Menu
For Business Write a review File a complaint
Roomster

Roomster review: scam!!! beware 96

I
Author of the review
6:07 am EDT
Review updated:
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

I noticed that the complaints on this site re: roomster.com are old. But everything that is said about it is true. This site is a scam. I signed up for a 3 day trial for $5 but was charged $5 and $29s for the monthly renewal which i never ordered. It is unethical to charge someone's credit card for a subscription they never asked for. Plus, all the apartments i inquired seem sketchy: on two occasions, i was exchanging emails with the "roomsters" who had a share. When i responded, expressed my interest and asked for a time to meet i received no answer back. Their introduction emails all sound the same and all had expressed interest in renting out the apartment to me. Are the folks at roomster.com sending these emails with bogus shares? So far, it seems to be the case. Shame on you.

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

96 comments
Add a comment
K
K
Kenneth S. Conley
Chicoutimi, CA
Oct 05, 2014 12:23 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Many people are always hesitated to room renting.But I can say them that they should use Roomster without any hesitation. Because its works are very nice. And I always use this site.I found the site to be easy to use and straight forward. If you need Rooms you can go without any hesitation. I recommend this all time.

R
R
Robert K. Watkins
Elizabeth, US
Oct 05, 2014 5:00 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I am 30 years old and I live with a man who is 60 and he is not friendly. So I required a new room which I need a man who is friendly. I found a suitable room only for $450.00/month in the site which name was Roomster.com. This site is really awesome and helpful site. Roomster’s service is best.

G
G
Gloria T. Shields
Pompano Beach, US
Oct 05, 2014 6:45 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I am an actor. In my house, I wanted renting one room and went many sites but I didn’t. At last I take help from Roomster.com and within couple of weeks I was able renting my room.What a fantastic website this is! Thanks Roomster. Its service qualities is best

K
K
Kelly C. Miller
New York, US
Oct 06, 2014 4:48 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I used to live with my family. For educational purpose I shifted to Los Angeles. There I was in dire need of a room. One of my classmate gave me the address of Roomster website. In that website I got a suitable room for me.

Z
Z
Zulman.warren
New Jersey, US
Oct 07, 2014 2:44 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I found a roommate in 6 day in New Jersey which is pretty awesome. I did pay $14.95 and canceled no problem. I will use Roomster.com again and will recommend Roomster to my friends. Wish the service worked better on future.

J
J
Jennifer14
New York, US
Oct 09, 2014 4:36 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

My Roomster experience was rather pleasant. I was able to find a great share for my two bedroom with a nice girl similar in age to me and we get along smashingly!

R
R
Rudolph T. Bagby
New York, US
Oct 09, 2014 7:01 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Really happy with my experience with Roomster. After trying to use Craigslist to rent out an extra room with no success I created a Roomster listing and had much better results, found someone down to earth and responsible to rent to and have since recommended to family and friends looking for roommate matching.

G
G
Gladys B. Speidel
New York, US
Oct 09, 2014 8:09 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Had a friend coming from out of town to visit, used Roomster to set them up in a room while they were here (my place is wayyyy too small) Website was easy to use and affordable, overall positive experience.

J
J
Jared S. Cain
Haleyville, US
Oct 11, 2014 4:46 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Suddenly my roommates left my room.So emergency I required a roommate.For this I went to search Roomster.com.I found my roommate and I totally wonder that here are many rooms and roommates. So no doubt that Roomster is best.

H
H
Harold M. King
Fresno, US
Oct 12, 2014 1:53 pm EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I know about Roomster.com. Because 3 months ago I required a furnished room then I found roomster.com for searched. I saw many rooms and renting one as I liked. And I still lived this room. So I can say that Roomster is best. I recommend this all time.

E
E
Elizabeth551
New York, US
Oct 18, 2014 4:42 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

If anyone you know is looking to rent a room tell them about Roomster, their rates are fairly reasonable compared to what a brokers fee might cost and they have a ton of great listings in so many areas. Very happy with the service.

J
J
Jilh41
New York, US
Oct 18, 2014 4:49 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Roomster was extremely helpful when my roommates and I needed to find a person to live in our third bedroom, we created a listing and were able to screen applicants fairly easily and happy to say we ended up with a great roommate!

V
V
Van R. Hall
New York, US
Oct 24, 2014 11:55 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I found a really affordable room to rent in Chicago thru Roomster, it was almost too easy! Just made a an account through my Twitter, signed up for a 3-day subscription, and I found something that worked for what I was looking for.

