I signed up for Emusic.com a few months ago to buy music online, but I’m fed up with them. This is my “why are you leaving?” feedback to them:
I’d like to get what I pay for. I pay for 65 tracks but if I don’t download them within the month, they disappear. I have trouble understanding how this is a legitimate business practice – where do my tracks go? Are they distributed to the poor?
Your business model is based on the hope that people won’t use what they pay for.
Your business model is based on taking advantage of your customers.
Comments
Zing!
I have no complaints with e music, they are half the cost of itunes. I have no problem finding the same music on emusic that i find on itunes. Find it hard to comprehend that some people cant find music to purchase in the allowed time frame. If you snooze you loose !!
You read the agreement signed the contract, live up to it and quit complaining!!! Emusic is great!!
Ive been a member for 3 years now. They give me free downloads for being a loyal customer and also on my birthday!! What does I tunes give you except twice the cost for their music !
It doesn’t pay to do things legitimately sometimes! How are you doing? Had a spare minute at work, thought I’d see what you are up to as I’ve not been on the internet chat thingo for a while!
I don’t see what your problem is?? What stopped you from downloading your limit within the month? Do you complain to your mobile phone provider that your includsve minutes don’t accummulate infinitely?
Emusic is a great way to get into music – just remember to use up your allowance each month – they’re not ripping you off matey.
Zongamin: I did complain about my mobile phone provider stealing my minutes too. I moved to “pay as you go” months ago and have saved a lot of money, even with the higher per-minute charges.
I’m not sure you quite understand my complaint. The only reason emusic charge like that exclusively is to either get you to buy more music than you’d like, or to overcharge you for for the little you do buy.
Sure, I understand what they are up to from an economics stand-point, but I don’t have to like it.
I cancelled my account with e-music within the time limitation, as I prefer pay as you go also, and they still later debited my credit card. I still have not got back my money.
I warned you e-music I would start giving you bad publicity if you didn’t refund me, more to come anywhere else that is appropriate.
I was going to subscribe to Emusic until I downloaded a few songs on my sister’s computer. She subscribed a week ago. What I found was that they didn’t have any current hits, and that the oldie tunes didn’t sound anything like the originals, because they came from cd’s that were re recorded. I was totally disappointed.
I subscribed for emusic.com FREE 50 mp3 songs trial. On my opinion they didn’t have absolutely anything interesting in the library. I don’t consider false Rihanna and Britney Spears as real music. So I unsubscribed 2 hours later after I subscribed. But they charged me 8.99 GBP and are not going to give me a refund. They are just cheaters. Keep off their “free” trial!!!
Well, I bought a prepaid card for 65 downloads from eMusic. Evidently when I registered that prepaid card, they began charging me $9.99 per month. I never did find 65 songs to download, and since I am a grad student, and study 18 hours a day, I didn’t catch it until they charged me for 6 months of a subscription when I still had some of my prepaid card left. There is no way to talk to a human being in customer service. Am thinking about approaching an attorney for a class action suite, evidently this is their SOP. I have disputed their charges with my credit card company.
Please be aware that this prepaid card with 65 downloads has ultimately cost me $75.00.
I SIGNED UP FOR FREE TRIAL, AND CANCELLED WITHIN 3 DAYS. LATER ON I GOT HIT ON MY CARD FOR 9.99. SENT THEM NOTE AND CANCELLED. THEY CONFIRMED CANCELLATION. THEN I JUST GOT HIT FOR ANOTHER 9.99 FOR DECEMBER. I THINK THEY BELIEVE IF THEY RUN YOU AROUND ENUF, YOU’LL GIVE UP.. THAT CLASS ACTION SUIT SOUNDS PLAUSIBLE…
emusic sucks! The are major assholes. They do not have customer service dept and when you want to cancel (I didn’t even sign up) they do not respond. I have attenpted to contact them four times. They keep hitting me for 9.99. I don’t have access to anything and I refuse to pay another penny. I will cancel my debit account. REAL ASSHOLES!
I was going to take up the free trial advertised in UK, The Times newspaper. As a result of the above negative comments I won’t bother and will save myself from getting ‘ripped off’. Thanks to everyone above for the warnings!
I downloaded some FREE MUSIC to my MP4 PLAYER and I have tried to cancel the subscription after I discovered they EMUSIC.COM have been charging my credit card with Direct Debits on a monthly basis of $21.59 then I am charged a currency conversion fee of .54 per Direct Debit. I have looked everswhere to cancel the subscription and I have had no luck. I haven’t downloaded any music in months, in fact once only and I was told is was FREE. What is going on? I would like a reply to this e-mail as I am a 36 year Widow and I was under the understanding the the E-Music was FREE. So why am I being charged such a large amount of money on my Credit Card for nothing. I WANT MY SUBSCRIPTION CANCELLED AND A REFUND OF ALL DIRECT DEBITS THAT HAVE BEEN CHARGED TO MY CREDIT CARD OR I WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE THIS RIP OFF FUTHER!
