Roomster review: help us get off this site 33

First, they make their money direct debiting your account. They hide the direct debit in the terms and condition and on a side note. If really they wanted to be honest about it, they would make one tick a box authorizing the direct debit. I am sure I am not the only one they ripped off that way. The problem is that, even tough it is not obvious, it is in the terms and conditions.
Secondly, it is also far than obvious on how to stop your membership. It makes one lose time to find out (calling, emailing their customer service,...) and then, they withdraw your account and it is too late.
Thirdly, this company has no telephone number, just an automatic voice mail directing you to the site.

Finally, the website is not really good. Look into something else to find a room mate!

It would be good to know if it has happened to other people to group together.

On the FAQ, #1, it states the charging policy, and recurring fees.
http://www.roomster.net/faq.aspx

OTHER COMPLAINTS & SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS FOUND ON www.roomster.com

Hugh_Jorgen (02/16/2007)
Couldn't you tell from the cheesy look of their site that perhaps they weren't above board? FWIW, their domain is registered out of Luxembourg. Any way, you need to file a written complaint with your bank telling them you did not receive the service you paid for and you dispute the charge. You might also have to cancel that card and get a new one to avoid their repetative billing.

adage (05/28/2007)
Thank you for your review. I tried roomster.net at the end of 2005. I contacted multiple people on the site and got no response. My conclusion was they didn't have enough of a database for the roommate matching to be successful. Like you, I contacted customer service for a refund. No response. I posted a review of my experience on amazon. THEN John S. Shriber the company owner, started sending a series of very unpleasant and nasty emails to me. He offered a refund only if I took out my amazon review, which I did, and that mostly because the guy sounded so unstable that I was afraid of what he'd do with my credit card information. Don't use roomster.

Look at:

http://www.repsavior.com/ripoff222639.html

I also disputed this hidden renewal amount. I have immediately canceled the account and will probably cancel my card just to make sure these crooks don't stike twice. I wish there was a way to take them off the web. These guys are pretty slick with a phone number in New York. No actual person to speak to.

1.The subscription policy is stated on several pages on the Roomster site

2.You are told when your subscription is going to berenewed, so that you can end your subscription before a new billing cycle begins.

3.You can cancel billing at any time, and receive full access until your paid period is up.

3. You are required to check off on the terms of use TWICE in order to create an account with us.

The subscription policy is stated on all these pages:
a)terms of use
b)credit card page
c)my account page
d)help page

So I agree with everything above, and how about this...they tried to charge me the renewal fee THREE times when I've only used this service for a month! They's a big time scam. I cancelled immediately after I found this out as I was only expecting the original $5.95 charge, and my bank said if they posted again, they would dispute it and make sure that it gets taken of my account. I am so furious with roomster.net right now. i will never use that site again, and I'm going to tell everyone not to use it. I hope they go out of business.

So you're telling me, they don't refund the f**king money? How dare they? They know DAMN WELL that if its hidden in all the fine print that people are going to miss that. Since when is it EVER ok to just start taking money out of people's account. How about when people are emailing and contacting roomster to try and get the charges stopped and not the website not listening? That's bull, and that is not allowed ANYWHERE.
James Swanson, you know whats that called? It's called theft. Stealing. You are doing nothing but stealing, and don't even try to justify it with your stupid little fine print. When people sign up on the website, they opt to pay for a certain time and amount. What makes it ok to just keep taking?

I'm so pissed right now.

I also had a horrible experience with Roomster, and now I had to cancel my card and get a new one...don't use this site, ...
They are so fraudulent, they never in one week provided me with service, could not contact anyone, nor did anyone contact me!
3 days after I paid them 14.99 they charged me again 29.99!

I'll be filing a small claims suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against roomster this week. Anyone care to join me in a class action suit? I am certain I could find an attorney just a few blocks away by the name of David who would be thrilled to handle it.

Oh, yes, and I seem to recall that the one and only response I got from a roomster member was someone wanting to send me a cashier's check for $4, 000 from which I was to deduct the deposit and first month's rent, then send the balance by Western Union to her travel agent so that she could pay for her ticket to LA. That, by the way, folks, is a very well known con game. The cashier's check is counterfeit and the wire transfer irretrievable, very much like Roomster's con game of a purportedly irretrievable automatic withdrawal based upon the fine print hidden below the line in a terms of use agreement, if it's there at all! I have no doubt that their methods will not hold up in court, and that a lawsuit will bring them the hell they deserve. ALL this leads me to believe that the "good" folks at Roomster are the source of this very contemptuous counterfeit cashier's check/western union con. Let's throw their ### in JAIL!

