my dissatisfaction with active.com continues

(the letter I received from active.com)

Earlier post here. Now:

From: Jeremy Freese [mailto:jfreese@ssc.wisc.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 11:05 AM
To: 'activeadvantage@active.com'
Cc: '[username]@madisonfestivals.com'
Subject: membership cancellation

On June 23, I received an e-mail informing me that I was being charged $49.95 for a year membership in Active Advantage, on the claim that I had agreed to this charge if I did not cancel a trial membership in ActiveAdvantage that I supposedly signed up for when I signed up for the Madison Marathon. I have no recollection of having agreed to this charge, find it difficult to believe I would have signed up for it, and have not made any use of your services. On June 23, I responded to your customer website asking to cancel my membership immediately and asking for an immediate refund.

Instead, this weekend, I received a letter from your company dated June 27 (attached) whose first sentence is "Welcome Back to ActiveAdvantage!", suggesting that somehow my communication with your company has indicated a desire to continue with ActiveAdvantage rather than cancel. This is not the case. I would like to have my entire $49.95 refunded. As indicated, I have not used any of the ActiveAdvantage services, nor do I intend to.

I sought recourse to this today by calling the customer service number provided in the letter. After going through several touch-tone menus, I received a recorded message telling me that your system is down.

I am cc'ing an official from the Madison Marathon on this message. I believe the marathon would well serve its participants by reconsidering its relationship with Active.com. If this matter is not quickly resolved, I will be filing a consumer complaint with the state of Wisconsin against both Active.com and Madison Festivals.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Freese

OK, that resulted in a quicker response than I was expecting:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: activeadvantage@active.com
Date: Jul 10, 2007 11:38 AM
Subject: Trial membership canceled
To: [me]

We are sorry to lose you as an ActiveAdvantage member!

Thank you for using activeadvantage.

Sincerely,

Your ActiveAdvantage Team

I'm a little concerned about the 'Trial membership' in the subject line, as the whole reason I was charged is I was moved into regular membership because the 'Trial' I have no recollection of signing up for expired. I'll have to see if the charge is actually refunded on my card.