UseNeXT, a relatively new company on the Usenet scene (compared to the likes of Easynews) has been under fire recently for acting much like a scam site. UseNeXT is different from other providers in that it supplies it's very own client designed to make downloading from Usenet easier to the average user. However, complaints vary from free trials not being canceled to random invoicing of users 2 years after they last used the site. We look further in to what seems like a growing problem.
Next-generation downloading is the motto for UseNeXT, an unfiltered gateway to the world of Usenet. PC Advisor
With glowing reviews from such established sites as PC Advisor, you would be forgiven for thinking that UseNeXT acts as a moral company. And indeed, if you are willing to take the risk with your credit card - the amount of complaints about the actual service/connection and the client itself are relatively low. What has got the usenet industy in uproar however are UseNeXT's business practices and in particular, how they go about handling monetary related issues.
On the grapevine..
Complaints against UseNeXT from around the web
Our research has shown a staggering amount of outstanding complaints against UseNext around the web; some people have clearly been so angry with their treatment that they have posted on multiple sites warning people of the dangers. Here, we showcase just a few of the unique ones:
I just signed up for the 14 day free trial, with the site claiming they WOULD NOT charge my card UNTIL AFTER the 14 day trial period and of course there's a bloody charge for 82 euro the next day!! I sent a support request and it came back saying there are 328 tickets and they'll get back to me in 32 hours. Yeah, right. I called my bank and I will dispute the charge but that probably won't work. But I'm so not going to pay it, don't care what the bank says. I know, I know my own bloody fault for not researching but damn, I'm so irritated!!! ARRGGHHHH!!
It looks like they are going to charge me 95.20 Euros and I cancelled before the trial was over - reading all the other messages on here everyone seems to say they have had a bad experience but I havent seen anyone that has cancelled before the trial ended and still looks like being charged. I hope someone can help and tell me what happened to them or tell me how I can stop them from charging me. both from slyck
IF you read all the fine print and unclick the default boxes with which they screw you for payment for downloading it is free - but in a rather malicious and money grubbing fashion you get charged when the system reverts to the default pay setting. from CNET
A nice big bill for something I've never used. Save yourself grief and stay the hell away from these cowboys. If you want newsgroup access sign up for giganews.
Usenext is a scam. My credit card got charged twice upon signing up for the free trial, even though it shouldn't have been charged at all. As if that were not bad enough, I never even received an e-mail with my account information. I am paying for an account that was supposed to be free, and I cannot even access it. Thank God I can charge back through my bank, because UseNeXT is a joke. both from FileForum
And they go on and on; you know the situation is bad when a google search for UseNeXT returns "usenext scam" as a similar search term at the bottom of the first page. (Or type usenext then space on the front page to see what results Google suggests to you...)
So what seems to be the problem?
Put simply, UseNeXT need to sort out their business practices
We've put together a list of points we want UseNeXT to implement before we can even think about recommending their services; with the old adage "you don't get what you don't ask for"..here goes:
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If you're going to offer a free trial, let people cancel it within the time specified. People may indeed come back to your service if they enjoyed it and simply don't have money now - they won't if you charge 12 months of service upfront to their card.
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Make it clear during sign up that failure to cancel will lead to a full years subscription being charged. Check it out yourself, nowhere through the whole process does it mention exactly how much will be charged or even for what plan (if you don't cancel).
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A faster responding and polite payments team, cancellations in the free trial period should not take longer than 24 hours. The time at which the cancel notice was created should be the time taken for cancellation, not when you get around to dealing with it (and hence they get charged automatically). There is nothing stopping you from doing this solely on-line with no human interaction.
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Stop with the shill reviews, it makes the company look unprofessional. For those not in the know, shill reviews are reviews left on sites by a company for themselves and by themselves. Check out a disgraceful example on the slyck forums.
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Stop claiming "big sites" like the ex-mininova supported you. They were affiliates (i.e. they got commission for each sale) and hence an advertising deal - you can't honestly expect consumers to believe an advertising deal counts as full support for your service. Do Marks & Spencers support the Daily Mail because they advertise in it? No.
And to conclude..
