Classmates review: Unauthorized membership billing 79

Hi PeggyPlan, please refer to the comment just before yours, by T_rose. That should explain things for you. People are claiming they are being fraudulently charged by Classmates/Memory Lane. But it is not fraudulent. They are not charging your credit or debit card without your consent. Go into your account and you will see that you have your information on auto-renew.

PeggyPlan - please just read the message right before yours, by T_rose. That should explain things for you. People are complaining about being charged 'fraudulently', but they are not. And, if Classmates truly is refunding money, they being very generous considering that they can charge when you have the auto-renew activated. They are not charging your credit or debit cards without your prior consent, or anyone else's. So please, see T_roses short message above yours and figure out why you (and all the others) are being renewed. Honestly, I cannot believe people are just witching here and not reading the 2 posts in here that EXPLAIN WHY this is happening and how to deactivate your auto-renewal.

PeggyPlan, please just read the message right before yours, by T_rose. That should explain things for you. People are complaining about being charged, and if Classmates truly is refunding money, they being very generous considering that they can charge when you have the auto-renew activated. They charging your credit or debit cards without your prior consent, or anyone else's. So please, see T_roses short message above yours and figure out why you (and all the others) are being renewed. Honestly, I cannot believe people are just witching and not reading the 2 posts in here that EXPLAIN WHY this is happening and how to deactivate your auto-renewal.

I just now found this site. I too was charged $39.00 on my credit card for something I never approved. and if they try to say that I did approve it, have I got news for them... on that date, I was in the hospital in a great deal of pain and sure as heck was not playing on the internet!

I was not aware of this, but if you go onto the site and press on the word account at the top of the page the window will come up for accounting and billing. When you go into this you will see that when you became a member they placed your credit card into an automatic renewal state which you are not aware of unless you go into this account area. Make sure you go into it and remove your credit card info so that if you can't get a refund this time there will be no other time because they no longer will have your info. TSR

Me too. I can't believe it. I am cancelling now. I am sure there are others, too.

I too, got charged a renewal fee. I will be taking your suggestions to try for my refund. Thank you ALL for your help.

I had the same thing happen to me...P---ed me off... called a number 800=779=8689...cancelled and was told a refund would post witin a month..worth the try! I hate sneaky !

I am just trying to use common sense here to help people understand why they have an "unauthorized charge" from Memory Lane, which is Classmates re-named. There is no way that Classmates could have your credit card/banking information without you having provided that in the first place.

Just think about it a little bit here. When you first signed up with Classmates as a paid member - which was then called a Gold Member, if they haven't changed that too - you needed to provide a payment option to have that account to access those features on classmates. Otherwise, you were a free member with limited website access and there would have been no credit card or banking information for you to have provided.

After you joined as a paid member you could have gone back into your account and removed the automatic renewal and/or payment information/authorization, but then you would have needed to remember to renew before your expiration date only if you wanted to keep that rate. After that, if you did not renew within a short period after your account lapsed, you would have fallen over to a newer, slightly more expensive rate and no longer guaranteed the rate you began with if you chose to renew. But if you automatically renewed you were guaranteed to keep that rate. If you canceled auto-renew but renewed before your rate expired you could still maintain the lesser fee. This is why many people opted to stay with automatic renewal. Hence the renewal fee you are seeing now. But with Classmates name change to Memory Lane, it looks like many people did not hear of the name change and because of that, didn't understand the renewal fee.

