I joined a popular dating service called Match.com because they had a good deal going on at the time 25% off the $107.94 and 6 free month guarantee if you kept in contact with 5 unique people every month or if a unique person contacted you. Anyway since I wanted the free 6 months I made sure that either I was contacting 5 unique people or 5 unique people were contacting me. I had a quite hectic life in 2011 and was unable to check my statements as carefully as I should have been. Due to an injury from an auto accident I was taking a lot of rehabilitative classes at my gym. Anyway after the 6 months had passed I continued to get emails from Match about different matches they had for me. I even remember calling to see if I had qualified for the 6 free months and I remember a representative stating that I did.
So I didn't worry about it although I no longer had the time to use the service. Just yesterday I was looking through my statements and noticed a charge of $107.94 in July of 6 months after the date that I joined. They also charged me another $107.94 on December 31. I immeadiately called them to have them take these charges off my card. They were only willing to take the $107.94 December charge off my card and not the July charge. I told them that that the 6 months should have been free since I had initiated contact with 5 unique people or 5 unique people had initiated contact with me. They insisted that their computers showed that I fell short during 2 months and thus was charged. There is definitely somthing wrong with their system because I know I met the requirements.
This company's automatic renewal plan is a scam. They realize how busy many single people are with their lives and thus enforce this automatic renewal stating that they do so because it ensures that members' services will be uninterrupted and no fee increases. However, if they were respectful of their clients like other dating sights they would offer hassle free memberships in which members are given the utmost respect by being able to control their own renewals. Many dating sights allow the member to click on or off for automatic renewal. So if the member clicks off for renewal, their system will not automatically renew clients account by charging credit card. The account will expire if it is not renewed by them. It is up to client to decide to continue or not once time runs out.
I have other friends who have joined Match.com and have been charged on credit card as well for automatic renewal. They like me have had to go through the hassle of calling Match and demanding they remove the charge. Often these charges are not removed and it is a battle of trying to get them removed, spending up to an hour talking to different sales reps, including managers to demand the removal of the fee. What a hassle! And like I said, often the fees are not removed because it is a scam. Automatic renewals for services like these should be illegal in my opinion. It is a way for companies to get free money in their pockets by people like me who don't use their services and lead busy lives.
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