This past Sunday was a very, very bad day for us. I can’t really go into details publicly but basically it involves a relative (we’ll call her “R”) and the police. After all the drama that happened over the course of the day, we decided to look up her records to see if she had any warrants. Looking them up in our county is super easy and I actually have the website memorized, but of course we couldn’t find anything for the actual county we were looking for.
So of course we kept searching and came across PeopleSmart.com where they were offering a free 7-day trial when you sign up. Normally I don’t mess with this kind of stuff, but since it was free and we were really wanting to find the information we needed I thought, “What the heck. Let’s check it out and cancel the trial after we look her up.”
The signup process was quick and I made absolutely sure to read all the fine print to ensure we weren’t falling into a trap or scam. We were never taken to a cart to check out. There was no order confirmation, although I did have to enter my credit card information. On the SAME page where you give that info, there is a blurb in small print that says your credit card will not be charged during the 7 days.
After we were signed up and logged in, we found R on the website but of course to get those results, they wanted to charge us 99 cents. By this point we were both irritated, tired, and ready to say screw it. I searched through my account settings and removed my credit card information that they had on file. I also canceled the trial and went on with the rest of my day.
On Tuesday morning, I checked my bank account and there is a hold on $39.95 for, you guessed it, PeopleSmart.com. I tried not to get angry or upset and just tell myself that it was just a hold and they would probably take it back off once they realized I canceled my trial. WRONG. The next day I check and see that, sure enough, the $39.95 had gone through and been taken from my account. At that point I was SO angry that I rushed to their website to find a number to contact them. Of course there is no phone number on the “contact us” page, so I sent them a message using the provided form:
You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I want my money back. I signed up for a FREE SEVEN DAY TRIAL and was charged a separate fee of $39.95, when at no point was this confirmed during the singup process. I wouldn’t have wasted my time with this terrible service if I knew it was a SCAM.
PLEASE REFUND MY MONEY.
Their response:
Thank you for contacting PeopleSmart.com about your recent purchase.
Your purchase included a Background Report which includes a single report on the individual you searched for $39.95. You also signed up for a 7-day free trial membership which you canceled on 7/17/2011. You were not billed for the membership fee.
Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.
I replied and asked them to terminate my entire account, and of course they said they removed my credit card. Well, that’s interesting considering I had already removed it myself… ? I was so frustrated I let Vernon know what was going on and scoured their website for an phone number to call. The first person he talked to hung up on him for “threatening his company.” He did not threaten his company, he stated that he would file a claim with the Better Business Bureau. That was not a threat, that’s exactly what we were going to do. He continued to call back until someone agreed to give us our money back. Meanwhile, I decided to google reviews of the company. Lo and behold, the same thing was happening to everyone else. It doesn’t surprise me that the thought of Vernon contacting the BBB had them all bent out of shape. Eventually Vernon was promised a refund, but I saved all the links and reviews and anything I would need to escalate this with my bank as well as send copies to the BBB.
I feel so dumb to have fallen for this, I will never give my credit card information to any site for anything free ever again! We read all the fine print, were on top of canceling the trial and yet we still got totally screwed. I will update on the status of my refund if there ever is one. We won’t hesitate to call back and raise more hell, and I am DEFINITELY not going to sit here and let someone take my money without doing my best to get it back and hopefully save someone else from this madness.
Hell, even if they do refund my money I think I will send my complaint anyway. 
Edit: They refunded my money today! Woohoo!
