ComplaintsforSTARSTIX LLC

• Initial Complaint

  11/09/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed up for a six month agreement. Nothing was mentioned about the fact they would auto renew me. No invoices were ever sent indicating they were charging me and I just caught on. I am a real estate agent and my brokerage was purchased by another company in April. This means anything after July with the previous business name on it is a violation of license law. I signed my contract in December 2021 and starting February 28th my advertising was to run for six months. I assumed that it would end in August and I should be fine with license law issues. Now I find out they signed me up to continue without telling me (it is in fine print, but it was not told to me as the sales pitch. I was told I would have first right of refusal when it came to renewing and it is not what happened). Now they have billed me for months that were already included (July and August) and then collected for September, October and November. I was told that someone would call me to make things right and that was 5 days ago. 

  

  Business response

  11/16/2022

  We apologize that the advertiser (client) did not receive a prompt response from the sales department once StarStix was made aware of the issue on November 4th2022.  We can assure our clients that we take any complaint seriously and try to resolve them as quickly as we can, but with some staff working remote and a limited staff in-house it is obvious that we need to do a better job of responding.
  In evaluating the client’s complaint, I note that this was an online contract which required the client’s engagement in walking through the online contract as to what was being purchased, the cost and the length of the contract, including reading the terms of the contract.  Everything is in writing.  StarStix does not make assumptions or add to or delete from the contract or terms as written. The client determines what they want and agrees to the cost, the length and continuation of the contract.  It is up to the client as to whether they want to choose continuation.  It is a great benefit, especially in these times of rising prices, but the client always makes the choice, not StarStix and not the sales rep.  There are clients that choose continuation and those that don’t or that cancel because circumstances change.
  In addition, the client is sent a copy of the contract that was agreed to, and a welcome email which describes exactly what was purchased, the costs, the length and the terms including whether the client agreed to the continuation portion of the contract.  In her complaint, the client provided a copy of the email that she received from StarStix that included the information about the continuation portion of the contract, when it would start, along with the amount that would be charged to her credit card on file and how those payments would be taken and that a reminder notice would be sent prior to the continuation start date.
  A reminder email was sent on June 28th (see attached) that gives the date that her original campaign would end and that she signed up for continuation, including when it would start, the amount of the payment and how often it would be billed.  It also included information on how to cancel and that the cancelation must occur prior to the next payment.  The client’s first payment was taken on July 12th and would be billed every 4 weeks.  The customer had two weeks to cancel the continuation portion of the contract before the first payment was taken, and although the cancellation can take place any time prior to the next payment, a cancellation notice was never received by email or by phone call from the client.
  The client never informed StarStix that she wanted to cancel continuation.  As this is a reservation process, StarStix is responsible for payment for the space that the client had agreed to and is currently being advertised in.  The continuation portion has been cancelled going forward. 
  However, we also understand that the client changed offices and is no longer with her advertised company and thus needs the dividers removed.  Unfortunately, as the client did not inform us of the change, we are unable to remove the dividers until the dividers can be replaced in the store, which can take as long as 90 days or even longer depending on the supply chain issues.
  We sincerely hope this explains the situation.  We have cancelled the client’s contract and she will no longer be charged for the space even though she will continue to be in the store until we are able to replace the dividers. The store is not responsible to the client to remove the dividers, but StarStix will do our utmost to get the dividers replaced as quickly as possible. 
  Thank you, B***** *******

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