Boyung.com

So, while back in college, my wife signed up for the BMG music service.  You know, the one where you get 12 CDs for a dollar, or something like that, and then you have to buy a certain number of overpriced CDs before you can cancel.  Well, she cancelled this account several years ago.  In fact, they still have her listed under her maiden name (no idea how they got her updated address).  We haven't received a mailing or e-mail from them in a very long time, and all of the sudden, out of the blue, she received a CD in the mail from them.  We go onto the website and find out that her account wasn't cancelled after all, and they just decided to send her a featured selection again.  We went to their customer service page (incredibly difficult to find, of course) and when I could find the link to contact them, I sent them a fairly polite message stating that 1) I want this account cancelled and 2) I want a prepaid return label sent out to return the CD, since it was not ordered.  They sent an e-mail stating that they cancelled the account, but they sent a plain mailing label, as if we couldn't find the address to send it back.  The mailing label wasn't the point, the fact that I will not pay to send it back is the point.

Their letter states that they never received notification of her declining the featured selection, which is why we must pay to return it.  However, like I said, she never received anything notifying her that she needed to respond to a featured selection, and hadn't received anything like that in several years.  Their e-mail stated that things like this could get blocked by spam filters.  Slight problem there - our mail server is sitting in my basement right now, and I can check e-mail records at any time.  It also hasn't had any real spam filter on it for that long (just about 2 months or so), so it's pretty difficult for a spam filter to have been blocking their e-mails for years.  I've since replied to them stating that I will not be returning that CD until they send me a paid return label, and they will not be seeing any money from us.  If I see one bill or collection notice from them, the next contact they will be receiving from us will be through my lawyer.  Companies like this survive solely because they pull this sort of thing and people just let it go on, not wanting to deal with the hassle.  I have never been one to back down from a fight, and this will not be one of those times.  I don't care that it would cost me two dollars to send it back to them.  It will cost them a lot more than that if they try and fight me on it.  They cannot prove that they sent her any snail mail (since they pretty much acknowledged that they didn't send any), and I can prove that they didn't send any e-mails either, so they don't really have a leg to stand on.

While on this topic, I really hate how short of a timespan these companies give you to respond to their massively overpriced featured selections.  I was in a book club for a while that I really enjoyed.  They actually had some good deals and some nice, unique club specials.  However, I would continually receive their mailing with less than two days to respond to their featured selection.  I often don't get to mail for a day or two, and had to send back books six months in a row.  Twice, I never even received the mailing mentioning the featured selection that was sent to me.  I refused to pay to have these returned, and they sent me paid return labels, but I just got so sick of it, that I cancelled their service.  Once I told them I wanted to cancel, they responded, saying that they were keeping my account open, but I would no longer need to respond to the featured selection.  They would only ship it to me if I specifically ordered it.  I didn't like that idea too much, because I don't trust these places, so I made sure that they cancelled it completely.  I have a feeling that this situation may have been what happened to my wife with BMG.  They never actually cancelled the account, just made it so she wouldn't have to respond, and then somehow their computer system got screwed up and sent her something again.

So basically, just be wary of any of these services, keep records of everything, and make sure that if you cancel, you have proof that they have actually cancelled the account, so you don't get stuck in a situation like we currently have.