We won't be recommending you to sign up for UseNeXT's service
Due to these findings, UsenetShack will not be promoting UseNeXT until they can prove to us that these problems have been remedied; we cannot tell you not to sign up - however we can recommend you not to and that is our current stance. We would like to see other review sites do the same, especially PC Advisor who should not be above promoting services just because they get paid a large commission on sign ups.
If you were about to sign up to UseNeXT, why not try some better alternatives*? Sure you won't get the "free" client to download with but there much better usenet clients out there anyway.
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Giganews - Who offer a 14-day trial you can actually cancel! Standard of support is unmatched.
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Binverse - A similar service to UseNeXT with an easy-to-use free client.
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Newshosting - Another great service provider we love, and they're offering a 14-day trial period.
If UseNeXT wish to comment on this article they are more than welcome to post a comment below or use the contact form to get in touch directly.
*Help us out by signing up via those links, we do get commission on them but unlike other sites we don't promote services we wouldn't use ourselves.
Have your own UseNeXT experience? Post a comment below - it's free (unlike a UseNeXT free trial account).
57 Comments
This scam is now rife. Two companies CCI Legal and Pro Faktura are chasing former accounts going back in some cases 3/4 years!!!
They are sending demands with menace and charging so called admin fees. This whole thing is not just a scam but a serious fraud. Aviteo turnover last year 38,000,000 Euros be warned.
The whole legal point of the claims is that Aviteo/Usenext never renew download limits unless you pay first . It is therefore not a contract but PAYG.Therefore people are only paying for what they use. By not renewing the download Limits Aviteo/Usenext are walking away from their own contracts and making them void.
Usenext business practice is fraudulent and the activities of both CCI Legal and Pro faktura are being reported as well as Aviteo to both the British and German police.
Do not pay these companies anything at all if you are chased. REFUTE the claims on the above legal argument. We have and won every time on this argument and the DCs for Aviteo/Usenext have backed down and closed the files.
You have been warned.
Thanks very much for the reinforcing comment John. It’s a seriously worrying situation and something that we will be keeping our eye on.
For those that have received letters from UseNeXT, CCI Legal or Pro Faktura demanding monies: please check this forum thread at the Consumer Action Groups website. It details many people in the same situation and how they went about their replies, including template “prove it” letters ready for you to send.
Please get in touch if you’re going through the process of battling UseNeXT, we’d love to hear about it as I'm sure they will too.
Usenext is really a scam, please dont even bother.
I signed up for usenext and let me just say I was lucky. I found out it was a scam the day after I signed up, and cancelled my card straight away. The Abbey fraud team were really helpful and said that because I cancelled so quickly, that usenext would not be able to take any money whatsoever from my account. Please don’t be fooled by this, it will leave you with restless nights when you have to be at work at 9.30 :(
Thanks Emma.
Another tip in using services online is to always use a credit card not your debit card. Using your credit card gives you additional protection against stuff like this and also if the company goes bust or something — the credit card card company is liable to refund the money lost.
I signed up for the free trial period. Cancelled the same day as I did not like the product. Got a confirmation of that. 2 years later I get a bill for subscription from them. I sent them a copy of their confirmation of my cancellation but they just forwarded their claim to a debt collector. Rather than pay I went to a lawyer who wrote the debt collector and then I heard nothing. My own guess is that they had hoped that after 2 years, I would not have my confirmation saved. Most of the times I don’t keep mails that long but I had some strange feeling already then.
Thanks Michael. Did you end up paying for the lawyer or was it a favour/free? If anyone else is worrying that they’ll have to pay out for a lawyer, there are plenty of free alternatives including sending them a well worded reply yourself asking for evidence that you owe them monies. Remember, the onus is on them: in no case should you pay them just because you fear being charged more by a layer anyway — this is what they want and why they do it.
Hi, I have an insurance for legal services so it costed close to nothing. But even if I would not have had that I would have tried myself or even paid the full price. I rather put the money in the pocket of someone who does an honest job than enriching people who act like this company did. Though naturally I have no proof of it, I have the feeling this was the plan from them all the time. Hoping that people would have erased the cancellation confirmations after two years and then slap them with a bill for that time of non usage.
Indeed, could well have been. I would like to say I’ve had a reply from them over this issue but getting hold of them is like trying to catch a slippery fish.
Update: Usenext got in touch.
