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"FREE" 1 Year ECA membership... for the price of YOUR SOUL. Read if you applied.

D

dallow_bg

nods at old men
jrricky said:
:lol at the thread title and the people who got suckered into this. I wanted to join but I had second thoughts, so I chose not do it.:lol Damn!!!
Click to expand...
Well, I saved $250+ on games, and used a temp Paypal number that isn't valid anymore. I should be cool.
 
B

BolognaOni

Member
Prezhulio said:
except some people have different things (cell phone, internet, water etc.) billed to that number, and filling out the paperwork/forms to change to a number would take much more than 15 minutes. i'll mail them the cancelation thing (even though it's quite silly), but i'll do that once i have confirmation that they aren't just going to ignore it and sucker the money out of you anyways, as they aren't giving great responses to our questions yet.
Click to expand...

Just make a copy before you send it. If they auto-renew, you can dispute it with your CC company. Remember just because they charge your card doesn't mean the CC company is going to pay them anything. I really doubt I'm going to lose that dispute...

People should just calm down. There's no evidence of serious wrong doing here really (yet). Having to mail letters is still pretty standard for organizations that don't want to make it easy to get out.

Granted, I do think it's a pretty dick move. It's almost 2010, that shit should be on your website. So... maybe next year if they actually get a good deal with Amazon or someone going again, and manage to build a REAL website, I'll think about giving them some money.
 
J

jrricky

Banned
dallow_bg said:
Well, I saved $250+ on games, and used a temp Paypal number that isn't valid anymore. I should be cool.
Click to expand...
Lucky...
Jive Turkey said:
Wow...Dodged a bullet on this one.

Still I'm sure this is all somehow Costanza's fault.
Click to expand...


Where the heck is Constanza? His head should be taken for making this OP. ;) :lol
 
D

dallow_bg

nods at old men
jrricky said:
Lucky...

Where the heck is Constanza? His head should be taken for making this OP. ;) :lol
Click to expand...
I love that Costanza has become a local meme because of all this. His name pops up all the time even in unrelated topics. :lol
 
B

border

Member
elrechazao said:
This was and remains a well established organization with a large preexisting membership prior to all of this happening. You can try to retcon all you want, but it's not very persuasive.
Click to expand...
Plenty of well-established organizations with large memberships pull this nonsense *cough* XBL *cough*

"Free if you give us your credit card number" means you are going to get scammed at the worst, or auto-enrolled at best. Even in the best case scenario you should be know that you will have to jump through some hoops if you want to cancel before a subscription auto-renews. I'm not saying that people should have assumed this to be a scam, just that they should have expected something similar to this (if not worse). And if you're the type that immediately cries "Identity Theft" when something is mildly difficult to cancel, you should have been more careful in the first place.
 
M

Monroeski

Unconfirmed Member
I think I even feel a little better to know I paid for a membership about two months before this thread came around. People really put in their credit card info for a free membership? :lol
 
D

Dipper145

Member
Seriously, what the hell?

I didn't even use it for an amazong discount, I used a 20% off GOG.com discount.

I'm sure they'll eventually have to let you remove your CC.. right?

I thought I turned off auto-renewal as soon as I joined though, does that count?
 
A

angelfly

Member
Dipper145 said:
Seriously, what the hell?

I didn't even use it for an amazong discount, I used a 20% off GOG.com discount.

I'm sure they'll eventually have to let you remove your CC.. right?

I thought I turned off auto-renewal as soon as I joined though, does that count?
Click to expand...

Don't count on it. They want to prevent "lazy and finicky" members from canceling too quick.
 
A

angelfly

Member
:lol :lol :lol
Attention to everyone who's a victim of the "Free ECA membership" promotion; The ECA have absolutely ZERO LEGAL grounds for taking such action. I've dealt with exact same situation in West Philadelphia, born and raised
On the playground was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys
Who were up to no good
Startin making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'.

I whistled for a cab and when it came near
The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror
If anything I can say this cab is rare
But I thought 'Now forget it' - 'Yo homes to Bel Air'

I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air
Click to expand...
 
C

ClovingWestbrook

Banned
Sorry if posted but lulz

u_mad? u_mad? is offline
Undecided Voter

Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 3
u_mad? is on a distinguished road
Default
ECA just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about consumers (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is being HAL HALPIN where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw a consumer over, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the interwebs, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase an ECA membership, nor will they join for any of ECA's ****ty promotions. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but ECA has alienated an entire market with this move.

ECA, publicly apologize and cancel our accounts or you can kiss your business goodbye.
 