I am a struggling musician. I recently uploaded songs I had written on a digital distribution site which in turn was set up on ITunes and Amazon (A service which I paid for and could ill afford) within weeks http://www.emusic.com has somehow obtained and uploaded (some of) my songs and are offering them on their site for almost nothing.
This has virally attached itself to Itunes which are now offering my tracks at two different prices (both are really cheap anyway)
I don’t have a backer and have to fight for myself. I’ve phoned (international rates) and left a message which at the time of writing I have not received a reply. Emusic.. If you read this, PLEASE get in touch.
I’m a nobody who does’nt want to be a victim. Is anyone else having similar problems?
I, too, signed up for the free trial since receiving a little offer with my new cell phone. Downloaded the 50 songs, decided the music catalogue wasn’t that great. They charged my credit card $20, I cancelled within 3 days.. and have been sending emails, fruitlessly, to their support form and email for a week now. I just got their customer support # : 212-201-9240. It was posted on yet another forum of customers complaining about emusic’s bad business practices and one dug up the phone # from a whois or domain information – they don’t post it on the site that I know of.
If they don’t resolve it, I’ll dispute with my credit card company. I’m going to file a complaint with the BBB and any other consumer advocacy organization (consumerist, etc). Their ripoff scheme has to stop! Please post here if you guys get a class-action going and I’ll submit my experience/emails/etc.
Yes indeed it is clear what EMusic’s business model is all about. Obtain potential customers credit card details during the free trial and then use that to charge whether services have been provided or not. Ignoring cancellations is a favourtie trick. My wife signed up for the free trial, could not use the service and cancelled immediately. They got the card details but magically they did not get the cancellation. They charged for the first month. Three times for the second. Ignored the subsequent complaint for long enough to charge for a third. They are hiding behind their contract and a no refund policy. Please everyone out there be persistent. Any reputable company would refund.
wish i had found this info before being ripped off for £143.90 by emusic.com
signed up for thr trial and then could not cancel… trying everything and everywhere to get back up but no luck so far. anyone any ideas!
I was just another unsuspecting individual who bought into their “50 free songs” scam, I had to change my card number because they kept on charging me for months after I canceled my account, no one ever responded my complaint e-mails, they fucking suck !!!
I’ve had the same experience. I cancelled after three days and they continue to charge me months later. I’m really furious about this. Someone needs to bring a lawsuit against these frauds.
Same ole song-and-dance here…signed up in Sept 07, canceled by the end of the month, continued to bill $9.99 to date. Talked to my credit card company Chase, they get lots of complaints about them, and will block further charges since no responses to do so from eMusic. Also, in addition to BBB, am contacting the New York County District Attorneys Office, Special Prosecutions Unit, Fraud Division, 212-335-8900. eMusic, according to a Whois search on goDaddy, is based in Manhattan, which is the New York County DA’s jurisdiction. Guarantee they have more teeth than the typically useless BBB.
I too fell for this after seeing Netflix ads and a free offer with my new phone. I subscribed in January and cancelled two days later and here it is June and I am still trying to get them to stop charging me the 9.99 a month.
Has anyone succeeded in getting it to stop or getting any refunds? Any class action lawsuits yet? I am calling to cancel my card and report these charges as unauthorized.
I’ve been e-mialing back and forth with eMusic’s customer support for an account I did not agree to. Each time I’ve requested a full refund for charges that I did not agree to. eMusic has charged me for the past 3 months
for audio book and music downloads @ $9.99 each!. I have contacted my credit card co. and was planning on filing a dispute, but suprise eMusic decided to make an acception to there no refund policy and give me a credit of$9.99. I received the paperwork from my credit card co. and found out I have to have a minimum dispute of $50.00 . eMusic in full scam mode, by giving me a credit of $9.99 brought me just pennies below the amount I can dispute !!!
From what I understand eMusic dowloads your credit card info as you are entering it. So as I found out even if you don,t hit the agree button after reading their terms (which I did not) your info is already in their system, and you wont know you have an account until it is to late.
EMUSIC IS A SCAM AND NEEDS TO BE TAKEN DOWN!!!!
I also would like to know if a class action lawsuit is filed.
I’ve never even heard of eMusic, till I took a peak on my credit card bill. In total, they have charged me for $44.99 over the past two months. I’ve never even heard of them, let alone given them my credit card number!!!
