Complaint Review: Monarch Media Group

As office manager, i was contacted at our non-profit organization to 'renew' our 411 listing. At first this seemed to be just a free confirmation of our info, but soon I realized there was a $400+ charge involved. I questioned whether this was a renewal, and was assured that it was. In retrospect, I should have tried to verify when we were charged before because I would have verified that we had never paid this vendor before.

Anyhow, I was new enough here that -- although this seemed like something we wouldn't need to pay for -- it was possible this was indeed a renewal. I asked if I could cancel once we received the invoice and they said Yes. I received a second call from their supposed billing department, and I recall verifying with them also that I could cancel within 3-5 days of receiving the invoice. Afterwards, I verified with staff here that no one had heard of any 411 listings we had ever placed that cost money. No problem, I thought, I'll just cancel when I receive the invoice.

Three days ago I received the invoice for $489.99. I e-mailed a message saying I wanted to cancel well within the 3-5 day window.

I received a call the next day and was advised that it was 3-5 days from the CALL that I could cancel, not 3-5 days from receiving the invoice. I told her that's not how I remembered it, and she offered to play me a 'recording'. I said of which call, and she said of the second call. I resisted this because as I told them, even if the call seemed to show that I agreed, my IMPRESSION was that I could cancel when I received the invoice, and I was also not sure whether I had verified the cancellation in both calls or just the one that wasn't recorded. She insisted that they already paid for the service to their vendors, and so they needed us to pay them in turn. They 'generously' offered to remove the $115.49 membership fee, still leaving us with the $374.50 'standard package' fee. I said we were going to pay $0, and could I speak to a manager. She said the manager was in a meeting, and that she would call me back.

Meanwhile, I reviewed my emails and notes from the previous month. The situation had seemed suspicious enough even at the time of the original calls, that after the first original call I had the sense to make note that I needed to verify the cancellation within 3-5 days of receiving the invoice with the second caller. Knowing myself, I probably did that. But either way, my note confirms that I did verify that at least with the original caller.

The 'manager', who gave her name as "Christine Gray" called me back today. She gave me the same old story, and I said fine let's listen to the recording. It was clearly me, but it seems like some of the call was edited out. Especially suspicious sounding was the terrible quality of the recording (lots of hiss which could easily have masked editing blips), and a change in tone before a notification that the call would be recorded for quality control purposes. Another inconsitency was that in my note to self mentioned above, I had written that someone named 'Max Case' would call me (the second call), but this supposed recording of the second call was a female voice. I wonder if they mixed and matched my responses to match the way they wanted the questions answered.

Lastly, I put her through to my Executive Director's voicemail, who was luckly supportive and had said she would deal with it if they refused my efforts. I mentioned the scam to my co-worker who had been listening to the heated conversation, and within 30 seconds he had pulled up this site detailing eleven other complaints in the last year. This company is extremely manipulative at best, and a brazenly lying company that splices together recordings and tries to trick you into agreeing to things at worst. They should be shut down and all the people who haven't had the good fortune to realize what was going on should be compensated. The perpetrators should be brought to justice, restorative justice if possible, punitive justice if not to keep them from doing this to anyone else.

James
Montpelier, Vermont
U.S.A.