My eMusic Rant
I hate scams. I hate being charged for things that I didn't get. So when eMusic's 'free trial' charged my account, I blew through the roof.
The terms were (and I read these very carefully before signing up, b/c I KNOW they slip shit in there), 14 day FREE trial of 25 downloads. Cancel before the 14 days are up and you will not be charged. Great, if this works, they'll have a new customer, b/c free stuff makes me happy, and I'm willing to pay for great service, so I'd likely rejoin once I understand what all they offer (not much that I liked) and how much I'd have to pay long term (out the nose).
I made sure not to go over the 25 downloads, since that would automatically renew your contract. I downloaded my freebies, then canceled the same night, well within my 14 day trial.
Lo and behold, come Monday I see 9.99 from eMusic.
Fk. Ers.
It wasn't even 2 days since I'd signed up. What.The.Fk. How do you get to do that, when you told me otherwise?
So I go online, and cancel again, and email my complaint. Auto-response only, no people. I send this several times over the course of days and never DO get a real reply. I hunt for numbers, no avail. My charge included one, so I called that...directs you back to the website. Unhelpful. I finally googled and blew up the inbox of any and every customer rep email address I could find. Eventually I found a number that had an actual person attached.
This is the only 'working' customer service line I could find. Memorize it. Call it. Tell them how unhappy you are with their service, b/c they're getting away with lies and theft. Next will be murder. Murder of good business practices.
1-212-201-9240
You'll need to hit 0 for operator (b/c '1' does NOT send you to a customer rep like it says it does, rather it just sends you to that annoying ass recording that doesn't tell you shit), then ask for a customer rep.
Needless to say, I likely wasn't very nice, but no company should ignore the needs and concerns of the customer -- paying or trying you out on your self-proclaimed free trial -- and this company is oooooohhhh taking the money and running.
I was told I will get my 10 dollar refund, though I flustered at that and forgot to ask when I should expect it, so I'll likely be calling back in a few days. I was never asked why I was unhappy, no apologies for the confusion, no offer to make it all better to keep me as a customer. Nothing. It seems if you can sleuth your way to an actual person, they've been given the go ahead and refund the bogus charge just to shut you up.
Businesses. We want to give you money, we do. We like stuff, and you give us stuff, and sometimes its good and we'll pay our fair share. We'll tell other people if you make us happy and do what you say you're going to do. Win win all around that is.
But do NOT LIE to us, think we are stupid or lazy, and will not do our best to hunt you down and make your life miserable, even over a measly 10 bux. That's my money, I get to decide who gets it and who doesn't. You don't get to steal it from me then hide and think I'm going to just let it go.
Customers. Read your fine print before you agree to anything (luckily, unlike most complaints I saw, I didn't exceed the barely mentioned guidelines), and if you're still being screwed unjustly, fight it. Spread the word to keep other people from getting screwed, and maybe these crappy business practices will get noticed and they will die a horrible horrible totally in debt death.
I don't care who you are. That shit ain't right.
The. End.
Hopefully.
Update:
Erick Zeidenberg is the only email I got a personal response from (guess he doesn't like unhappy customer spam), and though he claims I downloaded more than allowed (I didn't, I counted 3 times), I will be getting my refund.
One more edit:
Jasmine Outcalt also finally gave me a response, but only after I had to eAttack personal emails I found on complaint sites, found the phone number and called, hence it was already resolved. It was not because of my following of their customer service email directions, which gave me jack nothing.
It's just ridiculous how many hoops I had to jump through for this resolution.
The terms were (and I read these very carefully before signing up, b/c I KNOW they slip shit in there), 14 day FREE trial of 25 downloads. Cancel before the 14 days are up and you will not be charged. Great, if this works, they'll have a new customer, b/c free stuff makes me happy, and I'm willing to pay for great service, so I'd likely rejoin once I understand what all they offer (not much that I liked) and how much I'd have to pay long term (out the nose).
I made sure not to go over the 25 downloads, since that would automatically renew your contract. I downloaded my freebies, then canceled the same night, well within my 14 day trial.
Lo and behold, come Monday I see 9.99 from eMusic.
Fk. Ers.
It wasn't even 2 days since I'd signed up. What.The.Fk. How do you get to do that, when you told me otherwise?
So I go online, and cancel again, and email my complaint. Auto-response only, no people. I send this several times over the course of days and never DO get a real reply. I hunt for numbers, no avail. My charge included one, so I called that...directs you back to the website. Unhelpful. I finally googled and blew up the inbox of any and every customer rep email address I could find. Eventually I found a number that had an actual person attached.
This is the only 'working' customer service line I could find. Memorize it. Call it. Tell them how unhappy you are with their service, b/c they're getting away with lies and theft. Next will be murder. Murder of good business practices.
1-212-201-9240
You'll need to hit 0 for operator (b/c '1' does NOT send you to a customer rep like it says it does, rather it just sends you to that annoying ass recording that doesn't tell you shit), then ask for a customer rep.
Needless to say, I likely wasn't very nice, but no company should ignore the needs and concerns of the customer -- paying or trying you out on your self-proclaimed free trial -- and this company is oooooohhhh taking the money and running.
I was told I will get my 10 dollar refund, though I flustered at that and forgot to ask when I should expect it, so I'll likely be calling back in a few days. I was never asked why I was unhappy, no apologies for the confusion, no offer to make it all better to keep me as a customer. Nothing. It seems if you can sleuth your way to an actual person, they've been given the go ahead and refund the bogus charge just to shut you up.
Businesses. We want to give you money, we do. We like stuff, and you give us stuff, and sometimes its good and we'll pay our fair share. We'll tell other people if you make us happy and do what you say you're going to do. Win win all around that is.
But do NOT LIE to us, think we are stupid or lazy, and will not do our best to hunt you down and make your life miserable, even over a measly 10 bux. That's my money, I get to decide who gets it and who doesn't. You don't get to steal it from me then hide and think I'm going to just let it go.
Customers. Read your fine print before you agree to anything (luckily, unlike most complaints I saw, I didn't exceed the barely mentioned guidelines), and if you're still being screwed unjustly, fight it. Spread the word to keep other people from getting screwed, and maybe these crappy business practices will get noticed and they will die a horrible horrible totally in debt death.
I don't care who you are. That shit ain't right.
The. End.
Hopefully.
Update:
Erick Zeidenberg is the only email I got a personal response from (guess he doesn't like unhappy customer spam), and though he claims I downloaded more than allowed (I didn't, I counted 3 times), I will be getting my refund.
One more edit:
Jasmine Outcalt also finally gave me a response, but only after I had to eAttack personal emails I found on complaint sites, found the phone number and called, hence it was already resolved. It was not because of my following of their customer service email directions, which gave me jack nothing.
It's just ridiculous how many hoops I had to jump through for this resolution.