Swanson, you CANNOT cancel billing at any time. I mean, you can, but they'll still end up billing you anyway.

In my case, when I go to cancel the subscription it either falsely tells me that is has succeeded [the charges suggest otherwise], or that the request cannot be processed. I've opened claims with BBB and PayPal so far, but PayPal already denied the movement. I sent in more information and am waiting to hear back from them again.

Also, there HelpDesk had this odd habit of not working at all until I sent a notification that I had filed a report with the BBB. Suddenly, it worked. And no one responds to their listed e-mail.

I'm also considering of opening a claim if they keep this up.

For me it isn't any different, they charged me double in less than 2 days and now i have to wait to have that money charged off my account to follow a despute on this issue.

Aaaaaah these people got me, I wish I had seen this prior to giving them my Info...They have got me for 60 dollars aready...They need to be thrown in jail...This pisses me off!

I might have found a point of contact.

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/8/emw150924.htm

Phone number listed its
[protected]

this is a communication i had with the "help desk." needless to say, it shows how much they really give a ###. start from the bottom and go up (ull notice the last thing they said to me seemed much more like a personal attack cause i got around their stupid system).

Andro21
Jul 15, 2008 at 01:04 PM

Help & Support:
its obvious to me ur service is useless. u have every right to take that stuff out if u want. the popular toms space thing should be ok, cause its a riddle and not everyone knows what that means. u cant take a riddle out. but if u wanna cancel my account, give me my money back now and then cancel my account. i dont care.
csrep004
Jul 15, 2008 at 01:00 PM

RE: Help & Support:
the last time you used us you canceled before the renewal. you also violated our terms of use "!ajrm21 AT HOTestMAIL! search alejandromatos21 on the "

Andro21
Jul 15, 2008 at 12:57 PM

Help & Support:
see, the fact that i canceled it within a very short period of time after the 3 days were up should show u people i had no need for it after that. besides the fact that i was at work during that 5 hrs period, i dont want to pay for a whole month of service i wont be using and u people should care a bit more about reputation cause now u seem like money-hungry ### who refuse to work with their clients. i can post this whole conversation across the internet and when ur name gets googled, this opinion will pop up. along with ur website. wouldnt u want it to be a good opinion instead of a bad one? isnt that obvious marketing? help desk... yeah right.
csrep004
Jul 15, 2008 at 12:41 PM

RE: Help & Support:

The information below is available for your records and may also be available to your financial institution upon request.

On two separate occasions you had agreed to the Terms of Use: on 6/8/2008 6:14:44 PM EST on the Registration Page (see screenshot #1) and on 7/7/2008 6:17:57 PM EST on the Payment Page (see screenshot #2) where you were informed that your roomster.net subscription would continue and be automatically renewed until canceled by you. It also shows the renewal rates for the packages available to you on 7/7/2008 6:17:57 PM EST.

All Sales are final and all Roomster.net accounts can only be closed by the account holder through the procedure described above. We do not accept cancellations by e-mail.
Andro21
Jul 15, 2008 at 12:35 PM

Help & Support:
im disputing the charge. i wont let it go through. its ###.
Andro21
Jul 11, 2008 at 05:13 PM

Help & Support:
yeah, i noticed that ur time is in EST. thats what i got confused about. but that 29.95 is NOT going to be put through, correct? i just need a straight answer like "no, that 29.95 is not going to be charged to ur credit card and u wont see any charges from our site." itll put me at ease and id appreciate it.
csrep004
Jul 11, 2008 at 05:06 PM

RE: Help & Support:

No credit is due. Our records show that you canceled your premium membership AFTER the scheduled renewal.

You can view your billing history by clicking here.