I don't know if Classmates failed to email that information, or if many were like me and changed their email options from Classmates so that they no longer received them. I either wasn't informed because I no longer received their emails, or deleted that email without reading. In any case, I did not hear of their name change until last month, when, out of curiosity, I randomly logged into my account after a long absence and saw the changes. Immediately I researched to understand what transpired. During that search I discovered people claiming unauthorized charges and became concerned, so I went back to my account and de-activated my auto-renewal that is set to expire in a month. I can go back and re-activate that should I decide I'd like to remain a paid member automatically, or I can just re-join later. But I think Classmates/Memory Lane is renewing your account because you still have the auto-renew activated. Otherwise they have no way to retreive your credit card or banking information! You still had that information provided in your account set up on auto-renew, and I don't believe they are out-of-bounds in billing you when you have the auto-renew activated. Just go in and check your account settings and make the necessary changes. It is too bad that Memory Lane didn't make a bigger whomp about the changes being made so that more people would have been made aware and avoided this fuss. If it had been the old Classmates name renewing you would you still be as upset? I have not found any article about Classmates 'stealing' credit card numbers and then billing those.

On a side note, Facebook seems to be winning in the social media area, so Classmates felt the need to re-vamp their site and renamed it Memory Lane. Here is an article I found. You may need to paste the URL into your browser to read this article.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/03/21/seattles-classmates-com-is-now-memory-lane-and-wants-to-cash-in-on-nostalgia/

Personally, I don't care about Classmates, Facebook, or any of the social media websites.

I am just trying to use common sense here to help people understand why they have an ''unauthorized charge'' from Memory Lane, which is Classmates re-named. There is no way that Classmates could have your credit card/banking information without you having provided that in the first place.

Just think about it a little bit here. When you first signed up with Classmates as a paid member - which was then called a Gold Member, if they haven't changed that too - you needed to provide a payment option to have that account to access those features on classmates. Otherwise, you were a free member with limited website access and there would have been no credit card or banking information for you to have provided.

After you joined as a paid member you could have gone back into your account and removed the automatic renewal and/or payment information/authorization, but then you would have needed to remember to renew before your expiration date only if you wanted to keep that rate. After that, if you did not renew within a short period after your account lapsed, you would have fallen over to a newer, slightly more expensive rate and no longer guaranteed the rate you began with if you chose to renew. But if you automatically renewed you were guaranteed to keep that rate. If you canceled auto-renew but renewed before your rate expired you could still maintain the lesser fee. This is why many people opted to stay with automatic renewal. Hence the renewal fee you are seeing now. But with Classmates name change to Memory Lane, it looks like many people did not hear of the name change and because of that, didn't understand the renewal fee.

I don't know if Classmates failed to email that information, or if many were like me and changed their email options from Classmates so that they no longer received them. I either wasn't informed because I no longer received their emails, or deleted that email without reading. In any case, I did not hear of their name change until last month, when, out of curiosity, I randomly logged into my account after a long absence and saw the changes. Immediately I researched to understand what transpired. During that search I discovered people claiming unauthorized charges and became concerned, so I went back to my account and de-activated my auto-renewal that is set to expire in a month. I can go back and re-activate that should I decide I'd like to remain a paid member automatically, or I can just re-join later. But I think Classmates/Memory Lane is renewing your account because you still have the auto-renew activated. Otherwise they have no way to retreive your credit card or banking information! You still had that information provided in your account set up on auto-renew, and I don't believe they are out-of-bounds in billing you when you have the auto-renew activated. Just go in and check your account settings and make the necessary changes. It is too bad that Memory Lane didn't make a bigger whomp about the changes being made so that more people would have been made aware and avoided this fuss. If it had been the old Classmates name renewing you would you still be as upset? I have not found any article about Classmates 'stealing' credit card numbers and billing those.

On a side note, Facebook seems to be winning in the social media area, so Classmates felt the need to re-vamp their site and renamed it Memory Lane. Here is an article I found. You may need to paste the URL into your browser to read this article.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/03/21/seattles-classmates-com-is-now-memory-lane-and-wants-to-cash-in-on-nostalgia/

Personally, I don't care about Classmates, Facebook, or any of the social media websites.

