I feel I am being scammed

Aka11

Stay away from this company- they charged me twice $39.99 x 2, and now they don't answer any emails in regards to the issue. I got email notification that my subscription had ended, the information stated that  I needed to create a new account when the subscription had ended. Which I did, because I wanted to extend for a second year of service, but 2 days later they charged me via PayPal a second time for the old account that they informed me had ended. They are running a scam, stay away from this company. They don't honor the "7 day money back guarantee". I tried to dispute the charges via PayPal, but the dispute was closed without any information given, they working together. PayPal are another that will scam you out of your Money.

[Deleted User]

Hi there @Aka11,

I am very sorry for the experience you have had thus far. Please PM me your ticket number(s) — I'd like to ensure that we make it right.

Aka11

Hi Colleen,

I didn't get a ticket number, I emailed "Private Internet Access - Billing Dept", and when they didn't answer, I contacted PayPal. and PayPal got back to me that they contacted Private Internet Access, but unfortunately, its not possible to refund. PayPal only removed the possibility for "Private Internet Access" pull any future funds. I then got a email from "Private Internet Access" about how sad It was that I decided to end my subscription? I then again wrote about how I got scammed on the feedback link. I also now canceled my PayPal account. had it with these deeply deceptive- and disingenuous companies that cheat you out of Money.

Aka11

Email to "Private Internet Access - Billing Dept"

Hi,

Please refund this, you have billed me twice, the second time without my approval.

July 26, 2017
Order Number: 7243850
Payment method: Paypal

Regards,

[Deleted User]

Hi @Aka11 — I absolutely understand your frustration. Typically, the billing department does not directly deal with these requests, which is why you did not receive a reply. If you could send us a ticket , I would be happy to take a closer look at this issue. Again, I'm so sorry for the trouble.

emmellee

Exactly!   This happened to me also.  PIA has a racket going!  It's shameful.

emmellee

They also gave me the same line about making things right.  They didn't.  Offered to cancel what I paid twice over for though.  What a racket!

[Deleted User]

Hello Emmellee, 

If you are in need of assistance or inquiring about the service/account - please let us know here: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/helpdesk/new-ticket as we do not have enough information to respond and as it may deal with billing, we always keep that certain information private and not on a public forum. - PIA CS TEAM

p4222833

They are definitely not a scam. Definitely one of the more legit VPN providers out there, with the best customer service I've come across. What you're describing is a transaction issue, and I've had those happen even with phone companies like AT&T, these things happen and are not always deliberate. Still, I agree with you on Paypal being crappy, never make big payments through Paypal. It's much easier to dispute payments made through your bank's credit card, on grounds that you were defrauded.

Your double charge definitely sounds automated, I hope you get it resolved, but please don't be saying they are "running a scam", there are many that vouch for PIA.

JackO

Although PIA support is offering soothing words of assurance this will be rectified - this type of billing issue has been going on for many years, getting charged multiple times - double billed. Plus, PIA billing issues, which being billed twice is, go through support first (ya gotta file a trouble ticket before a billing refund issue will be taken care of) instead of the billing department first where they belong like in about most companies in the world - call up a company general number and tell them you have a billing issue and the first place they send you is the billing department and not to support. This is why emails for refund to billing do not work as they really should, this interjected support 'middle man' concept PIA has going on and its a horrible concept. This reinforces the idea that PIA does not really have a competent billing department capable of making a refund decision - or - does not really have a real billing department at all. Why even have a billing department email at all if no one can use it to get a refund?

Knowing the system does this yet all these years not having fixed it does lend its self to looking a little scam like type activity because nothing is done about it until a person complains and PIA simply keeps the money if a person does not complain about it. When we first got PIA years ago they double billed us, although we knew it sooner we caught it again about six months later in a semi-annual audit and PIA did not refund until we complained about it so they kept our money and did not even bother to refund until we complained about it. At that time we got from PIA the same soothing words of assurance this would be corrected but the problem is that it should have already been corrected by not double billing in the first place or automatically refunding in the case that double billing did happen. There should not be a support middle man needed who only responds after a complaint is posted publicly in the forum, it should have been handled with this customers email to the billing department because the customer had notified the company at that point.

An actual billing department should be auditing these transactions and returning money they collected in double billing automatically, not some support person responding and asking the customer to jump through hoops to get their own money back that PIA should not have taken in the first place. So either PIA does not actually have a billing department and its all automated, or they are incompetent, or they do not have standard accepted ethical accounting and checks & balances practices in place ... the billing system should not be double billing in the first place and a competent billing department would have caught this with proper auditing and accounting practices and checks & balances and over-site...  its one big mess as screwed up as a mashed potato sandwich. Money taken in erroneously in any standard and accountable corporate/company financial system would be known and either refunded automatically or be ready to be refunded with the first contact with the company which in this case and numerous others is an email to billing. But PIA just keeps the money until someone complains for refund, and keeps it for good if no one complains for refund.

They also act like they did not know they double billed, as if such never existed, and does not seem to know they took money they are not entitled to. Each refund complaint in the public forum they respond to they act surprised and two or three support people will come along to respond to it. But post an actual 'help me with the VPN' type question and ya can hear the crickets chirping and its rare that any of them from support jump on that 'help me' post. They act like its not a normal thing, that's it surprising someone would be double billed and its "oh gosh, we are so sorry, let me fix that for you. Just jump through this hoop now and file a support ticket because the email you sent to billing, well, they don't respond for the very thing a billing department is responsible for."

