Whenever one of my clients has a good or bad experience with a website marketing company, I make sure to post these experience here in my blog. A client notified me of problems with a company I had never heard of before, “zipweb.com”.

zipweb.com is a internet search marketing company like Dex and YellowPages. They have a directory that they’ll list your business in for a price. They make cold calls to small business owners with websites and make a pitch that sounds too good to be true. Here’s what my client says:

“They offered a one-month free trial of their ad service, promising to list me on Google, Yahoo, etc. (85 places total) and I very explicitly said “Do I need to cancel this or will it stop on its own?” They said it would stop on its own and I would get several notices by email first.

My service apparently got billed on November 30th for the month to come, and I called on Dec 1 to cancel, just in case. I hadn’t heard about the bill yet and was surprised on the phone.

Then I told them to cancel and reverse the charge, which, after some hemming and hawing, they did do. Or at least, they said they did.

I gave no credit card info, but they billed me via the phone company!!“

I found this article on ComplaintsBoard.com about another person who had their phone bill charge without their consent. I also found an article called ZipWeb Beware. And yet another one here. And still another one. The stories are all virtually identical. After being told something was a free trial that would NOT self-renew, customers felt safe in saying yes, because they hadn’t given zipweb their credit card numbers. But apparently zipweb is able to bill people via their phone numbers - without their knowledge or consent.

Be careful out there small business website owners. Even free trials aren’t actually free…and while my client got the following from zipweb, we’ll see whether she actually gets her money back:

To Whom It May Concern:
Per our conversation as of 12/01/09, we will no longer provide services for your business nor charge your phone statement for services. Your total satisfaction with our company and the cancellation process is of utmost importance to me. Your refund of $49.95 will appear on your phone statement within 1-2 billing cycles. If your credit does not appear within that time frame please contact us. Please call me directly if you have any questions or concerns about our services, or your cancellation.

Please retain this notice for your records.

In the event that your invoice was in process with your phone company at the time of this cancellation and you receive a statement past this date of cancellation, please contact us at (866) 606-3249 and we will issue a credit for that charge.

If you have any questions concerning our service, this letter or the actions taken on your behalf, please call me. We can be reached by phone during normal business hours Monday-Friday from 6am–8pm PST at (866) 606-3249.

So if you have gotten unauthorized charges from zipweb.com, fight them and get a refund. This client spent a good deal of time on the phone and had to really stand her ground and insist over and over again that they had made unauthorized charges, but eventually she won. Don’t give up!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 4:48 am and is filed under the Spam & Scam Watch category. Read other Aldebaran Website Design Blog articles by returning to main blog page. Need a blog added to your website? Click here to read about blog installation services or click here to contact Aldebaran Web Design. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.