L
L
Linda A. Dean
New York, US
Nov 04, 2014 11:22 am EST
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Roomster there has lots of listing of rooms and the filters really helped me narrow down the options to find a room that worked for me.

D
D
DCOBB
Atlanta, US
Feb 17, 2015 9:53 am EST

The one really negative fact that I do know is that I totally canceled my 3 day subscription in the right amount of time and YES, they went ahead and charged me 29.95 anyway.. But, with that being said, I've found three roommates from the site on three different occasions. I do believe they send fake responses, I do believe they have fake profiles but I have been successful using the site... Unfortunately none of them worked out.. In my opinion, Roomster is just as much of a gamble as CL but, Craigslist won't charge you.

J
J
Jonny Applehat
Boulder, US
Jun 15, 2015 6:27 pm EDT

This website is such a scam. They have the same canned responses saying that they are looking for "clean and responsible person".

They are spamming Craigslist with FAKE postings and i have contacted 5 different postings (not knowing they were all from roomster.com or subletavaiable.com or other shady websites) and not a single one of them has responded saying anything other that "please sign up with your credit card" for any information. NO ONE gets back to me about the places and I don't think they exist at all as there is no unique or identifying information.

This is extremely dishonest to be clogging up real room search sites with their fake postings to just try to make subscriptions.

in short, roomster.com and subletavaiable.com ARE A SCAM WEBSITE!

J
J
Jonny Applehat
Boulder, US
Jun 15, 2015 6:29 pm EDT

So much obvious astrofurfing in this board.

Roomster is a fraud people. STAY AWAY

P
P
Patrick D.
Denver, US
Jul 03, 2015 8:41 am EDT

I am looking to rent a room in Denver and I've responded to several of the ads on craigslist that have phone numbers. The texts I've received back ask me to sign up for Roomster.com. It's very sad that Roomster is doing this. I hope no one on roomster is actually trying to rent a room because I will not go back to this site. Now I'm hesitant to even use craigslist because it seems to be wasting my time.

C
C
Craig Smith
US
Dec 02, 2015 3:53 pm EST

Ya gotta use PayPal when you try upgrades with stuff like this.
Open a PayPal account. They KNEW it was a scam, and my payment never even went thru. Lol!
Saved me $6 bucks!
Never ever use your regular credit card for anything that even close to sketchy on line.
If they don't use "legit" PayPal, then it's likely a scam site. :-/
These a-holes TRIED to link to PayPal, and when I finally clicked, the transaction was vaporized.
PayPal MUST do this automatically.
Good on them. :-)

R
R
Ryan Shaughnessy
US
Dec 28, 2015 7:41 pm EST

I have clicked through to this site many times. I have a rental property in MN and most times that I publish a new Craigslist listing I will receive a text message from an interested party with a link. I click the link that goes to roomster. It is very obvious spam bc even though I am already logged into Roomster it brings me to the search page. I.e. the name given in the text message and nice little sentence is just a ROBOT trying to get me onto Roomster.com

R
R
ronix
US
Dec 30, 2015 11:49 pm EST

My experience with roomster.com was exactly the same and why I am here.

C
C
ccc1234
US
Feb 06, 2016 10:33 pm EST

THIS SITE IS A FREAKING SCAM! SITES like THIS are grimy! You steal peoples money! LOW LIFE ###

D
D
Disappointedpotentialtenant
Ottawa, CA
Mar 25, 2016 7:50 am EDT

I don't like this site. I am looking to be a tenant with a friend for a two bedroom, and someone sent me a text message appearing to look legitimate and wanting a true roommate. She gave me a link to her roomster profile. It looks like it was only click bait to get me to join as her profile could not even be found when I signed up. Her next text sounded like SPAM! I deleted my account less than two days later and after reading a lot of the complaints here, I am glad I did ! Back to KIJIJI and Facebook!

J
J
Juan Calavera
US
Apr 21, 2016 8:30 pm EDT

At the end of the Trial period they will charge you the Full monthly Fee (30$).
I noticed on my PayPal summary, then I cancel the recurrent payment. Look for yourselves:

Date (ET) Package Type Amount Pmt type Status
4/20/2016 4:16:39 PM 3 day trial Cancellation $29.95 Success
4/20/2016 4:04:18 PM 3 day trial Initial buy $5.95 PayPal Approved

As you can see.. the "3 Day Trial" includes a Monthly Fee. You decide if you want to 'Try' the site.