So I have two questions.
1. How on earth did they get my credit card number without me signing up?!
2. How is it that this has been going on for several years, and they haven’t been sued out of business yet? They should be.
I’m actually pretty damn pleased with my eMusic subscription. Lots of great independent music and I’ve been happy for the two-plus years that I’ve been a subscriber. They do make it too hard to unsubscribe and you do have to read the fine print on the free music offers. If you like music beyond the crap on the radio, there’s lots of great stuff there.
Emusic does scam. When you cancel your account, they send you an email if you click on it they automatically reactivate your account and they DO NOT tell you or send you a confirmation email. I am currently trying to get my wasted $90 back because I did not track my credit card charges well enough. My bad but YES THEY DO SCAM. Oh and they will not give you a refund even though they can see you never downloaded any music and did mean to cancel your account 8 months ago… They also will not let you talk to any supervisors and hold you hostage when you try to call and complain. I reported them to the BB also.
Just want people to know that even so called legit companies can scam.
u were charged because u dont read the terms of use.
if you sign up for a free trial, u need to cancel it before the free trial period ends and dont exceed the number of free downloads. when u do 1 of those things above, that’s the only time that u will be charged.
its not a scam. u just dont follow the rules and regulations.
emusic won’t have ur credit card number if u didnt sign up or no one signed up in your behalf. it can be a personality theft but most of the time, its just ur stupidity. u let someone have ur credit card information and used it for signing up with emusic. its ur fault u have been charged. and its ur fault u were not refunded. u dont keep track of ur expenses and ur credit card charges.
you will be refunded if you deserve it.
>>if you called immediately upon seeing the charge
>>if you have read the terms of use carefully
>>if you didnt violate anything on the terms of use
>>and if you dont yell at their agents.
>>yelling wont help you.
just like me. i talked to them with full professionalism. they gave me my refund which i deserved. filing a law suit won’t help. they will just show you the terms of use. you are being charged just because of two things: you subscribed with emusic and you didnt follow the terms of use.
bye assholes!
have just been conned into subscription with emusic – its a total scam – they already had my bank details from years ago – and it automatically resubscribes you. i cancelled immediately and they wont refund any money. I only wanted to see if their totally shite catalogue had improved from the last time i cancelled. it hasnt. it sucks. their attitude sucks. they are representing independant music but they are behaving worse than itunes….
Hey there – same thing happened to us! They’re charging us even though we never opened up an account with them, and it’s extremely difficult to cancel the account.
They are total scammers and the world need to know what con artists they are.
anyone have any idea for how to publicize this? just complianing about it here doesn’t do much.
emusic fuckin pissis me thefuck off
My wife gave e-music her debit card number and it appears that they have cleaned her account out with no use of the account in only 1 week.
Stay clear of them and advise all friends to do likewise.
If you have access to the media, get it published to save others.
Complaining here does do some good. It prevents others from falling prey to the bad business practices of emusic. I was just about to sign up when I decided to check the web to see if I could find comments pro or con re emusic. Well, I am really sorry you guys are going though all this bs but I certainly thank you for taking the time to make your feelings known and saving me and countless others the same frustration. Word of mouth still works in the digital age and can cover a much larger audience so you all are doing much more than you think to nick emusic’s revenue because if I found you and took the time to tell you, how many others read this, turned down emusic but didn’t take the time to comment here. Sorry for your pain everyone but as for public service and still sticking it to emusic at the same time – good job!!!
Here is the e-mail I sent e-music.com Let’s see what happens…
4/17/09
I am VERY DISSATISFIED with E-Music.Com Customer service is VERY Poor. I signed on for the free trial and was automatically subscribed to the service. Not only e-music, but e-books also. After repeatedly trying to contact you, my subscription was finally cancelled. I was told my complaint would be forwarded to a higher authority and I would be contacted. I was told I had until the 17th to download this months (April) account. After not being contacted, I decided to attempt to use the account on the 17th. I log on and am told the account is deactivated. Bottom line is that I have paid for 3 months service and recieved NOTHING in return. Please refund the 3 months I have paid or at least allow me to download the 3 months I have paid for. Signed, Name and E-Mail
Today is April 25, NO RESPONSE from e-music. I paid the billing. I’m out $48 US for my “Free Trial”. The good news is that the billings seem to have stopped. BUYER BEWARE!!!
emusic sucks i bought a 10.00 pre-payed card and can’t even find 20 songs. I am a thirteen year old girl and don’t know nor care for oldies music.