I found the unauthorized charge from Classmates/Memory Lane on my credit card last night when paying my bill online and was furious! I also realized that not only was the charge unauthorized but they also used an expired credit card and with an invalid expiration date . . . they just made up a new expiration date to push the charge through! That's illegal! I called my credit card company and then called Classmates/Memory Lane and received some initial resistance about getting the charge reversed. When I told them I was going to contact the state Attorney General's office to file a complaint they became cooperative and agreed to make the refund and gave me a confirmation number. I just finished filing an online complaint form with the Washington State Attorney General regarding the business practices of Classmates/Memory Lane. I can't imagine that they will stay in business very long if this is the way they conduct themselves. Geez.

My credit card bill arrived today, and I saw that they had actually charged me $59 (presumably for 2 years, since the last time I paid was in 2009), but I am disputing the charge with my bank, precisely because they did not notify of any automatic renewal policy. When the first thing a Google search about Classmates-Memory Lane yields is this complaint string, it gives one serious misgivings about having anything further to do with a company that does business this way. The bank is sending me forms to fill out, and I'm told I won't be responsible for the charges until the matter has been satisfactorily resolved.

When my credit card bill arrived today, I saw that I was actually charged $59 by Classmates-Memory Lane (presumably for two years, since I last paid in 2009), which I am disputing through the Bank, precisely because I was not notified of this automatic renewal. When I did an online search for Classmates-Memory Lane and this entire string of Complaints was the first thing that came up, it gave me strong misgivings about doing any further business with Classmates, although I have previously been happy to have access to my former Classmates.

i just called and am getting the run around, says they can only refund partial. i hung up and called back, got another rep (Chiquita) and she seems to be more helpful, i am staying calm, it is difficult! saying they can only refund 36.00! BS! now a supervisor is being called...got a conf number for the refund! bastages!

Called the same number...disputed the "automatic renewal" and asked that the $39 charge be credited back to my acct. The customer service rep. was able to authorize the refund right on the spot. Received confirmation number...Now let's see how long it takes to get it...What a sleazy company!

[protected] I just called this number and told them I did not want to wait a year, I wanted the unauthorized payment refunded, since it was not agreed upon when I signed up. Spoke with Sarah who returned it to my acct. and gave me a confirmation number of the transaction. Should be re-applied within 30 days. I'm keeping my eye on it!

I just got off the phone with these people. At first they said they would not have me on the system for automatic renewal, but I wouldn't be getting that 39.00 back. When I started being confrontational about my rights, they "offered to be nice and would give me a break and refund my money, which included a transaction number, so don't hang up until you at least get that number.
They are playing the odds that people won't bother with trying to get that money back- The odds are win/win to them, because that is free money if no one fights to get it returned. Don't let then get away with this.

Hi all,
Just found out the Memory lane did it to me too. Just got off with my credit card co to put charge in dispute and block anymore charges from them. Since it is Saturday, I will be on the phone with Memory Lane (# is [protected] or [protected]) on Monday.

Thanks to all of you who posted info.

I just had my credit card billed also for $39.00 from Memory Lane Classmates. I tried the number on the charge which was [protected]. This number is not valid. The toll free number is [protected]. Unfortunately I had already notified my credit card company and they cancelled the card and are reissuing another one. The person I talked with at Memory Lane was very polite and professional and explained that when I signed up for the $9.95 deal last year it was for a full year of membership with auto renewal. I did not realized that but he took off the auto renewal and would have credited my card but my cc company already removed the charge. They were not hard to deal with at all if you call the right number. They did give me a confirmation number for the cancellation. All you need to do is call them.

They just did this to me too. My bank said to try and dispute the charges with the company and get a Confirmation # and who I spoke with. I talked to Sara, operator #4927. She reversed the charges and canceled my account. I am calling my bank back with my confirmation #. The number I dialed was [protected]. RMT

I also was automatically renewed. This wouldn't bother me if it weren't for the fact that my password is not recognized and I am unable to read any e-mails /news items because I need to "upgrade" my membership, as if I only have the free one. I cannot find an e-mail to write my complaint to and will now do everything possible cancel an unsolicited renewal and to stop anymore payments.

