Videoblocks.com Scam Review Complaint
I don’t know why but I’ve never encountered so many online scams in my life! Gone are the days where things were fairly normalized and most online stores and sellers were generally honest. I thought these tactics were a thing of the past in the wild wild west of the web but in comes videoblocks.
They seemed good enough and their offer was reasonable at $149 USD/year for unlimited downloads to their footage. This was confirmed on their main site and screenshots during the offer.
A few days later I received this e-mail from them saying they will randomly bill me for some trial I didn’t agree to in 2 days! Also note there is no information on how to stop the billing.
Note the timestamp is on 2018-03-09
However on the same day they billed me (apparently 2 days means the same day to them)! To be clear I didn’t signup for any trial or authorize any further billing!
I immediately fired off an e-mail telling them what I thought about being billed without my authorization or knowledge.
There was never any mention of this during my signup but I am told it is crammed into their TOS. This is clearly deceptive and a scam in my opinion. Even though I responded to the e-mail right away telling them I didn’t agree to it they are still trying to steal my money!
I’ve included the response from Videoblocks.com below.
Leigh Harrison
Subject: Fwd: Re: Thanks for taking your membership to the next level Areeb!
MAR 13, 2018 | 12:27PM EDT
Rick Jernigan replied:
Areeb,
Thank you for contacting us today! I’ll be happy to help you.
Our records show that on March 3, 2018 , your account was created under the yearly subscription for $149. Your account was eligible for a 7-day free trial of Premium access, after which the account would be billed for the difference in your regular and Premium subscription if the trial was not canceled through your Member Dashboard. This trial offer was accepted and because the trial was not canceled, your account was billed the $49 difference on March 10, 2018 , one day after the trial ended. Premium subscriptions are $198/year and include the following additional features:
– Access to 4K content in the Members-Only Library
– Add up to 5 submembers to your account
– Save files to your Dropbox account
– Batch download from project folders
– Get direct client feedback on project folders
– Priority customer supportBecause this offer must be accepted by the customer and canceled before the trial ends if the customer does not wish to upgrade, we’re generally unable to issue a refund. However, if you do not want to continue on Premium, I can turn off auto-renew so you aren’t billed again for a subscription and downgrade your account back to your regular subscription and reverse the $49 upgrade. If you do want to continue on a Premium subscription, we can simply turn off auto-renew so you can decide whether you wish to continue on Premium next year or reactivate under a non-Premium plan.
We apologize for any misunderstanding regarding your Premium trial and hope to hear from you soon. Please let me know if you have any questions.
The problem with their response is that I didn’t agree to anything they signed me up on their own for some bogus trial I wasn’t notified of and then instantly billed me. There was no mention of a $198/year package anywhere on their signup form or their website at all.
Because of this I don’t trust them and I will never use them again and sure hope they don’t charge my credit card again for some other random services or trials that I didn’t agree to!
There are also numerous complaints identical to mine on this issue: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/videoblockscom/reston-virginia-20191/videoblockscom-footage-firm-deceptive-free-trial-reston-virginia-717040