E-Music is terrible. I put my account on hold and then they took the hold off, without my permission, and charged me $ 11.99 immediately. Then they told me I could mail a complaint in until they finally gave me a customer service number. Here it is for whoever else is upset:
US Residents 1-866-240-9271
UK Residents 0845 410-4104
Outside the US & UK 1-212-300-2856
(Hours 9am-9pm EST Mon-Fri)
I would love to start a class action suit against this company. I think we would have a case with all of the people who have been mischarged and upset about other issues.
Just discovered that eMusic have been charging us a monthly fee for ages for zero downloads. No invoices, no receipts, no newsletters, no nothing. Do not use this service. They will steal your money.
e music charged me with $114.99 membership which i didnot apply for I live on disabiliaty and they withdrew money deposited by federal check deposit.As I live on disability I cannot afford frivilous things. I have used my credit card on one purchase online so I knowwho gave out my account#.UNLESS THEY HACKED MY COMPUTER!!!!!
I contacted e-music promptly and they said they would issue me a full refund which I should recieve in 3 to 5 days. If so i jumped the gun with so much critisom
I got a PREPAID gift card and tried to use it. What is their definition of “prepaid”? It requires me to “choose a plan” and submit a credit card #. I refuse to do so and have told emusic that I will report them to the state Dept of Consumer Protection and Atty General.
Also – for those already taken in by this scam company, call your CREDIT CARD COMPANY AND FILE A COMPLAINT – a quicker alternative than a lawsuit and,depending on the card company- should get you some action.
Hi there- I just woke up this morning to a $1.00 (in my opinion ‘test charge’) from emusic.com. I tried calling the number listed (866-240-9271) and guess what…its out of service! I have contacted my bank but they are saying that its still a pending charge and there isn’t much they can do until i am actually charged. I WILL NOT be taken by some fraudulent company that I have never heard of. I have NO idea who they got my credit card information but I will be filing a complaint!
Signed up for free trials of emusic and a free subscription to a mag. Free subscription lasted 2 weeks emusic charged me 114.95 ( also 4 other entities i have never heard of and did not sign up for started charging me 31.95 /mo) cancelleded every thing and changed my card number. emusic was very nice said they would cancell and prorate me a refund. Later received email saying my card was no good and since they couldnot “charge as little as 11.95 they would not be able to issue refund” hmmmmm. I did not wish to give them new number so i said fine ill just take the subscription. Nope. No card number no refund no music. Theyre keeping it all
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eMusic stole over $200 from my debit account. I never signed up for anything with them. I have never download music from any place. Did not know what eMusic was untill they stole my money. They know the account is total fraud. They will not refund the money they stole. I have filed a report with the FBI and state attorney general. looking for a good attorney, class action.
Tacoma, WA USA
I’m one of the people dissatisfied with e:music. Signed up for my lad, music not suitable and tried to cancel, which I thought that I had done. Didn’t spot the the monthly charges on my credit card. EMusic refused to return the bulk of the payments taken despite having never downloaded anything at all. Got my money back via Small Claims, including costs.
Ack. eMusic, while maybe not acting illegally, is definitely pretty devious. I got their free trial ad, didn’t download anything, and forgot about it (yup, my fault), and just called them when I saw charges for $40 on my bank statement. They told me they have a “no refund” policy. I explained that I never used the service – what are they charging me for? I asked to speak to a supervisor, but she told me they were all in a board meeting. Sure. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. This is just a stupid company – sure, they got my 40 bucks, but now I’ll never become a regular subscriber because of the bad taste left in my mouth.
I’m also going to complain to Seagate – I got the eMusic ad when I bought a hard drive from that company.
Thanks to everyone for posting – I was just about to sign up, when I paused and decided to do a search on “emusic.com sucks”. This sight was one of the first in the cue, and after reading I’m definitely not signing up. THANKS! YOU HAVE SAVED ME! E-MUSIC.COM SUCKS!
i fucking hate emusic with a passion we should make a petition to close those cocksuckers down………..
Another scam – with the free trial, I wasn’t charged until the next month – my fault for not cancelling so I didn’t mind at all.
I was going to delete it, but thought I may want to go back (I’m so stupid!) so I only de-activated.
Months later, my de-activation period is about to run out. I don’t want the account, but the only way to cancel is by re-activating, which requires them to take the upcoming month’s payment for absolutely nothing, seeing as I’ll delete it straight away.
Bye bye money. :(
never use a free music voucher from e music , its a scam that traps you into becoming a member, ive just managed to cancel the £13.99 a month they were taking from my account but they refuse to refund 3 months of paymennts, i am about to contact consumer rights failing this i have friends who are solicitors who will act for free, feel angry , the internet is great but it is a shame it can be used by companies whose websites are designed to trick and defraud people