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...

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

I have one of the free memberships, never used an Amazon code, but I'll wait a couple of months to see how things go. Checking my emails it seems I registered in September, so I have a lot of time to see how things change.

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

I wish I could provide an animated gif detailing just how.

Edit....Thanks to wmansir, I now can. rotfl

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/6982/vagpunchc.gif

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

Joystiq posted a response from the president of the ECA.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/02/ec...ation-hassles/

Key points of hilarity:
- claiming that the free membership/amazon discount combination only resulted in a 'small bump' to their membership.

- pretending to be ignorant of the fact that a free membership code would be widely distributed on message boards. If the nature of the gaming community is that foreign to the ECA, it's a wonder they can claim to represent it.

- saying that they have to make it difficult to cancel a membership in order to stop people who join, quit and rejoin to abuse the system. Given that almost none of the 'benefits' are 1-use-only, anyone stupid enough to quit and then pay $20 to rejoin multiple times would be handing free money over to the ECA. Yes, I'm sure they worry about that a lot.

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

:lol:

This is going to be fun to watch as it unfolds and completely bites them in the ass. Seriously, how stupid can they be? Not only is this probably violating several laws, it will end all goodwill toward them from any current or potential members. Their forums are quite entertaining today.

I signed up back in September because, hey, it was free. Never even bothered to use any codes before they pulled them. I went through the online cancellation process which has now apparently been invalidated. There's no way I'm going to waste time typing, printing, and mailing a letter since this situation will be resolved way before my renewal date comes up.

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

I asked my CC company if it's legal to continue to charge you if your credit card information is expired and if a merchant is allowed by either manually or automatically/systematically figuring out your new expiration date is in order to keep charging you. They replied back that they would forward it to the "appropriate department" and get back to me within a business day.

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

To be fair to ECA, the cancellation policy was evidently clearly detailed in the Terms of Service that we all agreed to when we signed up.

I'm glad I used a one-time-use CC number.

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

I imagine there'll eventually be a button you have to push if you don't want your account deactivated automatically :lol:

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

They've since changed them and unless you go back to the site, you have no idea it has changed nor that the option you selected not to be charged any further was not working nor valid and that you will continue to be charged unless you mail them a letter which doesn't necessarily mean they'll follow through on.

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

Reportedly, they are threatening to send any re-sub transactions that fail to a collections agency.

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

In addition, they had a button to cancel the auto renew! Sure they disabled it later, but I have seen no notification from them in email or whatever to let us know that that option did not work. So how many canceled on the website and never went back?

Not to mention that the president's reply came across, to me at least, as incredibly smug, admitting no wrongdoing and placing the blame entirely on the membership.

Who the heck is signing up, canceling, and signing up again? Can someone point me to even one of their perks that is worth going through the trouble of signing up multiple times?

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

It's absurd. If he were a legit businessman, there would be no problem with allowing people to cancel their memberships (which was the actual option on the website) or opt out of auto-renewal. If I can do that with Sports Illustrated subscriptions (they even sent a letter to remind me), why can't I with the ECA? Are they that much busier? This is a very crooked operation and I hope they get fined up the wazoo for these business practices. I want to send a letter to cancel, but am worried it'll get lost, either accidentally or not, among the flood of letters they're about to receive (if they even agree to sign for them, which I kinda doubt).

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

Basically the same thing from the joystiq article

ECA President Blames Exploiters For Cancellation Concerns

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

My membership won't renew until July of next year (I joined strictly for a discount on the Beatles RB set). I am sure this operation will be completely out of business by then the way it is going. :lol:

If not, I will simply dispute the charge on my credit card. I remembered there being a button for saying no for automatic renewals and I either checked or unchecked it, whatever it was.

Are they seriously going to going after hundreds, if not thousands, of members over $15 to $20 bucks each? I know once you add it up that that is a lot of money but it seems you would pay more to the collection agencies to get that far.

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

Oh yeah, I trust this guy :rolleyes:

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/image.../12/halpin.jpg

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

That's definitely a face that was made for punchin'. :lol:

It almost seems like they know they are wrong on this one, but they've got their story and they're stubbornly sticking to it despite all the arguments that they should probably let you turn off auto-renew via the website. It's 2009 - we shouldn't need to send snail mail to accomplish such a simple task.

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

What a douche bag.

So this crook is claiming that he was bamboozled by members who were repeatedly rejoining and now only those people are the ones who are complaining and the banks and the BBB are going to come down on them and eat their first born? This guy's got some kinda balls. Next thing you know Madoff is going to send the FBI against all of his investors.

http://kotaku.com/5417416/eca-presid...ation-concerns

Halpin goes on to suggest that the majority of complaints to the Better Business Bureau and personal financial institutions were exploiters, angered at the measures taken to thwart them, ominously pointing out how seriously banks take fraudulent fraud reports.

"Needless to say, (the letter requirement) incensed the exploiters who then contacted the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and their personal banks to report that we attained their membership under fraudulent conditions, in effect committing fraud themselves. Upon investigating the opened investigations, the respective banks and BBB all found ECA to be soundly reputable. We understand that several of the banks have since opened fraud investigations into their customers and that they take such matters very seriously."

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

I almost signed up but it was back when it was still not free and I stopped when it asked for the CC # for some reason. I have an account at their site but I have nothing listed under Orders. If I had gone through with it, I think I'd have something there.

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

I'm 99% sure I did the same thing, but I'm not sure. There's nothing listed under my orders and I do have an account with emaill address and password, but I have no idea how to find out if they have my CC info or not.

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

from CAG

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

Shady organization is shady.

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

This all sounds like what you go through with Girls Gone Wild, except with less nudity.

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

Just got today's ECA newsletter. The new Zero Punctuation is in there, but nothing about a major consumer advocacy group turning on the very consumers they claim to protect. Bizarre.

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

I've read this entire thread while nude, if it makes you feel any better.

I also called and left a message with their cancellation department, so we'll see what happens with that.

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

You know it always does make me feel better!

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

That was for Corvin, but glad I could help!

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

glad i never signed up for this. shady shit right here.

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

Will this actually work? How does one sell a membership? Do you put it up on craigslist or something? Seems like that would be easier than writing a letter or contacting banks/ credit card companies.

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

If that's true, then the entire ECA is nothing but a scam. However, I'm willing to bet the huge backlash over this will result in a change in the next few weeks.

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

^ this

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

What a pretentious ass Hal is in his response to Joystiq.. :headshake: