QSL Tenders

A free trial seems to have been set up in my name from a service called Total Tenders. I assumed their emails were spam until they started sending me invoice payment requests for a year's subscription I don't want and haven't ordered.

I looked them up, to find very little information about them online (already a red flag), then I notice their trading address is identical to QSL, who of course have already been exposed as scammers.

I will be reporting this to trading standards.

We signed up for this tender website, then quickly realised that it sends you nothing that you can not find for free on the internet. We attempted to use their link to cancel the subscription several times but it never works. It also very puzzlingly says in their T&Cs that they will accept cancellations no other way (not email, phone call, written letter) bizarre - why ever not? Could it be because the best way to tie a company into giving you hundreds of pounds is to never let them cancel your service? Oh yes.
We are currently being chased by Debtco for £1500...

Signed up to 28 day trial and exactly the same story, they were not clear on telling you automatically signed up for 12 months, next thing I know got an invoice through the post for £695 inc VAT. Paid it with regret, asked how to cancel, no answer. Honestly forgot about the service as thought the service was diabolical and never used it. 1 month ago received another invoice for the same amount, rang and called and spoke with a very unhelpful, rude and quite abrupt. Told her that under no circumstances would I be paying the invoice and the next thing I know a letter from Debtco chasing £855.64.

I WILL be speaking to our legal team regarding this and also trading standards. Maybe even watchdog! PLEASE AVOID.

Signed up for a free four week trial. No account information/credit cards taken. After four weeks there was no reminder email. Woke up a few weeks later to a £700 bill sent to my business address.

When I rang to find out what had happened the sales representative was extremely polite until I mentioned I hadn't signed up for a years membership and therefore would not be paying. At this point the sales representative lost the polite front and took delight in my upset and

I signed up for this horrible, useless and backstabbing website at the start of December and like all of your cases I received a huge bill to pay. I was given the option to cancel and pay £175 plus £1.97 I went over I had no way out as decided against the hassle for the next year of going to and from when they don't listen and are not sympathetic. I had to pay for this out of my own pocket as it was something that I had done and my company told me to make it go away... This was not what I needed after xmas... however it is done and dusted I just warn those to STAY AWAY from the site, they are rude, unhelpful and brutal!
Lesson learnt and am sorry that so many others seem to have had the same problem!
Its not fair business and definitely not how I do business!
I hope those who are fighting them do win and they don't get a penny!
Ellie

Free trial - A total scam, didnt pay for 1st year, told them many times i dont want to continue only used service once, - The following year another invoice for the 2nd year! How many times do we have to tell them that we dont want the service. Been 2 years now they have been chasing us, but its been about 6 months since we have heard anything from them so have they given up? Ignore the letters to do with Debt co. - All scammers.- very misleading site.

The people at QSL must be quite amoral. Not wrong - because their Ts&Cs probably do stack up, but amoral - and they know exactly what they are doing.

In our case as a new business we signed up to a number of free tender websites including QSL to see how they worked. Like other users we got an invoice out of the blue 2 months later:
- Not a single customer service call in the meantime (unlike every other website).
- Barely clicked on by us (which makes the lack of customer service even more mystifying - do they not care that people don't use the product?).

The invoice had attached to it a screen print of the page where one signed up to it - has anybody ever heard of that? They know in advance that their customers will not understand why they have an invoice.

Since then they ignored emails - and worse pretended that they had not received them.

Life is too short so we paid up from personal funds as the business does not have the money - but they make my blood boil! AVOID IT!

Yes the T&C clearly state that Free Trial will end and automatic subscription will occur but when using a free trail you do so, as i did, in good faith that you would get a genuine opportunity to opt out.

During the free trail i received 0 tenders of interest or relevance to me, my sector and geographic coverage.

I called to see what could be done when the invoice surprisingly landed on my desk but was totally blanked - Natalie took no responsibility, showed no empathy and was adamant that a full years subscription was mine. To me that is as close to a scam as you can get. Sorry.

