NBA League Pass - STAY AWAY!

[flux73]

I signed up for NBA League Pass last year. I'm unemployed as of last month and decided that I couldn't afford to sign up again this year. Little did I know (or remember), when I signed up, I was automatically enrolled in "automatic renewal". Without any warning, I was charged today for the 2014-15 season (with a $10 increase to $199). I navigated the poorly designed support site to cancel immediately (within half an hour).

I then received an e-mail saying that I successfully cancelled. However, due to the Terms of Agreement, my cancellation wouldn't take effect until the end of the season and that no refund would be provided.

I read the terms and sure enough, they ensured that if you weren't paying close enough attention that they could essentially steal $199 from you. That's exactly what it is - theft. The season hasn't even begun. I have no intention of watching. And yet, I'm forced to pay for something I didn't sign up for. This is absolute ********.

And since they ensured I have no legal recourse to get a refund, I'm going to ensure that I inform as many people as possible about their shady business practices. For those of you who are going to say this is my fault for not remembering what I signed up for last year or reading the terms closely enough, save it. This is business being practiced in poor faith. I would have signed up again in the future once I can pay for it, but now they've ensured that I will never hand over a dime again to this organization.

 

[sodapop1]

They're all a bunch of crooks! If you're trying to warn as many people as possible and even possibly get a refund, you should take to the social media sites. Who knows, if you bark loud enough, you may get the attention of someone with some clout.

 

[boast]

Chargeback?

 

[mlody]

Chargeback?

My thoughts exactly. Just call your credit card and tell them you didn't authorized this charge and let them deal with the crooks.

 

[brand]

My thoughts exactly. Just call your credit card and tell them you didn't authorized this charge and let them deal with the crooks.

Except he did authorize renewals when he initially signed up. Its all in the licensing agreement that I am sure he didn't read. This is in now way theft given that the OP didn't bother to read what he was agreeing to.

 

[sodapop1]

Except he did authorize renewals when he initially signed up. Its all in the licensing agreement that I am sure he didn't read. This is in now way theft given that the OP didn't bother to read what he was agreeing to.

Given that more and more companies are using these types of deceitful automatic renewal practices and burying the information in the small print with absolutely no attempt to notify you of an upcoming automatic renewal, the moral of the story is you should always cancel your membership immediately after you sign up.

 

[2010mini]

Sell your NBA league Pass to recoup your loss???

 

[flux73]

Except he did authorize renewals when he initially signed up. Its all in the licensing agreement that I am sure he didn't read. This is in now way theft given that the OP didn't bother to read what he was agreeing to.

As I said, yes they "caught" me. But they knew perfectly well what they were doing which is why they set up the terms that way. Do you spend an hour or two reading through every word of a ToA in tiny fonts and deciding whether or not it might apply to you in the future, before signing up for a service?

The result though is that while they managed to deceive me into paying $199 (btw, I wasn't notified of any increase until I was notified that I was charged), I'm going to make certain people know about this deceptive practice. While you may not consider this to be "theft" in the legal sense, it most certainly is in that they know a lot of people will miss it.

The way businesses should be conducted is: I pay for a service, I receive the service. If I terminate the service and it hasn't been delivered yet, then I shouldn't have to pay. Tricking me into doing so because the company knows it will be overlooked by the vast majority of people is morally bankrupt. Not that I expect a company to be moral. But then if they're not going to play fairly, it's well within my right to inform everyone else of my experience. It's the same reason I hate Comcast and why they will never earn another penny from me.

This is a simple issue of *fairness*. IMHO, automatic renewals should be illegal. There are too many to keep track of. Automatic renewals should explicitly require permission at the time of the renewal before being activated - basic good faith. It pisses me off that megacorporations that make plenty of money like the NBA, need to resort to such practices to squeeze their customers. Well, let's applause their clever lawyers then - they just made $200 from me but lost a fan. Hope it was worth it. This is the slow rot of capitalism when corporations decide that profits mean everything and the customers mean nothing.

You know the irony? If my credit card had expired sometime this summer, they would have been unable to charge me. According to their terms, they would simply inactivate my subscription. They could not legally bill me since the service in question hasn't been delivered. In essence, I would have gotten out of the automatic renewal. So the only difference is that they had valid credit card info from me (which btw, I never authorized them to keep). I'm beginning to think that the smarter way to approach this problem is to ask my credit card companies to set my expiration date to only one year later and to ask for a new number each time.

 

[flux73]

Sell your NBA league Pass to recoup your loss???

Also illegal under their Terms of Agreement. You see what's happened here, right? Terms of Agreements are being written by companies to create laws that aren't specifically addressed by the federal or state laws. These are holes in the laws that the companies can now use to take money from you - legally.

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My thoughts exactly. Just call your credit card and tell them you didn't authorized this charge and let them deal with the crooks.

Was going to, but Chase's webpage where you have to fill out a form for "Dispute Charge" has an entry where you have to cut and paste the Terms of Agreement. By the ToA, I can't dispute it.

 

[d21mike]

I really feel for you on this one. Really bad business practice where you can not cancel an auto renew within a reasonable amount of time.

In any case I would not give up on your options. I believe there are FAIR PRACTICE consumer protections. Like maybe some protections that AUTO RENEW subscriptions could be cancelled within 7 days or something like that. Please understand I have no idea. But maybe your credit card company would know. At least report them to the better business bureau. I did that with Verizon FIOS and then I got a call from Verizon to resolve the situation. They gave me some discounts on future months so it came out ok.

Good Luck and lets us know if you get a favorable resolution.

UPDATE: I think I may contacted the FCC instead of the BBB because they are a Telecom. Was not expecting anything but got a nice resolution.

 

[Ahmahzahn]

Different story

Hey, thought I'd chime in here with my experience as well. I noticed the charge for this years league pass and went to cancel online as well. The only option I had was to cancel my subscription for next year, so I also navigated their terrible service website and send them what they call a 'ticket'. They responded to my cordial email the next day and gave me a full refund, so you might want to try and submit a different ticket and hope you get a more understanding person. Good luck!

 

[brentsg]

I would do a chargeback. The season has not even started, so they have no justification for keeping your money.

I have NHL Gamecenter and they sent me an early warning to remind me that it would auto-renew, and giving me several weeks to cancel before billing if I wished to. That's how it should be done.