Ziinga.com without my consent transformed a $50.00 payment made for products to be purchased into a $305.97 "cancelled Platinum account" with what I now understand is unrestricted access to future charges for 3 months. On May 15 I registered on Ziinga.com and used a Credit Card to put $50.00 into my account to purchase products. At 12:03 pm I received a receipt via email, Transaction ID 39140525, that I had successfully "paid for a product". It does not read "service". After monitoring their Live Auction I noted that the bid price on many items remained exactly the same when checking at different times of the day for a few days. Suspicious, at this point I realized that I had probably just been scammed out of $50.00 and considered it a lesson learned. No where in the Terms and Conditions do I read that in 7 days, my "payment made for products can or will be transferred to a 3 month Platinum membership" for services. Nor does it state anywhere under the "registration" portion of the same Terms and Conditions document that registering is an automatic or forced acceptance to a membership. It states that it "offers. Memberships, each with a corresponding monthly fee". I did not agree to any such supposed "3 month contract" in any form. On May 22 at 8:10 pm I received a text message stating that Ziinga had used my credit card to charge $91.17 and $1.02 for a "Platinum Membership". I did not receive any kind of a confirmation request, notification of membership, or reply to activate contact from Ziinga in the 7 days since registering with them. Immediately in the morning of May 23, I contacted Ziinga by phone and they informed me that I am now bound to a 3 month contract at $88.99 / month for an auction service but I can cancel for $39.00. From the $50.00 I agreed to pay for products I now discover that somehow Ziinga was able to change the authorization I had given them for that to a $305.97 service membership. This is a misappropriation of my authorization and funds to falsely enter into any kind of binding agreement with Ziinga. On May 23 at 9:07 I received a Cancellation Receipt, Transaction ID 1337785656, that states it will not take into effect until 08-20 and until then 'there may be additional charges incurred as part of this' falsely created 'three month binding contract'. To further substantiate their corrupt behavior and fraudulent use of my credit card, the only way to prevent this company from charging whatever they decide they want AFTER August 20 - that's 3 months from now. Is to give them my credit card info again and pay an additional $39.00. My credit card company refuses to cancel the card until they receive a numbered notification from Ziinga!? Why does the benefit of the doubt go to the creditor and not the debitor in a sale anyway? At the very least, a creditors withdrawals should be suspended until they have been verified and confirmed by both parties after the owner of the money reports it! There are so many things inherently wrong with all of this in the last 7 days. I believe this company should have their ability to process credit and other payment methods suspended until they substantially prove the credibility of their claims.
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