A member of my household purchased me a "free gift subscription" to these guys, not realizing the fine print revealed the $49.95 monthly revolving charge. To make matters worse, they used my credit card to sign up. This was two days ago. I have been trying to cancel / opt-out of every crappy spam marketing system they have submitted my information to ever since.
Their representative, Ryan, states in his rebuttal "By submitting your e-mail address at the Website or the website of one of our marketing partners, and/or obtaining services from us, you agree to receive e-mail or telephone calls or other marketing from us and/or our third-party advertisers notwithstanding a prior decision, made by you, to opt out of this or any other of our or a third party affiliate of ours program, pursuant to the CAN-SPAM Act, you are agreeing to opt back in and to receive marketing materials until you decide to opt-out." HOWEVER they make no distinction between ME having submitted my own information, and SOMEONE ELSE having submitted my information.
What he does NOT state, is a direct quote from their own privacy policy "If we propose to use personal information for any purposes OTHER than those described in this Policy and/or in the specific service notices, we will offer you an effective way to opt out of the use of personal information FOR THOSE OTHER PURPOSES." (emphasis added) Meaning, even though you may call and cancel the subscription that was originally signed up for, there is no method, easy or not, effective or not, to opt out of any marketing spam whether their own, or their third-party advertisers. They further distance themselves from the responsibility of their own actions by stating "The collection, use, and disclosure of information by clients and partners are subject to their respective privacy policies, which may differ from federalgrantsnetwork.com's policy." Even though the information referred to, was gathered and made available by them.
The results so far in my case: 22 calls so far in the last 2 days, to a phone that is a dedicated business number (given out by aforementioned household member) and even though this number IS on the FTC no-call list, and they have been repeatedly informed of this and asked to stop calling, the calls continue. I will be filing a report to the FTC following this, and checking my credit card for unauthorized billing.
0 comments