We state on your billing history page when your subscription is being renewed, so that you can end your subscription before a new billing cycle begins. You were required to check off on the terms of use TWICE in order to create an account with us. The subscription policy is stated on all these pages:
1.terms of use
2.credit card page
3.my account page
4.help page
Andro21
Jul 11, 2008 at 05:05 PM

Billing:
am i going to be charged the 29.95 for these next 30 days? thats the question left. i dont wanna see any incurred charges relating to this stie on my card.
csrep004
Jul 11, 2008 at 04:59 PM

RE: Help & Support:
you can view your login and activity on your billing history page.

You can view your billing history by clicking here.
Andro21
Jul 11, 2008 at 04:48 PM

Billing:
id still like to know why it didnt cancel last night when i canceled it. i had to recancel it just 5 or 10 mins ago. why didnt it work before? it still hasnt, either. i can still go into my message box and my homepage says full access.
csrep004
Jul 11, 2008 at 04:46 PM

RE: Help & Support:

You have successfully canceled your premium membership. All future billing has ended. You can view your billing history by clicking here. Thank you.
Andro21
Jul 11, 2008 at 04:43 PM

Billing:
i canceled my premium membership last night at 11:30pm, but it still says i have full access and now i see a temp authorization from u guys on my credit card. why? i canceled it before the 3 days were up. i want that transaction to be stopped.
csrep004
Jul 07, 2008 at 06:17 PM

RE: Help & Support:
We are working on a new version and we do take our customers feedback very seriously, Our next release has a much improved interface for handling move/move in dates.
Andro21
Jul 07, 2008 at 05:56 PM

Help & Support:
it doesnt make sense... so im gonna be forced to make it look like i have more time than i do... which means ill be misleading everyone im trying to room with. how does that make sense? it seems like much more of a marketing tactic to give people the impression that there are more people around here than there really is than a bad coding idea.
csrep004
Jul 07, 2008 at 05:47 PM

RE: Help & Support:
Although maybe not the best system (and we are working on a new version). this is how we make sure that all profiles on Roomster are truly active. Neither one of us wants stay content on Roomster.
Andro21
Jul 07, 2008 at 05:44 PM

Help & Support:
every time i log in, im being forced to push my move-in date to be at least 2 weeks away... WHY?! my date is set and thats all there is to it. why wont it allow me to just continue on with only a week left to go?

I haven't looked into it yet but I would certainly like to pursue some form of class action lawsuit regarding Roomster.net eMusic.com and any other eBiz that makes substantial funds from automatic renewals. I believe these companies are intentionally doing this to generate "free money" without providing any services or goods. Furthermore Roomster.net, specifically, does not provide the applicant with a means to "OPT OUT" of the automatic renewal/upgrade feature which I'm sure has to have some legal significance. Please let me know if anyone is already underway with a class action because I believe both websites Roomster.net and eMusic.com are ripe for a lawsuit for their transactional practices.

Oh, by the way I have screen copies of what they claim to be sufficient notice. I'm in the state of VA.

I've found that this is a common complaint with most roommate sites, even if they are something of an improvement on the scams that the old "roommate finding services" were.

I read an article the other day about a new website (RentSelect.com) which launched recently which offers not only free roommate ads but also doesn't charge roommates to contact each other (essentially doing what Roomster.net charges for but for free).

I checked them out and while they do not have a lot of ads on there yet (probably because they are so new), it looks pretty well put together and once people start putting up profiles, it will be pretty awesome.

The problem is that it will not stop there; they will continue withdrawing money from your credit card unless you declare your card lost or stolen as I did. Roomster says that in order to stop the payment you need to cancel the subscription from your roomster account but there is no tab on your personal account to do so. There is a section where you can disable your account but they will still take money from your account every month. So I suggest you to cancel your credit card so they will issue a new card number for you and roomster will not have authorization to withdraw money from your account anymore. I know it is a nuisance to do so but it is the only way to stop them. I really wish someone will take legal action against them soon or later. In the mean time one way to revenge is to open a new FREE account with roomster and to use their GIVE A SHOUT to the other member warning everyone about the danger of giving roomster their credit card number. I have done so and I have warned about 10.000 around the world about this scam, but finally romster banned me from accessing their web site. So I decided to find a way around it and I downloaded a software to hide my IP address (you can do the same by following this link http://www.hide-ip-soft.com/download.htm ). Now I can access roomster.com again to continue my warning campaign. I hope that many people will follow my suit so roomster will have no choice but to actually go and get a real job to make a living as many of us do instead of stealing from honest people

Charged my credit card an amount I did not agree with.

