Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Since they cannot "require" you to visit their website to know that the "feature" to cancel automatically was not working functional, nor can you know for sure that their T&C were not messed with, and I can't imagine the revising of credit card expiration dates to be legal, and I doubt they will email everyone, I imagine if nobody mails the letter, most will just dispute the charge.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Yes you had to provide your CC info, even if you signed up for the free account. You then put the coupon code which made it free, but then most went to the page to make it so they wouldn't charge you again, which "shouldn't have been there"

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Shit. Thanks for the info though.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

They really pulled off quite the little scheme.

First they get Amazon to agree to provide discounts to members. They probably explained how they're a struggling non-profit and whatnot and don't really expect that many people to take advantage, since you have to pay $20 to join. That goes live and they toss in a $15 student membership. Quite a few people join, enough that the Amazon codes run out fairly regularly.

Next, once they've collected as much as they can from people willing to pay and new enrollment has leveled off to a pre-promotion rate, they throw out a code to join for free. They know it'll probably kill the Amazon deal, but it will quickly rack up a shitload of new members and each of them has to enter their credit card for auto-renewal. A non-functioning 'opt out' button is put up to give people the illusion of being able to avoid that option.

Even with all the negative press the new opt out policy is getting, there are probably quite a few people who signed up and won't hear a thing about it. A lot of people will end up getting charged the $20 (or an increased fee) next year. Some will notice and some won't. Of those that do, some will successfully cancel and others will get upset and then forget until they're charged again the following year.

I don't doubt all of this was planned from the get-go and that the only thing surprising them is the amount of game industry press picking up the story. Hopefully someone will hit them up with a class action. Hell, hopefully they violated whatever agreement they had with Amazon and get sued there too. Just shady as hell.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Did you mean to respond this way to someone other than GatorDeb? You're so transparent.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Awesome! Extortion against Doritos yesterday and against the ECA today!

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Does anyone know for sure if they (or any company) is allowed to charge you if your information has expired?

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Thinking about implementing a similar scheme here? ;)

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

I believe with subscription services they are allowed to keep charging you if your CC has expired...

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

So, even if we did pay for a membership, we'll still be unable to cancel without writing them? Time to dispute charges with my CC company when the renewal comes up.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

I read this whole thread, and I still don't understand what this is all about or what an "ECA" is or what it does or how members got screwed over or what.... am I in the right forum?

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

My member info says my account is set to expire in July. Doesn't mention anything about auto-renewing. Hmm...

Edit: I just sent them an email asking them to clarify the auto-renewal situation. I will post their response here.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Very funny, but no.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

At some point, they changed the terms for how you can cancel. Web Archive (http://www.archive.org) unfortunately doesn't have anything newer than late 2008, but as of then you could cancel over the phone. In fact, mailing in a cancellation wasn't even an option.

http://web.archive.org/web/200808221...eeca.com/terms

I'm guessing that this change was very recent...

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Their intent is to charge you, regardless of the expired CC. It can't be legal to randomly go through expiration dates until they find one that works. If they're not verifying zip codes with the number, how are they to know you still have that card and you didn't change numbers and some little old lady in Kentucky now has that number? I wonder if you go in and change your account info (if they are verifying zip codes) and make it so it won't match.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

ECA = Entertainment Consumers Association www.theeca.com

They're some kind of advocacy group, dunno what they really do, you can read more about it on their website if you're really curious.

Why most of us know about them is that one of their benefits to members was 10% off codes for all video game purchases at Amazon.

Normally it's $20 to join the ECA, and one of the main things they advertised to get people to join was that if you buy even 4 video games a year from Amazon, you come out ahead.

Then a few months ago, a code came out that allowed you to join the ECA for free, but you still had to provide credit card information, and you would automatically be charged the renewal fee in a year. There was a page on your account infomation on their website which appeared to allow you to opt out of the auto renewal. The ECA is now claming that that page doesn't work, was never intended to work, and they didn't know it was there, and the only way to cancel your membership is by snail mail, and they can't even provide any verifcation that they recieved your cancellation, and if your credit card is expired, they will update the expiration date themselves and charge you again.

