This blog post cost me $14.95

A month ago I signed up for one of those free credit report websites. I had payed off some debt and wanted to know where I was sitting and where I would be going in the future. Freecreditreport.com was the lucky recipient of my business. I'm sure you've seen their ads around the internet. They advertise a free service, but in reality you must become a member of their website. The monthly membership fee is $14.95 which they will continue to take from your bank account/credit card until you decide to cancel your membership. As a new member you have a 9 day period when you can cancel before they begin charging you, thus accounting for the "free" service. There are various websites around that run the same scam, and it's a good one, because I'm sure there are plenty of people that sign away their information without thinking about it.

Now, I know how their scam works. Normally, I don't like to mess around with sleazy services like this, but I wanted information and this appeared to be the quickest method by which to attain it. I singed up for the service, got my information, and proceeded to cancel my membership an hour later. Naturally, you can't cancel your membership online, you have to call one of Customer Care people and do it over the phone. Lord knows you can sign away all your money with a few errant clicks of the mouse, but they are going to make it as difficult as possible for you to protect your assets. I have no interest in paying for a service I will not use, so I called them and got my account canceled. Truth be told, it was a pretty simple process. I was pleased with the outcome and assumed the whole situation to be done and resolved.

How foolish I was. Last week, as I was going over my bank statement, I noticed that I was charged a fee of $14.95 by freecreditreport.com. My heart sunk, because I immediately knew that there was no way I was getting my money back. Mind you, I've wasted more money on crappy comic books than I did on this website, but it's the principle of the matter. The fact that, despite my careful planning, I was still falling victim to their scam infuriated me. It was late at night and their Call Center was closed, so I sent them this simple e-mail:

Again, to reiterate, I wasn't exactly expecting a refund, or much of a response even, I just need to get that stupid membership canceled before they decided to take even more of my money. Surprisingly, I received a response fairly quickly.


As you can see from their response, they completely sidestep the problem and make no attempt to address the claim that I did indeed cancel my account. Instead they offer a half hearted explanation as to why they won't refund my money. The good news was that my account was canceled (again), which is really all I was hoping for. Although I was still angry about the whole ordeal, I considered it done and over with and, as a form of venting, sent them this e-mail:


I considered this the end of it, which was again foolish as I received this form response:




At this point I realized that they were going to keep giving me form responses and decided to see how far I could take it with this e-mail:


Predictably, I received this response (although it was a bit flowerier than the previous):


Admittedly, I was disappointed in this response, because their operators were obviously not interested in playing my games; which is not surprising since I'm sure they have to deal with a plethora of angry people on any given day. Still, it did not stop me from trying to get a communication going:

To which they responded:

Finally, it seems that they have had enough of me and cut me off. Of course I didn't call their number because $15 isn't worth the hassle and I already have a big enough headache. At the end of the day I am left feeling like Sam Lowry at the end of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, though thankfully I haven't been lobotomized and am instead only out 15 bucks.