I would like to thank everyone that posted a note on this site. I just found out that classmate charged me a $39.00 renewal fee. I will be contacting my bank first, then classmates. I hope that I'm as lucky as some of you were and get my money refunded and my membership canceled. The information I obtain from this site was very helpful. Thanks again. Althais

This is for Pat Castro - Pat, I just logged onto my classmates account to see if I could help you out with your not being able to find your account. When you log into your page, scroll all the way down to the very bottom where the area is gray all the way across and everything is in white font. There are 3 rows of white font and on the top row, about 5 choices in you will see "account". It actually reads Memory Lane Home/ About Us/ My School/ My Profile/ ACCOUNT/ Careers/ Help - All choices are clickable and in your case, click on 'account'. After you do that you will have more options that will be in blue lettering up an ddown on the left of the page. Your options begin with 'Personal Information' and you want to click on the 2nd one down that reads "Account & Billing". Anyone who has automatic renewal activated will be re-billed when your 'subscription' has expired. So it is up to us to de-activate that option if we no longer use classmates. And I would suggest scrolling a couple more options down and checking out what your 'email subscriptions' are, to see why they are not notifying you of their actions. I hope this might help you out.

I too am being ripped off by Classmates Memory Lane. I contacted them about 2 months ago and told them to stop withdrawinhg $15.00 monthly from my account. Again today, my statement shows another withdrawal of $15.00. I contacted them by email today to unsubscribe and was given instructions on how to do so. I was told that at the top or bottom of any page there will be the word "account". Click on " account", then click on "Account & BIlling". Then under "Account Information" click "Turn Off Automatic Renewal". Click "yes" to confirm your decision. Confirm your Account Billing page now reflects your desired renewal option "Manual". Problem is, I cannot find any page that has the word "Account" at the top or bottom so I an folow these instructions. What a rip off! I too will contact any and all persons/organizations to get to the bottom of this and have my membership closed. Good luck to all of you in getting removed from their membership.

I called my bank today and put a freeze on Classmates/Memory Lane from being able to get into my bank account. I then e-mailed Classmates and told them what I did and that I was also filing a complaint with the Attorney Generals Office and Better Business Bureau. About 30 minutes later I got an e-mail back saying they were going to refund $38.58 and canceled my account. Good enough but I am still filing the complaint. How many other people out there are getting ripped off by them and don't know what to do?

I have a thought going on here and don't know if this will help anyone who has yet to be billed, but maybe you need to remove your billing info from your account. Am thinking they are able to bill the people who have billing information stored in their account on Classmates/Memory Lane. I just happened to log-on today for the first time in nearly 6 months and didn't even recognize the website! They never as much as sent any type of an email notification either, and I am signed up for those types of notifications. And my email remains the same and they have it marked correctly. I'm still not certain what happened - did CMates sell, or did they merge with another business? Well, long story shot, I deleted my credit card info along with my automatic renewal information and authorization. I'm just glad I happened back to the website when I did and was able to remove that information before any renewal can take place.

They just charged me the $39 also, I will call my bank also to dispute this charge. I will also contact Truste.com as well. This is uncalled for. I cancelled my account with Classmates.com over a year ago. Until this charge, I had not had any charges from Classmates.com.

They just charged me the $39 also, called my bank first. they said they would dispute it for me but we had to wait til it posted, I finally got classmates phone number by calling Truste.com and they gave it to me. I called classmates and he promised me he gave me a full refund, I will check with my bank tomorrow to see whats being done. If I don't get it back I will go back to Truste and file a watchdog complaint on classmates.

The same thing happened to me. I received no notice for renewal and I had checked the box last year to not renew automatically. Since they changed Compainies all that went away and I had to idea until I checked my online banking and found $39 taken out of my checking account. I have e-mailed them to refund and they refuse saying I gave permission to take the monies. . I will contact the [protected] and will also follow up with a letter to their office. If that does not work I will contact the BBB. I also will never do business with them again. I feel they are crooks and what they are doing behind everyones back is illegal...

