I am furious. Here I am unemployed and trying to figure out a way to make extra money while studying for a new career, so I decide to check out a website concerning grants for further education.
The ad said plainly that the CD would be 1.95 to a site called mygrantsite.net. Supposedly you got a CD Free and the 1.95 was to cover the shipping of the CD. I got the CD weeks later with a charge of $2.29. I didn't complain, I figured the postage had increased. Then I get an email telling me if I do not cancel my membership (which I did not voluntarily join) within a certain period of time that I would be charged a monthly fee of $39.95. I found a lot of out date grants on the site and decided it was not for me. I called, I cancelled and received a cancellation # on 2/20/09. All was well I thought.
In June I decide to check out a website concerning making money from home. It looks like I would have learned my lesson from the February deal, but hey I'm still needing income so I give it a try.
I answer an email from a women who says they have a proven system to help you make money on Google ad words. It advertises you can check out the site for $1.95. So I figure that's not much investment, why not. I carefully read the site page and unchecked anything that mentions membership before submitting. However there was another page linked that was to do with Marketing systems and supposedly increased her income drastically that was only $1.97 to look at, so I also looked at that, and made sure I did not join anything in the process as well.
Then I get an email telling me that I have a membership to something called chatforbucks, or something like that and if I don't want the membership I have to cancel within 7 days. I called and cancelled right away. I never even saw that name on any of the sites I had been on, but I thought I've dogded another bullet. They did not charge me for that membership.
However, 8 days later I am hit with a charge for Online Market Systems for $68.21, and the next day I am hit with another charge for blazingkeywords for $72.21. I was furious. Here I am with barely enough money to pay for my essentials and they are taking money out of my account left and right!!! I first called Online Market System. They claimed they could not give me a refund because I did not call within the 7 days buried in the policy of their website. Then she promptly hung up on me when I became insistent. I called back and spoke with a man this time. He agreed he would give me $35 back since I had not actually used their service. How kind of him, considering he is keeping $33.21 they did not earn, as I never did use their service and did not knowingly sign up for it to start with! Crooks, thieves are what they all are!
Next I called blazingkeywords, and they immediately gave me a refund, which I was surprised about, considering the battle I had with the Online Market System. Anyway, I thought my troubles to be over until a week later.
I get a charge on my account for $38.34, on 6/20/09 (exactly 4 months after I received a cancellation number from the grant site. The name says Grant Masters with a number 800-926-0273. I call the number but it says to call back during business hours. So I dig out my old records and call about the cancellation. They tell me I need to fax them a copy of the charge and the cancellation. I do, but never got a reply. So I call the 800-926-0273 # and end up with Phillipian CS reps who say they are both Grant Masters and Blazingkeywords reps. I can't get any satisfaction from them because they say the charge is Grant Masters and they can't find it. They give me another number, and I call again. This time it is another Phillipian CS Rep. Who wants my credit card number to access the account! Is he crazy? I told him he could look it up by my phone # or email address. Finally after screaming at him for 10 minutes he agrees to give me a refund of the $38.34.
In the past month I have had to spend hours on the phone to fight, to have put back into my account $178.76 for services I did not request or use. I still have to battle with the bank for the balance of $33.21 not refunded yet by Online Market Systems. And I still may have to cancel my card to prevent future charges! It appears all of these companies are connected to each other and I think they must be owned by the same parent company. They should be put out of business. They do not offer a good service and use deceptive advertising to get the consumer to even look at their website. If there is a monthly fee they do not make it clear to the consumer and do not notify in advance that you will be charged if not cancelled within 7 days.
I wish there was a class action law suit against them so they would either be put out of business or forced to clean up their act and stop charging people without their knowledge. It takes time to get the money back from the bank and usually people that go to these sites don't have the extra money to loan them until they can get the refund. The last case told me it would be 7 - 14 days before I would see the refund in my account. That's rediculous! I am furious and everyone else should be as well!!!
0 comments