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Have you ever been charged by an online service after you tried to cancel your account or been hoodwinked by an online vendor?
Don't worry, you have a way out. It takes very little effort, because your credit card company is your friend.
All you need to do is take all reasonable steps to contact the other party and request your money back and/or cancellation of service. Call them once or twice: if it's busy or they keep you on hold for what feels like forever, simply hang up - you don't need to spend all day trying. Email them once: If they ignore you, give you the run-around, or outright refuse, don't bother emailing them again - you've done everything that can be reasonably expected.
Simply call your credit card company to have the charges 'reversed'. The phone number will usually be right on the back of the card.
Once you've called the credit card company, be nice and friendly; remember that they are not the bad guys. Tell them in plain English that you are being charged for something you don't want and you "do not authorize the charge". Do not go into excessive detail - it's not relevant to them. Examples:
- "I signed up for a free trial. I tried to cancel it but they keep charging me. I do not authorize these charges"
- "I paid for an item that I never received. I do not authorize these charges"
The first thing the credit card agent will do is suggest that you contact the person/company and try to resolve the matter. If you followed my previous advice, you can confidently tell them one of the following:
- "I reached somebody by phone/email but they just gave me the runaround, even after I clearly told them that they are charging me for a service that I do not want."
- "I tried to phone and email them, but I could never get a hold of anyone"
- "Despite my best efforts, I am not able to locate an email address or a phone number for the company in question."
You may be asked to fill out an 'incident report' and send it to the credit card company. Cheerfully agree to this. Chances are, they will never send the forms to you and will just credit your account.
As long as the credit card agent knows you have tried to resolve the problem, and you're legit, you're off the hook.
Note: If you cancel an online service, DO NOT USE that service anymore. If you do, you can no longer claim that you are being charged for a service that you don't want.
Note: This tip is not carte-blanche to cancel any charge. Only use it when you have been wrongly charged.
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