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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Icq: 94-399-723
Posts: 24,433
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Interesting article I found on GOOGLE
I searched CCBILL on GOOGLE and this is what I've found:
http://drumsnwhistles.com/2007/03/14...mbush-billing/
interesting....
p.s. I have nothing against CCBILL, they pay on time everytime...but this is disturbing... 
Quote:
Now, let?s talk about ccBill, the most evil online billing service on the planet. In case you?re not aware, ccBill is the collector for many different web services, but they collect a large majority for online porn sites. I mentioned in other posts that I was cleaning up a porn mess of Sticks? own making. On February 1st when I discovered that his card was being debited by several different porn sites through ccBill, I followed their cancellation instructions to the letter, clicking the link, searching by email address and credit card number for all subscriptions billed through ccBill. I found three and cancelled them.
I also called Wells Fargo Bank and requested a stop on any charges put through by ccBill from that point forward. They said they put a stop on them.
On March 2nd, 2 more charges went through for $55.00 to sites I cancelled the month before. We were leaving for Maui the next day, so I had a phone fit with WFB, who then got the smart-aleck who handles customer service at ccBill (I got the same doofus both times), and we literally had a three-way shouting match.
Among other things this customer service jerk accused me of mistakenly assuming all accounts were cancelled because I actually followed the email instructions and did it via the websites, reporting at the same time that these were charged by a minor and were therefore in violation of the law. He explained in a condescending and extremely irritating tone that the ONLY WAY to ensure that all accounts were cancelled was to call him, because he could do a search that I couldn?t do ? where the card number would bring up all billed accounts through ccBill.
Nowhere on their website does it say that. It says that if you search on two of three terms, you will pull up accounts and can cancel them. Additionally, I had called ccBill the week before over the same issues where they assured me that all accounts had been pulled up and cancelled. Only, he didn?t really remember that phone call and failed to send a confirming email, so as to conveniently allow for another $100 in charges to go through. My cell phone bill, however, confirms the call and exact time I made it, as well as the date.
So the day before we are leaving town for a week I had to waste 2 hours of time with this doofus, and ultimately Sticks? account had to be closed and a new one opened this week to make absolutely sure that no additional charges could go through.
You want to know the most evil part of this? Even after reporting that these were subscriptions charged by a minor, the specific websites in question allowed access for the month they had charged for, instead of immediately reversing the charges and closing down access entirely.
Now, I?m not making excuses for Sticks. He was stupid. He?s also 17. 17-year old kids do stupid things, and he is no exception. I view the initial $125 ding to his account before I discovered it as penalty enough for stupidity. What I am hot about is that when I got involved, followed the exact instructions on the site and THOUGHT I had cancelled all accounts, charges (exhorbitant ones at that) were allowed to continue to be drawn against an account that I had requested a block on.
This is greed, pure and simple. (Duh) But really, it?s more than that. It?s the incredible effort they make to KEEP YOUR MONEY even when you tell them you don?t want them to.
Imagine this: You go to a restaurant and charge a nice dinner, bottle of wine and dessert. A week later, you receive an identical charge because they assumed that because you enjoyed the dinner last week, you?d have one this week. And if you didn?t have one, you should?ve had one, and you could?ve had one, so they are justified in charging you for one.
That?s exactly what?s going on there. MSN knew immediately that I hadn?t accessed MSN in over three years, because they had their argument prepared for why I owed them money for a service I wasn?t using. But rather than think it through, they started with a mindset that I, the customer, owed them this money for FUTURE SERVICES that I hadn?t been using in the past!
ccBill didn?t even think that much. Their perspective was that it didn?t matter if the charges were bogus, they were just the collector and would continue to collect on behalf of their client. In addition, they would make it completely difficult for customers to find the mechanism to shut down the service properly, thus ensuring they would receive at least twice and maybe three times what they were owed before the customer simply shut down their bank account.
Oh, I should add that my debit card was shut down after it was hacked and charges were put through by?you guessed it?ccBill.
Online service bill by ambush. We shouldn?t stand for it. Would you go back to the restaurant I described in my example? What are YOUR horror stories?
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