I own a medium sized media agency. One of my team signed up to what he thought was a free trial and subsequently received an invoice a month later. QSL have been unhelpful and rather agressive in seeking payment even after cancellation.

We design and build websites and in our experience their sign-up tactics are highly dubious in relation to the law. As such we are currently actioning a campaign to expose them and fight back. Our internal PR consultant is putting together a well researched article which will be published in multiple online and offline channels; so if you want to get involved please do get in touch. Contact my personal email *******@hotmail.com.

Signed up for the Free Trial, as per the google link. Was impressed with the initial setup but this was just for research. Used the service for about a week to see if anything of interest dropped and realised this wasnt for us.

Hay presto the boss pulls me into the office wondering why a £580 invoice has hit the desk. This was after nothing from the QSL site to me warning that the subscription was ending and a charge would follow.

On calling the company (opening hours 9-5 but answer phone not turned off untill after 9.30). I spoke to a woman involved stating there was an issue only to receive a well prepared speach on T&C's. I will accept that i should have read a little deeper but again i don't think you can get any close to a scam than this, The option of a free trial is that you get to trial it then if you are happy you Buy the service. As per the people below i will be reporting this to trading standards and i hope that more people will follow in this.

This company are a complete scam!

I sent them an email yesterday saying that I would like to cancel my subscription and that they should accept this email as confirmation of my cancellation.

I then received an email back saying that I had to cancel on their website. I went on today and cancelled through their website. But it was too late-The trial ran out yesterday and I had to cancel yesterday on their website. Even though I stated in my email that I wanted to cancel. I received an email today saying I have been signed up for a years subscription costing £695... arrrrrggghh!

I have managed to cut this down to £175 using their early cancellation fee conditions... but this is still a ridiculous amount of money for a website that is no good anyway!

I spoke to the accounts manager twice today, she was extremely rude and even laughed when we were putting our case across- how infuriating!

I spoke to trading standards and they said there is nothing they can do... if this is the case then so be it. But if there are any suggestions on how to avoid paying the fee... I would REALLY appreciate it!

This is a well known SCAM site. The product they supply for almost £800 a year is available for FREE. The business model depends on VERY vague and duplicitous terms and conditions that target users associated with businesses wherein B2B law does not protect individual consumers from the misleading and egregious practice of "bait and switch" style cons. BE WARNED anyone writing a positive comment here is undoubtedly associated with the group (or yet to be billed...!) and as their heinous attempts to bully and bribe unwitting clients become more well known they are attempting to salvage the"money for nothing" ploy as best they can.

Let me make this clear - Any business that would charge a customer for a subscription based service the entire annual amount (£800) after they attempt to cancel just ONE day after the trial period ends is NOT a business you should deal with.

Again, you've been warned

We signed up to QSL Tenders in October 2011 on their 'free trial'. Having had a quick look at their site there didn't appear to be anything on offer that you couldn't get for free elsewhere.

One of my colleagues emailed QSL to cancel the subscription but the email was ignored. No response was received.

QSL then invoiced our company once the trial period had expired, charging us for a full years subscription at £695 (inc VAT). We objected to this as we had put in writing that we wished to cancel.

QSL continued to request payment, we continued to object and they eventually called in a debt collection agency called Debtco One Ltd, (registered office: Tiverton Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire) who added on a further £169 ($265) in fees making the total £864.

Through negotiation with Debtco we managed to get this down to £216 and paid off QSL/Debtco without taking it to court.

Having spoken to other QSL 'Customers'/victims it seems that the case has been thrown out of court (it goes to a County Court/Small Claims Court) in the past. One I spoke to said: 'the judge passed the case in our favour saying that the terms and conditions on their website were confusing and therefore not legally binding.'

So the lessons - don't get caught by this scam. It is probably just about legal but worth challenging hard and taking to court if you have the time and inclination. This is my opinion though and you should make your own decision!