Business advertising refund?

Question

I paid for online advertising at scoot.co.uk on October 2006. Since I have not been satisfied with my purchase, I requested a cancellation and a refund, which they have refused, since it is part of their terms and conditions, allegedly, something which surprisingly they had not mentioned when they sold the product. I have not received a copy of these terms and conditions either.

Anything I can do?

Isidro, part of why I don't understand why no refund s available is because there isn't a physical space, a placat per se. They can just as easily give the space to somebody else.

I'm glad your site offer terms and conditions before signing up, I didn't get that option when I did.

Answer 1

you should seek legal help on them for sure that is inproper business practices and you as a consumer you should have the right to demand what you want just remember there are a lot of dishonest business practices that are posted online for sure

Answer 2

Most providers of online advertising do not issue a refund.

Advertising is not a tangible product that you can just return whenever you want because you are not satisfied with the results. Advertising is a gamble and depends on how well you researched the advertising medium beforehand.

It is a service that once delivered, the site owner cannot get back. It is an opportunity cost -- if you did not get the advertising spot, they could have sold the spot to someone else. Typically the advertising medium will not provide any guarantee on the sales you can or cannot generate from the campaign.

Plus the poor performance of your ad campaign is not the sole fault of the site -- the quality of your creative has a lot to do with it. Is your ad copy compelling enough that people would want to click on it? Is your banner attractive enough to get the attention of the visitors? If you gave them poor ad copy or ineffective banner ads, then you can have a very poor campaign. These are factors not controlled by the advertising medium, but totally dependent on the client.

Check the site again. In my site, the Terms and Conditions specifically state that no refunds are given to advertising clients. And before the order goes through, the client has to read the Terms and Conditions and check the box that they have read the Terms and Conditions.

Your option would be to go to your credit card (if you paid by credit card) and request for dispute of charge.

ADDENDUM: Yes, there is no physical product, just ad space. But there is such a thing as opportunity cost -- when they agreed to run your ad, they had to turn someone else away. If your ad run for 10 days, then they could have earned from that 10 days from another advertiser. It's a loss for them.