Menu
CB Unauthorized Charges WritersLife.org ongoing charges from 'free' promotional item
WritersLife.org

WritersLife.org review: ongoing charges from 'free' promotional item 13

M
Author of the review
2:57 pm EST
Review updated:
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

I ordered the Get It Done writer's toolkit from Platinum Millenium in September. I was directed to an upsell page that described a cute free sign in the copy on the page, and a YouTube clip. As the copy did not disclose an ongoing fee subsequent to the order of the sign I ordered it, and for the following months had $19.93 removed from my back account. I couldn't find any receipts for the deductions or even anything in the fine print of the emails I had received that explained this. Even the support desk email address didn't seem to be monitored. I went to the Facebook page and posted a question about the ongoing fees. This is the reply: "The $19.99 charges that you see are part of the monthly membership that you agreed to, when you also ordered the "Writers at Work Sign". If you go back to watch the sales video for that sign you will see that we fully disclose that by ordering the sign, you are also agreeing to become a member of P.W.A. (The Premium Writer's Association) for which there is a monthly recurring charge in the amount of $19.99. You can go back and take a look at the video here if you choose: http://writerslife.org/test-first-upsell/ I have cancelled your membership so you will not see any further charges." I would like to point out that the disclosure is predicated on viewing the full video, and as the only reference on the page is to a free sign I am not the first or the last to fall prey to this trick. An ongoing sum should be clearly disclosed and stated in writing, and future emails should refer to this monthly membership. If I'm a premium member I would expect to be reminded of this somehow.

13 comments
Add a comment
A
A
Andrea Bms
, US
Aug 22, 2023 9:40 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I notified the company on Mon, Jun 19, 2023, at 11:45 AM to cancel my membership as of July 1, 2023. They omitted my request and did not respond to my calls or contacts. They have charged my credit card with the July 2023 and August 2023 monthly fees. Their services lack quality and are out of control with spam messages.

View 0 more photos
C
C
Clint Hoyt
, US
Apr 04, 2023 2:15 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I try signing into their site after they said I joined the site but thye keep saying i have the wrong passworld or wrong e-mail. problem is I never regsitered.

N
N
Niromnika
, GB
Sep 14, 2019 12:06 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I ordered a CD from writerslife.org called "How to stay Organised" (or something like that), and paid the postage. I then later also ordered another CD, "Plotting Your Way to Success" and whilst ordering that, saw the video advertising the sign. I saw that if you clicked to order it, I think for $1.99, you were signing up to a membership and I deliberately steered clear, I DID NOT click the BUY NOW button. When a few weeks later, I received the sign in the post, I thought maybe I inadvertently ordered the sign with the first purchase, even though I never received anything welcoming me to membership, how to log in, what benefits there were or how to cancel my membership, like you would with any other such membership. When I received the sign, I went to their website to log in with my email address to make sure I wasn't a member and if I was, to cancel there and then. To my relief, I was told my email was not recognized by their system, even though they sent me mail everyday, so I thought maybe the sign was sent in error. You could imagine my horror when they deducted £57 from my account for membership. I contacted them and was assured my membership has now been cancelled. As I had paid for a month and there were no suggestions of a refund, I went again to try and log on their website to see what it is they actually offer and what my £57 would buy. I still can't log in, my email address is still not recognized. Looks like I paid £57 for two free CDs (£13 postage) and a cardboard sign; Call me muggins!

P
P
parallax_man
, US
Jun 06, 2019 9:43 pm EDT

I also ordered a book from Writer's Life.org after seeing their ad on Facebook. I paid $27 only to find the book offered ("How to Write Scary Stories") turned out to be 12 pages long with amazingly insightful advice such as how to write twist endings:
"A good scary story can be made or broken by depending upon the twist at the end. The twist is something that your readers will not expect. This could be something like the character the reader thought through the whole story was a hero, was actually the villain."
And that's all they have to say on the whole topic. So, I was incredibly disappointed with the product and I thought it was over with. They'd ripped me off for $27 and I should have seen the red flags such as grammatical errors and ridiculous promotional emails promising to make me a famous, rich writer in no time at all. And I thought that was it. Ten days later, I was charged an additional $67.73 that I never agreed to and frankly can't afford right now. I'm currently disputing the charges with my bank. Writer's Life.org is a scam organization with no product at all and is run by the lowest scum con-artists you can imagine. Do not buy ANYTHING from them.

J
J
jsmythe
, NZ
May 10, 2019 10:09 pm EDT

I (in New Zealand) just received, by snail mail, a laminated cardboard sign - 'WARNING NOVELIST AT WORK BYSTANDERS MAY BE WRITTEN INTO THE STORY' - from WritersLife.org, 3236 Benson Road Site C, Garner NC 27529. Phone [protected] (value $1 according to the customs declaration). There is no way that I ordered this or anything else from the site. I have never joined Writers Life and have no desire to receive free promotional items.