I had the same feeling. I wrote to them enclosing THEIR proof of cancellation of my trial subscription but.…… They opted not to react to that. I guess trying to bully people into paying is a better way. I had and have never ever used their product to download a single bit. Quite frankly, the software put me off even trying. Good luck and I hope you can clear your situation with them. Don´t give up. Don´t let scam people steal your money.
I have Usenext experiences for the last 1 1/2 years. Regarding to the payments I never had this problems as described here. But I didn’t pay by credit card — I payed by Paypal. But for this I had different problems with them and finally I cancelled my account yesterday:
As I’m searching since yesterday for a new provider, I have realized, Usenext (which is in fact a German Usenet provider) is like all German Usenet clients more expensive. But even this was not my problem:
I live in Asia and I have a 3mb line. I never had problems with my download speed. But since 4 month my download speed went down. And always the same: a few kB (2, 3,), than up to 300 for a few seconds, than complete disconnection and so on. I also found out, files stop with download speed, when the files end or when the files begin to download. Usenext always told me, this are for sure my router settings or my ISP blocks or limites the ports. The first time I really believed that I’m to stupid to setup my router and computer. But, when you’re downloading a few GB and all — really all — downloaded files are incomplete because of the disconnections, you come to the point to say — enough!
But now — a few adsl optimizers, different computers, different connections later, several uninstalling and re-installing different client versions and reading on their own forum, I have to say: many people are having the same problems, support is extremely bad (always standard answer — must be customers connection or settings) and the forum mods (the forum belongs to usenext, the mods just wrote :now we fixed OUR servers”) always say, when people complain the bad support in the forum: “We are only the mods here, this is no support” and things like that.
Additionally, this month I downloaded from my 50 GB 18 GB and had than less than 10 GB left. I tried again a download of 9 GB. I ended up with the need of another 3 GB, because of the 9 GB download, 6 GB downloaded used the 10 GB. I’m sure everybody agrees, there’s something wrong. Answer from Usenext: they don’t see any mistakes on their side. Must be my problem…
I can only say — stay far away from Usenext. Support zero, many server problems, bad download speeds etc. etc.
Their forum is splitted into 2 parts — German and English (when you sign up with Usenext on the German site, you are only allowed to write in the German part, when you signup with the English site, you’re only allowed to write in the English part) and the German forum ist full of complaints especially from the last few month. Reactions from the mods: forget it.…
Hi Tom, thanks for that — UseNeXT have actually written a reply to this article and we’ll be posting it within the next few days. It’s an interesting read but they do deny a lot of it.
My God I’m glad I didn’t sign up to UseNeXT, I live in Germany and from my experience German customer support is rather poor at the very least.
It will be interesting to see the response from UseNeXT,
Judging what I read here and else where UseNeXT, is surly to be avoided at this time.
I’ve noticed these so called ” newsgroup reviews ” gives little mention to payment issues , customer service these issues seems to be side stepped.
It’s about time some of the other review sites stopped thinking the cash incentive to ” Review” certain providers and look at the customer service in full detail.
What do you think?
Hi Colin — their comment will be getting posted late tomorrow.
I’m not sure if you’re talking about a site in particular but if so, we can’t comment as how any one site acts is completely their business. You must also note that while we remain impartial, we do also take payments [on a commission basis, not Mafia style ;) ] to keep the site running, you’ll just have to trust us on the impartiality front front! We do however try and stay as transparent as possible..and yes, we agree with your last point fully — we would feel kind of dishonest recommending a service we hadn’t tried ourselves (and therefore will say if we haven’t!)
I had my first letter from Profaktura about 1 month ago asking for 89 euros for unpaid access to usenext from 2005 like many others, and like many others after seeing the CCI site ignored it. I then received another letter from Profaktura 2 days ago saying the following —
This is word for word, and again, I shall ignore it until the amount keeps dropping and letter eventually says, we will pay you for the hassle here’s 89 euros for you!!
Anyone else received one of these?
Hi Dane,
Thanks for the interesting letter. Before I start, this is merely an opinion as we’re not qualified to talk about legal/monetary matters. We’re not suggesting that you were going to pay it, but if paid that 29 euro you may be admitting guilt even if they say you are not depending on local laws.
