Since my husband passed away I've had to hire a lawn service to spray the grass with fertilizer and weed control substances. Last year the lawn had way too many weeds for my liking and I decided to not renew the service this year. I did speak with someone from their office last fall asking them to respray some of the weeds they'd missed and at that time said I wouldn't be using their service this year.
Now comes the dilemma. Last month the lawn service company sprayed fertilizer on my lawn when I wasn't home but I mistakenly thought they'd done it as a freebie to encourage me to renew my contract with them. Of course I ignored them. Today they sprayed weed killer and, when I approached the workman, he told me that all contracts are automatically renewed unless personally cancelled and I now owe them almost $200 for the spraying they've done.
I phoned their office and they have no record of me cancelling the service but I questioned why they would automatically renew anyway and was told that is their policy. As far as I'm concerned, I never signed anything so I'm not liable for this bill but I wonder if they'll pursue payment. Each year (about 3 years) that I've used this particular company, they never started spraying until they received my cheque in the mail so I wonder why they did it this year.
I'm not easily intimidated but there are seniors out there who would feel obligated to pay this bill for a service not wanted nor requested. It got me thinking about automatically renewable contracts that have become a necessity in our lives such as telephone service, hydro, gas, water. It would be an administrative nightmare to have to physically renew these contracts every year but lawn service is another matter. We don't even have automatic renewal for driver's licences or passports because we might not have further need of them so what gives a lowly lawn service company the nerve to pressure a homeowner with automatic renewal?
It will be interesting to see if they send me a bill.
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