Roomster.com Informative - Charges for no service - rental listing

Posted by Noneill on 2007-02-16:

Sounds like a scam. I am not sure if I understand...Juniper.com is your credit card company? Get a new card.

Posted by Hugh_Jorgen on 2007-02-16:

Couldn't you tell from the cheesy look of their site that perhaps they weren't above board? FWIW, their domain is registered out of Luxembourg. Any way, you need to file a written complaint with your bank telling them you did not receive the service you paid for and you dispute the charge. You might also have to cancel that card and get a new one to avoid their repetative billing.

Posted by adage on 2007-05-28:

Thank you for your review. I tried roomster.net at the end of 2005. I contacted multiple people on the site and got no response. My conclusion was they didn't have enough of a database for the roommate matching to be successful. Like you, I contacted customer service for a refund. No response. I posted a review of my experience on amazon. THEN John S. Shriber the company owner, started sending a series of very unpleasant and nasty emails to me. He offered a refund only if I took out my amazon review, which I did, and that mostly because the guy sounded so unstable that I was afraid of what he'd do with my credit card information. Don't use roomster.

Posted by MoonshineStella on 2008-01-19:

First, they make their money direct debiting your account. They hide the direct debit in the terms and condition and on a side note. If really they wanted to be honest about it, they would make one tick a box authorizing the direct debit. I am sure I am not the only one they ripped off that way. The problem is that, even tough it is not obvious, it is in the terms and conditions.
Secondly, it is also far than obvious on how to stop your membership. It makes one lose time to find out (calling, emailing their customer service,...). Plus, one doesn't see the urgency to unsuscribe as you have no idea they are going to direct debit your account. So they have plenty of time to withdraw your account every month until you realize it.
Thirdly, this company has no telephone number, just an automatic voice mail directing you to the site.

Finally, the website is not really good. Look into something else to find a room mate!

It would be good to know if it has happened to other people to group together.

Posted by MoonshineStella on 2008-01-19:

Please visit:
http://www.repsavior.com/ripoff222639.html

Posted by Savail on 2008-04-05:

I have a problem similar to this. I signed up for the four-day trial; but I read the ToS, so I knew that they would try to automatically renew it.

So when I went to cancel it, it kept telling me that it couldn't complete the request. Eventually, it finally claimed to have successfully cancelled the subscription, but I was still charged. I sent several e-mails which were not responded to and also attempted to use their HelpDesk, which kept giving me error messages [yes, all of my programs are up to date; I am no internet novice].

After the second charge, I decided to try the HelpDesk again, this time with a notification that I was informing the BBB. Interesting that it worked once I decided to do that. I am also going to meet with an attorney if this does not stop soon and am looking to join one of the pending class-action lawsuits floating around.

While it's not illegal to have hidden resubscriptions [although it is considered an unethical business practice], it IS illegal to prevent customers from cancelling a subscription if you have no terms that mandate they must subscribe for a certain amount of time.

Posted by Suzanne on 2012-09-25:

I just signed up thinking it was roommates.com and did not have enough time to read the small print. This site does not have many roommates and has a non-working interface. Not display of the last time someone logged in to know if they are even currently looking for a place. Asked for a refund with 1 hour of signing up. We'll see.

Posted by Virginia on 2013-05-29:

I kept on inputting my Visa card and nothing would go thru - I have over 800 odd messages - I am not sure if they are legitimate but it's starting to look like this company is up to no good - they send you robot messages online and there is no resolution to the problem - so it looks like a scam!!