Firstly, we would like to apologise for the delay. We have a dedicated freephone uninstall line which deals with uninstall enquiries and it is our policy to use this line to carry out uninstalls. Our customer service advisors were not 'deliberately stalling' but rather following company policy.
However we recognise that in line with our terms and conditions, you should have been provided with uninstall advice in the first email which you received. Your case brought a discrepancy between the automatic email about cancellation and the terms and conditions of sign-up to our attention. Having chosen option b of the terms and conditions, the email which you received confirmed that your account was cancelled. However, it should also have provided the following uninstall information: "If you would like to uninstall the software from your PC, please call our uninstall line FREE on 0800 051 6664 for instructions". We can only suggest that this discrepancy was due to human error and we have now amended the automatic email to include the above statement.
Again, we would like to apologise for the inconsistency between our terms and conditions and the email, and for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thank you for highlighting the issue.
Platte's response to my question deserves some examination, and I'd like to start by showing a screenshot of the relevant section of my agreement with them taken at the time of my signing up:
It is section 17.4 that is of interest:
To cancel your Subscription and uninstall the Software You must either:
(a) Call 0800 051 6664 quoting your Account number and request an uninstall.
(b) Click on the 'cancel Subscription' hyperlink and follow the uninstall instructions as provided in the cancel confirmation email which will be sent to you.
Once your subscription is paid and the software uninstalled we will send you an email to confirm this. Please note that where payment of your Subscription Fee is outstanding, the Software will only be installed once you provide us with evidence of your identity and a correspondence address in order that we forward your uninstall code. If you have not paid your bill by the conclusion of the reminder procedure detailed in clause 2.5 or, the elapsing of 6 weeks from the date the Subscription Fee became due for payment we will cancel your access to the Website. We can use your IP address to identify your residential address details and have the right to commence proceedings to recover the money owed to us in respect of an unpaid Bill.
As someone who planned to end my membership as soon as the software had installed on my PC (I had only originally intended to test the sign-up procedure) it was the first part of the above that was of interest. I particularly didn't want to have to phone for instructions, and I believed (quite reasonably) that I was being offered an email alternative providing I terminated my membership online and owed no money.
However, what Platte now say is that the choice should in reality have been this:
(a) Call 0800 051 6664 quoting your Account number and request an uninstall.
(b) ...call our uninstall line FREE on 0800 051 6664 for instructions.
So where's the choice? You tell me...
What's particularly interesting though is that I did phone, to find out what happened. Firstly, I was asked for my address, and then told that they wouldn't be able to send me my uninstall instructions without it. It took repeated refusal before the person I was speaking to offered to 'talk me through' the uninstall, an offer I declined since I had been offered emailed instructions in our contract. Finally they promised an email within an hour, but they never sent it.
If they can post out instructions to residential addresses, why on earth do they resist emailing the same instructions to people who don't owe them money? You tell me...
What struck me at the time was the way that Platte seemed to be maximising their chance of obtaining my phone number and residential address, although they had no contractual need for either. And I never received the promised email confirming that the software had been uninstalled either although that is not surprising given that their uninstaller didn't actually uninstall it.
Even when you get your uninstall instructions sent they are not as straightforward as they might be. Firstly they direct you to www.plattehelp.com to download their uninstall tool. However, you can no longer get it from that webpage. I first became aware some months ago when I started getting a stream of visitors to the blog who had put plattehelp.com into their search engine. On checking the page, I found that it had been taken down; instead you are taken to http://www.plattemedia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=43&Itemid=10 - where there is no sign whatever of the download you need. The page they should be sending you to (but don't) is http://www.plattemedia.com/help.php. This change was as I said made some months ago but given the number of visitors who still arrive here as a result of searches for www.plattehelp.com (just check my 'Latest Visitors' in the sidebar) it would seem that Platte have not yet amended their instructions. It's hard to tell exactly why they changed the page in the first place; after all plattehelp.com is still registered to Platte Media International at an address in Soho. They certainly know about the problem since they're this blog's most regular visitor and I first highlighted it ages ago. Perhaps we should be kind and just put it down to 'human error' again, but it is certainly another element in delaying the removal of Platte's software.
Even then it's not as straightforward as it might be. From the number of emails I get, many people find Platte's uninstall utility less straightforward to use than it might be. That at least I can address here; my next post will go through the necessary steps for using it.
Deliberately stalling? Stalling certainly, whether it's deliberate or not I'll leave to others to decide.
Go to my next post on Platte Media
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