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Just a thought...
Something to ponder.
We all know that LJ has an auto-payments option for people with paid accounts. You give them your credit card information, they keep it on file, and your paid account ends up being about five bucks cheaper a year. Right?
I don't have that feature set up on my LJ (my paid time doesn't run out until December, but then I'm letting my account lapse) but I know that there are plenty of people who do.
Which raises a very interesting question. If LJ permanently suspends/bans a person with a paid account that has auto-payments set up, can they, in theory, get money from that person indefinitely? Especially since the account won't have been deleted, only suspended, and the person has no way to go in and turn the auto-payments off?
I'm half-tempted to write a support ticket to LJ about this, and then I have to wonder if it would even really matter considering their utter lack of anything approaching good customer service, especially as of late.
We all know that LJ has an auto-payments option for people with paid accounts. You give them your credit card information, they keep it on file, and your paid account ends up being about five bucks cheaper a year. Right?
I don't have that feature set up on my LJ (my paid time doesn't run out until December, but then I'm letting my account lapse) but I know that there are plenty of people who do.
Which raises a very interesting question. If LJ permanently suspends/bans a person with a paid account that has auto-payments set up, can they, in theory, get money from that person indefinitely? Especially since the account won't have been deleted, only suspended, and the person has no way to go in and turn the auto-payments off?
I'm half-tempted to write a support ticket to LJ about this, and then I have to wonder if it would even really matter considering their utter lack of anything approaching good customer service, especially as of late.
refunds
The answer to this is no. The ToS there even makes a point about saying no refunds. That they started this b.s. after the permanent account sale was over proves how slimy they are. "We can delete your account and you get no refund." (in non-lawyerspeak)
Re: refunds
Re: refunds
Should this happen, a report to the Better Business Bureau in 6A's area would probably be a good idea, in addition to contacting LJ to set things right.
Also, if it happens once, the best thing to do would be to call the credit card company, explain the circumstances, and tell them not to accept any more charges from LJ/6A.
I say all of this as a non-paying member of LJ who has no idea how the process works, but those would be the steps I'd take, since LJ/6A has no legal reason to take my money.
Not possible, I'm afraid. Once authorised, payments on a debit or credit card cannot be cancelled except by cancelling the card altogether.
You have to wait until the transaction appears on your credit card statement and then contact the credit card disputes line to get the payment claimed back. And be prepared to do the same thing the next month, and the next, until eventually LJ gives up and stops taking it.
This is why I don't enter into such contracts unless I know exactly what I'm getting into, and I never felt I could trust LJ enough to pay for an account. Seems I was right.
And it's how AOL got enough money to buy Time Life Warner.
You have to contact, not the card company, but the company taking the money. Any reputable company will stop taking the payments; if it is too close to the payment date for them to stop the next payment, they will take it but will refund it shortly afterwards.
Whether LiveJournal/SixApart is a reputable company or not is not for me to say.
And I think their recent behavior speaks for itself. :p
Don't expect results, but let them know what they get for not being up-front with their users.
I mean, in reality it would be theft/fraud and something I would cheerfully take LJ to court over (if I'd had automatic payments set up, which I didn't). But it doesn't mean they won't try-- my brother had a similar problem with a video subscription that he got cancelled. They tried to take money out the month after, and my parents had to do this big thing with the bank and letter-writing for a refund before the bank could then legally go after the company.
Might be a good time for people who pay by debit card to call up their financial instutition and ask about the policy for challenging bad debits on their accounts. :/ I know the process for banks differs a bit from the process for credit card companies.
Even if they didn't, a suspended (permanent or otherwise) user can still sign into their account, even adjust their user info, last I checked, read "some" notifications, and presumably adjust payment option if that were necessary - just can't post or comment while signed in.
Heck, the permanently suspended user can even sign in to manage their communities, if those were not also suspended - I had the strange pleasure to sign in as a suspended user, and approve myself, as a member (with a new lj) of the community I'd created (before it, also, was suspended), lol, even made my new self the maintainer of the thing. This may be why they endeavor to delete one's associated communities at the same time, now.