Complaint / Review
JustAnswer.com
Unauthorized Monthly Charge After Three Legal Advice Questions

London, England, 21st June. In early 2012 I paid for a lawyer's advice via JustAnswer. The advice I received was useful, and over 3/4 days a total of 3 questions were answered. Job done! However, I noticed that my Visa statement showed a debit a month after the main billing occurred. Last month a further $60 (GBP40) was billed, and I took the matter up with Visa. They said that from what they could see I was paying a "monthly subscription" to JustAnswer, although since the early 2012 questions I had not used the service. Visa then explained that somewhere in the JustAnswer web page there must have been "small print," thus triggering the monthly subscription.

It is clearly a scam. I had never agreed to a monthly subscription, and I was never actually asked whether I wanted to take one out! I would never have agreed to this. Visa also said that it was a growing and serious problem. Vendors both respectable and crooked add this subscription charge on the basis that the person will not notice it or, as in my case, will not notice it for several months.

An expensive phone call to an 0808 number (from England) received the usual "sorry" answer, but if, as I suspect, it was a Philippine call center, it will no doubt prove to have been a waste of time. It is obvious that JustAnswer isn't as legitimate as I first thought. I have now emailed the complaint, and Visa will stop future payments, but I have a sneaking suspicion that JustAnswer will ignore my request for a "Letter of Cancellation" confirmation and will not pay back the money they stole. Let's face it, if they work this scam on say 1,000 people per month, we are talking mega bucks over a year.

As it is a charge I had never agreed to, I wonder how many others have been duped. In complaining to your organization, I hope others will take heed and learn from my stupidity. If it is in the small print, as Visa suggested, then not only will they kill themselves, but if it is as widespread as Visa states, this type of scam will kill the whole spectrum of benefits the web offers. Looking at their website, it seems so honest and genuine. Why can't they simply add a box explaining the benefits of the annual subscription (if there are any) instead of stealing money from the unsuspecting? The JustAnswer scam must be exposed, and the no-doubt legal loophole they operate under must be closed quickly. It is so dishonest.