tidystorm

random techno-gab

Category Archives: Web sites

Audible dot com is another scam company

Found another scam on my card, and this time the parent company is Amazon.com.

It’s called Audible, and the charge was the first of what would be monthly fees for $16.00.

I always follow this list when calling these gadblame companies:

1. What other names do you go by?
2. Please refund all charges (they will usually cancel only a few)
3. Please CLOSE the account. This is different from canceling the charges.
4. How did you get my credit card?

Here’s what I got from Audible:

1. They go by no other name. Their parent company is Amazon.com
2. The rep was happy to cancel the charge, and said the membership “had not been used for anything.”
3. When I asked her to CLOSE the account, she informed me I can never open another account with them again under that credit card. Good riddance. She said this action would delete the billing information including the address and the credit card number. Yay.
4. She said the account was opened as a trial through a television commercial.

What misleads people is that these kinds of businesses are legitimate businesses. But they gouge unsuspecting customers, perhaps especially minors, which is what happened in this case.

Amazon.com would do well to reconsider.

Blog a one-shot good customer experience

Had a good experience with a contractor or a medical procedure? Anything, really, is a candidate for web praise. But alas, when you search, Google spews out more negative links than positive ones.

It’s not the search engine’s fault. Rather, it’s the humans who write. It’s our nature to complain more than praise. So the search engine is just showing you what it mostly finds.

Happily, there’s an antidote, even if you don’t own a blog. Or even if you do own a blog but your blog is about homeschooling and you want to write about how great your plumber is.

There’s a web site that lets you write about just one topic, on just one web page. It’s called Squidoo, and the page you write is called a “lens.” You can write a lens in just a few hours. You can keep saving drafts until you’re happy with it. Then click “publish.” It’s that easy.

So here’s an example of a praise squidoo lens to look at. Mind you, lenses can have many purposes, but their format lends nicely to a praise (okay or criticism) page.

All you need to get started is to go to squidoo.com and set up an account. Then start building your lens.

When a legit company looks like a scam

The outdated “fine print” approach to marketing doesn’t fly on the web. Why? Customers can alert the world. Social media keeps businesses on the up and up.

Because of social media, companies are held to a higher standard than “we told you in the fine print.” They must be truly meeting customer needs or they get dissed out of business.

Customers should expect no less than a full refund if they find recurring charges on their credit card, yet never used the business. When a company does not comply with that request, it deserves negative publicity in cyberspace.

So here’s a real email letter from this week from a stunned customer to the President of Stamps.com, and below it is the reply. When a legitimate company looks like a scam, then it’s a scam.

If, down the road, stamps.com refunds the remainder the customer is out, this blog will be updated to say so.

Dear Mr. McBride,

I know that stamps.com is not a scam, but its treatment of customers looks no different from:

NBM Services
Instant Forms
Post Exam Office
Discountbooksale
Bestbrandvalues
Discount Book Sale
DBS Books

My credit card has been scammed by all the above companies. In each case, the resolution involves calling a customer service rep, arranging for a refund, then escalating the call to get a few months’ worth of charges
refunded. For that, the customer has to listen to an annoying pitch to get them to stay. And you never get all your money back. And they all have one more thing in common — an occasional change in name on the credit card.

Your company does that too.

From my perspective, then, my experience with stamps.com is no different than that of those other companies. And as you well know, customer perception matters.

I recently started a new technical blog, which will also contain occasional reports of sloppy business, outright fraud, and maybe even some stellar service when I see it. I know how to do search marketing, so my blog will soon rise to the top of search results.

I have not yet blogged about my experience with stamps.com, as I have not yet talked to you. I did arrange a cancellation today with a stamps.com phone rep, and a supervisor has credited me for two billing cycles. The total I’ve been unwittingly charged is $287.20.

So that means I’m out $251.30 for a service I never used. Would you please refund me that remaining amount?

Please don’t explain your trial period policy. I have learned my lesson and will never fill out a survey again, will never respond to any purchase page beyond the actual purchase and will never trust stamps.com. But the price for ordinary busy people to not understand fine print is steep, and that makes your business’s tactics look too much like fraud.

If you google these words: “stamps.com scam” you will find a plethora of conversation. In the long run, this negative publicity can’t be good for your company. If you really are in this for the long haul, and by what I can tell from the web, you are a legitimate company, then perhaps it’s time to make your fine print bigger and to learn about how social media impacts your business.

This may interest you: Why Don’t You Listen to Social Media.

Please arrange for my $251.30 to be refunded to my card. My account number is XXXXXX. Hopefully, in exchange, I’ve helped you.

Thank you. Sincerely, Mrs. YYY

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting the Stamps.com Office of the President.

We certainly appreciate your concerns, Ms. YYY. We provide and disclose terms that we do expect all potential customers to read, review, and agree to before they create their accounts. Accounts cannot be created without customers indicating that they have read the terms by clicking on the “I Agree” box. We provide our terms on a single webpage so you do not need to click on additional links or buttons to read our full Terms.

During the registration process for Stamps.com we disclose how much your service fee will be and how often you will be billed. In addition, following registration, we send you a Welcome E-mail that states if the account is left open beyond the 28 day trial you will be billed the applicable service fees.

Our records show your account has been closed and two months of fees have been refunded as a courtesy by the supervisor with whom you spoke.

We have carefully reviewed your account history and have found the service fees that were applied are in accordance with the Service Agreement to which you agreed. However, your satisfaction is very important to us and we have determined that an additional credit will be issued. As a courtesy, we are crediting an additional four fees to your Credit card. This would bring the total credit to six months.

Please allow 3-5 business days for this additional credit of $71.80 to be applied to your account. The credit may not be reflected immediately on an online statement. Please allow one billing cycle to pass before it is reflected on a paper statement.

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. If you would like further details on the Terms and Conditions of the Service Agreement, please visit the following link:

http://www.stamps.com/conditions/

Please let us know if the Office of the President can be of any further assistance.

Respectfully,

Nicole
The Resolution Group
Stamps.com
Customer (Customer Emailer) 04/13/2010 03:56 PM