Acorn TV Billing Systems and Customer Support Cannot Be Trusted Silver Spring Maryland

Initial Problem: In late June 2019 Acorn TV activated an annual subscription in my name without my permission or any action on my part. I ended my subscription with Acorn TV in April 2018, over a year before June 2019.

Behavioral Problems

1. Displayed a stunning lack of competence in their customer service department by failing to read and comprehend the information I provided.

I tried several times to get customer support to understand the issue and for some reason they were simply unable to understand the basic information I provided. It took a BBB complaint before I finally heard from someone who seemed to understand the situation.

2. Failed to investigate and thus are unable to explain how a subscription was created without any action on my part.

For several weeks Acorn TV insisted the subscription was created via my Roku account. I told them several times neither Roku or I had any data/records showing that I had subscribed via Roku. They finally talked to Roku themselves and confirmed Roku was saying I was NOT and had NEVER subscribed to Acorn TV via my Roku account.

At this point Acorn TV said they were going to look into how a bogus subscription got into their systems. However, for some unknown reason Acorn TV failed to complete their investigation (I have no evidence they even started one) and reverted back to insisting the subscription was created via my Roku account. Roku and I still have no data that shows this to be the case and Acorn TV has not provided any data to back up this claim; e.g. bank or credit card account information associated with the subscription, any IP addresses using the subscription, etc.

3. Have an odd lack of curiosity or concern about how a bogus and unpaid for subscription was created in their systems.

The only reason I can think of for a video streaming company to have no concern about such a situation is the old adage "follow the money". Whether they're creating these unsolicited subscriptiions accidentally or on purpose I suspect that anyone who uses such an account will eventually be billed by Acorn TV.

4. Refuse to remove my information from their systems.

Acorn TV's position is that they will NEVER remove any consumer's information from their systems. Basically this means if you ever want to stop hearing from Acorn TV under any circumstances you need to subscribe with a throwaway email address that you use exclusively for Acorn TV and then cancel/delete that email when you are done with them. It's astounding that Acorn TV thinks this is good approach/policy to take with consumers.