When we started making our plans for our summer California trip, we soon learned we had to make reservations at some of the most popular national parks and forest. So we made several reservations over the Internet.
Whenever we purchase anything on the Internet-we use my credit card and we have a cap on it-so that if ever it’s stolen via the internet-then the thieves won’t get too much. I also keep a very close eye on our account-specially after purchases.
After making several reservations in one day, I had maxed out my card and therefore we had to use Brian’s credit card to finish up with our reservations.
All of our reservations were with www.Recreation.gov All the parks that we wanted to go belong to the national park system-except for one in California…..
The Redwood National Parks has given their campgrounds to the State of California…So instead of using www.recreation.gov we had to make reservations with www.ReservAmerica.com. No problem, we used Brian’s credit card and made reservations for the Redwood Forest. (NOTE: Even though the Redwood National Park campgrounds now belongs to CA state Park system-they still will honor the Interagency Senior and Access Passes and the Golden Age and Access Passes)
When we were making reservations with Reserve America, at the end of finalizing the payment part, they wanted you to take on several promotional options. I made sure that I clicked out of each one-because we are not interested in anything but the reservation in-itself….Shortly after making our reservations with Reserve America, I started receiving promotional emails from them, even though I requested to opt out of all promotional programs they were offering.
After receiving several emails from Reserve America, I finally went to the web page only to “unsubscribed” to what ever they were trying to sell us. Receiving nothing further-I thought I finally got them off my back. Not true….
As I stated earlier whenever we make any transaction-whether via internet or shopping at a local store, I always go in almost immediately to check on our bank account to make sure that the right transaction transpired. Upon doing this, I notice that something was off.
We were off by $64.95 and couldn’t at the time figure out who or what took this out of our account. All we knew it was an unauthorized transaction. Brian called our Bank immediately to dispute the amount.
Wells Fargo has a wonderful claims department and in past has helped us with other banking discrepancy and once again were true to helping us out again.
We were able to go back and get a phone number off the account. Brian calls the number and it’s to something called ActiveAdvantage. He was place on hold for more than 15 minutes and not getting anywhere, frustrated, he hangs up.
In the meantime, the bank reverses the amount once they determined that it was an unauthorized charge and now they will go after the company themselves.
In the meantime, Brian wants me to check on an email that I received on a different matter. Well, I had deleted the email. Upon going into my deleted email account, I notice that I have discarded an email from this activeadvantage (thinking it was garbage mail once again).
Upon opening the email, low and behold, there is a full detail on our so call account with activeadvantage in the amount of $65.94!!! They claim that we had a 30 day free trial and THEY assumed that they just could take this amount out of our account for some yearly subscription!!!
Now mind you that this activeadvantage is in connection with Reserve America reservation system. We did not authorized nor wanted anything to do with this promotion what-so-ever!
Due to all this, we ended up having to cancel Brian’s credit card-in fear that since they “kept” his number they would try to use it again.
So this is a warning to all of you that make reservations via the Internet: BEWARE!!!
Now remember Reserve America and Recreation.gov are two separate agencies. The National Park, Corps of Engineer, Bureau Of Land Management and any other Federal Agency all are with www.recreation.gov You won’t receive any “junk” or “promotional” garbage if ever making a reservation with them. Their website is secure and safe.
Most state parks and other campgrounds use Reserve America. Now I’m not saying their website isn’t safe and secure. But you will receive promotional garbage-whether you want it or not and they may take it upon themselves to just take out of your account for another one of their programs-whether you asked for it or not.
I did send them an email-very direct and to the point that they had no legal business and fraudulent charges were pending per our bank investigation on this matter.
I did receive an email back, stating that they would give me a full refund back and apologizing for any “misunderstanding”. Only problem-my husband’s credit card has been canceled!!! We will just let our bank finish up with this mess.
one thing is for sure, we will never use Reserve America service in the future. If we feel we have to make reservation-well I guess we will take our chances upon arrival. We will continue to use Recreation.gov. website for future reservations.
I’m not telling anyone not to use the reserve system-for they do help guaranteeing you a campsite; specially during peak seasons.
All I’m asking is if making a reservations-please read ALL of your emails from the reservation agency and if you do receive an unwanted promotional email from the reserve system, don’t ignore and contact them immediately to let them know that you are not interested in what they have to offer. And maybe this won’t happen to you…..
No comments:
Post a Comment