Unfortunately I fell for this scam too recently. I signed up for the $5.95 three day subscription in order to read a message from a supposed member who was interested in my room (never got an email back). Then they charged me the $29.95 renewal fee TWICE becuase I didn't notice the charge until the second month. I sent a message on their helpdesk and they replied with links to the screenshots of when I agreed to their terms of use. However, in order to view the screenshots I would have needed to register with them again and agree to their Terms of Use AGAIN, which I obviously don't want to do. Plus there's probably something in the fine print that says if I register again they will charge me some ridiculous amount. They might be able to get away with things because of their loopholes they've created, but their business practices are clearly unethical and misleading. if you check out the Better Business Bureau they have a rating of F and something like 62 complaints that have been filed against them. Now I have to go through the hassle of canceling my card because apparently canceling your subscription often doesnt' keep them from continuing to withdraw money from your account.

This is their official number I got it through my bank [protected] I suggest we floooooood their comments and suggestions for roomster voicemail, with nasty and negative feedback so they will quit doing this to people. go for it guys! I already called, I am sure they wont be returning my call though.

They scammed me too. This company does not plainly state that you will be renewed $29.95 until you cancel. Instead, they hide it in the middle of a long list of other terms. The customer service rep also called me a ###! Check out the screenshot

Site is terrible. stay away. These people are akin to drug dealers and 2-bit street scammers. SHADY PEOPLE. Formalized coimplaints need to be made to the Attorney General in the state where they are registered. I am working towards that right now...

The names of the owners are Roman Zaks https://www.facebook.com/rzaks?sk=photos and John S. Shriber https://www.facebook.com/shriber, I have been ###ed by them as well and am about to dispute the charges, there needs to be some sort of law created to prevent companies like this. Their make their profits soley on dodgy reoccurring charges, if they did not, they would not do this, or they would be upfront about it. Silly boys, dont know who they have messed with this time. By the time I am finished with them, they will not have a business.

This is roomster.com's actual information:

285 west broadway
New york, ny 10013 map
Phone: [protected]
Website: www.roomster.com
Email: roomster@roomster.com
John shriber, ceo, updated this company profile on 02/17/2011

I have found those basters phone number. it's [protected]

To bad someone can't glue this site as a link on their site. Bold and out loud. Make it so they couldn't take it off.
I found the deduction from my bank account this morning. I called the bank and they are blocking further transactions and filing for a dispute.I had canceled two weeks after joining. I had not gotten one hit on finding a place.
I am legally blind and was looking for a room to rent. I don't get much from my S.S. and I cannot afford to have their charges
taken out over and over again. It seems the world is getting inundated with bull *hit like this.

Hi my name is pete and i need your company to stop sending me your emails on rooms for rent?
I have my ad on craigslist on wanted rooms and i'm getting no responces from anybody because you guys are redirecting all incoming rooms for rent messages that are being sent to me personaly
Take me off your site please. peterxmarshall@aol.com phone #[protected]

These Roomster people are some damn crooks...they have no type of contact # to be reached at to explain the charges that people are receiving. I had to call my credit card company to dispute the charge and cancel my card. This is ridiculous ! This is the type of BS that makes people not want to do business online because companies have hidden clauses that people don't see and then find out once they have been charged and have to go thru so much red tape to get refunded...This has definitely been a lesson learned because I never benefited from their service at all...

Share share tell everybody
La times let people know out there roomster is a fraud fraud fraud if u looking for an apartment or room u go to craigslist it will automatically direct u to this roomster an they ask u to log in with ur social media account an if its not exactly who u r they tell u to go make an account an all your real information now why should I so they can steal my personal identity an why are they going by different names so they themselves aren't being honest now all my personal information is out there when the person I want to rent from contact me then I give my information how dare u tell me to give up my personal I formation when I didn't ask for their [censor] up fake service warn people about this roomster or olivia house. Us an three or four more names they go by so whos the fraud an u try to contact them they direct u to the same place the problem started soooooo fake fake do not give them ur money yes they want money an I tried to post on craigslist to warn people an they blocked me they are in on it together