The search engine submission company Blastengine.com uses a deceptive cancellation procedure to trick customers into keeping their service active.
I used this company's service for several months. I followed the steps to cancel my service with them in July. Then in January I realized that they were still charging my credit card $9.95 every month. I thought that I must be crazy, because I was sure that I went and canceled the account months earlier. I went through the whole cancellation process a second time.
In February I changed banks. I was keeping my other account open with a small amount of money in it, and I was planing to close it after I had all recurring charges canceled. On February 23, I got a notice from my bank stating that a charge had again cleared to my account for $9.95 from Blastengine.com, and that I had $75 in overdraft charges and daily fees because of it. I was infuriated, and I returned to Blastengine.com to find out what was going on.
I went through the account cancellation procedure several more times, logging in and out each time, and noticed that my account was still reading active. I then carefully went through the cancellation procedure again and I realized what was really going on.
The instructions on the web site for canceling your account, instruct you to log in to your account and click on 'Cancel Service'. When you do this, you are brought to another page that asks you if you are sure that you want to cancel. It also tells you that your listing will be deleted in 5 days. I clicked 'cancel my service' once again.
I was then brought to another page that was asking me to confirm the cancellation of my service. I clicked confirm cancelation. I had clicked 'Cancel Service' a total of three times so far. The last page that was shown to me was a full page advertisement, offering a different service. The advertisement was big and red and took up 99% of the page.
I then scrolled down to the very bottom of the page (the advertisement takes up two pages). I noticed a link in an 8pt font at the very bottom of the screen. It said 'Cancel my blastengine service'. The link was not in bold or underline, and it was not in a color that stood out from the rest of the page. The advertisement did not say anything about it's relationship to my current service. The company's website did not properly outline these cancellation procedures.
I contacted the company about this. I sent them several e-mails regarding the problem, and I requested a call back. I also called their toll free number, which just played a message and then hung up on me. I was able to get them to refund my $9.95 for February, but they refused to reimburse me for any of the previous charges or any of the fees I incurred.
If you sign up for anything on the internet, beware. There is very legal little protection in place to protect consumers from this type of fraud and deception. A company that you willingly gave your credit card information to can authorize charges to your account with very little oversight. Companies like Blastengine.com will $9.95 you to death with no remorse.
If you dispute it with your bank, they will tell you that you have to take it up with the company that charged you, because you willingly gave your credit card number to them. You will be responsible for the fees.
Greg
Cleveland, Ohio
U.S.A.
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