Great Expectations Dating Service Fraudulent Credit Card Charge attempt, then when blocked, sent to collection agency ripoff Oxnard California

I saw a recent report on this company, and realized I'm not the only one who has had trouble with them and decided to let you know what happened to me.

I went to Great Expectations just to find out what it was all about. In those days it was important to me to find a companion, (these days it's the last thing on my list, and wish I would have felt then as I do now.)
I was presented with the company's sales pitch, shown what they had to offer and asked if I wanted to give it a trial run. What I heard at that time seemed like it might be a good thing, so I thought a trial run might be ok.

Upon signing the papers, I was asked for my credit card. I asked them why they needed my credit card and was told it was company policy that the card would not be charged, but used as a second form of identification. I submitted my card along with my driver's license. This was on a Wednesday evening around 4 PM. On Friday morning I went to my bank, (Bank of America) to withdraw funds for gas money through the ATM. I was unable to do so, and the ATM said there was a problem, and that I should speak with someone in the bank.

When I spoke with a manager at the bank I was told my account was over drafted. I asked how that could be possible and they showed me the account transactions. There was a charge for $2500 on my account from Great Expectations, and this was more than my account had in it. I explained to the manager this was an unauthorized charge and wanted the transaction cancelled and my account re-instated. (This was rather difficult, and took quite some time, but eventually, they did get everything put back after many checks bounced, and I had to pay many charges out of my pocket, which eventually led to a bad account history and the bank forced me to close the account later.)

I immediately went to Great Expectations that day, and launched a complaint. They told me I would need to speak to their finance officer who was out sick, and would be back on Monday. I returned Monday, and was treated like I had the plague and was basically removed from the building. Tuesday I returned and the finance officer in question (a woman whose name I cannot remember) was there and she did come out to speak to me. She told me that I had 72 hours to cancel membership, and I did not do so within that time so the membership charges would be applied.

I explained I never authorized a full membership, but only a trial run and was told my card would not be charged. I also explained that I was told she was out sick, and could not launch a complaint with anyone except her and would have to wait until she returned. She then claimed she was never out sick, and no one there had a record of me attempting to launch any complaint or retraction of membership. She would not hear anything I had to say, but insisted the membership would be charged to me.

I launched a complaint with Great Expectations headquarters office and made many phone calls after that in an attempt to get some resolution to this issue. They continued in their attempt to collect and then put this $2500 charge on my credit, and eventually sent it to a collections agency.

I spent years trying to fight it with those agencies and calling both the office where I attempted the trial membership and their HQ office with no results or no response. To this day this charge is still on my credit report and I have never once used any of their services at all. Why should I have to pay $2500 when I never authorized it, never used their services, and why should my credit have to be damaged because they are greedy?

After some years I just ignored the fact that this was on my credit and I could do nothing about it, however recently I have begun a quest to clean up these types of things from my credit. I have disputed these charges with the credit report companies, which apparently awakened the sleeping giant. I am now receiving demands for payment of this illegitimate charge again.

Kirk
Burbank, California
U.S.A.

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