Am I wrong here?RE: Idenity Guard

[stang8118]

Ok IG has/had a promotion of 30 days free (can cancel anytime). I signed up for this a few months back, and linked it to my paypal debit card that I know I never have funds in the account. That way I don't get forced to jump through hoops to cancel the service.

Anyways I sold something online a few days ago that the buyer used paypal to pay me from. Well the next day I have two charges of both $14.99 from identity guard ($29.98 total; keep in mind this is 2+ months AFTER the 30 day free trial was up). Kinda had my mind boggled as to why it was two charges.

Well today I called up IG and waited well over a half hour to dispute the charges. I spoke with a lady there and she said that they will charge your CC on file for a few months until there is funds available to pay (yet you don't get any emails from them stating that they are continuing to check your CC for funds available). I told them that is BS and unheard of. Try doing that with my electric company, or phone company and see if they keep your service going lol. You don't pay = you don't have service until YOU pay. I asked her where it said in their TOS that that is the case, and she said it is in there...

Fees and Charges. You authorize us to charge your credit card or other account that you have designated. Monthly, annual and other periodic or renewal fees will be charged at the then current rate. You may cancel the Service at any time by calling 1-800-452-2541. You have the right to cancel your subscription without fee or penalty at any time.

Changes to Service, Fees or End User Agreement; Termination. At any time without notice to you, or liability to you, we may modify this End User Agreement, or the fees for the Service, or modify or cancel the Service. We reserve the right to terminate your account with or without cause at any time and for any reason. You agree that any termination of your access to the Service may be effected without prior notice. You may terminate your account at any time by calling 1-800-452-2541, which number is also listed on the Intersections Inc. customer service page www.identityguard.com/ContactUS.aspx. Once your account has terminated for any reason, you will have no further right or access to use the Service, and you immediately shall cease using and destroy all copies of any Software.

So I called back to speak with a supervisor and told him nowhere does it state anything that the girl told me. Hell it doesn't even state that you MUST call to cancel, it just says that you MAY call. I said "in this day and age I can buy/cancel/renew/etc car insurance, phone, electric, healthcare, or anything else with the click of a button, yet with IG the only way to cancel in YOUR eyes is to be forced to wait over a 1/2 hour on hold (funny considering it is an online service...). I said that it doesn't state anywhere in your TOS that you will continue to check for funds even when I can't access your service.

I demanded that they refund both $14.99 charges or I will just easily give Paypal this info and they will happily do it for me.

End of the story is they refunded me 1 $14.99 charge, but I am on the hook for the other $14.99 charge, but I am gonna still dispute that with Paypal anyways.

 

[Headstand]

I don't fully understand. You didn't cancel the service, instead you just had no money on the CC and thought they would cancel it? I agree they shouldn't have kept checking, but if you didn't cancel it, aren't you still on the hook for it anyway?

 

[stang8118]

Yeah sorry, was kinda being rushed when I was typing that out. Yeah I never called them to cancel the service, but you'd think after 2 months of me not having money in my PP account that they would stop after the first try. I mean if I sent in a bad check to my phone company they would terminate my phone service after the cut off date... they aren't going to keep trying to cash that check every day until it clears...

Not once did I get a single email from them the entire time I was technically a customer. I even checked my spam folder and everything...

 

[doz]

When you sign up for a "free 30 days" like that, just about everything (that ive known of for 10+ years) comes with a "must call to cancel". Its just like those free credit reports. You get a free 30 days, but they charge afterwards. If you read the fine print, you will see this.

Not trying to be a jerk, but you failed to read that part obviously and just because you didnt have money doesnt mean you dont owe it. Ive done the same thing, years and years back. You should be happy they gave you $15 of it back, as they really dont owe you anything and there is nothing paypal can/will do for you.

And they dont have to email you about taking the money from the account. I dont get an email from GMAC stating they removed my car payment, nor my insurance payment. When you signed up, you agreed to those terms.

 

[Mooyo]

I'm lost here. If you don't pay your phone bill for 2 months...even if they disconnect your services you would still owe for those 2 months. You don't get out of what you owe just because you no longer are a customer.

You admitted you purposely used an account with no balance and made no real effort to cancel the services in any way. I don't really see why you claim you should have any of the $ refunded.

 

[Headstand]

I mean if I sent in a bad check to my phone company they would terminate my phone service after the cut off date... they aren't going to keep trying to cash that check every day until it clears...

Not everyday, but they will take on NSF fees, as will your bank, and yes they will try more than once. I have seen NSF check try 3 times in 1 month before being sent to collections.

 

[stang8118]

I'm lost here. If you don't pay your phone bill for 2 months...even if they disconnect your services you would still owe for those 2 months. You don't get out of what you owe just because you no longer are a customer.

You admitted you purposely used an account with no balance and made no real effort to cancel the services in any way. I don't really see why you claim you should have any of the $ refunded.

