An elderly man rang me this week, introducing himself as a "saucy old bachelor". No, it's not the sort of call I get often, or for that matter encourage, but I persevered. He had subscribed to one of the late night porn channels, paying £7 a month. After nine months, tired of its offerings, he cancelled the contract.
Ahh, but you're tied in for a year, the company said. But that wasn't really his gripe – he paid the £30 they said he owed and waved goodbye to the likes of "LollysDollies" and "My Perversions" (and they're the titles we can print on a family website).
What prompted his call was that, despite paying the final bill, he was then chased again and again by increasingly aggressive debt collectors. He steadfastly refused to pay and wrote to the TV channel, which acknowledged his account was up to date, apologised for passing on his details in error to a third-party debt collector, and promised there would be no more threatening letters.
"How many people would be embarrassed at what they'd done and paid up even though they didn't owe the money, perhaps because they're married and hadn't told their partner?" my caller asked.
At Guardian Money we have had, over the years, a number of letters regarding the porn industry. But while we've followed up stories of consumers who have been ripped off by banks and insurance companies, and those who have been hit by bills for porn they didn't buy, we've tended not to take on the cases of porn customers who have been unfairly treated.
Part of the problem has been that those people approaching us for help request anonymity, making it difficult for us to cover their stories. But without scrutiny, companies are allowed to get away with bad practices. So should we be battling the porn industry to enforce consumer rights, or should we be saying to the likes of my caller, "serves you bloody well right"?
