Match.com Deceptive sneaky dishonest billing practices! Watch out for Continuous Billing policy! Dallas Texas

Following is a letter I wrote to Match.com. They ignored it. They did NOT credit my account for the FULL MONTH of membership I cancelled and that I did not use.
Their sneaky, underhanded billing practices are legal. Their policies are posted on their website but hard to find/easy to miss, and difficult to understand. I am totally disgusted with Match.com. If you are going to get a membership there, BEWARE: READ THEIR BILLING DETAILS VERY VERY CAREFULLY!!! otherwise you will definitely and absolutely get ripped off!

"I joined Match.com on 3-21-06. I joined for one month and I paid the highest rate of $29.99 to join for one month. My one month was over 4-21-06.

I have been billed again on my credit card and I am furious.

THIS IS DISHONEST! This is trickery and deceitful billing practices!

I WANT MY MONEY $29.99 BACK ! CREDIT MY CREDIT CARD!

This is exactly why I HATE giving a credit card number to a company like you. I do business on the internet all the time and you are the only business that has tricked me in years. My one month membership is OVER and yet you billed me again!

I am 54 years old. I am a bookkeeper. I am a careful person by nature and yet it was easy for me to overlook your dishonest billing practices in the ?fine print? of your service agreement! This means to me that average people are being cheated every single day by Match.com's billing policies!

To join a dating site is to allow yourself to feel hopeful? a little scared, a little embarrassed, a little intimidated and above all feel vulnerable? but a little bit hopeful, especially if you are in your 50's.

Here is the process? I decided to go ahead and join one of the online dating services? Match.com appears to be one of the largest. So, I pondered a while about ?how long? I want to be a member? 1 month? (it was the most expensive cost per month), or 3 months? (there was a price break), or for 6 months a person can get the best price break?
Wrong! ALL Wrong! If you pay with a credit card!

Regardless which plan a person chooses, they are set up on a bank draft system to deduct the ?chosen monthly payment amount', and be charged to their credit card indefinitely until they cancel your own membership! If they are one day late to cancel they have to pay for the whole next month or next group of months.

Match.com has a tiered price schedule set up: one month, 3 months, and 6 months. Supposedly the longer the commitment the better the price, but this is totally misleading!

To me this information translates into the fact that almost everyone probably pays for at least one month of membership that they didn't intend to pay for! and Big Profits for Match.com.

There are very few people that will read all of the membership contract fine print and then meticulously cancel their membership (themselves) a few days before their time limit is over because they have trusted Match.com to end their membership. After all, they chose a specific membership time limit. I am a careful person, but I got tricked by this billing system?

How sneaky is this!? Match.com, and probably the other dating sites, are preying on the vulnerability of lonely singles to pad to their profits.

Just by the statistics of credit card debts in America, I am sure that many members of Match.com are terrible with their personal finances. I bet they run up membership bills of thousands of dollars! All profit for Match.com.

Reality is that if a member provides their credit card number, Match.com will bill them forever!? that is, if they do not to cancel their own membership. This is because you must read the small fine print hidden in the contract to find out about this deception, trickery, dishonesty, and potential fraud. Match.com will not end memberships unless asked to do so, even if a member THOUGHT they were joining for 1 month or 3 months or 6 months.

In other words, once again, a one month membership is NOT a one month membership at all. How many people get duped?! I would love to know because I am convinced that it is the majority. I bet your padded profits are phenomenal.

I imagine that when most people find out they have been tricked by not reading your membership billing ?fine print?, they just shrug it off and feel a little stupid and a little cheated. I will not shrug this off. I hate being made a fool of.

I am totally incensed by Match.com's deceitful billing practices. There is a principle to uphold here. I want my $29.99 back for the extra month's membership that I never asked for and never planned to pay for!

Where is Match.com's standard of trustworthiness? In my book, it is non-existent! There is ?right', and there is ?wrong', and your billing practices are wrong! Very wrong! The term ?ill-gotten gain? could be aptly applied here.

And, to add insult to injury, if I had just sent a check or a money order for one month's payment this would be a moot point. This is very specifically credit card trickery and I am appalled.

I did not, and would never, knowingly authorize a continuing draft payment when all I wanted was one month of membership. This is borderline fraud and it is a sophisticated scam to not state Match.com's billing practices plainly and in clear view. I was totally misled by your ?selection? of different membership prices for different lengths of time!

I can afford the loss of $29.99 if you refuse to give me a refund for a month's membership that I have cancelled and I will not use, but I DO intend to stand up for what is right. Automatic credit card billing after the chosen membership time span is completed is just plain WRONG!

My suggestions for improvements to Match.com would be:

1) State your credit card billing practices boldly and honestly on the membership page where people join. Do not hide them in the fine print.

2) Offering the OPTION of continuous credit card billing would be much better than having it as your blanket billing policy.

3) Send emails saying, ?Your membership is ending soon on a certain day. Would you like to continue??

4) Or send an email stating, ?Your account will be billed for the next month on a certain day if we do not hear in advance of that date.?

Stop the deceptive, dishonest, and sneaky billing practices.?

Susan
Charlotte, North Carolina
U.S.A.