Complaint about 24studio.com

I tried to buy 2 items from 24studio.com (Christmas gifts). When checking out, I had to select to “register”, and then, after entering my address and everything, I was presented with two options:

- Apply For a Personal Account - the most flexible way to pay (pre-selected)
- I don't want the benefits of a Studio personal account - pay in full (in a much smaller font)

As I thought I was already setting up an account, it seemed like a no-brainer to click the first, default option. But when I got through to the final screen, I realised I had been set up with a line of credit for the item, and would receive a bill in the post. The order process uses a Dark Pattern (see  HYPERLINK "http://darkpatterns.org/"http://darkpatterns.org/ HYPERLINK "") to trick people into signing up for credit

I called up to try to cancel my order and the “account application”, but was told I had to wait a few days for the account to be setup. I complained about their order process, and asked if they'd do an investigation or consider changing the process and all, and they said “no, our business model has been approved by the FCA”.

This is annoying for me, because I have to now wait before cancelling this annoying service, but I think this is also an extremely alarming practice. People less savvy or financially responsible than me could well inadvertently sign up for credit and then either forget to pay and incur charges, or be encouraged to spend way more than they can afford.

At a minimum 24studio should be forced to make the sign-up process much clearer, and offer the option for people to cancel their account immediately. But further to this, I think all sites like 24studio.com (e.g. very.co.uk) who are actually try to provide credit should not be allowed to include it as part of the check-out process for online shopping. Selling goods should not be allowed to be a direct platform for pushing people into credit.