quesionable billling practices

[Solarsystem]

I understand that the moderator may think this belongs in another forum)

many readers on this website understandably may view porn on various internet websites. and a select few of you may scrutinize vary carefully the billing arrangemeet nts vary carefully if they elect to pay a monthly subscripion for such. even fewer still will check up front to see if the company in question is going to sneak any "trial addons" that you may end up paying for later.

today I learned that I had paid for 4 month of f*******s, a service of one of of the porn sites. I had never knowingly signed up for it yet it was (probably very deliberately)written at the very end of billing disclosure. in my opinion, this is anything but "aboveboard"..

I was able obtain some credit yet the way it happens is what annoys me

a person could do a lot of good by staying alert about these practices

[tia travels]

Sorry to hear about that sneaky billing scam. One way to avoid getting charged after you make a purchase, is to put it on a disposable credit card like a VANILLA VISA for example. Once the limit is hit, they can't try charging you for more. Well....let me rephrase that. They can "try", but they won't "succeed".

You can buy those in any amount you want. Doesn't have to be an even dollar amount. It can be for something like: $189.99 or even 89 cents....although I wouldn't recommend buying them for an amount that small as the fee is $4.95....it would be cheaper to send cash thru the mail for a bill that's 89 cents. LOL

[Solarsystem]

Tia?..

thanks for the heads up on a ..Vanilla Vis a? I didn't know there was such a kind of VISA.

that certainly would have been a potential solution here.


BTW.....you are a HOT looking lady

[Goddess Emma Love]

You can purchase a Visa or Mastercard Gift Card. Register it under a bogus name and use that when making purchases online.

There is also Bluebird by American Express that you can purchase at Walmart. That is also a re loadable prepaid card.

There is also of course that is a reloadable credit card. You can purchase that at a CVS pharmacy.

I went to a site that I thought was DMV and it turned out to be a scam. Since I used my regular credit card I had to cancel it and get another one. Its a pain in the neck but lesson learned.

Originally Posted by tia travels

Sorry to hear about that sneaky billing scam. One way to avoid getting charged after you make a purchase, is to put it on a disposable credit card like a VANILLA VISA for example. Once the limit is hit, they can't try charging you for more. Well....let me rephrase that. They can "try", but they won't "succeed".

You can buy those in any amount you want. Doesn't have to be an even dollar amount. It can be for something like: $189.99 or even 89 cents....although I wouldn't recommend buying them for an amount that small as the fee is $4.95....it would be cheaper to send cash thru the mail for a bill that's 89 cents. LOL

[tia travels]

Originally Posted by Solarsystem

Tia?..

thanks for the heads up on a ..Vanilla Vis a? I didn't know there was such a kind of VISA.

that certainly would have been a potential solution here.


BTW.....you are a HOT looking lady

First of all....thank you.

Second of all, you can get Vanilla Visas at places like: Walgreens, CVS, I think...even Walmart but don't quote me on that. Just wherever they sell gift cards, they will have some sort of VISA card. Some are other company names. Simon Malls also have these types of cards. Fees for them are less...like 2.95 for amounts up to 700$ I think.

The Vanilla Visas go up to 1000$ I think (it's been a while since I looked at their packaging...it might be up to 500$) and fees are 4.95 and 5.95. They offer two cards (one for each fee) that allow the same amounts of money on the card. You have to read closely the fee listed at the top and save yourself the extra dollar and pick the one for 4.95. I think it's the one where it says "50-500$" for deposit onto the card and the one that says a already determined deposit amount of 50, 100, 250, 500$ will be the one with the 5.95 fee. So duhhhh....why not get the 4.95 one, eh? LOL

You can also do this with any card...if Walmart offers a gift visa with their name on it (which I think they do).. its the same thing. Just make sure it's the WALMART VISA gift card and not the WALMART gift card....because the WALMART gift card is only good for purchases within Walmart. Also, you can do this with VISAs sold at your local bank or AMEX gift cards. Just buy any gift card with a limit on it and be sure to spend all that limit on those kind of membership purchases or anything like you mentioned where there might be "questionable billing" practices going on.

[straightshooter30]

The automatic billing and charge-backs are the reason why AmEx and other ligitimate cards won't approve porn purchases. Too many customer service calls for refunds... and yeah, I thnk they all make half their money this way...

[jframe2]

Before going the pre-paid route, check with the site to make sure they will accept said card. A lot of these use over-seas credit card processors and some are not accepting the pre-paid cards to avoid certain reporting requirements imposed by Uncle Sam.

I found that my bank issued card allows me to assign a credit card purchase as a one-time purchase and any future purchases will be declined.

Also in this day and age, why are you paying for porn? There are plenty of free sites that should have anything you want to watch. And I know they are not fronts for virus install sites.

Good luck

[Hot to Trot Daphne]

Backpage has been into some awfully shoddy billing practices themselves lately.

[Jerbee]

All you need to do is call the card issuer (the number on the back of the card) and file a dispute over the item(s) you're contesting. They'll do a chargeback, and issue to your account a 'temporary credit, pending investigation'... Which basically means that as long as no physical goods were involved in the sale, the investigation will be finalized a few days after that. I'd recommend explaining it to the agent as "I purchased a subscription to web content online, but neither accepted nor authorized any additional charges other than the initial one made". The only way the card issuer wouldn't remove the charges is if they were given proof that you had used your access to those add-on sites by logging in. Also, don't be embarrassed - the credit card people are used to this happening, and don't bat an eye. Unless the sites have billing names like "hairymidgetamputees.com", in which case you're better off paying it and moving to Zimbabwe.

[LNK]

Originally Posted by Jerbee

All you need to do is call the card issuer (the number on the back of the card) and file a dispute over the item(s) you're contesting. They'll do a chargeback, and issue to your account a 'temporary credit, pending investigation'... Which basically means that as long as no physical goods were involved in the sale, the investigation will be finalized a few days after that. I'd recommend explaining it to the agent as "I purchased a subscription to web content online, but neither accepted nor authorized any additional charges other than the initial one made". The only way the card issuer wouldn't remove the charges is if they were given proof that you had used your access to those add-on sites by logging in. Also, don't be embarrassed - the credit card people are used to this happening, and don't bat an eye. Unless the sites have billing names like "hairymidgetamputees.com", in which case you're better off paying it and moving to Zimbabwe.

I cannot find words to express the disappointment I felt when I got a 404: Not Found when I tried to go to: http://hairymidgetamputees.com

[Jerbee]

Originally Posted by LNK

I cannot find words to express the disappointment I felt when I got a 404: Not Found when I tried to go to: http://hairymidgetamputees.com

It sounds like we've found a niche market ripe for exploitation! The only hard part will be finding people willing to tape and edit it without gagging.