LotusRIP Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 (edited) Some of you might know a website called Reverb Nation, it's popular among indie musicians, it basically acts like a MySpace for musos... well I just got charged $35 and going to enormous lengths to get my money back, but they won't respond, so I'm asking for some advice. The situation - I registered my music profile on Reverb Nation. Soon after, it asks me if I want to register for a 3-day free trial of a promotional campaign to help get more listeners/fans. The idea is if you don't cancel within those 3 days, they'll charge you the subscription fee. So... I try it out, and it does sh*t all, so I cancel it on March 05 (payment due on March 06). So what happens? I get charged $35 on March 06... for a service that I cancelled out of and even have an email receipt with a confirmation code that proves that I cancelled out. Anyways, so I email their support email, the only thing I ever get is an automated response saying that somebody will get back soon. I got impatient, and the next day I went on their Community Forum... only to find a lot of people asking about exact same situations. Anyhow - I post a topic/question there about my problem and the only response I get is from a Zack guy saying "You have been responded to via email by our reps" and closes the topic! But not only that - HE DISABLES MY ACCOUNT. So I had no way of telling him what a complete liar he was, because nobody has ever gotten back to my email(s). I end up sending another email just incase - no response. I create a new account using a different crummy email address. I outline the problem in brief, linking to my other question that was closed yet unresolved, and the same Zack guy responds saying something like that he pinged my account and that they will respond to what was my crummy email address that I used for this 2nd account. He closes the question, so I have no way of responding. What in the world can I do to get my $35 back? What they're doing is completely wrong. Now that I know there's a problem with their site, I've been able to find many many other people reporting the same truths about this scam. I mean, it's f*cked up that they can scam people like this, but what angers me the most is they will delete your questions, disable your account, ignore your emails, and go to any length possible to make sure you never get the resolution you want. I WANT MY MONEY BACK PS. The payment was made using simply a PayPal account email address. Edited March 8, 2013 by LotusRIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn 7 five 11 Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Paypal or your Bank may be able to help you. Try the resolution centre for paypal and fill out the form thing. If that does nothing, call the bank and have all evidence ready, (Email of cancellation, TOS of the 3 day trial, the actual charging of the $35.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil weasel Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 You're supposed to report the incident with proof to your Credit Card Company. Explaining the details of what you have done to resolve the problem with the vendor. If you have the proof they charge back to the vendor. Then the vendor reports you to other vendors as a non-payer, who then won't honor any sales on the credit card. Unless they realise you've been scammed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyResta Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Wow, i use RN quite a lot, didn't think they'd be the type of people to do these things. Anyway like above, i think Paypal or whoever you did the transaction with may be able to help if you have kept all the proof of what has happened. Although you'll be in for a wait, last time i contacted Paypal for example, i got a half-assed reply after 2 weeks. Good luck and keep us informed if you can, i wanna see how this turns out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LotusRIP Posted March 8, 2013 Author Share Posted March 8, 2013 Thanks guys, I had already contacted PayPal's Resolution Centre to make a payment dispute claim... will see how it goes then, it may take a while as mentioned... would be a lot easier if Reverb Nation just gave back my money. It's annoying, because when I logged in to post my problem on their forums (which got quickly removed), I could see that my "balance" was $32 and they deduct the money day by day sort of thing... so technically... even though I want my full $35 back, that remaining balance that was linked to my account has also disappeared completely as there is no way to access now they disabled it. Apparently if you cancel you get that money allocated to your account, not for refund, but to use on their website elsewhere... but I can't even do that now! My money just disappeared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil weasel Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 The 'Free Trial" has been used for years. If you used a Real 'Credit Card' contact your bank. If you made the mistake of using a 'Debit Card', or money order you may be stuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LotusRIP Posted March 8, 2013 Author Share Posted March 8, 2013 The 'Free Trial" has been used for years.If you used a Real 'Credit Card' contact your bank. If you made the mistake of using a 'Debit Card', or money order you may be stuck. I used PayPal email address Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonshield Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Paypal or your Bank may be able to help you. Try the resolution centre for paypal and fill out the form thing. If that does nothing, call the bank and have all evidence ready, (Email of cancellation, TOS of the 3 day trial, the actual charging of the $35.) Exactly. File a chargeback for the amount with paypal, and they'll likely do it asap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finn 7 five 11 Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 The 'Free Trial" has been used for years.If you used a Real 'Credit Card' contact your bank. If you made the mistake of using a 'Debit Card', or money order you may be stuck. I used PayPal email address Yeah but Paypal is Either: A) Linked to your credit/debit card B) Linked to your bank account. If it's linked to your CREDIT card then your bank can step in and take the money back, or try to. I'm not 100% sure if the bank can chargeback through Paypal, but if it's their credit money I think they probably would be able to, Banks are pretty good like that. EDIT: This is if Paypal doesn't do the chargeback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmic Gypsy Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 (edited) I think the moral of the story is never pay for any 'Premium' style pack when everything the site is good for is free anyway.. SoundCloud, ReverbNation, both pretty much the same, both free for standard use but both have the Premium accounts for people who want extra upload space / insight and statistics on music. None of these extra charge accounts are worth it, and much like an official video game forum staff member, Zak from ReverbNation seems to be purposely dismissing your issue in full knowledge of the situation, but just not willing to admit ReverbNation are to blame. You can NEVER trust official forums of anything to be rational or fair, as soon as you raise issues weather rudely or politely, the thread will most likely be ignored / locked, especially on official video game forums. Stick with the FREE accounts. Also, forget ReverbNation, SoundCloud and YouTube are better and in my experience more popular. Good luck