For everyone else a tad confused: debt collectors usually “buy” debts from other companies. This may sound ridiculous but the seller of the debts gets money for something they would otherwise have not and the buyer of the debts gets the right to chase that money: which is probably more than they bought it for. Even if they reduce the payment they still might be turning a profit, which could indeed be what is happening here. Again, we can’t comment officially on monetary/legal matters as we are neither lawyers or FSA registered and therefore these are merely our opinions.
Good luck with any future proceedings and keep us notified. Cheers.
UseNext have replied and we have posted our thoughts on the article here: UseNext replies to UsenetShack
The fuckers charged me with 95 euro’s, i don’t have that amount of money. i’m only 17 years old!
@ Matthijs van Kooten,
I assume you are a Dutch boy. I am a Dutch girl. In Holland there is a website, that is dedicated (of course in Dutch) to the practices of UseNeXT. this website you can find posts in Dutch is as follows:
http://www.belazerdophetnet.nl/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=590
I will post this site on the above mentioned website. In Holland nowadays we have a Consumer Authority to which you can aaply for complaints as published here. I have already written to them, but I will also draw their attention to this website.
Kind regards, Menneke
I wish all countries had authorities like that. Citizens should be protected against sharks. If the sums involved were higher they would have been out by now. But, as the sums are relatively low, I am sure plenty of people just pay and shut up. That is no way to make an honest living.
@ menneke
The site is not available :(
@ matthijs
When I click on the hyperlink the site comes up!
But it has been very busy so give it a try!
I had the same 12-month charge with the 2-week Binverse free trial. They sent me a reminder to cancel, but stated in the email that I would be charged only for the sum equal to one month if I didn’t. In the end, I was charged for 12. Given the usual runaround when I protested. They lied that they can’t do refunds, but I later saw them offering refunds to overcharged customers on ComplaintsBoard. Binverse is just as dishonest and scammy as UseNext. Beware!
I am surprised to read this about Binverse. I have used their programm for two or three times: after that I cancelled my account. Now I only get mails to come back and they offer me a cheaper amount. As I do not need Binverse anymore, I did not reply to these emails.
Note: I had no 14 days trial, because I did not trust Binverse. Then I got an email to try again, but that failed from their side: I had to take an account and I choose for the monthly one. I am curious if I will hear something about them!
Here in Holland we alwasys say: a warned man counts for two! So I do!
Hi,
We'd be interested to hear more about this as we haven't heard similar stories from other Binverse users. We have a close relationship with Binverse and should be able to get any issue you have sorted. Get in touch!
(Unfortunately the user didn't leave a valid email address so unless they return we won't be able to follow this up, therefore take the comment with a pinch of salt)
If you want to hear more about this you can contact me. I know menneke from a Dutch internet forum, because he have the same problems with usenext like me. Maybe it s an idea to collect usenext casualties from different countries to stop this criminals.
Hi Mark,
We actually wanted to hear more about the user who posted as "Binverse Victim". Menneke was surprised to read such claims about Binverse and so were we that's why we wanted to get back in touch (as the original poster didn't leave a real email or username).
Cheers, djm
I signed up for UseNeXT's trial thank god using there v5.02 trial client which lets you just enter your e-mail address and no credit card details needed and they send you a username and password.
After reading this article i'm not surprised now that I never actually received the e-mail with the login details.
I have used "Usenext" for 4 years at a cost of 82 Euros for 15Gb a month downloads,The system is idiosyncratic but certainly not a scam. I decided not to renew as the last few months have been a problem downloading quality movies in English.For the Russians and Germans it is still value for money.I hope Demonoid returns soon.
Hey guys,
I ve read this article and i can tell you that there are a lot of casualties in Holland to.
Usenext is a big scammer. They are misleading people by surpise them with a free 14 day trial, but afther this, in the most cases a few years later, they try to get a lot of money.
At the moment we make contact with a 2 weekly computer magazine and now they are making an article about internetfraud en cases like this usenext scam.
I ve got 1 advice to everyone: Don't make deals with this criminals!
Thanks for the comment Mark, it's a shame we don't have anyone who can read Dutch to give that thread a proper read (everyone else: click Mark's name to read the thread yourself).