These ###s are the kind of business that gives on-business a black eye. They took CC information that they had on file and just banged the account for the $39.00. If you are not sharp and not willing to fight for your rights, they get the money. I suspect the 10% to 20% of the people billed will not have the stomach to fight, so they will make that much money no matter what. This is what we have degenerated into. Moralless money grabbers. If you have been billed and are reading this, fight it to the end as I and others will. Shame on them.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to detail this FRAUD. It is making the process easier for me.

I found the charge on my credit card 04-15-11 charged on 04-11-11. After contacting the credit card company ( they gave me a number to call [protected]) I called their "customer" service for billing. I got the same line about no refunds. Here's what i did...
I stated the site never detailed an auto renew function (over year ago), I received no notice about a renewal and that I knew they had over 1000 complaints about this scenario. Once again the story about no refund. I sternly told the rep this "You will refund the money or I will do three things 1) I will call or file a report online with the BBB in your area, 2) I will contact the Attorney Generals office in your state to file a complaint and 3) I will call the credit card company back and dispute the charges. After being asked to wait on hold the rep came back after two minutes. Now i get the same story as others that the supervisor approved the refund and my account would revert to the free one with NO auto renewal. I stated that I would be cancelling the account, thanked the rep for her help, and got the MOST IMPORTANT thing a cancellation number (actually got this first).
Here's what I'm doing now... leaving the account info intact, credit card and all UNTIL I see the refund. I want no excuses as to why they could refund the money! Once that is done I will then delete the account, credit info off first! If they don't hold to their word of a refund I WILL DO WHAT I TOLD THEM!

Life lesson I already knew folks, always use a credit card, you can better protect yourself by disputing underhanded charges and poor business tactics. I see this company going the way of a lot of other companies in this economy, OUT OF BUSINESS.

The account information they had on me had expired. I was never sent a request to give them updated information as to the new expireation date of my Visa Debit card so the made up some kind of bogus date to run it threw. When I made mention to the them that is was illeagal for them to do that, they argued that it wasn't. I had to get very stern with them and threaten to repot them to the BBB & ATG, Only then did she put me on hold and come back to tell me thay would do a one time refund...LOL. I plan to file a complaint anyway. I believe it is illeagal to put in a bogus expiration date on someones credit card just to take their money. Slimy slimy business pratices. I will never do business with this company again!

Thanks for the phone number - I called and got the 39.00 off my card. They will give you the spiel about automatice renewal and not being able to refund once it is on and that they will not charge you for NEXT year, but just tell them you want this charge off NOW.

If this happens to you and you are denied a refund, follow these steps; contact your bank and have them dispute the charge, then also contact the (BBB) Better Business Bureau Serving Alaska, Oregon & Western Washington Complaint Department and file a complaint with them, and finally contact the ATTORNEY GENERAL OF WASHINGTON Consumer Protection Division 800 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000 Seattle, WA [protected] or via the WEB which is easiest and file a complaint. (BBB and ATG are from the area the business is in)
You will be contacted of the status of your complaint by the BBB and the ATG offices. I have since recieved my refund of 39 bucks and my case is closed, in the future I will never have any business dealings with them again. Good Luck.

Classmates Memory Lane charged my old credit card number 39.00. It is very difficult to find a phone number. I knew there had to be one so I pretended to sign up and clicked on to pay by phone. Sure enough there is a phone number. I just got off the phone and they have agreed to credit my credit card the 39.00 fee that I did not authorize and they also removed the automatic renewal from this account.
Classmates/Memory lane [protected] address 333 Elliott Ave W Ste 500 Seattle, Washington [protected] Good luck to all that this has happened to..

Yea, I agree, I guess I also seem to be a victim. I want to report them to BBB, but am having a hard time finding their address. Their contact address.

Same thing happened to me. I am going to see if my card company will allow a dispute.

They did the exact smae thing to me! I reported them to my bank. They refused to refund my money when I contacted them. I had a two year membership, I had only used 1 year and they billed me $39.00 which is twice the amount of my two year membership.