Complaint Review: Consumer Reports - Internet

I find it ironic (or other -onic) that I am getting advice on where to find information on procedures related to my subscription from someone who evidently doesn't understand what I have clearly written-twice, but will reiterate in clear outline form so that there will be no mistake. The fact that you don't subscribe to the online service didn't elude me. Why don't you try it, RJ, then get back to us next year with your results? 1) When I subscribed, and when I cancelled, there was no way to turn off the Auto-renewing feature. If there is such a feature now, then it has been added recently. 2) I managed to find out that I had to cancel my subscription by looking through the information on the web site, since there was no way to turn off the "convenient auto-renewal feature". 3) I cancelled my subscription about 46 hours before it was to auto-renew. Yes, their site RECOMMENDS 48 hours. However they don't anywhere state that 48 hours is REQUIRED in order to prevent charging the card. 4) Within a few hours I received notification that my subscription was cancelled. 5) A couple of days later our card was charged despite the foregoing 6) The customer service number wasn't available from any place that one would expect to find it. How many web sites have you designed, RJ? I have designed and coded several. Rather it was presented when I chose the link to "Email", which admittedly is better than not at all. 7) The foregoing experience was, to me, anti-consumer. That feeling is based on using many, many commercial web sites, and dealing with many companies' customer service organizations, mostly (but not exclusively) in the electronics industry. The pertinent information was not posted in an intuitively easy to find manner, nor was the customer service phone number on the contact page, where one would expect to find it. These things lead me to wonder about their motives, and whether they are intentionally trying to obfuscate the cancellation information, since so many companies are able to do such a markedly better job of making that information easily accessible. I currently have about 15 magazine subscriptions. In the past year I have cancelled a few and subscribed to a few more. I haven't yet found an associated web site that is nearly as difficult to navigate as ConsumerReports.org.

Bill, there is NOTHING covert or difficult in the cancellation process! Anyone can quickly find the information and follow the easy steps. You chose the Auto-Renewing Yearly option, which stated, Automatically renewing, billed to your credit card each year. You will receive an E-mail reminder from us before your subscription is automatically renewed. And though you did receive the aforementioned reminder as promised, in your complaint you sarcastically referred to this feature as though it were some clandestine stealthy technique to steal your money. Having received your reminder in April for the impending mid-May renewal and deciding that you no longer wanted to subscribe, at any time PRIOR TO THE LAST 48 HOURS of your subscription you could have canceled very easily, without any risk of auto-renewal, via the steps shown below: 1. Go to Consumerreports.org opening page 2. Log in to Your" account 3. Click the "Cancel My Subscription" link and follow the remaining instructions. As an alternative for cancellation information, one would (as I did) click on My Account versus logging in (I receive the actual magazine rather than online and therefore couldn't log in.) Under FAQ, click How do I cancel my CR.org subscription? and follow the instructions. The toll-free subscription help number is also listed here. I found your statements concerning "carefully hidden information and "law enforcement needs to investigate" to be preposterous. Since you were unable to follow the logical cancellation steps, I understand your frustration. However, there is no need to malign the publication, which has proven its worth for seventy years or so, and its management. Maybe you just had a bad day!

Bill, there is NOTHING covert or difficult in the cancellation process! Anyone can quickly find the information and follow the easy steps. You chose the Auto-Renewing Yearly option, which stated, Automatically renewing, billed to your credit card each year. You will receive an E-mail reminder from us before your subscription is automatically renewed. And though you did receive the aforementioned reminder as promised, in your complaint you sarcastically referred to this feature as though it were some clandestine stealthy technique to steal your money. Having received your reminder in April for the impending mid-May renewal and deciding that you no longer wanted to subscribe, at any time PRIOR TO THE LAST 48 HOURS of your subscription you could have canceled very easily, without any risk of auto-renewal, via the steps shown below: 1. Go to Consumerreports.org opening page 2. Log in to Your" account 3. Click the "Cancel My Subscription" link and follow the remaining instructions. As an alternative for cancellation information, one would (as I did) click on My Account versus logging in (I receive the actual magazine rather than online and therefore couldn't log in.) Under FAQ, click How do I cancel my CR.org subscription? and follow the instructions. The toll-free subscription help number is also listed here. I found your statements concerning "carefully hidden information and "law enforcement needs to investigate" to be preposterous. Since you were unable to follow the logical cancellation steps, I understand your frustration. However, there is no need to malign the publication, which has proven its worth for seventy years or so, and its management. Maybe you just had a bad day!

Bill, there is NOTHING covert or difficult in the cancellation process! Anyone can quickly find the information and follow the easy steps. You chose the Auto-Renewing Yearly option, which stated, Automatically renewing, billed to your credit card each year. You will receive an E-mail reminder from us before your subscription is automatically renewed. And though you did receive the aforementioned reminder as promised, in your complaint you sarcastically referred to this feature as though it were some clandestine stealthy technique to steal your money. Having received your reminder in April for the impending mid-May renewal and deciding that you no longer wanted to subscribe, at any time PRIOR TO THE LAST 48 HOURS of your subscription you could have canceled very easily, without any risk of auto-renewal, via the steps shown below: 1. Go to Consumerreports.org opening page 2. Log in to Your" account 3. Click the "Cancel My Subscription" link and follow the remaining instructions. As an alternative for cancellation information, one would (as I did) click on My Account versus logging in (I receive the actual magazine rather than online and therefore couldn't log in.) Under FAQ, click How do I cancel my CR.org subscription? and follow the instructions. The toll-free subscription help number is also listed here. I found your statements concerning "carefully hidden information and "law enforcement needs to investigate" to be preposterous. Since you were unable to follow the logical cancellation steps, I understand your frustration. However, there is no need to malign the publication, which has proven its worth for seventy years or so, and its management. Maybe you just had a bad day!