If they can speak English we'll be more than happy to hear their stories, especially if they are more recent. We would have hoped Usenext would have sorted their billing issues by now but if they haven't, perhaps we should have another follow up post.
Cheers, djm
I come from the same forum "belazerdophetnet", the amount of Dutch people having received a mail from a debt collecting agency seems to be tremendous.
Even more hilarious is how Usenext is contacting it's customers. You take the free period, you do NOT get properly informed about the current situation and the future situation. In some cases, not even at all. Because you join on a whim, you completely forget (like most people WILL do) about Usenext and disappears into the back of your mind. Their method of informing you is extremely MARGINAL at it's best. The best example of course, is that I do remind (after having joined Q3 2007) this 1 mail, months ago that I have an "account" at Usenext. 9 out of 10 people will consider it spam and toss it in the mailing bin.
A few months later: "hello Debt Collector Agency", etc. You respond immediately and suddenly you remember. Cancelling your account straight away for example and you get the most wonderful and strange bit of info on your screen (translated out of Dutch freely): " Your account is supposedly to end in 07-07-2008 "... Talk about making assumptions... Wow.
What it comes down too, if you look carefully at how this poor excuse for a company communicates and read between the lines -- a probable well laid plan emerges: one is making sure all the legal bits are covered, communicate in a minimalistic manner making your clients completely forget Usenext, and then after a considerable amount of time (most victims 2 years without notice!) scare them into paying.
I could go on and on about this company and spit out the filth, but I grow weary of them... All in all I'm calling out for at least a rebrand: "AbuseNext" or "UseNever".
I'm forgetting one essential bit of information that has been translated into Dutch on Belazerdophetnet.nl that is in the T.O.A. of Usenext: "In addition to the regular cancellation details and withdrawal rights, customers are treated very obligingly when disagreeing with an unwanted contract extension. If a customer adamantly states that he does not want a selected package, he is granted a refund for the billed sum and the account was closed."
First of all: I am not a man, but a woman!
I have some information for you all and I will paste this in this comment:
Europees Consumenten Centrum
T. 030-2326440
F. 030-2342727
Postbus 487
3500 AL Utrecht
The Netherlands
E. info@eccnl.eu
I. http://www.eccnl.eu"
You can call them on monday and friday. Note: this is a DUTCH telephonenumber, but as you see you can also write down your complaints. Lots of success!
Oops! Sorry Menneke, that was a bad assumption on our part.
Thanks very much for those details, hope it helps someone out.
usenext broke the first rule about usenet: do not talk about usenet -- and they did it with an x10 style spamming campaign
tsk tsk
I kinda never researched and did the free 14 day trial. I sudenly cancelled after about a few hours of openining the account but I'm now really scared it will happen to me.
I cancelled the account through their website and I received an email telling me "Your contract will be terminated on 25.12.2009, there will be no renewals."
I'm a Student at college so don't have much money and now I'm just worried. I did send an email to them also asking to close the account and they sent an outomated one back I think saying it had been forwarded to the correct department.
Hi, thanks for you comment.
Personally, I wouldn't worry too much as you've cancelled it fairly quickly. All I would do is follow it up (like you have infact) and make sure that they do push the cancellation through. That and keep an eye on your bank account, if they charge a single penny get in touch with us straight away and we'll do our best to get it sorted for you.
Cheers, djm
Hey me again, sorry thought I'd use the same name so you know it's me.
Anyway after not receiving an email to the first email I sent them. I sent another email to them about the issue after going to tbe bank and being told there was 2 "pending" transactions for around £5 and guess what! Got a response a day after. Wow what went wrong the first time?
Anyway I asume it will be ok now cause they said:
I assume now that this will correct itself or should do at least now on my Internet Banking.
another victim of usenext, living in france money taken out on a paypal account subscription paypal refused to refund (of course because of all the money they are earning of them) have now taken off all my credit cards from paypal so that no other fraudsters can use the same trick,. They ignored my first ten emails sent on their paypal@usenext.com email address then threatened court action and they started replying, all their emails to me have a fench address on but they have just claimed they haven't an address in france (on an email finishing with their french address) But since they have a french address on it i can take them to court, they are breaking french laws, according to the sales tax (impot) here they should be paying TVA in france, also talked to the gendarmerie Nationale, apparently they are breaking various criminal laws here with their trading practices, so be warned usenext decisions by a court in one european country are now enforceable in another, thank god for the european community. to everyone screwed over don't give up and use their paypal address paypal@usenext.com to contact them.