According to PIA they do not offer support in the forums, but complain in the forums about getting double billed and not getting your refund and how an email notifying the company was not responded to and all at once ya got two or three support people offering support for the refund in the forum and doing the billing departments job. So support has time and resources to patrol the forums for complaints about refunds and respond to it with two or three support people but the billing department can't respond to an email asking for a refund, seems like a poor allocation of resources if you ask me, I mean let the billing department do like billing stuff and let support do like support stuff but instead ya got support coming in doing what any normal billing department in just about any company in the world would be doing. Makes ya question if they even actually have a billing department in other than name.

Prior to PIA closing these forums in the last year or so then reopening them, in the old forum you saw many complaints about double billing and/or due refunds and for some of those PIA kept the money for a while because they did not refund until a complaint from many of those seeking refunds after they discovered they had been double billed. The solution is to not double bill to begin with plus have in place working and valid checks and balances with trained billing department personnel that people can actually speak with/email so the issue is handled directly where it belongs instead of this thing of having to complain publicly in the forum or via support ticket to get the support 'middle man' thing going.

It does look scam like because this has been going on for many years and there is no telling how many did not catch they were double billed and PIA simply kept the money because obviously their billing system/"department" does not recognize that it has double billed. Plus, the after-the-fact "soothing words of assurance this will be rectified" that sound kinda "whoops, we got caught" like. In addition the hoops a person has to jump through to get their own money back that should not have been taken in the first place should not be needed, for example, "Typically, the billing department does not directly deal with these requests, which is why you did not receive a reply....If you could send us a ticket ," - it all seems "oh crap, we got caught" .

A company in the US is required by law to respond to complaints (which includes requests for refund) and any company entity receiving such complaint is required by law to ensure the complaint is addressed because any company entity represents the company. This means that emails to a company billing department for refund are required by law to be addressed, but emails to the PIA billing department are not addressed as they should be and PIA specifically says they do "not directly deal with these requests", so in other words the billing department is specifically designed/prohibited to not respond to emails for refund request when that email is a notification to a company entity. And further these complaints are not addressed by PIA at all until a person complains publicly in the forums or files a support ticket, when a correct and ethical accounting system should have already recognized it got money through double billing that it was not entitled to get and been prepared to refund and then refund, but according to PIA the refund will not happen until a person files a support ticket even though the person notified the company by email to which the billing department, according to PIA, will not respond.

So if a persons email to billing is not responded to, if a person never files the support ticket or never complains in the forums, PIA simply never refunds and thus keeps money they are not legally entitled to when they should have addressed the original email and refunded. This all strongly implies a dedicated effort on the part of PIA to not give refunds and keep money they are not entitled to (which in the world out here is called, broadly, theft). But the issue also here is that no one deals with this until a person complains publicly in the forum or jumps through hoops filing a support ticket after the fact of the not addressed email when the email should have been addressed to begin with yet specifically PIA does not do so. And just why is the billing department not dealing directly with this instead of some support person? Especially since the billing department receives an email but does nothing about it (according to PIA), and no one does anything about it until the now frustrated customer posts in the public forum. If the frustrated customer had not posted in the public forum then no one from "support" would have responded or seen to it that refunds were issued, its not a priority and no one at PIA is watching this or auditing these transactions, and the person would have never gotten a refund of their money. So, we have a company notified in writing by email, which should have been all that was needed, that does not respond and will not respond until the frustrated customer makes the complaint publicly in the forum but will keep the money if no complaint for refund is made.

This refund is the customers money not PIA's money, PIA does not have the luxury, either legally or ethically, of deciding if they will or will not respond to a complaint/request for refund yet PIA is indulging its self in this luxury by simply keeping the money and doing nothing until a frustrated customer complains publicly in the forums and then the response is a PR type response trying to make PIA look as if they are doing something about it when something should have already been done about it when the frustrated customer sent the email to the billing department. It makes it all sound "oh crap, we got caught" and "we don't disclose that we don't really have a competent billing department that knows what they are doing and we keep the double bill money unless the customer complains" - yeah, if I could keep money taken from others like this I'd have a nice bank account after a while even if I had to give the money back eventually because while I had it I could make interest on it or invest it and turn a profit on it.

This is an issue with not having an actual trained billing department with checks and balances and standard accepted ethical accounting and refund practices in place.

It does not matter how many "vouch" for PIA, that has nothing to do with if its scam like activity or not. Many vouched for Bernie Madoff too and that's the reason his scam continued.

Does this happen to everyone? No, it doesn't. But it happens to many and frequently enough to define a serious issue that PIA needs to resolve and vanquish yet knowing the issue exists and has existed all these years they have done nothing about it. When a company claiming to be trustworthy takes and keeps others money to which they are not entitled and has no real billing department in other then basically name and no automatic refund and auditing system in place to catch billing errors and refund and just keeps the money as a matter of normal operation until someone complains then for good if no one complains, that's more than a mistake and does not portray trustworthiness.

So although its not a scam per se (maybe), its scam like activity because the double billed money would be kept with no complaint for a refund, and that is taking and keeping money to which they are not entitled which is deceptive and dishonest. Maybe a mistake by the billing system in some way, but its been going on for years yet has not been corrected so its difficult to say its "maybe a mistake" when the "mistake" should have already been corrected years ago, and an accounting system should have recognized erroneous billing and refunded without complaint but does not do so and simply keeps the money. Its deceptive and dishonest type conduct and the definition of scam outlines those traits as being included in a scam.

So yeah, the OP feels he/she has been scammed and its understandable and accurate and correct to feel that way, and he/she is justified in seeing it that way, because the whole process does lend its self to looking like a scam.