trying to get your refund. Edited March 8, 2013 by Cosmic Gypsy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LotusRIP Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 I think the moral of the story is never pay for any 'Premium' style pack when everything the site is good for is free anyway.. SoundCloud, ReverbNation, both pretty much the same, both free for standard use but both have the Premium accounts for people who want extra upload space / insight and statistics on music. None of these extra charge accounts are worth it, and much like an official video game forum staff member, Zak from ReverbNation seems to be purposely dismissing your issue in full knowledge of the situation, but just not willing to admit ReverbNation are to blame. You can NEVER trust official forums of anything to be rational or fair, as soon as you raise issues weather rudely or politely, the thread will most likely be ignored / locked, especially on official video game forums. Stick with the FREE accounts. Also, forget ReverbNation, SoundCloud and YouTube are better and in my experience more popular. Good luck trying to get your refund. I don't think you understand perhaps... but I never 'paid' for a premium service. I clicked the button to sign up for the "3 day free trial". I never intended to actually pay for the service and just wanted to test it out for 2-3 days for sh*ts and giggles - then cancel, unless it somehow performed miracles, which it didn't do anything at all. I always thought free trial scams were a porn thing... So really, I signed up for a free trial, cancelled, and still got charged for the rest of the month's subscription. Then my account gets disabled and topics removed for asking questions. Small update: Somebody replied to my email from Reverb Nation! They said they wanted to help and asked for my profile's URL. Will let you guys know if any help is actually offered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CygnusX1 Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 SSSSSNIP But you gave them access to your $. Never, ever do that on the internet. Ever. If you feel you HAVE TO, get a prepaid debit and put only what you need for the task. But just don't. EVVEEERRRRR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xChaos Reigns Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 It's only $35. It may just be easier to accept the loss and chalk it up to a lesson learned. Never trust a "free trial" where you have to input your credit card number/pay pal info. etc. I personally thought it was common sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExtremoMania Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 It's only $35. It may just be easier to accept the loss and chalk it up to a lesson learned. Never trust a "free trial" where you have to input your credit card number/pay pal info. etc. I personally thought it was common sense. Just $35? It's not very common to accept the lose since you might use it for other purposes if you suffer that. The worst thing to happen is that you credit card number might get hacked by some crooks or they snatched from you. And again it's money, a valuable piece of equipment in your wallet that is too important to let go or keep it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carbonox Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 If you definitely think you got scammed, like deliberately, try posting the story in 419eater. Those guys love giving scammers a hard time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEALUX Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 This could might as well be a mistake with their software since I'm pretty sure they charge you automatically. The Audiophile Thread XB271HU | TESORO Gram XS | Xtrfy MZ1 | Xbox Elite v2 | Hifiman Sundara | Fiio K9 Pro i7 4790K 4.4 GHz | GTX 1080 Ti | 32 GB Crucial DDR3 | ADATA 256GB | Samsung 860 PRO 2TB Xbox | Xbox 360 | Xbox Series X | PS2 | PS3 | Google Pixel 6 Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lil weasel Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 (edited) 'Time Scams' have been going on for decades. Back in the Mail days they would offer 'Two Weeks Free Trial'. But the Vendor would start the Clock when they processed the order. It took a week to receive the item, and in the small print you had to return it before the two weeks was up. So you had less than a day to try it out, because it took another week to get back to the Vendor. So many people thought that the time started when 'they received' the item. A lot of money was made by that litter error. On-Line credit scams are much easier. Look at the FREE Credit Reports. It's only recently that they tag: "With membership in blah, blah, blah." And, they say that very softly. And, when you buy expensive electronics/autos. They try to sell you extended warranties. Which when you read (if you bother to) covers the same period as the original warrantee, plus a little more, which your Credit Card (or even Homeowners insurance) might cover. Edited March 9, 2013 by lil weasel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTASAddict Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Scam them back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xChaos Reigns Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 It's only $35. It may just be easier to accept the loss and chalk it up to a lesson learned. Never trust a "free trial" where you have to input your credit card number/pay pal info. etc. I personally thought it was common sense. Just $35? It's not very common to accept the lose since you might use it for other purposes if you suffer that. The worst thing to happen is that you credit card number might get hacked by some crooks or they snatched from you. And again it's money, a valuable piece of equipment in your wallet that is too important to let go or keep it. Yes. Just $35. If it was $75 or more I would obviously feel different. What does credit cards getting hacked have to do with this discussion? You're right, money is valuable but it is not worth stressing over only $35. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LotusRIP Posted March 12, 2013 Author Share Posted March 12, 2013 OK. Some updates: - I receive an email back from a guy at Reverb Nation saying he wants to help, and first, to give him the URL of my profile. - I send him the email with the URL - He emails back asking if I've filed a dispute with PayPal, as my account was disabled because I violated terms and conditions by filing the dispute with PayPal for a chargeback... so basically it's none of their business unless I drop the dispute and let Reverb Nation handle the refund instead. - I email back confirming that yes I had filed for a chargeback via PayPal, and that I will drop the dispute if they can promise me that I will get my refund in doing so. Awaiting reply... In the meantime, my other email account that I used to make a 2nd profile (so I could respond on the forums) received an email from the same guy - with the EXACT same lettering and formatting. So I'm almost certain now that the emails back and forth have been completely scripted and computer generated. I'm sure these emails go to everybody else who falls for the scam. Yes, it's only $35, but I want to fight it all the way... it's my money. I'm entitled to it. I never bought anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyResta Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Yeah man don't give up. 35$ is still money, it's still worth something, you wouldn't exactly throw them away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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