I started noticing that there was some wierd transaction that was occurring every month from my checking account. It looked like:
Purchase xx630xxxxxxx19xxx26xxx1 on 04/06 at cr *consumerreports. Or 800-333-0663 ny
I looked up the phone number on Google and figured out that the culprit was ConsumerReports.org.
Here's my beef... What normal person actually wants to subscribe monthly to a Consumer Report online service? I don't spend my days searching for information on consumer products? So how did I end up getting billed monthly for that luxury? In point-of-fact, I honestly can't even remember signing up for this service to begin with?
I was looking elsewhere on the web and found another complaint on consumer complaints about this company here: / Consumer-Services/Consumer-Reports/consumer-reports-consumer-s-u-B7D88.htm
I've got to admit that this guy's problem seemed similar to mine. He had been billed monthly by some "auto renew" feature that he must have run into (and not noticed) during some registration process with ConsumerReports.org.
So now, (back to my story) I can't even remember signing up for this in the first place, I certainly don't remember my own username and password, and when trying to use the "forgot my password" feature, I discovered that any and all of the usernames or email addresses I could ever have possibly used did not appear to be registered with the site! So now I'm seriously wondering whether I knowingly signed up for this service to begin with.
Bottom line, even if I did sign up for this service, the "default" options during the registration should NOT be set to "auto renew every month" so that I end up getting hit with some auto-withdrawal from my account monthly. The user should instead intentionally check the box that says, "I want to be billed automatically every month".
You know, this reminds me of another issue I've seen once or twice online regarding these types of sites. Once upon a time, I ended up on a site where I had to give me Credit Card information to receive a "free" service. If you forget to cancel your subscription within the next 1 - 3 months, your card will get billed monthly. I hate that! I think I ran into that problem on FreeCreditReport.com or something like that.
Bottom line... Shady companies are all over the place on the Web and it's nearly impossible to identify the normal legitimate businesses from the schemers and con-men type businesses. So DON'T give out your Credit Card number to anyone that you don't do business with in person! (Unless it's a known big online business like Amazon, EBay, or something.)
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