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Ivrit Talk

Ivrit Talk review: Deceptive and misleading conduct 1

J
Author of the review
7:06 am EDT
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Ivrit Talk have blatantly mislead me by telling me I could cancel at any time, however their story changed after I agreed and they had access to my credit card.
Ivrit Talk engaged in misleading practice on two counts by Israeli Consumer Protection Law, [protected]:
1. Ivrit Talk failed to communicate material information. Since my decision to subscribe was clearly dependent on being able to stop if I became too busy.
2. Ivrit Talk's sales representative told me the opposite of their written agreement, which was only made available to me after joining and hidden (not clearly marked) as one of five attachment to a "thank you for subscribing" email. That is, the sales representative told me told me I could cancel the policy and clearly stated that payments could be stopped with no penalty. The subscription agreement states the opposite of what I was told on the phone: the subscription agreement states that the subscription cannot be cancelled, and that if it is, there is a large fee of 30% to 100% of the cost of the service.

The chronology was as follows:
December 2014: when deciding whether or not to subscribe to Ivrit Talk, I communicated that I was very busy at work and may not have time to take it on immediately. I was clearly informed that I would be paying periodically and could cancel at any time. I queried this and the representative repeated that the subscription could be stopped at any time, the payments ceased and that I would face no further charges. This conversation was witnessed by my wife and if Ivrit Talk recorded the conversation, then the recording should confirmed this. The stated option to cancel if I did not have time to use this service was the key reason I finally decided to try it. In one stock email they sent, it states that "No long-term contract : You choose the number of conversations you need", which is vague - however our phone conversations were quite clear about being able to cancel without penalty.

December 30, 2014: I joined with a monthly subscription fee and my credit card was debited. After this I received a "thank you" email with five attachments: invoice, contract, the first lesson PDF and two more attachments with titles in Hebrew, one of which after opening was marked Addendum A and had a bold welcome to Ivrit talk, below this was terms and conditions to the subscription agreement that I did not notice until I looked more carefully later (after trying to cancel). Addendum A, states the opposite of what I was told on the phone: that the subscription cannot be cancelled, and that if it is then there is a large fee of 30% to 100% of the cost of the service.I note that this was only communicated (and difficult to find) after commencing the subscription.

April 2, 2015: I emailed Ivrit Talk that I wished to cancel.

April 7, 2015: I was phoned by a consumer relations representative, who confirmed that it is Ivrit Talk's company policy not to reveal the cancellation policy during making the sale, even in the case that the consumer asks if the subscription can be cancelled, and only to reveal it if the words, "is there a cancellation fee?", are stated.

April 7, 2015: I emailed Ivrit Talk that they had mislead me as per above.

April 12, 2015: I was called by Dan, a consumer retention manager who refused to send me in writing my cancellation fee when I asked what it was.

Ivrit Talk is still charging me my monthly subscription fee but not providing me with any service.

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OCM57
, US
Nov 08, 2016 12:40 pm EST

We had a similar experience in 2016.