If all the notices about automatic renewals are true, why would the company HAVE to reimburse the payment? That CAN do it, just to be nice with their costumers, but they have a right not to do it since she accpeted the automatic renewal.

What I am missing?

@tryingnotto:

They don't HAVE to. They did to get the BBB off their back. This looks like the OP using a consumer protection tool to cover her own ass becaues of a mistake she made.

Not only was it bad form, I think classmates.com should have kept her money and she should learn a valuable lesson about taking responsibility.

Did they email her at the time of renewal that her membership was up and she would not have to do anything to renew? (Don't think so!)

In their terms of service to they allow opting out of the automatic renewal? (Don't think so!)

There are avenues to get the resolution she needed but it's the policies of Classmates that make them a site to stay away from!

@tryingnotto: Oh just a whiny little consumer that needs to learn to bloody read. It is HER fault not the companies .. She should have read it.

In my experience, many companies who are pretty confident no sane person would pay for/renew their services us this "auto renew" process to keep charging people credit cards. Yes, it is often presented but in small print or as part of a long rambling TOS that most people don't read.

While it's fine the OP wrote the BBB, I have always handled these in less than a minute with my credit card company.

My expereince has been that MasterCard and Visa are none to pleased with these "auto renew" memberships from web sites and usually do a chargeback in a matter of days. Charge is off my account and we're done.

The number of people who let these charges slide shocks me. Doesn't everyone check their credit card statement line by line each month?

@Level-Headed, Even-handed: I agree. In this case, it was just the OP's complete ignorance to the ToS and not reading the text on her screen before jumping on that 'submit' button.

@tryingnotto: This happened to me when I thought I canceled an auto-renew sub to a dating site, but it turned out that I didn't. I called the site to see if they could do something; they refused. But I didn't go to the BBB to complain about it. I took my lumps.

@tryingnotto: True, these may have been the stated terms. (Or at least the current revision of them following her enrollment)

That said, a company billing for service a year at a time really should notify the customer via email or snail mail about 2-4 weeks prior to the automatic renewal occurring. My domain name registrars do this, my bank notifies me when my safe deposit box is up for renewal, likewise the state informs me when my car's tags need to be renewed.

It's one thing to provide a premium service that customers are willing to pay (extra) for, but more or less asshattery to play "Gotcha!" with unexpected, and usually non-refundable, fees.

For some reason, the headline reminded me of Luna Lovegood. Now excuse me while I sit around with a stupid grin and a glazed look while I go about my age-inappropriate crush.

@ikiddo: I agree, this is why you read what you're agreeing to when you give out your credit card information.

On the other hand, I don't appreciate recurring yearly or monthly fees and try to avoid them. It has the effect of making me forget what I'm spending, whereas when I physically put a check in an envelope each month, I'm reminded of what I'm spending.

I'm sure that companies know this, and would rather you forget what you're spending. This doesn't make the companies bad, it just means you have to be a responsible shopper.

@mianne: People have to be grown-up enough to keep their affairs in order. "I didn't know you were going to renew my account automatically and now I want you to bend the rules for me because my case is different and I shouldn't be held accountable like everyone else" is not an acceptable way to handle screwing up, especially as an adult.

@thrlsekr: In the TOS they let you know that you are set up for auto renewal automatically, but that doesn't stop you from signing up and then immediately going into your account and opting out of it there.

Oh, the company is trying to swindle consumers, woe is the world because classmates.com is an evil, money grubbing corporation! ...Really? If she looked at what she was signing up for when she signed up for it should would have known how to stop this from happening in the first place.

Classmates must have to answer a lot of BBB complaints.

This is a classic form letter if there ever was one. Classmates just has to fill out about 4 or 5 data points for the form letter and voila a typical nonapology for the dubious business practice of sucking people into an auto-renewing membership/subscription.

Buyer beware - read the fine print, no matter how long. It will save you time and effort later, because you should be smart enough to fall for these one-sided conditions.

I've always gotten email reminders from different places that my auto renewal is about to charge. That's how I know I've signed up (since I don't read the TOS, DOH!) and I have roughly 2-4 weeks to stop the auto renew. I recently (within past 6 months or so) stopped several auto renews this way. My fault all the way for not reading the fine print.

I also seem to recall classmates being one of the ones to send the email. Now maybe she's like me and has 5+ email addresses and just didn't check them often enough, but I can't see how this is classmates fault.

Maybe I spend too much time online these days, but I pretty much assume if I sign up for service, I'm signing up for auto renew. I don't agree with the way the companies go about it; burying the terms, but they ARE there.

@MostlyHarmless: +1 for Harry Potter reference! :) That made my day.

@DadCooks: If they're telling the truth, then the auto-renew feature is pretty well-advertised on their website. They did nothing wrong. They actually did the client a favor by refunding the fee to which she had no legal right.

@thrlsekr: Good point. I had automatic renewal with Trend Micro for their antivirus program but my office decided to use something else. Trend Micro sent an advance notice that my subscription would automatically be renewed unless I opted out. No fuss, no bother. Just a reputable company.

Credit cards that offer temporary, one-use numbers with a cap on the amount, with a short term expiration date can be handy for using on these kinds of charges that might slip by on an automatic renewal. Bank of America's ShopSafe is an example...

(A little OT) ...except when they decline a charge I made using one last night. I placed an order with Newegg, whom I've done business with dozens of times before in the past two years, went onto my BofA account to generate another ShopSafe number, and used it. Next thing I know I get an email from Newegg saying that the card had been declined. Along with that I get an email from BofA saying they had blocked "suspicious" activity on my credit card. Now understand that the only way you can get the ShopSafe number in the first place is to jump through the usual security hoops to get into your account online with BofA. Not like it could have been stolen. The fact that I had done business with Newegg repeatedly in the past using ShopSafe and BofA had never flagged it for suspicious activity before, made no difference. And the amount was not out of the ordinary for me.

I find that websites and businesses that rely heavily on Auto-renew subscription services rarely give you the option to opt out of the Auto Renew, and you have to jump through hoops to switch it off. F-That - if you don't give me the option to deselect your sleazy business practice, this transaction is terminated immediately.

Go pound sand, Classmates.com - you're irrelevant now.

This is the same company who owns FTD and Net Zero. You have to be careful with all these companies. Think about how much they paid for FTD a few years ago. It was like 500 million so they got to make money somewhere.