This is a heads up to everyone who has had to register for a race or event through Active Advantage. Signing up for an event will initiate a one month “trial membership” in Active. If you do not physically contact them before that time elapses you will have $60 deducted from your bank account without your consent to sign you up for a full year membership to active. I almost missed it on my statement, and I am sure quite a few people do. If you google active advantage scam you will see that this is approaching epidemic levels. Active very politely and promptly refunded my money, however as I mentioned, I am sure the majority of this goes unnoticed. Don’t be a victim.
Happened to me yesterday - I signed up for the Cleveland Triathlon and Active would not let me sign up unless I became a member. Now I cannot figure out how to contact them to see that they do not deduct money from my credit card.
Better advice would be to be careful what you click on.
Better advice would be to be careful what you click on.
x2 But it does seem like it’s getting harder to just click around the promo traps. They’re a real PITA…
There is a difference between an active.com membership and advantage membership. I agree at times it can be difficult to discern what is required and what is extra, I am sure it was in the fine print one of the times you clicked accept.
There was no option to sign up for the race I wanted to do without being an Active advantage member. In the past, you could click “no thanks” - that was not an option yesterday. Seems like a real scam.
Better advice would be to be careful what you click on.
x2 But it does seem like it’s getting harder to just click around the promo traps. They’re a real PITA…
Agreed, it’s pretty sleazy the way they have it set up. “Hey, if you want this discount, just click this giant ‘YES’ button. If not just click this little tiny ‘No Thanks’ hyperlink”.
There was no option to sign up for the race I wanted to do without being an Active advantage member. In the past, you could click “no thanks” - that was not an option yesterday. Seems like a real scam.
This was the case for me, as well. I can only imagine how many people miss this on their bank statements. It kind of reminds me of the sleazy CD clubs of the 90’s where they sucker you in and you get trapped without realizing it. The big difference here being that I did not have a choice, this is how I had to sign up for my race.
Last week, I was able to register and click ‘no thanks’ as always. Yesterday, there was no, ‘no thanks’ option - it said I was enrolled for free and I must contact them if I do not want to be charged in 60-days. Can’t figure out how to contact them. Plus it was a big pain to sign up and because the last race I registered for, I also registered my wife after me, it logs me in as my wife.
I think this easily has potential to turn into a Active.com hate-rant… which I think could be decently satisfying.
Customer Support
If you have a question concerning:
Difficulties registering Need to change or confirm your registration Verify user account Experiencing login issues Registration credit card charges
Email: support@active.com
Or, contact us toll free at 877-228-4881
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Last week, I was able to register and click ‘no thanks’ as always. Yesterday, there was no, ‘no thanks’ option - it said I was enrolled for free and I must contact them if I do not want to be charged in 60-days. Can’t figure out how to contact them. Plus it was a big pain to sign up and because the last race I registered for, I also registered my wife after me, it logs me in as my wife.
I have a race I’ve been meaning to sign up for, so I did it just now. No issues. Clicked the “No Thanks” button like I’ve been doing for years.
Yes it is a lame practice of Active.com. Opt-out policies (esp. for something you charge for) show that you don’t respect your customer, and in the case of Active.com this is a huge problem and a big reason their customer support gets called. They could do this in so many better ways, but it must be worth it to them revenue-wise.
I emailed ActiveAdvantage@active.com to get them to reverse the charges when they got me with this. They reversed them right away, no questions asked.
This was the case for me, as well. I can only imagine how many people miss this on their bank statements.
I’m confused, if you knowingly signed up for the Active Advantage program, why did you have to notice it on your bank statement?
Thanks for the heads up
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Call your State’s AG office to regester a complaint as they may be in violation of you local State laws on advertizing and fair trade laws… We had several instances here in NJ with web vendors doing this and the AG shut them down or made them change the reg process to conform.
This was the case for me, as well. I can only imagine how many people miss this on their bank statements.
I’m confused, if you knowingly signed up for the Active Advantage program, why did you have to notice it on your bank statement?
You sign up for a free trial membership and then they automatically renew it using the Credit or Debit card that you used to register for a race - not one you provided for the membership.
I knowingly signed up for a race. A month or so later a mystery charge appeared on my statement from a random phone number. I googled the phone number and it is AA. If I hadn’t caught this secondary charge, I would have been signed up.
I knowingly signed up for a race. A month or so later a mystery charge appeared on my statement from a random phone number.
In post # 8 you concurred with Jon who was forced to enroll in AA in order to sign up for the race. Were you forced to enroll or were you enrolled unknowingly?