R

RedNumberFive

Banned
Costanza said:
lol, they removed the posts in the Going Green thread
Click to expand...

They've been removing posts at a blinding speed. Polite or rude, doesn't matter. Speak up against the ECA's practices and you're silenced.
 
A

AzureNightmare

Banned
RedNumberFive said:
They've been removing posts at a blinding speed. Polite or rude, doesn't matter. Speak up against the ECA's practices and you're silenced.
Click to expand...
Thats why you post faster than they can delete, make them want to give up or shut down the forums.
 
A

AzureNightmare

Banned
Costanza said:
Yeah, I'm really surprised noone has gotten /b/ in on this.
Click to expand...
Actually I went in and posted to get their help with this. I probably should go scan my computer now as just entering/b/ probably gave me 50 different viruses.
 
C

ClovingWestbrook

Banned
I am not sure if it was answered before but the first year is still free, correct? It is just after the first year that you cannot cancel the renewal. Or am I mistaken?

AzureNightmareXE said:
Actually I went in and posted to get their help with this. I probably should go scan my computer now as just entering/b/ probably gave me 50 different viruses.
Click to expand...
:lol :lol
 
S

SpeedingUptoStop

will totally Facebook friend you! *giggle* *LOL*
I'm just gonna let the internet sort this one out. I'll bet that the policy will be changed or the site will be shut down before they charge my credit card and i actually have to do something about this.
 
N

nataku

Member
SpeedingUptoStop said:
I'm just gonna let the internet sort this one out. I'll bet that the policy will be changed or the site will be shut down before they charge my credit card and i actually have to do something about this.
Click to expand...

Pretty much what I'm gonna do, for now. I've got a year still.

I'm never trusting GAF again, though. Or at least, not Costanza. :lol
 
V

vazel

Banned
SpeedingUptoStop said:
I'm just gonna let the internet sort this one out. I'll bet that the policy will be changed or the site will be shut down before they charge my credit card and i actually have to do something about this.
Click to expand...
That's what I'm hoping.
 
S

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
They have been threatening to terminate accounts if you diss them in their forums. Right? So will that also terminate my renew? I'm just saying
 
B

border

Member
shintoki said:
They have been threatening to terminate accounts if you diss them in their forums. Right? So will that also terminate my renew? I'm just saying
Click to expand...
They'll probably just ban your IP and forum account but keep renewing your ECA membership.
 
B

border

Member
Neverfade said:
I signed up by generating a temp. card number through PayPal, of which has long since expired. Good luck, fuckers!
Click to expand...
An expired number will not necessarily stop them from turning you over to a collection agency.
 
B

border

Member
LovingSteam said:
And that is when you file a dispute.
Click to expand...
Which is going to be twice as much time and hassle as just sending them a letter now. Is it really worth risking a bad bump on your credit rating?
 
graywolf323

graywolf323

Member
what I'm trying to figure out is how the **** are there people on their forums with thousands to tens of thousands of posts? :lol are they paid to be there or what?
 
P

permutated

Banned
louise-max-hot-buttered-popcorn.jpg


Costanza; thank you for this. :lol
 
Psy-Phi

Psy-Phi

Member
Joined because I thought it would be good to have in the future. Still haven't used any discounts associated with it. I was going to use amazons but the day I wad ready it had been pulled.

I may still have joined If I had to pay, but not being able to cancel simply, through an option that previously existed reeks of a greedy and immoral group. I'll be writing my letter to them to cancel purely because they removed the option to cancel online.
 
S

sk3tch

Member
Eagerly awaiting an official response from The ECA on this. I actually paid $20 to join before all of this "free membership" crap came about. I enjoy their daily email and I follow them on Twitter. I'm all about their "cause" but their responses to this situation has been just BS.

I am still giving them the benefit of the doubt but I will definitely be paying very close attention to how they respond...
 
X

xrich

Banned
i find it hilarious that everyone is blaming Costanza for this. i dont know if you guys are serious or not but :lol
 
Y

yankeeforever2

Member
xrich said:
i find it hilarious that everyone is blaming Costanza for this. i dont know if you guys are serious or not but :lol
Click to expand...
He is the one that got the Amazon discount codes taken away, told everyone about the free membership and killed our dinosaur banner. He must be stopped.
 
B

botticus

Member
border said:
An expired number will not necessarily stop them from turning you over to a collection agency.
Click to expand...
Er... I don't think they will be going to a collection agency over an unpaid membership renewal. If they don't get your money, they would simply not renew your membership. This isn't a bill.
 
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