- Report: #465978
Complaint Review: THE GROCERY GAME INC - Internet
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THE GROCERY GAME INC
THEGROCERYGAME.COM Internet, U.S.A.
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THE GROCERY GAME, INC LIES BY OMISSION AND WILL NOT PROVIDE REFUND FOR CANCLED ACCOUNT Internet
For those of you interested and unfamiliar with the Grocery Game, it is a web site that paid members may visit and find lists of sale items at their choice of grocery stores and pharmacies. The site boasts great savings for the consumer. The cost to the consumer is $10 for your first store list and $5 for each additional. Feel free to pay them a visit. www.thegrocerygame.com
SO I signed up for their $1 four week trial to see what all the fuss is about. I found during my 4 week trial that I'm finding most of the same information for free online by spending the same amount of time simply reading blogs geared towards sharing this information.
My trial period ended last Friday June 26 at 1am. I missed my end date due to our busy schedules and signed in Sunday, June 28th to cancel my account expecting a partial refund of the $35 I was charge on Friday. I assumed they would prorate my usage for the 2 days that I was late in canceling my account. After all in their words, *You may cancel at any time*.
Instead I find out that they will not refund any of my payment and my account WILL NOT be canceled until August 21st, eight weeks from now.
Now, I may be a simpleton, but they do state, as they say, quite clearly in plain text, not fine print that *You may cancel at any time* and to me that means I can cancel today, tomorrow, or next Tuesday and be reembursed for any future services that have already been charged to me.
Well, no such luck. They refuse to help me with any sort of refund, though they have not posted their policies any where on their site nor have they sent me a copy of my original agreement. In fact they refuse to discuss it. They take the stance that I did not cancel by the end of the billing cycle, so I am obligated to maintain membership until the end of the this billing cycle. EVEN THOUGH THEY CLEARLY STATE *You may cancel at any time* !!
I write this note to share my experience with you, so that you may avoid the frustration that I am dealing with. I think it is misleading for a company to say *You may cancel at any time*, but not have policies that support that claim. In fact, I do consider it lying, by omitting the facts that you may 'schedule' your cancelation at any time, but are acutally LOCKED IN for an eight week period and WILL be charged for the FULL eight week period regardless of whether or not you require the services any longer. If they would have made this policy clear I would concede that I don't have a leg to stand on, but their policies are NOT CLEAR and are NOT ACCESSABLE, leaving me and many others feeling cheated.
CallingUout
Allen, Texas
U.S.A.
SO I signed up for their $1 four week trial to see what all the fuss is about. I found during my 4 week trial that I'm finding most of the same information for free online by spending the same amount of time simply reading blogs geared towards sharing this information.
My trial period ended last Friday June 26 at 1am. I missed my end date due to our busy schedules and signed in Sunday, June 28th to cancel my account expecting a partial refund of the $35 I was charge on Friday. I assumed they would prorate my usage for the 2 days that I was late in canceling my account. After all in their words, *You may cancel at any time*.
Instead I find out that they will not refund any of my payment and my account WILL NOT be canceled until August 21st, eight weeks from now.
Now, I may be a simpleton, but they do state, as they say, quite clearly in plain text, not fine print that *You may cancel at any time* and to me that means I can cancel today, tomorrow, or next Tuesday and be reembursed for any future services that have already been charged to me.
Well, no such luck. They refuse to help me with any sort of refund, though they have not posted their policies any where on their site nor have they sent me a copy of my original agreement. In fact they refuse to discuss it. They take the stance that I did not cancel by the end of the billing cycle, so I am obligated to maintain membership until the end of the this billing cycle. EVEN THOUGH THEY CLEARLY STATE *You may cancel at any time* !!
I write this note to share my experience with you, so that you may avoid the frustration that I am dealing with. I think it is misleading for a company to say *You may cancel at any time*, but not have policies that support that claim. In fact, I do consider it lying, by omitting the facts that you may 'schedule' your cancelation at any time, but are acutally LOCKED IN for an eight week period and WILL be charged for the FULL eight week period regardless of whether or not you require the services any longer. If they would have made this policy clear I would concede that I don't have a leg to stand on, but their policies are NOT CLEAR and are NOT ACCESSABLE, leaving me and many others feeling cheated.
CallingUout
Allen, Texas
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Callinguout
Texas,USA
The Fact Remains
#2Author of original report
Thu, March 25, 2010
If you go to the grocery games website today. You will not find any information about terms or cancelation. It's a simple enough thing to post and have easily accessable and viewable by anyone visiting the site. Someone sited Netflix, a very popular movie rental site. Anyone can quickly find Netflix terms and cancelation policies on their site. This is what sets Netflix apart from the Grocery Game. They are upfront with any visitor to their site.
No one remembers every word of what they read when signing up for an account of any kind. Not having such information easily accessable makes the process confusing and easily misinterpreted. That is why this information needs to be accessable in order to provide your consumers with full disclosure and an honest business approach.
I stand by what I said previously. Only the Grocery Game stands to benefit by not making terms and cancelation (including no refund policies) available to every visitor to the site. It is not in favor of the consumer to do otherwise.
I posted on this site only to WARN others from making the same mistake I did, not to vent misplaced anger.
Elle232
Gainesville,Florida,
United States of America
Absolute Misunderstanding
#3UPDATE Employee
Wed, March 17, 2010
As an employee of The Grocery Game, I feel very sad to hear reports such as these. We are a group of families working together, doing the very best work we can do. First, in general, let me say that I spend 30+ hours each week on the LIST I help prepare, I have access to the same free sites as anyone else, I am well aware of them, and I most certainly cannot find the information I collect on free sites. The information one can find on free sites is limited and difficult to organize. There is no where else that offers the breadth and depth of information that we do in a format that allows you to print it within minutes. To make that claim shows either a lack of understanding of our service or a lot of misplaced hostility.
We are extremely explicit about the terms of our trial membership, by putting our terms in large clear print on the registration page (not fine print like many and not hidden). We require that users accept our terms before proceeding AND THEN follow up immediately afterward with an explanatory email that restates our terms. Our terms are virtually the same as every other internet subscription service in existence. We get charged money by the credit card companies whenever we put through a transaction, and no business is going to accept the cost of regularly accommodating individuals who have not paid bothered to read the policies that are stated over & over again. In many cases, we DO refund, if there is a valid reason for people canceling late, however, we cannot just do this across the board for every person.
Reports like these just demonstrate that it is impossible to make every person happy all of the time, and a useful site such as this is going to be abused at times by people who simply have unreasonable expectations.
KarpetKiller
Arizona,USA
Cancel anytime does not imply refund
#4
Wed, September 16, 2009
Paying upfront for a service then canceling does not imply you get an automatic prorate. It means you are not in a traditional contract requiring you stay with a product for a period of time and having to pay on them. Think lease, phone plan, etc.
If you paid 2 months upfront for services you are going to get them.
I don't even like Grocery Game, but your logic is flawed.
Anonymous
Fort Worth,Texas,
U.S.A.
"You may cancel at any time"
#5
Sun, August 30, 2009
"You may cancel at any time" during the TRIAL PERIOD!! Why can't anyone read the rules before coming and complaining. If you have a subscription with netflix or some other place, do you think they prorate and refund??? No. You still have/had access to the list until the end period, in your case August 21. It's not the GG's fault that you have a busy schedule. People need to hold themselves accountable for their troubles instead of looking every where else.
