're signing up to a trial and will be paying £59.99 a month once it ends so I'm not sure you've got a leg to stand on here. It's not even in the small print, it's right in front of you and you have to agree to it before you then go on and put in your card details

In fact it then tells you again on the next screen and asks you to agree again

Entitlement, only to be expected in this entitled society.

Loads of businesses do this. I am sure we must all have found ourselves paying for something this way we didn’t intend to even when we were fully aware - just forgetting to cancel. I do think businesses should be required to require a positive action from people before taking payment at the end of a free trial period.

And it’s right there on the website. Not even slightly buried in small print.

I think it’s clearer than most in the way it says ‘payment will be taken on the fifth day’.

I was trying to be kind. It’s actually common sense.

It couldn’t be any clearer than that!

@2ndheartbeatnme