There is no place on their site to manage a recurring charge under the Roomster account, so it is a SCAM.

People there is real although, I was able to contact real people on facebook, but.. What's the real purpose? You need to stalk people to talk them over.

I can not trust this site now and the use of my personal information.

They flood facebook-roomates groups with Roomster spam.

-UPDATE-
After writing this review, Roomster representative decided to give me the TRIAL Refund and asked to remove this review. Also blocking me from using the site, even as a Free user. What a way to go Roomster!

E
E
ellevii
US
May 22, 2016 10:17 am EDT

I had the same experience with this website. I signed up for the 3 day trial, and they ended up charging me $29.95 for 2 months. Roomster is a scam. I am currently speaking to the help desk, who isn't responding, to get a refund. If I do not get a refund, I will contact further authorities. THEY ARE A SCAM. DO NOT USE ROOMSTER

E
E
epppoo
US
May 27, 2016 1:05 pm EDT

Omg! Like I was shocked to see them charge me a recurring payment of 29.95 dollars. This is a SCAM! I did not see where it said when signing up for the 3 day trial that a recurring payment of 29.95 was included. Why would i sign up for a recurring payment when i only need to find a roommate once! Does that even make sense to anyone. I am fighting back to get a refund!

C
C
Cj C
US
Jul 17, 2016 2:41 pm EDT

As soon as I posted need for a roomie on craigslist, I immediately got a few texts (by next day I have 8 diff #'s that have texted me), I think they send a text (all almost exactly same message) and then leave a link, no links work. I think they send you a bunch so that you will think mass people are interested, so that you will pay. I checked out one phone number was some "make up your own number/like textnow etc) They must get money for each person they get to sign up or pay. Some message back "did you sign up?" others don't message back at all.

K
K
kmartens1006
Moville, US
Jul 28, 2016 4:28 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

Similar to the other complaints, Roomster tacked on recurring charges after my initial subscription. I signed up for three days, however, was billed for a month automatically. I contacted the company and was referred to their terms of service. I can't dispute the text was in the fine print, but I can't believe a company would so blatantly take advantage of their customers. I do a lot of business online and NEVER have I seen an organization use a tactic like this. Rest assure I will not be doing business with Roomster again.

F
F
Federal TC
US
Jul 29, 2016 12:16 am EDT

The only way to take these felons down is for all complainants to go to the FTC.

H
H
Hbell1111
US
Aug 20, 2016 3:47 pm EDT

Force you to sign in with Facebook (another scam) and no way to contact them unless you sign up. Please put these people out of business. Total thieves.

O
O
Omunee
US
Aug 23, 2016 2:34 am EDT

Like everyone else on this list, they auto-renewed my subscription and then quoted their terms of use when I argued about it. I would NEVER RECOMMEND this website to another person. It's utter bull that they continue to use this disgusting business practice and any legit business does not do this sort of shady auto-renewal. Stay away, it is NOT worth it.

K
K
Khawar Rizvi
Washington DC, US
Aug 23, 2016 2:35 am EDT
Verified customer This complaint was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I registered my self for 5 days membership for some 5 or so dollars which I never extended. The roomster Corpe, now charging me for a monthly membership fee over 29.95. Which utter breach of agreement without sending me any notice about membership extension.

S
S
SAbbibe
US
Aug 23, 2016 2:35 am EDT

I didn't know that after your initial subscription it gets renewed for 30 more days at $29.95. Other than that, I like their "Megaphone" feature which allows you to blast out a message to a lot of people that are looking for roommates in the same area you are looking to rent. We'll see if I have any luck finding a roommate on this site...

C
C
CAplune
US
Aug 23, 2016 2:35 am EDT

I read the small print, and I understood when I signed up that I must cancel prior to the end of my 14 day subscription. Just to be on the safe side, I've calendared terminating my subscription 1 day earlier. I have no issue with the recurring charges. THAT SAID, I am furious that somehow or another, I supposedly sent HUNDREDS of people an email that says I've got a room to fill and to contact me ASAP. I suspect that they do it just so that other people will pay to log in and read the message, but I'm furious because (1) I didn't send the emails that are supposedly from "me, " and (2) the vast majority of people that were sent the emails do not meet my criteria. I've emailed to complain and am awaiting a response, but bottom line either way--not impressed. Hate the site. No user-friendly. Do not recommend.

