Help, Debit Card Question?

I homeschool my daughter and at the beginning of the school year last year I signed up for a homeschool website. It was $15.99 a month which was really cheap but I didn't want to pay for it during the summer break.

Anyway I have tried to cancel six times now. The only way to cancel is to send an email with the subject of "CANCEL" and then put in the email you want to cancel and to include your first and last name. The website claims it will take two days to process and you will get a confirmation email that it has been cancelled.

I have tried 5 times by email and never got a response. It tried the feeback form as well and never got a response.

I started these requests three weeks before the next billing and continued to send them.

Well this morning they took out payment.

There is only one phone number to call and they are based in Hawaii. I will have to wait until I am at work on Monday as I have no long distance at home.

I am not sure were to go from here. If I contact my debit card company can I dispute the charges and keep anymore from going through?

Any other suggestions?

DH says call the debit company and dispute the charges right away. Then call the homeschool number and talk to them. Also if the company has an address then send a certified copy telling them to cancel.

DH says to be sure its not a bogus company you are dealing with.

Definitely call and dispute (and do it soon and don't log on to the website as they can say you used it therefore you pay for it)
The bank may want printouts of your emails asking to cancel

Check with the BBB to see if there are similar complaints

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

DH says call the debit company and dispute the charges right away. Then call the homeschool number and talk to them. Also if the company has an address then send a certified copy telling them to cancel.

DH says to be sure its not a bogus company you are dealing with.

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I will do that right now. I don't think it is bogus. We used the site for 8 months and I get an email when the monthly transaction goes through and the name of the site is listed in the transaction at the bank.

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Definitely call and dispute (and do it soon and don't log on to the website as they can say you used it therefore you pay for it)
The bank may want printouts of your emails asking to cancel

Check with the BBB to see if there are similar complaints

Click to expand...

Oh I didn't think of the BBB I will check that out as well.

Thanks for your help!

Your debt card works like a credit card and you can always dispute charges that you have not authorized. Like someone said, make copies of you emails attemting to cancel for the bank to review. You should not be responsible for those charges since you have attempted to cancel 5 times prior to the charge. Good luck.

My bank opens in 20 minutes so I am going to call and get my debit card companies number so I can call and dispute the charges.

I also just looked on the BBB and they have 2 unresolved complaints against them for billing or collection issues.

The BBB had their address and number listed so I have that now as well.

Thanks for all your help. I knew I could count on you guys for suggestions.

Well the debit card department I need to report this too is not open on Saturday. Credit Unions are great but you don't get the 24/7 customer support like you do from banks. Well at least not at mine.

I will have to wait until Monday to call and dispute the charge.

I did get a different phone number of the site from the lady at the credit union so I will also contact that number on Monday.

You can not dispute all the charges on the debit card. They are regulated byt the gov't called Reg E.
You have 90 days to disbute them.
http://www.bankersonline.com/technol...ch052807a.html

I hope you can get this resolved. They sound a little dubious if they've had a couple complaints against them for the same issue as you. And the fact they're located in Hawaii, so far away from you.

You can't (and it doesn't seem like you want to do this, from what I see) dispute all the time you used it, however,.... you can and I would certainly suggest, disputing all the charges, and demanding a refund for all of the times you've been billed since you've been attempting to reach them to cancel.

I would also file a dispute with the BBB, which probably *won't* get it resolved if they've already got unresolved complaints against them, but will at least let other consumers know that you've also had an issue with them.

When you call your bank, tell them that the charges are fraudulent, which they are, since the company won't respect your requests to cancel, and that by no means is that charge ever to go through again. Then file a dispute about the charges that have come through. Your bank will most likely fight it for you, once you call them fraudulent. My bank did, and it was the *thing* that got the company to respond. Suddenly when it's a federal offense if they don't comply... they get their butts in gear.

Good luck! Keep us updated on how it goes.

Originally Posted by AsecretK

I will do that right now. I don't think it is bogus. We used the site for 8 months and I get an email when the monthly transaction goes through and the name of the site is listed in the transaction at the bank.




Oh I didn't think of the BBB I will check that out as well.

Thanks for your help!

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Instead of the BBB (who charges for phone time, or used to), try your local County Dept. of Weights And Measures (a consumer fraud organization). I used ours about 12 years ago, when I was overcharged on a credit card, and the store gave me the run-around. This dept. does all of this for free; in 2 weeks, they sent me a letter, telling me everything was sorted out. (And I sent them a nice letter, thanking them, also).

