Q: California Automatic Renewal Question: Is a company required to notify you each year before your contract renews?
We have a phone service with 8x8 (VOIP). Our contract is yearly renewed, and we weren't informed in any way. We have been with them for 5 years, so we are out of the initial contract period.
A: Many times when you sign up for a utility, phone service, cell phone service, cable service, etc. the contract papers include an automatic renewal clause. If the contract is done over the internet, few people actually read the terms of the contract on the internet as these contracts are usually very long and hard to understand. My personal position on this is that I will always call and challenge a company that has automatically renewed a contract without my knowledge or approval, if it is a contract that I did not want renewed. The companies will point to the auto renewal provision, and I will always say that I don't believe it is fair to consumers to bind them to contracts they don't want to renew, especially when they didn't even know about. The secret is to call them as soon as you find out that they have renewed the contract. The company's renewal of the contract may have been an error. Either way, I would call them immediately and state that you are not paying for the renewal, and you don't want the service anymore. Hopefully, they will not try to access your credit card if you signed up that way. If you complain enough, and let them know you will give them a bad rating on "Yelp," they will usually concede. Good Luck.
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