In addition to this, shortly after the free membership was opened up, the Amazon benefit was cancelled, leaving probably a majority of their members with no reason to remain members.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Here's a tidbit for you: as long as the month is right and the card hasn't expired, most banks with authorize a charge for a credit card even if the retailer doesn't have the right expiration year. So, for example, if your card expires in July 2014 and you fill out a form on a website giving the expiration as July 2010, the transaction will go through.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

You're right, remove the lmgtfy portion.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Doh.. I just tried that.. my CC expires on 05/10 and I just made a purchase and typed in my card # and put an exp date of 05/14 and it worked..

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

I never got in on the free membership deal, but I did pay for one a couple months ago. The Amazon discount disappeared before I got a chance to use it, but I wrote it off as a donation to a non-profit that works on behalf of gamers' interests (the other "benefits" are pretty laughable). But now with this billing fiasco coming to light, it feels like I got scammed here and I'm actually upset that I gave them $20. Anyway, I know they don't give refunds under any circumstances, but I definitely used the "cancel auto-renew" button that "wasn't supposed to be there," so if my card gets charged next year I'll definitely be disputing the charge.

Side note: The moderation on their forums is insane. They lock and/or delete threads that post any kind of dissent or complain about their shady-ass business practices. And the logical disconnect in "our organization is too small to support our membership base, so please snail mail cancellation requests" is simply astounding and totally transparent.

Anyway, looks like the best way to get your membership cancelled is to sell off your membership "benefits." So, for the low, low price of $0.00, here's a few:

Astrogaming: 348ECAFF - 10% off
GameHQ: GHQeca1 - 10% off preplayed games
ThinkGeek: ECA09 - $5 orders over $25, $10 off orders over $50
Hyatt Hotels: B200955 - 5-10% off

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

Thanks Obi-Wan Jabroni (my new favorite screen-name), that kinda clears things up, but that organization and "what they do" seems rather shady - enough so, that I don't think I'd ever give them my CC#. Someone there needs a good, swift punch in the vagina.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

vulgar.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

They didn't seem shady in the beginning, and most importantly, the Amazon 10% off code was legit. I still contend that Amazon would have happily given members future codes if the ECA hadn't stupidly given out a way to get a membership for free, opening the floodgates. Now it wasn't just a subset of people who paid membership dues, it was anyone who had a credit card that could get amazon game coupons.

Even with that being said, the autorenew stuff was on the table when we all signed up (though they did change the TOS). I'm most ticked off about them having an option to cancel online, then disavowing all knowledge of it, and making it extremely difficult to cancel membership "to weed out the lazy." Yeah, the lazy who they're counting on to provide dues for years to come. That's shady.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

I signed up after reading the actual article in GI.
I never got to use or even get a discount coupon.
I did give my credit card.
I did cancel auto-renew (which I despise on principle).
I never got anything out of it other than annoying emails and some headshakes at the quality of their forums/moderation.
I will complain, and I am pissed at their anti-consumer at best, fraudulent at worst business practices. "We don't allow online cancellation so people don't cancel/rejoin" is about the stupidest excuse I've ever heard.
Sounds like they've taken a lesson from AOL.

Anyone tried that 203 number on the previous page?

I'm going to try opting out of their email list, and report them for spamming if I get another one.

Re: ECA - BASTARDS CHANGED POLICY An Important warning to ALL MEMBERS!
 

It is their main number. You can keep adding 1 to the number to reach various employees.

I used the automated system to call accounting, since that is who we're supposed to address the snail mail to, but they transferred me to some guy's voice mail. I'm guessing that the accounting department doesn't know that they're about to receive a flood of snail mail cancellation requests...