When someone tries a free trial membership to BlueMountain.com, they must give a credit card number and cancel within a certain time period.
I canceled via the Internet/email and received a confirmation that my trial membership had been canceled. However, at the bottom of the confirmation email, it says you must call a number to complete the cancellation. This is very uncommon in usual Internet business practices and creates undue burden on the consumer. Because I assumed my membership had been canceled via the Internet, I did not take any further action until I saw the first monthly charge on my credit card bill from American Greetings.
I looked back at my email confirmation and saw the part about having to call them so that is what I did. The phone rep probably has heard this a hundred times and was able to look back at my account and was able to verify the exact date that I canceled via the Internet. She said she would reverse the charge on my credit card.
Later in the day I received a canned email confirming this refund. The fact that the email was canned leads me to believe that this happens all the time. American Greetings benefits by those who don't notice this charge on their bill or who don't bother calling to complain.
This business practice is unethical and should be reported.
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