I posted the linked comment almost a year ago, but the incident happened much closer at the start of Covid. I didn't say it at the time, but I willingly say it now, LiveCode were the perpetrators. They employ the dark pattern of graciously offering free stuff for education during lockdown, because they are such good guys, and then will charge $1500 if someone forgets to cancel their offer. After the dashes is copy of the text from the other comment:
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I treat 'free but remember to cancel' plans as scams.
About 10 months ago I got emails from a company that developed an development environment that was I was mildly interested in. They presented an offer with said it was free so that people could help educate themselves during lockdown. Unfortunately the terms was after 1 year you needed to pay something like $1500 if you didn't cancel, these terms were right at the bottom of the page and very hard to spot. Paid through PayPal and the about $1500 was there right in front of me. I cancelled it on the same day.
A company offering that sort of deal waiting for people not to cancel and saying it is to help people during the lockdowns is just awful.
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Addenda: Unfortunately I don't have the original email for this any more, as I was annoyed and marked it as spam before copying any text like an idiot, and it vanished. Although I may be able to use the internet archive to recover the page the email sent me to. Aside: if anyone doesn't copy the text they wrote in a webpage to a text editor or something before they press the 'submit' button or equivalent, they may regret as I have a couple of times, if an AI or site error swallows their text, it's a good habit to get into.
Sorry, I just saw this reply. Sorry this happened to you. Obviously it's a long shot since it's been so long, but did you try reaching out to them at the time? I don't work there (I consulted with them long ago) but I still know several of the people there. I'd be surprised and disappointed if they didn't respond to a timely request for a refund.
I posted the linked comment almost a year ago, but the incident happened much closer at the start of Covid. I didn't say it at the time, but I willingly say it now, LiveCode were the perpetrators. They employ the dark pattern of graciously offering free stuff for education during lockdown, because they are such good guys, and then will charge $1500 if someone forgets to cancel their offer. After the dashes is copy of the text from the other comment:
--------
I treat 'free but remember to cancel' plans as scams.
About 10 months ago I got emails from a company that developed an development environment that was I was mildly interested in. They presented an offer with said it was free so that people could help educate themselves during lockdown. Unfortunately the terms was after 1 year you needed to pay something like $1500 if you didn't cancel, these terms were right at the bottom of the page and very hard to spot. Paid through PayPal and the about $1500 was there right in front of me. I cancelled it on the same day.
A company offering that sort of deal waiting for people not to cancel and saying it is to help people during the lockdowns is just awful.
---------
Addenda: Unfortunately I don't have the original email for this any more, as I was annoyed and marked it as spam before copying any text like an idiot, and it vanished. Although I may be able to use the internet archive to recover the page the email sent me to. Aside: if anyone doesn't copy the text they wrote in a webpage to a text editor or something before they press the 'submit' button or equivalent, they may regret as I have a couple of times, if an AI or site error swallows their text, it's a good habit to get into.