T
T
Terrible experience with Roomster
US
Sep 06, 2016 10:57 am EDT

Hey guys,

not only it charges you 29.95 next month, they charged me a double for every single month by mistake but refuse to return it even though I had only one subscription. They literally steal money. I told customer care and their only reply is read your recepite which shows only one payment. However, my bank has two payments taken away for every single month. SO imagine - 60 USD per month for this crap service with 0 flatmates. TERRIBLE

C
C
cerulean
US
Nov 06, 2016 10:32 pm EST

Total scam of a site and they post fake listings on Craigslist to try to get people to sign up. You get the exact same text message from a bunch of people telling you to go sign up first and they will contact you afterward. Then of course you get messaged, so you think you need to check those messages, only to be directed to a page telling you to pay for their subscription to check messages. Desperate people will sign up for the 3 day $5 trial, not realizing that they will charge you again and again as soon as those 3 days are up.

S
S
Shadows Double
US
Nov 22, 2016 2:28 pm EST

I found more than a few postings on CraigsList that I responded to. The first reply from ALL of them said "register here (roomster link) and give me your contact info, email and phone". I registered at Roomster but didn't provide the contact info, and refused to pay for anything. I responded to 3 Roomster ads and when I got "responses" from them I was brought to a page that wanted me to pay to see the messages, which I refused to do. I got another half dozen or so "responses" from Roomster members that I'd never initiated contact with, and at that point I'd deleted all of my profile information, which tells me that they were nothing but fake messages trying to get me to upgrade my account to a paying one, which I wasn't about to do.
There are still plenty of ads on Craigslist that are clearly Roomster scams and new ones every day. You can tell if they have pictures of rooms that are straight out of some hotel brochure, or have pictures of 3-4 beautiful bedrooms and they're looking for someone to rent one of them. Nothing but scammers. They also appear to copy/paste other ads, probably from other regions, because many of them sound legitimate until you respond and they ask you to register at Roomster and refuse to answer the simplest of questions, like "is it $$ per month or week?" and "How many other people will I be sharing the apartment with?", etc. I flag every ad I see there as Prohibited now (I'm still looking for a place to rent or an apartment to share). If everyone who sees their ads flag them as Prohibited then they're automatically taken off of the visible postings, so flag them whenever you see them and help everyone else out in the process. :-)

R
R
Richie Gregory
US
Jul 18, 2017 3:24 am EDT

ROOMSTER is an absolute JOKE. They are total SCAM ARTISTS. They want you to get their APP because they say it's better than Craigslist --- however --- ROOMSTER posts FAKE ADS on craigslist every few hours. They try to get people responding to the ad to download their APP.
Then you download the APP and the apartment situation you were looking for wasn't even real. It's complete FRAUD.

ROOMSTER -- STOP POSTING FAKE ADS ON CRAIGSLIST!

K
K
Kim Fraczek
US
Jul 31, 2017 8:22 pm EDT

I am going through trying to get a refund right now! I want to take legal action since there are so many of us who have been scammed into a subscription we did not agree to. Does anyone have a lead on how to do this? I just want my money back that they charged me without my consent. There is no accountability process, nor numbers to call or info about the company!

M
M
Melania Bettarelli
US
Dec 07, 2017 12:08 pm EST

The roomster.com service is an online advertiser for roommates and accommodations. I was denied access to both my account and customer service contact minutes after making payment for the service with no explanation, but the following vague, unverified claim :

" Roomster takes member safety and security very seriously. You have been reported by other Roomster members as either being a concern, posing a threat, promoting an agenda, being suspicious, using hate speech or acting inappropriately. We have investigated this matter and have removed you for one of those reasons."

I could not contact the customer service, as the website prevented me from doing so. When I called the company phone number, a message redirected me to their website. A refund request has been made the same day to PayPal and BBB

  1. Roomster Contacts

  2. Roomster phone numbers
    +1 (646) 862-2841
    +1 (646) 862-2841
    Click up if you have successfully reached Roomster by calling +1 (646) 862-2841 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have successfully reached Roomster by calling +1 (646) 862-2841 phone number Click down if you have unsuccessfully reached Roomster by calling +1 (646) 862-2841 phone number 0 0 users reported that they have UNsuccessfully reached Roomster by calling +1 (646) 862-2841 phone number
  3. Roomster emails
  4. Roomster address
    285 W Broadway Rm 320, New York, New York, 10013, United States
  5. Roomster social media
  6. Maria
    Checked and verified by Maria This contact information is personally checked and verified by the ComplaintsBoard representative. Learn more
    Dec 04, 2024
  7. View all Roomster contacts