Sorry to hear about that Pete. Thanks for the info.
Hey,
Today i too was charged directly by paypal wierd.. usenext set an automatic agreement and now they removed funds from my account.. i had cancelled on the day i had registerd but it didnt seem too
What can i doo i have opened an dispute
i am very scared as i am a student and shot of funds
Seems you're in the same boat as many before you Fakhri.
First thing, don't panic. Secondly, as a precaution I'd probably stop using your Paypal account and disassociate your credit/debit cards with it.
Then you need to login to your UseNeXT account and head to the support section which is the menu. If they fail to sort out the situation, please get in touch with us again and we'll endeavour to follow it up with them ourselves.
Best of luck! djm
Have they every refunded anyone ???
If you cancelled before the end of the 14 day free trial they must give you a refund. Simple as that.
If they say i didnt cancel then ?? coz i got a mail saying i didnt
Just wanted to comment to give a balanced outlook on usenext. I have been using them for over 3 years now under numerous accounts. I have never been chased for payments as I use paypal and only authorise payment when I want to recharge my download allowance. I have had a tecnical problem with one of my payments as it was a month overdue however within a couple of days the usenext team resolved it. Now I dont have anything to compare it to as I have only ever used usenext but I have stayed with them because the program is easy to use and very effiecent. Hopefully this doesnt annoy those who are having issues but I think is only fair to give positive views when there is one.
I read with interest the comments about Usenext...I have used their service on and off for a few years and never had a problem card wise. Their support is crap but the content is worth it. I tried giganews but couldnt get on with the reader.
The content is universal to usenet so they can't be any better than anyone else over that unless they hold it for longer (which they don't). Which reader was it? There are literally dozens of decent readers available which will work Giganews and different operating systems, so trying any one reader really isn't the best way to go about it.
Ive had the service for a year now and my conract was due to expire jan 2010. My debit card recently expired so the payment info they have will give them no cash. I planned on using my GB until it emptied out, before the plan ended. I was not aware that they automatically renewed but figured I am safe because of the old debit card. Now I received a receipt email and my monthly GB was re-upped to capacity. Am I ahead of the game and can I just stop using it or are they going to chase me............worse case scenario i would send them a check but no more card #'s for them. Any Help?
I would make sure they have your account cancelled; just because they don't have valid card details doesn't mean they can't invoice you for services you've yet to cancel - that will most likely result in a debt recovery letter through your door if the other stories are anything to go by. Let us know how it goes.
Have used Usenext for a few years and always pay thru paypal - never had a problem and love the service.... maybe im just lucky
Usenextshack, would you please - just for the fun of it, trace/whois the IP's of the "sudden" positivio's concerning UseNevah.com? Wouldn't all be suprised, if you catch my drift.
UsenetShack ;) I wouldn't name ourselves after them!
And indeed, you have to take the positives with a pinch of salt, most trace back to Germany. I only delete ones which trace back to public proxies; of which there have been about 5 on this article alone - I'm not going to censor the other ones as they seem to be from genuine private IP space but that doesn't mean they're not shills, just make sure you take whatever they say with a pinch of salt. Especially as this article ranks in the search engines very highly now.
I have 2 charges on my credit card this morning from yesterday. Both are for the same minimal amount. HOWEVER...this is not a service I have ever looked into, let alone downloaded or used. Not for a free trial, not for a "look-see" - not for ANYTHING. I have disputed the charges at my bank and have closed the card to which the charges were made. All at great inconvenience. I cannot imagine how my card number was acquired by this company. I can only hope that they realize they're not getting a single penny from me.
In addition, the bank told me that the charges originated in Paris, France. The company name on the charges was USENET.NL.
Just got caught by th usenext scam. I used PAYPAL to register for free trial only to discover too late that i had signed for 12months @92.20euro per month After the first months payment had been deducted from my PAYPAL accpount i complained to PAYPAL who said that it was not an illegal payment. By the way if you cancel the usenex account be sure to cancel you PAYPAL deductionsas as this does not happen until you manually make the cancellation in PAYPAL.