While we've seen vendors such as McAfee enforce "evergreen" clauses before, a reader just reported the most shameless example I've heard yet. Backup.com/AtBackup didn't just charge his credit card for another year's worth of service ... it was still charging four years later.
"I discovered a mysterious $19.92 charge from 'swapdrive atbackup' on my credit card statement," the reader wrote. "It turns out I had signed up for the @Backup online backup service over four years ago in a promotion through Quicken. I had forgotten about it and haven't even had the @Backup software client installed for years. I never explicitly authorized the charge for subsequent years, but they would have charged me for the rest of my life if I hadn't scrutinized my credit card statement."
When the reader complained to Backup.com and parent company SwapDrive, he was told the authorization to keep charging his card had been buried in the company's sneakwrap when he signed up. "Yes, they implied I had 'agreed' to their Eternal Revenue Plan," the reader wrote. "Their customer service wrote back and said 'That's why you should always read terms of service before signing up.' Of course I don't know what was in the original service agreement -- I'll read such things more carefully in the future."
We don't know what the original service agreement said, but we can see what it says now. The most relevant term in the current AtBackup EULA is this one:
All fees related to using SwapDrive services are charged automatically using the payment method provided by you. If SwapDrive does not receive a request for service termination by calling or in writing to one of the addresses listed below under "customer contact information," You acknowledge and understand that SwapDrive will continue to charge you for service as long as Your account remains active regardless if the service is used or not.
That in itself would probably be enough to earn BackUp/SwapDrive a spot on the list of bad EULAs we're starting, but then there's also this:
All data is retained for a 90 day period from the date of Your last transfer. If no transfer is performed within 90 days, all data will be automatically purged from SwapDrive's systems and may not be recoverable.
So if you stop using the service for 90 days, they get rid of your data. But the credit charges go on and on. And from what I can tell after looking around Backup.com, the only way potential customers find out about these policies is to search out the EULA. Yet more proof of how in the sneakwrap era, you've got to read the fine print -- including those monthly credit card statements.
12:19:16 AM 
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