eFax Ripped Me Off, Mastercard Won't Help

November 17, 2010 2:40 PM

Efax notified me that they'd billed me hundreds of dollars to auto-renew my totally sucky membership. I called and asked to cancel, and they said no problem, they'd cancel me and refund my credit card. Then....nothing. Repeat. Same result. Seems to be the scam where they hope X% of customers don't notice refund hasn't gone through. So....I disupted charge with Mastercard. And they refuse to do anything.

Mastercard told me "This charge is from a merchant that automatically charges your account at periodic intervals until you or they cancel this agreement. The disputed charge is considered valid since it was either made prior to the cancellation date or posted less than 15 days after you cancelled ith the merchant. We look forward to providing you with the best possible service".

One potentially helpful wrinkle: at some point in the last year I changed my billing info to a fake name and address in the hopes that the auto-renew would not go through (there was no other clear method for blocking the auto-renew, and I - smartly - didn't trust their reps to turn it off for me). It obviously did go through. But is this of any help for me? Can I have Citibank demand proof of the transaction, and hopefully see that they had me all wrong?

BTW, did I mention eFax totally totally sux?

posted by Quisp Lover to work & money (14 answers total)

I would have started by reporting this as an unauthorized transaction. That door may be closed now, but I don't know--it's worth a try.
posted by Sidhedevil at 2:52 PM on November 17, 2010

I don't think Mastercard shuts the door after one rejection. I'm anxious to see what other say, generally....
posted by Quisp Lover at 2:55 PM on November 17, 2010

I don't have any advice on how to deal with efax, but I have no complaints about my send only, email to fax, account at GreenFax which is pre-paid based.
posted by fontophilic at 2:56 PM on November 17, 2010

Yeah, fontophilic. I'd intended to switch to something like that. But first I need to get this money back.
posted by Quisp Lover at 2:58 PM on November 17, 2010

Did you already try to cancel, when you say you changed your billing info? Can you appeal with MC and tell them so?
posted by galadriel at 3:14 PM on November 17, 2010

Didn't cancel when I changed my billing info, no, cuz I figured I"d at least get the service for the balance of the year I'd already paid for.
posted by Quisp Lover at 3:48 PM on November 17, 2010

I'm not sure there is anything further you can do. I also signed up for an eFax account, and in order for it not to autorenew, I had to call before the deadline and cancel, which I did. I was not charged. There was nowhere online where I could change, edit or delete my credit card info or cancel my subscription - I had to speak to a person.

Unfortunately, as I understood it at the time, their terms were very clear - you have to cancel prior to the deadline if you do not want to be charged; any time afterwards, and you'll be charged the full fee for the next period of time.

I don't know why they said when they cancelled they would refund charges - perhaps just to get you off the phone; ianal and I don't know if you have any recourse if the csa lied to you.
posted by lesli212 at 3:52 PM on November 17, 2010

Seems eFax does have a reputation for making it difficult to cancel. I see that you called eFax, but did you try calling the phone number in this post instead of the 1 800 number?

IMPORTANT: they should give you an email with the cancellation reference number as a result of this call, and you can use that with your credit card people if you run into more problems. I would try to stay on the phone until they have actually sent you the promised email notification.
posted by misha at 3:53 PM on November 17, 2010

I had this happen too. They really suck. Be really persistent with eFax. Don't settle for their crappy, barely literate support. It took about five hours -- just in phone time! -- but I finally got them to reverse my bill.
posted by metametababe at 4:33 PM on November 17, 2010

lesli:
"I don't know why they said when they cancelled they would refund charges "

But they did....twice. And cancelled my account. It strikes me that they've got to do what they promised. Especially since I do not have the service....which they cancelled.


Misha:
I do have the cancellation reference number. It does not make reference to a refund, however (that was done orally over the phone).
posted by Quisp Lover at 4:33 PM on November 17, 2010

You might want to try submitting a complaint to Consumerist--worth a shot! Also, might want to check to see if eFax has a twitter account. For some reasons, customer service reps on Twitter tend to me more effective than their call center brethren (and sisteren).
posted by smirkette at 4:54 PM on November 17, 2010

I think that they canceled the service is pretty important in the context of whether they can charge you for a service they are not providing anymore. It certainly backs up your position, anyway. Contacting Consumerist wouldn't be a bad idea, I agree there.
posted by empyrean at 8:43 PM on November 17, 2010

Quisp Lover - what I meant was that if the CSA told you you could get a refund, then according to the company's policy, that agent was lying, probably to get you of the phone. You may have recourse in terms of being lied to (it would help if you could get a recording, if that's legal in your state), but I doubt you can do anything about the fee itself unless the company decides to completely change the way it does business. Considering the volume of eFax complaints on the internet, I doubt they care about customer service enough to try to assuage a customer, but good luck!

Consumerist may post this, but only as a warning to others to cancel auto-subscribed services in advance.

Excerpted from the eFax customer agreement:
"Your activation fee and monthly or annual service fees, as applicable, are payable in advance and are COMPLETELY NON-REFUNDABLE. You agree that for... subscriptions, j2 Global may submit charges for your... service fee each month... until you provide prior notice.... [blah blah blah]"
posted by lesli212 at 10:03 PM on November 17, 2010

Consumerist had a post about this last year
posted by KogeLiz at 11:39 PM on November 26, 2010