Consumer Fraud Charging a credit card without permission

[mom2four]

Hi. My husband enrolled in Classmates.com last year, and I just noticed a charge on our bank account for $39.99 for another year's membership that my husband did not want or authorize. When we contacted classmates.com about it, they said that we can cancel re-enrollment for next April, but that all accounts are automatically enrolled in automatic re-enrollment, and they will not refund our money or even prorate it (it got renewed 11 days ago and I just now noticed). Do I have any recourse for this? They are located in Wisconsin, and I am in Arkansas if that makes a difference. Thanks.

 

[Proserpina]

You're going to find that when you first signed up, that they'll auto-renew. There are complaints against classmates.com, but they are water-tight as far as legalities go.

This is what you agreed to:

B. Automatic Renewal Program. Upon your acceptance of an offer for the purchase of any subscription-based Paid Services, you will be enrolled in our automatic renewal program to help ensure that there is no interruption in your access to such Paid Services. Under this program, you authorize us to automatically renew your subscription at the end of the term of the subscription you purchased, and each subsequent term, for the same term length of the subscription you initially purchased (unless otherwise stated in the offer you accepted). Unless you change your renewal status as described below, at the time of each such renewal you authorize us to charge your designated Payment Method at the then-current, non-promotional price (unless otherwise stated in the offer you accepted) for the renewal of your subscription. If you no longer want to be enrolled in our automatic renewal program, you can change your renewal status at any time by logging onto the Account portion of the Website, clicking on "Account & Billing" and changing your renewal option from "automatic" to "manual". Please note that changing your renewal option in this way will only stop future automatic renewals of your subscription and will not impact any automatic renewals that occurred prior to the date of your status change.

In other words, your husband did indeed authorize the charges.

Caveat Emptor.

 

[army judge]

You can dispute the charges with your credit card vendor.
In many cases, they'll reverse the charges.
If they do, don't expect another positive outcome.