Why I'm thankful...

How much do I hate WantedList.com right about now?

I wrote a previous post saying how they were uncommonly late in sending me my first DVDs after I’d signed up for their DVD rental service. What happened was that I’d won third place in a “Name the Mascot” contest for an up-and-coming production company, and my prize was a free month’s membership at WantedList.

So I redeemed the free offer by signing up for the Preferred Plan which allows you to have 4 DVDs at a time. And those were the circumstances that led up to the previous post.

Anyway, I finally got my DVDs. Meanwhile, I noticed in my rental queue that a third movie that clearly said was available “Now” was not being sent to me. To tell you the truth, I was going to let the matter slide on two accounts:

1. I guessed that since my membership was free, they’d automatically put me on the 2-at-a-time plan; and
2. Even though it took me awhile to get the DVDs to begin with, I couldn’t really handle more than two at a time, anyway. (They were for reviewing purposes, not pleasure.)

But, unbeknownst to me, they’d charged my credit card on the day that I signed up. I only found that out by looking at my credit card statement. There is no link under your Account Manager at WantedList that allows you to view recent charges to your account. Moreover, you know how there is a reference code and phone number next to billed charges on your credit card? Well, WantedList’s parent company CBT Media doesn’t have a listed phone number on your statement.

So I fired off an e-mail to customer support asking why my credit card was charged. They replied that the charge was the difference between the 2-plan, what my free membership entailed, and the 4-plan, what I’d signed up for.

In my graciously worded reply (okay, that’s a lie; I was really starting to get pissed), I told them to show me the URL where it said that my free membership had to be a 2-plan. Because I sure couldn’t find it in their FAQ or Terms and Conditions; nor was it in the e-mail that was sent to me declaring my prize. I also asked them why my third movie wasn’t sent to me even though it was available.

They sent me another reply, some form letter to the effect that “If the movies in your queue are available they will be sent to you…“, yada, yada, yada. But they make no mention of the other issue that I brought up, namely that there is nothing in their fine print that limited me to a 2-DVD free membership. They totally glossed over that little fact.

And get this, in another letter dated the same day, they told me that they’d sent me my third DVD (they send you an auto-mail alert to let you know when your movies ship). The fact that they chose to send it to me after my complaint still seems kind of fishy to me.

So that’s where I stand with WantedList right now. I don’t know why anyone (including myself) would want to deal with all that aggravation anyway. I’ve been touting SugarDVD all this time and I’m not going to stop now: SugarDVD has the same extensive collection of just-released DVDs and their 2-plan costs only $9.99/month vs. WantedList‘s $17.95 2-plan!

Now I’m so upset that I’ve forgotten the original intent of my post…Oh yeah, at this time of season, I’m grateful for porn. Have a Happy Thanksgiving! :)