VIDEO. ‘I didn’t realize I was signing up for 5 contracts’: Customers denounce Hubside’s misleading practice. keep

Within a few months, several customers of Hubside stores. a store that specializes in multimedia equipment warns of misleading commercial practices and, in particular, of incomplete information about the contracts they have signed up to…sometimes without even realizing it. Marianne and Philippe, a couple from Yvelines, signed up for 5 deals on Hubside.store…when they were thinking about getting one contract. Result: more than 800 euros were written off from each. For Marianne, Philippe, Pauline and Clarissa, the story begins the same way: they are molested on the street or at the entrance to a shopping center with a coupon that attracts their attention. They are promised a “free product” if they go to the Hubside store. store, a brand that sells multimedia equipment and offers a range of services and subscriptions in the form of contracts and insurance.

In mid-August, Clarissa, a 19-year-old student from Lille, goes to EuraLille to take advantage of the “free battery” mentioned by the Hubside salesperson when entering the mall. “I was very well received, at the limit I was like taken off the red carpet and all that. There were cakes, sweets,” the young woman recalls. “The manager took me to walk around the store and show me the deals.” Polina, who lives in Avignon and also received this coupon, recalls salespeople who are “very close to us, very familiar, who are trying to find common ground. “For Marianne, 26, and Philippe, her 48-year-old companion, the scenario is very similar: at the end of May, the couple went to the Plaisir mall in Yvelines during their lunch break before being addressed with an apostrophe. the merchant who gives them the famous coupon.

“He told us that it was a contract that included five services”

Marianne and Philippe are greeted at the store, where the shop assistant offers them various offers for almost an hour that they can subscribe to. Loyalty card, electronic object rental subscription, telephone equipment insurance, assistance in creating a website… By signing up for the “Intensive +” agreement, the couple thinks that they will be able to enjoy a number of “benefits”. “He laid out all the brochures on the table in front of us, but opened only one. He told us that it was a contract that included five services. He sold it to us like this, a thing. He didn’t sell it to us, saying it was five contracts with five different prices,” Marianna explains. The couple eventually signs up for what they believe is a single contract that will cost them €100 a month each, after the third month of the subscription.

“But what surprised me was that each of us received five text messages for electronic signature … although we were told about one contract. It seemed strange to me, but hey, it’s true that we were in a hurry. Marianne and Philippe sign and return from their lunch break. But at the end of July, when they return from vacation, there is a cold shower: the couple realizes that Hubside has already tried them several times. keep. The total amount of debits is more than 800 euros each.

In Lille, the same unpleasant surprise for Clarissa. In early September, the student checks her bank accounts and discovers that she is in the red: in a few days, Hubside deducted almost 150 euros from her. keep. The young student doesn’t get it: she nevertheless canceled over the phone in early September the only Hubside contract she thought she had signed up for. But when she looks at her bank statements, she realizes that she actually signed up for three more contracts that were deducted from her account. For their part, Marianne and Philip also quickly realize that they have signed several contracts. “I contacted the support service, but I never received a response, I sent an email, but I never received a response … And then I said that’s it: we called our banks and opposed it. »

“The gap between a person’s speech on the phone and reality”

At the end of July in Avignon, Pauline cancels three contracts she signed up for at the store a month earlier, but decides to keep the “rental pass” after a phone exchange with dedicated customer service. “On the phone, the person told me about monthly direct debit payments, but didn’t tell me that they were actually bimonthly direct debit payments.” In early August, while checking her bank accounts, Pauline noted five direct debits from Hubside: “There was still a gap between what the person on the phone said and reality,” the 24-year-old lamented. “And on top of that, I got a swab on top of the normal swabs that shouldn’t have been there. »

Polina has since filed a request for a refund, which she is awaiting to transfer. Some clients who denounce the wrongful debits have turned to attorney Emma Leoti to take legal action. “Usually a TV cameraman or a merchant is obliged to provide information and accurate information. There is a real information work on the part of the merchant, who must explain to the consumer in an educational form what he is going for, ”explains the lawyer. The Hubside Group was already the subject of an investigation in April by the Directorate General of Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud which noted “the practice of misleading consumers into believing that their direct debit or subscription is being terminated (…) that their requests for cessation were taken into account or even entered into force.”

Contacted Hubside. store said that “the brand’s sales and customer service processes are strictly controlled and subject to regular reviews, in particular by external organizations. All sales are systematically carried out with the consent of the client. Sales that do not meet quality criteria and processes are prohibited and subject to sanctions.”