DMCA.com Charged for a non-existent account. Internet
I should have listened to the negative reviews before deciding to pay them for non-existent services. I signed up 6 months ago and have had the logo on my sites. I assumed everything was working as advertised. Recently their server was having serious issues and as a result, their logo was throwing dead image links across my sites. It was at this point that I noticed I had a "non-verified" account. This means that despite having been paying for a service for 6 months, I had not been receiving it. I would never have known until I needed the service and logged in, only to find that I wasn't covered since they disabled my account.
After attempting to communicate with them through their support system, we came to the conclusion that my account had been disabled shortly after signing up on day 1. When I questioned the fact that they had been billing me as if I had an active account, they closed my ticket and essentially said "Too bad, you should have noticed sooner". Since then, any ticket I open gets immediately closed and they wont return any calls to their main office.
This is a company operating out of BC, Canada and claim they can enforce US copyright law. A simple whois lookup on the domain name verifies it. The site is a full template bought on Flippa and they do nothing but throw a downloadable templated DMCA notice your way if you report stolen content and charge you for what's otherwise a free download anywhere else on the internet.
I'm extremely upset with the lack of professionalism on their part and the fact that they've essentially scammed me out of 6 monthly payments, as paypal will only let me dispute the most recent charge.
I've included a screenshot of my "Non-Verified" status. Note the link asking me to "Upgrade to Pro" at the top, despite the fact I'm already paying for it.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Amdac
Ontario,No refund was offered
#3Author of original report
Tue, January 21, 2014
First off, you did not offer a full or even partial refund. I requested a refund in 3 separate tickets before you had closed them all. I asked for a refund via a phone call to your "manager" extension, that too was ignored.
It took a paypal dispute claim to get my last payment credited back because you refused to refund my money. It was "management" that I had contacted previously. It was the "manager" extension that had ignored my phone calls and broke further communication.
Secondly, I did not have multiple accounts. I had one, paid account. Under what logic would I pay for two of the same account?
I've sent an email to the address you listed. I don't expect a response though as that conversation isn't in the public eye. There seems to be two sides to your company. The side that responds to defend your public image, and the way you treat your customers privately.
DMCA.com Management
Victoria,British Columbia,
Bad client experience
#3UPDATE Employee
Mon, January 20, 2014
Dear DMCA.com client.
I'm very sorry about your poor experience with our service. I've done some investigation and assuming I've connected the dots correctly, it appears that there's been confusion on both sides. My team was under the impression that we'd already granted you a full refund, it looks like you've got multiple accounts setup etc.
After further investigation I've confirmed we've granted you a full refund on paypal. Albeit that would only be for the last month of service.
If you can email me your paypal email address and your DMCA.com login email address, I will make sure you get a 100% refund for every penny we've ever charged you. Email it to management@dmca.com and I'll make sure it's dealt with today.
We have thousands of happy users, that love our service, if you're not one of them, then we don't deserve your money, plain and simple.
Again I'm verry sorry for your experience.
Yours truly,
DMCA.com Management