Sorry, RJ. You didn't read my complaint carefully enough. I reported what I experienced, and if you take the time to read and think about what I say you might not be so quick to resort to an ad hominem attack. > I, too, found those instructions- before that, however, I was sent off in the wrong direction by the phrase from their Emailed notification "because you signed up for a convenient annual auto-renewing subscription". So I wasted my time looking for a way to turn off the [convenient] auto-renewal, as I stated in my original posting. > I'm sure you're very pleased that you found the phone number under "other billing questions". I looked under Contact Information, were every other organization supplies that information. I looked through other information, too. I don't consider an organization's phone number to be a a "billing question". Call me nuts - oh wait, you already did. > Yes, in fact, I have not only heard of the page printing procedure, I invented it (easy big fella... I'm just kidding). Actually, because the box that contains the inquiry is not tall enough to display the entire description, printng that page wouldn't show the entire description in some cases, but cutting and pasting would allow me to save it in another format. However that would not provide any information as to when the situation was brought to CR's attention, as would having a copy in the "Sent Items" list in my email client. RJ, I'm not sure how you concluded: "Besides, it worked just fine and you received notification, including the toll-free number you somehow couldn't previously find." In fact, I never filled out the page to contact customer service, because the phone number unexpectedly appears on the "Email" form, so I called. No notification resulted from my viewing that page (obviously). Instead, as I stated clearly in my original account of the events, I was quickly notified that my subscription had been cancelled after I had followed the prescribed procedure just a couple of hours shy of the recommended 48 hours prior to it's calendar expiry date. That notification came on the 11th, but my card was charged anyway (on the 13th). You inform us that have been a subscriber for 30 years. Have you ever tried to cancel, or did you give up on that 29 years ago? :-) You seem to be satisfied with the service that they provide to you, and the quality of their information. Good for you, RJ! I stand by my comments that this is not a consumer-friendly organization, and that their failure to prominently post information regarding cancellations and their phone number makes me suspicious of their motives. However, RJ, I respect your right to defend these policies. Other, for-profit companies, are more open about their policies, procedures, and phone numbers. By far, most of them provide "mailto:" hyperlinks rather than forms for communicating with customer service. The hyperlinks are much easier for their webmasters, anyway. RJ, in the future, you should probably have an adult proofread your rebuttals to ensure that you are cogently, and pertinently responding to the complaint and not attacking it's author. I took the time to post my account so that others who might have had a similar experience can help to determine if this is a pattern or an anomaly. It might be that many who've had such an experience with this organization discount it, because it is so unexpected due to their reputation. Many of us might reasonably presume that this is an anomaly, so a pattern of mis-behavior might go undetected for a long time if not for services such as ripoffreport.com.

It took me less than two minutes to go to the main page, find my account and arrive at clear instructions labeled How do I cancel my CR.org subscription. Under other billing questions, it is also clearly states that you can e-mail OR simply call the clearly specified toll-free 800 number. And you wrote: Good job of concealment there! What do you want? Maybe a flashing neon sign? Under Billing Cycles it states: Your first charge is posted when you complete the subscription process. Subsequent charges are posted according to your subscription type: Annual Auto-Renewing - example: If you subscribe on April 18, 1998, your next billing date is April 18, 1999. You may cancel your subscription before the billing date to avoid additional charges. When you cancel, your access to the site is immediately terminated. We recommend canceling at least 48 HOURS prior to your renewal date to ensure that your subscription does not automatically renew. You also wrote: Based on their prior pattern of (mis-) behavior, I was confident that instead of popping up a window from my Email client using a "mailto:" hyperlink, they would instead provide a form in my web browser so that I would have no proof of the communication in my Email program. Pattern of mis-behavior? Are you nuts? In two hours you couldn't find the clearly posted 800 number to call to cancel and you call that their misbehavior? Ok, instead of calling the 800 number, you chose the e-mail option, but you didn't like the form because of no proof of the communication in my e-mail program. Ever hear of simply printing off the page after you fill in the blanks? Besides, it worked just fine and you received notification, including the toll-free number you somehow couldn't previously find. But wait, you got billed anyway. Why would that be? Well, though your subscription, based your original request for auto-renewal, would auto-renew on the 13th, you e-mailed at some point on the 11th. Clearly the stated recommendation was to cancel at least 48 HOURS prior to your renewal date. And why? To ensure that your subscription does not automatically renew. The 13th began at one second after midnight. Since you waited until sometime on the 11th to cancel, you CLEARLY didn't allow for the minimum recommended 48 HOUR cancellation time. It was YOUR error and you did receive your money back! I won't even bother to rebut the "law enforcement" and "executive compensation" garbage. Get real! By the way, I've subscribed to Consumer Reports for the better part of 30 years and never had any reason to complain about anything. You really should have taken advantage of the excellent information that you paid for.