On purchasing a used phone, I received a SIM with a $45 voucher to be used for 3 months.
I activated it and then quickly forgot about it because it's not my primary number and did not even use the service beyond a few weeks. After that 3 months period, I received a payment notification because it turned out to be month-to-month contract. There's no setting to disable auto-renew nor cancel the service, heck there's not even a "Login" link anywhere on their website.
They require you to contact support for cancellation which I couldn't do during the business hours which I couldn't do so I wrote them an email requesting cancellation and refund.
Their response: pay up or we won't accept your cancellation request and will keep charging you for a now INACTIVE service!
Fast forward 3 months and $60 stacked up which I'll now pay in protest and weigh my options to get it back.
I believe they're doing several things wrong:
1. There's no clear login option on the website.
2. There's no option to disable auto-renew or cancel the service.
3. Even if the payment fails, they keep generating the invoices. Crappy support dude Jeremy tells me its "like Netflix" except it isn't. Netflix won't keep charging you if your payment fails.
3. They do not separate payments and cancellations therefore requiring payment before considering cancellation which means even if your service is inactive you'll pay for all that time. Never seen this before.
Just a word of caution to avoid providers using tactics like these to rip you off. I personally haven't come across any other provider as usesless as this bunch.
Chat Summary: The user bought a used phone with a $45 SIM voucher for 3 months, but forgot about it as it wasn't their primary number. After the initial period, they were charged for a month-to-month contract with no option to cancel or disable auto-renew on the website. They contacted support via email, but were told they must pay outstanding charges before cancellation could be considered. They believe the company is using unethical tactics, such as not providing clear login options, no cancellation options, generating invoices even with failed payments, and requiring payment before considering cancellation. The user cautions others to avoid such providers.
https://www.tio.com.au/