Yeah but using that analogy then it is the equivalent of the phone company billing me for service AFTER they already shut it off. Like it got shut off in January, but they are sending me a bill in March for February (still shut off in this month). The two months I was billed for I didn't have access to the site because I didn't have funds in my Paypal account.

 

[Headstand]

Yeah but using that analogy then it is the equivalent of the phone company billing me for service AFTER they already shut it off. Like it got shut off in January, but they are sending me a bill in March for February (still shut off in this month). The two months I was billed for I didn't have access to the site because I didn't have funds in my Paypal account.

You got something there, but it still comes down to you should have called. If they refunded 1 charge and cancelled it for you, I would say call it a day. I have lost more than $14.95 and had to just say lesson learned.

 

[Mooyo]

Yeah but using that analogy then it is the equivalent of the phone company billing me for service AFTER they already shut it off. Like it got shut off in January, but they are sending me a bill in March for February (still shut off in this month). The two months I was billed for I didn't have access to the site because I didn't have funds in my Paypal account.

Not having read the contract/terms of service I can't be positive but with most companies this would still be valid. Say you had a contract with Comcast or Qwest for Y months stating you would pay $X.XX a month. If you didn't pay your bill and the phone/internet/whatever services were turned off for a month until you paid your bill in full and reactivated services, you wouldn't be credited/released from that month's billing due to downtime. In this example you signed an agreement saying you would pay $X.XX a month for Y months, period.

Again, I haven't read the terms of Identity Guard nor have any intention to but that is how a number of contracted services function. In the end you already admitted you made no conscious effort to cancel services so I'm not sure what ground you're trying to make or what you feel is owed.

 

[MadMan007]

You got something there, but it still comes down to you should have called. If they refunded 1 charge and cancelled it for you, I would say call it a day. I have lost more than $14.95 and had to just say lesson learned.

Yeah, this. Thinking that you could get away from it by not paying for the service through not having funds available was a mistake on your part, and potentially a very costly one in the long run. If you hadn't noticed this they would have racked up many months of legitimate charges and eventually gone to collections. The company really didn't need to refund you even one charge but they did anyway. I'd take it as a lesson to keep on top of things.

 

[Lavacon]

You have to cancel. They make money off these "free" offers from people like yourself not canceling. It's easy to forget as they won't send you too many emails reminding you to cancel.

With things such as these, the trick IS to call and cancel. Often they will offer you another "free" month just so you have to call back and get the same run around again. They do this hoping you forget to call again.

They make it a pain in the @$$ for a reason. Credit monitoring services are famous for these tactics.

You are on the hook here and I don't want to sound like a jerk here, but, you should be on the hook. Most likely you can play the "ignorance is bliss" card and get a partial refund. Just be aware of these things in the future.

 

[ratbuddy]

RE: the thread title, the answer is a firm "yes."

I can just imagine how the Paypal dispute will go.

"Did you sign up for the service?"

"Well, yeah."

"Did you cancel it?"

"Not exactly.."

"Denied."

 

[sandyduff]

RE: the thread title, the answer is a firm "yes."

I can just imagine how the Paypal dispute will go.

"Did you sign up for the service?"

"Well, yeah."

"Did you cancel it?"

"Not exactly.."

"Denied."

A big +1 to that...

You signed up to the service... never cancelled it and wondering why you are getting charged?

 

[stang8118]

Yeah but my whole point is that I didn't have access to the website after the 30 days was up. If I still had access, and they were just waiting for funds in my account that would be a different story.

Doubt I'll really follow up with a dispute with PP mainly because the hassle isn't worth the $15.

 

[JonSimonzi]

Generally I'm one to side with customers and not the companies, but, yeah, you are wrong here. You agreed to try a service, that would have a charge if you didn't cancel it. You didn't cancel it. Now you're just trying to create excuses and justification. But the bottom line is, you didn't cancel the service.

 

[RoC1909]

Companies make it that you "have to call" just so that it's more convoluted for you to cancel their services. They also want to speak to you so that they can get you to stay with all sort of offers of half price or any number of crappy offers.

There are also other unscrupulous things that companies do and I will not give them my business if they do:

1) If I want a trial on a service, I am not going to give you my credit card info for it! If it's TRULY a trial, then you don't need to ask for that info. I just love ALL the excuses that companies use in order to get a consumer to give their CC info.
2) I don't like "AUTO RENEWALS" on services. If I want a 30 day trial, I want a 30 DAY TRIAL! If I have to call up, be placed on hold for who knows how long, listen to a 10 minute sales pitch on WHY I shouldn't cancel, and in the end, they listen to some really "shady questions" attempting to trick me into saying "yes" to something, then they can "F off!"

I wanted a 15 day trial on one of the BIG family tree sites and after giving them a little info and clicking "next", here comes the prompts asking for CC info! I said to myself, "F them". And then told them that in writing.

I just get really perturbed when my financial info is needed for anything.