BBB online is free, and you can search and file complaints there. I just filed one the other day against a software company that I can't get ahold of for an issue. I've been trying for over a month.

I hope you get it resolved. You shouldn't have to pay for the time after you asked for the first cancellation.

BTW, is your debit card presented like a credit card, where you don't have to give a PIN number? If not, don't use your debit card again over the internet. Giving out a PIN number is an invitation to identity theft.

ANother thing that you can do, is get your account changed.Close that one out and start a new one.

Originally Posted by Crazyforinfo

You can not dispute all the charges on the debit card. They are regulated byt the gov't called Reg E.
You have 90 days to disbute them.
http://www.bankersonline.com/technol...ch052807a.html

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With some banks you have to call within 3 days (that's the way it is with mine) to dispute any charges.

Just b/c it has the VISA logo does not mean that its under VISA guidelines. Each bank is different.

Also, be sure to print off the emails sent to this company from your Sent Items folder as proof of your attempt to contact them.

Originally Posted by Crazyforinfo

You can not dispute all the charges on the debit card. They are regulated byt the gov't called Reg E.
You have 90 days to disbute them.
http://www.bankersonline.com/technol...ch052807a.html

Click to expand...

I am not trying to dispute all of them. Just this last one that went through after I attempted to cancel 6 times.

Originally Posted by CatsAreBetter

You can't (and it doesn't seem like you want to do this, from what I see) dispute all the time you used it

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Right I don't want to dispute all just this last one.

Originally Posted by CatsAreBetter

I would also file a dispute with the BBB, which probably *won't* get it resolved if they've already got unresolved complaints against them, but will at least let other consumers know that you've also had an issue with them.

Click to expand...

I am going to do this. I have filed a dispute online before.

I wish I would have checked them out before I signed up.

Originally Posted by SwampWitch

I hope you get it resolved. You shouldn't have to pay for the time after you asked for the first cancellation.

BTW, is your debit card presented like a credit card, where you don't have to give a PIN number? If not, don't use your debit card again over the internet. Giving out a PIN number is an invitation to identity theft.

Click to expand...

My debit card acts like a credit card. I never gave a PIN number.

I am going to call the bank first thing tomorrow morning and then later I am going to call the phone number I got from my credit union. I think Hawaii is like five or six hours difference from Ohio.

I have a feeliing though even when I call I am going to get some sort of answering machine.

If they are not responding to emails then I doubt they are answering their phone.

I will keep you updated.

Fingers crossed that it is just a mistake and it gets all sorted!

Okay now I don't know what is going on.

When I came into work today I had an email from the company saying my account has been cancelled.

I sent this reply:

Patricia,

I sent an email on June 15, 2007 to attempt to cancel. I sent another email on 6/19/2007, 6/22/2007, 6/24/2007 and yet another on 6/26/2007.

I also sent an inquiry through the feedback/comment section of your website on June 27, 2007 stating that I had made several attempts to contact you with no response.

All of these attempts to cancel and yet you still billed me on 6/29/2007.

I would like my $15.95 refunded to me as I attempted to cancel 2 weeks before the next billing date and you never responded.

I will be contacting my bank to dispute these charges if I do not hear back from you ASAP!

Now I checked with my bank and they can not see the transaction so of course if they can't see it they can't help me dispute it.

This morning I checked online and the actual transaction still has not been withdrawn but my credit union can be sort of slow on reporting transactions.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that even though I got an email from them stating that the transaction had successfully went through that it was an automated system and that maybe (maybe) it really did not go through or it was reversed some how.

Even if I do not get charged I am going to report a complaint with the BBB so others will now about their lack of customer service on billing issues.

The bank won't be able to actually see the charge until it posts to your account... like my bank will show "debit" charges, or rather, "pending" charges, in the amount of the charge, but not who or where it's from or what date it happened on. Basically it just shows the "hold" on the money in your account. With my bank, that takes a day or two, or if it's over a weekend, several days.. but it also depends on the company charging.

They might actually refund it before it technically hits your account, or is visible.

Good luck on it! Did the bank ever make any phone calls to them or anything?

I hate to say it, but is this company maybe a scam?

I hope you can get your money back!!