Consumer complaint received 2023-05-16
Company: Rozlin Financial Group, Inc.
State: TX
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
Dear Consumer Financial Protection Bureau : I'm filing a complaint against Rozlin Financial Group , Inc. ( RFGI ) with the mailing address of : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IL XXXX. RFGI is a debt-collection company. The contact there is XXXX XXXX. She may be reached at ( XXXX ) XXXX and/or XXXX. 

RFGI is attempting to collect a debt from me totaling {$510.00} on behalf of the online dating company, XXXX, with the address of : XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, CA XXXX. XXXX may be contacted at XXXX. 

I have disputed the alleged debt in writing through email communication with XXXX and RFGI. Both have denied in writing by email communication my assertion that I do not owe XXXX any money. 

Below is the letter I sent this morning to RFGI contesting the debt : XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IL XXXX Dear RFGI : Thank you for your XX/XX/XXXX email informing me that you are attempting to collect a debt on behalf of XXXX totaling {$510.00}. 

Please accept this letter as a formal dispute of that debt. Please note I am replying prior to the XX/XX/XXXX deadline you stated in your XX/XX/XXXX email. 

Im writing you to inform you that I do not owe XXXX any debt as outlined in your XX/XX/XXXX email with the reference number : XXXX. 

The address you listed for me is inaccurate. In your XX/XX/XXXX email, you list my address as : XXXX. I have not resided at that address since prior to XXXX XXXX, XXXX. No credit card or banking information that is mine has listed that address as my billing and mailing address since I moved on XXXX XXXX, XXXX, to my current address : XXXX. 

Why was/is XXXX permitted to charge me {$510.00} when I did not authorize this charge, and when the billing information that RFGI and, apparently, XXXX possesses is incorrect? 

As stated above, I did not authorize this charge to my credit card. My bank, XXXX XXXX, informed me by email on XXXX XXXX, XXXX, that it had detected some unusual activity on your XXXX XXXX Credit Card ending in XXXX. XXXX XXXX automatically declined the charge totaling {$510.00}. I have attached a PDF of the email I received from XXXX XXXX regarding this incident. I contacted XXXX XXXX and reported the fraudulent charge. XXXX XXXX canceled that credit card and issued me a new one. 

To further ensure that XXXX no longer could charge my credit card without my authorization, I accessed my XXXX account for the first time in roughly 11 months. At that time, I observed that the company still listed me as a subscribing member despite me not signing up for membership continuation nor receiving any notice from XXXX that the company would be charging me any amount without my authorization. I canceled my membership to halt the automatic renewal the company was/is attempting to force upon me and charge me for without my authorization. I explained this situation to XXXX XXXX and the bank agreed this constituted a fraudulent charge perpetrated by XXXX. 

XXXX then obtained my replacement XXXX XXXX credit card information and charged the replacement card {$510.00}. I notified XXXX XXXX of this second fraudulent charge by XXXX. XXXX XXXX declined the charge and issued me another replacement card. XXXX XXXX informed me that the bank would block further attempts by XXXX to charge my credit card. 

At this point, I understood the matter to be resolved. But on XXXX XXXX, I received an email from XXXX stating that the company had sent me a payment reminder on XX/XX/XXXX. I did not receive that XXXX XXXX email or any other email or communication from XXXX. Otherwise, I would have immediately disputed the charge, as I did on XXXX XXXX. 

I replied on XXXX XXXX to XXXX informing the company that I did not owe XXXX any money. I stated that XXXX XXXX agreed that XXXX twice had attempted to fraudulently charge me and twice issued me a new card, so XXXX could not continue to charge me without my authorization. I also informed the company that I had canceled my membership. And I forwarded XXXX the attached XXXX XXXX email from XXXX XXXX alerting me of unusual activity on my credit card i.e., XXXX attempting to fraudulently charge me {$510.00}. 

XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX emailed me informing me that I had purchased a multi-payment subscription which still has 6 payments remaining. I replied to XXXX that same day, informing the company the following : I did not purchase " a multi-payment subscription. '' I did not approve the charge XXXX attempted to transact with my XXXX XXXX credit card. XXXX charged my card without my consent. 
This is why XXXX XXXX declined XXXX initial attempt to charge my credit card. XXXX XXXX issued me a new card due to this fraudulent charge and XXXX then attempted also to charge that card. After discussing the situation with XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX officials agreed I did not make or approve the purchase and that the charge was fraudulent. 
I had not used or logged onto XXXX in roughly 11 months when XXXX charged my credit card. So, it was clear I no longer was an eHarmony customer, just as it was and is clear that I would not have purchased or approved a purchase for an eHarmony service or product that I was not using. 

I also ccd XXXX XXXX on each correspondence I had with XXXX. 

Please halt the collection of {$510.00} you currently seek on behalf of XXXX. I do not owe the company any money. 

Thank you for attention to this matter, and appreciate you closing it and considering the issue resolved. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX Below is the response I received from RFGI this afternoon : -- -- -- -- -- Forwarded message -- -- -- -- - From : RFGI Customer Service XXXX Date : Tue, XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX Subject : RE : Online Dispute To : XXXX Good Afternoon XXXX, Thank you for reaching out. Upon review of documentation provided by XXXX, your original subscription placed on XX/XX/XXXX was paid in full. Subscriptions renew automatically to provide customers with uninterrupted service. For your convenience this is mentioned during the purchase process, in the order confirmation, and in the Terms and Conditions. As the auto renewal was not deactivated, a 12-month renewal subscription totaling {$470.00} ( plus applicable sales tax of {$31.00} ) made payable in 1 payment continues the same terms until you cancel and was enacted on XX/XX/XXXX. Unfortunately due to a chargeback, your installment payment did not go through leaving the full balance {$510.00} which has been placed with us. Do you have a cancellation notice from before the renewal date of XX/XX/XXXX? If so, you can email that to us and, once confirmed, we can close this case right away for you. If cancellation is made after the auto renewal date, cancellation unfortunately will not affect your obligation to pay the total contractual amount due on your subscription. You can review eHarmonys Terms and Conditions regarding cancellation here : XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. The order confirmation that was received upon purchase of the subscription explained the auto renewal pricing and enactment date along with instructions on how to cancel. I have attached the order confirmation and payment reminders that were sent to you for your reference. I have also attached a sample screenshot of the details that are provided on the website before you subscribe for your review. It shows the price, total installment amounts and how many installments, the term length, renewal information, etc. It states the following : I authorize XXXX to charge my account now and upon each monthly payment and each renewal. You agreed to the terms and conditions when checking the box and clicking subscribe now. If you were refunded by your banking institution that did not erase the outstanding debt due to XXXX as you were credited and they were rebilled. A decision by your banking institution is not a legal judgement, it only refers to the payment method and not the actual legality of the debt. We do not own this account but are contracted by XXXX to collect on outstanding balances on their behalf. We are not authorized to write off the balance. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. 

XXXX XXXX Rozlin Financial Group , Inc . 
XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, IL XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX ID : XXXX New York XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX North Carolina Permit XXXX XXXX This is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Rozlin Financial Group, Inc ( RFGI ) is a debt collector. 

To opt out of receiving e-mails, respond " OPT-OUT '' IMPORTANT : The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential. It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party, without a written consent of the sender. If you received this message by mistake, please reply to this message and follow with its deletion, so that we can ensure such a mistake does not occur in the future. 

XXXX I expect companies with auto-renew policies such as XXXX to be more transparent, respect user privacy and be prevented from financial predation on unaware customers myself in this instance. Any and all companies of this kind should send a reminder email to alert the customer a renewal charge is upcoming. 

This is my experience with all other companies with which I have subscriptions. 

What XXXX, and RFGI by extension, has done is charge me for a service I hadn't used in roughly 11 months without reasonable warning that another charge was imminent. 

Had I received such a notification, I would have canceled my membership and halted my subscription. This practice is predatory at best and fraudulent at worst. Companies with an ethical and moral compass do not engage in such practices. I am surprised that such corporate behavior continues while competitor companies do their best to be reasonable with customers, ensuring fairness and loyalty. 

For example, I experienced this identical situation with the online dating company, Coffeemeetsbagel.com. The customer-service representative I communicated with there immediately refunded me the charge, eliminated the debt and canceled my subscription. 

XXXX would do well to follow this example.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation