Businessman John Robinson is urging other traders to carefully read the small print after he was hit with an unexpected £1,200 bill for an advertisement that was renewed without his knowledge.
Mr Robinson, 54, runs interiors company Simply Inspirational in Meltham. He signed up for an advert in Your Home & Garden magazine, which is distributed regionally to garden centres and paid more than £1,000 in two instalments by direct debit.
He took out his agreement in September 2015. Seventeen months later he was surprised to receive a call from a debt collection company demanding immediate payment for a further £1,248.
An email from the same company revealed that Mr Robinson had unwittingly signed up to a 24-month minimum advertising agreement that had been automatically renewed.
It claimed he had received and ignored an invoice. Mr Robinson says he never received it. It also contained a threat “to attend your business premises this afternoon to issue a 7-day notice of intent to recover [the debt].
“The sales rep never explained that it was a rolling contract,” said Mr Robinson, who is based at Bent Ley Mills in Meltham. “But it’s there in the small print so I will have to pay.
“I feel so aggrieved over it and I don’t want anyone else getting hit. There could be hundreds of people like me who have been affected. I feel I’ve been mis-sold something. How do they sleep at night? It’s just not the way that business is done.”
Mr Robinson’s complaint has been echoed by other advertisers who have posted their thoughts online criticising their sales methods.
A spokesman for Blackpool-based debt recovery firm Media Collect denied any suggestion of mis-selling said the onus was on customers to read the small print.
“In business people are expected to be above average intelligence,” he said. “You would expect someone to be able to read a contract.
“Your Home & Gardens have been in business for over 12 years. They are not trying to deceive people at all.”
He said agents should receive training to make clear to customers that they were signing up to a rolling contract “otherwise they would get sacked.”
Since receiving his initial demand Mr Robinson has been offered a 20% reduction in his debt.