I assume this is directly related to the Millennium Publishing scam that has been taking unauthorized payments from my credit card (duly reported). Who are these people and why are they randomly preying on writers world-wide?

A
A
Amber Courtney
, US
Mar 07, 2019 3:57 pm EST

As far as the "YES or NO" membership, writers life choose YES for me without ever asking the question. After four months of being charged 67.73 on my credit card WITHOUT MY PERMISSION OR AUTHORIZATION, I finally caught on. After reading through tons of complaints on multiple websites, I have come to the conclusion that WritersLife.org is a scam!

T
T
Tate Wesley
, US
Sep 07, 2018 9:11 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Adorable Capuchin monkeys in USA available [protected]
hello, i have two loving and adorable baby Capuchin monkeys available for now for home adoption now to any
one who will love and care for them like their owned children they are both vet checked, also free from present
diseases now and they are also love playing with kids and other animals they will be coming with all their foodstuff
and also their playing stuff, for more info contact us via text us
[protected]

N
N
56Neil56
, US
Nov 29, 2017 7:16 am EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I too have been seeing monthly debits on my account from Writerslife.org. I had been led to believe it was a one time charge, not a recurring arrangement. I want a complete refund of the latest debits as well.

M
M
M. Masterson
, US
Dec 11, 2017 12:38 am EST
Replying to comment of 56Neil56

Good day, I am so sorry that you were charged for a membership that you did not want. However, We do offer our customers a YES or NO trial to our membership when they order certain items from us. You have the option of saying NO if you do not wish to join our membership program. We are totally transparent about it on our web page, and you are not forced into joining. Our membership program is packed with content that a lot of authors and writers such as yourself find to be extremely beneficial to them. We do offer you a free, 14-day trial to read the content, watch the videos, consume the newsletters and listen to the insider interviews. As stated on our website and within the terms, if the trial is not cancelled after the free 14 day trial period, you are then charged for the membership, which you can still cancel at any time and receive a full refund. Again, this is not a membership that you are forced to take. IN fact, to be totally transparent on all of our order pages you will see a very visible “No Thanks” option that will NOT put you into our membership, perhaps you overlooked it. Again, I am so sorry for this mistake and want to make things right with you in whatever way I can, including providing you with a full refund if you wish. I would like to try to make up for you not being satisfied and look forward to speaking with you and I hope you have a great day! Please send an email to Support@WritersLife.org. Thank you

Y
Y
Yvette Messinis
, US
Dec 20, 2016 4:59 am EST

Hi Melinda, I am so sorry that you were charged for a membership that you did not want. We do offer our customers a YES or NO trial to our membership when they order certain items from us. You have the option of saying NO if you do not wish to join our membership program. We are totally transparent about it on our web page, and you are not forced into joining. Our membership program is packed with content that a lot of authors and writers such as yourself find to be extremely beneficial to them. We do offer you a free, 14-day trial to read the content, watch the videos, consume the newsletters and listen to the insider interviews. As stated on our website and within the terms, if the trial is not canceled after the free 14 day trial period, you are then charged for the membership, which you can still cancel at anytime and receive a full refund. Again, this is not a membership that you are forced to take. IN fact, to be totally transparent on all of our order pages you will see a very visible “No Thanks” option that will NOT put you into our membership, perhaps you overlooked it. Again, I am so sorry for this mistake and want to make things right with you in whatever way I can, including providing you with a full refund if you wish. I would like to try to make up for you not being satisfied and look forward to speaking with you and I hope you have a great day! Please reply here or reach out to us using any of the contacts means below; Please note that when leaving a voicemail or sending in an email or support ticket, depending on the day and time, it can take up to 72 hours to receive a reply from us. We are open from 9 am to 9 pm Eastern Time Monday – Friday, Email: Support at WritersLife.org, Toll-Free: [protected], Phone: [protected], By mail:, WritersLife.org, PO Box 644, Garner, North Carolina 27529

L
L
Lissav
, AU
Apr 14, 2018 9:15 am EDT

I actually No, never clicked Yes, still got charged a membership fee a few weeks later. Still waiting for confirmation that they will refund my money but they seem to be avoiding the conversation...

B
B
Bunny64
, US
Sep 07, 2018 8:19 pm EDT

The same thing happened to me, today, and I got it resolved. I don't think the company is a scam but they are very sneaky about membership. Apparently, you have to watch the whole disc before they tell you about membership fee's and they say they have a video on their main page that also states, this.
They really need to make some changes and make this membership info way more transparent!

G
G
Gauky1976
, AU
Oct 22, 2021 4:12 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I just emailed you as I am wanting a full refund of all the money you have taken from my account as I did not subscribe to any membership program