Complaint Review: Castingyou.com

"2 months free with new membership" is what all the advertising said for October- their MySpace blog and all that.

Ok. When you go to the site there are *3* drop-down membership options.


Option 1 is pay in full membership. This is where the "free" offer is listed. You also have the option of signing up for 2, 3, 6, 12 months all in one lump sum below it. Last month (Oct), there were 2 months, right now there is 1 month.

I dropped down to the "2 months free, activation fee $1.99" in section 1.

Below that, there is "Payment per Month plans". With 3, 6 and 12 month plans. Since it says "free months *WITH* new membership, I picked my membership of "6 months- $9.99 mo. + $14.98 activation."

My assumptions here, were that the 2 free months would be first, and then I would begin to be charged the other amounts when that ran out.

The next day, 11/1, I saw a charge for $24.98 AND $9.99 on our account. What? I e-mailed, and was told the $24.98 was for the 6 month sign-up ($14.98 +$9.99). Which I was disappointed that the 6 months starts first, but ok they want their money before giving away the freebies. I figure the 2 free months is at the end. No problem.

So uh, what's the $9.99? Oh- that's for November, because the $24.98 was October. The e-mail said my last payment was on March 1st.

November, December, January, February, March. That's 5 months. Where is my 6th month? Also, where do the 2 free months fit in?

Nobody through e-mail understood where the problem was. They said I *did not* sign up for the 2 free month plan, only the 6 months, and they didn't understand why I was upset with paying for October- because I signed up in October. You know, the 31st.

This all took place over about 5 e-mail exchanges. I was *bounced* for spam 4 different reply times because my e-mail was flagged saying "free" too many times (I changed it all to "at no cost"), and for "bad words". I'm still not sure what the "bad words" were- although I used the words "assume" and "assumption" which may have been flagged as "a*s".

So they said "Arbitration Resolution" could help me out. I go to the site and I couldn't find anything labeled "resolution". So I e-mailed a request to contact this "Arbitration Resolutions" department because it wasn't on their contacts page.

15 minutes later, I get a phone call from "private". Good thing I answered, usually I ignore telemarketers, etc. It was some guy from Castingyou.com.

He is in my opinion, without a doubt, in the top 3 of the *worst* customer service representatives I've EVER spoken to. He cut me off, he told me I was wrong, he spoke over me, he YELLED over me. He told me I needed to apologize to him. It was awful.

We went round and round, and he mentioned my last payment in March. I said- hey- even if I don't get the 2 free months, that only works out to 5 months. He said no. I said yes. Back and forth- I read him the last e-mail saying my 6th payment is 3/1/07. He tells me that I get until April 30th, not just March 30th, so it's like I get April free with the way the billing works.

Uh. Yeah, my 6th month of my 6 month paid membership is like, *free*. Wow.

I am freaking out, telling him that I think the design of the site is terrible if choosing additional options (section 2 or 3) negates options chosen in section 1 (I used negate in the e-mail, wonder if that flagged). He told me "Now you're making up your own membership rules." What? It's a flawed design for "additional" options to negate original options!

I think it's like going to a car site and picking "custom leather seats and designer floormats" in section 2 after you choose your car in section 1- then get to the dealership and being handed the seat covers and floormats in a box with them saying that picking stuff in section 2 negated that first "car type" part. I have been around site design long enough to know that.

We went round, with him yelling and me being pissed off and he says "You know what- I'll just refund your money in full and cancel your account."

Then he hung up on me.

I tried to log into the site- and it said "Access denied".

While I am proof-reading the post I made on my MySpace about the fiasco at 2:38pm on Nov. 4th I get a *lovely* gem of an e-mail. It has random colors, underlines, capitalized words, bold, strange punctuation, spelling errors, incorrect word usage and other emphasis that to me, look like a spastic weasel banging it's forehead onto a keyboard.

The word "LEGAL" was used often in random punctuation and colors. It basically says I am in non-compliance (for what, disagreeing with the billing and advertised discounts?), and that my membership is closed because of it. Then it says that because of arbitration that we did (that call was arbitration? Who knew?) that they will refund my money to my online account in 30-90 days- even though the refund page I saw said 7-10 days for full refunds.

I am still responsible for my contract- which I take to be additional charges? Also that if I dispute charges, it will automatically go to collections. They are all over the map.

They have an F grade on BBB, with 15 complaints against them. Oh yeah- I filed a complaint too.


*11/10/2006*

I just got a "Cease and Desist" letter for "Defamation of Character" for posting the previous info on MySpace. I think having an F grade in three different entries on the BBB site is pretty indicative of not having good character, but what do I know? I'm just some airhead wanna-be extra right?


Sorry, 1 and a half out of 4 criteria for "defamation of character" does not a good case make. I have not lied, in any form. I have been factual, shown where I made assumptions which contributed to a misunderstanding, and shown links to the BBB. Which are public record and FACTUAL information that in my opinion, indicate an already below-average reputation.

Well, now this letter I got, which was NOT sent by a real lawyer at all- spelling errors, weird punctuation and bizarre accusations - one of which being torture- is stating me complaining about bad service as a reason to go back on the refund because it has been deemed meritless (by them/him). I also got a bill. Going immediately to collections you know.

All I wanted was a "Oh, sorry about the misunderstanding. Here's 2 months tacked onto the end plus that $1.99 charge will be added (the next month or whenever), but the payment is pre-paid for the months without pro-rating, so you'll get through April plus the 2 free months, but only be billed until March." Then I would have said, "Ugh that sucks, ok."

Instead I got yelled at and hung up on. How does that make me the one who is non-compliant? Hmm?

Echo
Holiday, Florida
U.S.A.