Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/12/15) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] with the customer support team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry that you didn't receive...
a helpful answer to your question and for any confusion you may have experienced with our payment process. When a customer posts a question on our site, they are required to place a $5 deposit at the time of the posting and the balance of the question price is due once an Expert responds. The total deposit you've placed is $20.
As a courtesy, I have processed a refund of your payments. The funds are made available to your bank the next business day, however, the bank may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy.
Because JustAnswer is committed to customer satisfaction, we offer our customers a self-service refund tool. If you should require a refund in the future, you can process it up to 30 days after your payment was made by following this link:
http://www.justanswer.com/refund/refund.aspx
May I ask if you still need help with your question? If so, please let me know and I will locate an Expert to assist you at no additional cost.
Finally, I assure you that you will not receive a charge from JustAnswer unless you post another question on our site.
If there is anything else I may assist you with, please reply to this email and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Support Supervisor
Sorry I didn't respond earlier ... had to go out of town for a few days. My experience was/is the way in which my payment was handled. On 11-Dec-2015, I asked a question of which I received an answer. I knew I had to paid $5.00 for the answer and that it way on a free trial for a week. After the week, (which would be the 18-Dec-2015), I could have the option to except or not except a monthly payment of $36.00 a month per year. As I did not want to except and there was not a place to choose not to except, I was waiting for the 18th to receive a confirmation if I wanted a yes or no answer. On the site that asked for a performance rating, there was not a phone # or place to e-mail a response! Checking my credit card, the payment of $5.00 was paid along with the $35.00 on the same date of 11-Dec-2015. I thought that would not be in effect until the 18th! There is a statement saying you can cancel anytime, so I elect to cancel as of this date 16-Dec-2015! In addition, I expect to see a credit of $35.00 applied to my credit card.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2014/12/26) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] with the customer support team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry you didn't get the...
answer you needed. While JustAnswer cannot guarantee or predict a response time, most questions are answered in a timely manner. Response time is affected by the number of Experts online, question volume, and the difficulty of individual questions. I see that an Expert was able to provide you with an answer to your question. Were you able to review it?
Your $60 payment was refunded on 12/23/2014, as requested. The funds are made available to your PayPal account the next business day, however, PayPal may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy.
In the interest of maintaining goodwill, I have added a promotional credit to your account of $30 which you may use toward a question on our site within 30 days. Since this credit is promotional it is not refundable but I hope you give us another try.
Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Support Supervisor
freezer full of food thawing. alarm going off. appliance store and manufacturers site unable to find owners manual. it was a sunday, so no help available. Just Answer to the rescue. walked me through, emailed owners manual. followed up. otherwise couldn't get help for a week and would have had to pay $170 just to look at problem . glad we could fix it with your help.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/18) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I am sorry for the problems...
you have experienced with our site. The account registered to your zoominternet.net email address has no recent questions or deposits on it. If you see a charge to your bank account, this means you have another account with us. Please send to me another email address that you may have registered. If you did not register another email address, please send the first six and last four digits of the card that was charged. I assure you that I will only use this information to locate the account and further assist you with your refund request. Since these complaints are public on the Revdex.com website, please send this information to me directly at [redacted]@justanswer.com
I look forward to your reply.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Care Manager
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/03/20) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry for the problems...
you've experienced with our site. I assure you we are not a fraudulent company nor do we charge customers without their approval.
Please let me explain how our payment system works. When asking a question on JustAnswer, a customer sets the dollar amount that they are willing to pay for a satisfactory answer to their question. Before your question was posted, you were required to make a good faith deposit of $5 with the remainder of the question price due once an Expert responds. Customers must acknowledge and approve the payment terms before their question can be posted. The charge that was made to your account was for the good faith deposit which is fully refundable if the customer is not satisfied with any of the answers that they receive to their question.
I was able to locate your account and see that an Expert responded to your question about seven minutes after it was posted which is why the balance of the question deposit was charged.
As requested, I have processed a refund of your $45 deposit. The funds are made available to your bank the next business day, however, the bank may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy. Because JustAnswer is committed to customer satisfaction, we offer our customers a self-service refund tool. If you should require a refund in the future, you can process it up to 30 days after your payment was made by following this link: http://www.justanswer.com/refund/refund.aspx
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Care Manager
My dog was choking on something and I couldn't help him. This was "after hours" for our vet. I used Just Answer and was connected with a vet in minutes. She gave me good advice about what to do immediately and how to care for him after the item was dislodged. The $19 cost was invaluable given the situation. Actually, a trip to the vet if they had been open would have been more and not as fast. I am very grateful.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/06/12) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] with the customer support team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry for the confusion with...
our site. Upon reviewing your account, I see that you activated the subscription program on April 1st, 2014 The charge from June 8th, 2014 is for the subscription. I can assure you that we never enroll a customer into the subscription program unless they accept the offer. As a courtesy, we processed a refund of your subscription payment on June 10th, 2014 and your subscription was cancelled the same day. The funds were made available to your bank the next business day, however, the bank may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy.
With regard to the two questions you posted, I see that you received replies to both. One Expert asked for more information but it appears that you never viewed their reply and you engaged in conversation with the other Expert and gave them an Excellent rating.
In the interest of maintaining goodwill, I have added a promotional credit to your account of $25 that you may use toward a question on our site within 30 days. Since this credit is promotional it is not refundable but I hope you give us another try!
Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Support Supervisor
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/06/24) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] with the customer support team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry for the confusion you've...
experienced with our site. Please let me explain how our payment system works. When asking a question on JustAnswer, a customer sets the dollar amount that they are willing to pay for a satisfactory answer to their question. Either before the question is posted, or before the Expert's response to a question is revealed, the customer must make a good faith deposit for the full amount that they are willing to pay for the satisfactory answer to their question. The deposit is fully refundable if the customer is not satisfied with any of the answers that they receive to their question. The charge that was made to your account was for the good faith deposit. The deposit is distributed to the Expert only after the customer gives their answer a positive rating. A summary of this process can be found on our site here: http://ww2.justanswer.com/how-justanswer-works.
I have also included a screenshot of the payment page which shows the $5 deposit required at the time of the post and that the remaining balance is due when an Expert responds. An
Expert responded to you about 30 mins after you posted which is why we attempted to charge the remaining balance. [redacted]
If you'd like to continue with the Expert, please return to your question page on our site. You will be prompted to pay the remaining balance of $23. You can rate the Expert's answer and submit your payment to them once you've received the help you need.
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Support Supervisor
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/02/09) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry for the experience...
you've had with our site and that the Expert with whom you initiated the chat was not able to assist you. The Experts on our chat feature are Experts on the site and they are available to answer questions. Experts decide which questions they respond to and if they aren't able to properly answer a question, for any reason, the question is made available to other Experts in that category. While we cannot guarantee or predict a response time, most questions are answered in a timely manner. Response time is affected by the number of Experts online, question volume, and the difficulty of individual questions.
With regard to our payment system, the terms vary depending on the payment type. If paying via credit or debit card, most customers are required to place a $5 deposit at the time of the post with the remaining question price collected when an Expert responds. If paying via PayPal, a full deposit is required at the time of the post. Either payment structure is shown on the payment page of the question posting process depending on the payment type selected by the customer.
I'm unable to locate an account under your @[redacted] email address. If you've registered another email address with us, please let me know the address so that I may review your account and process a refund of your charges if it has not already been resolved through PayPal. If you did not register another email address, please let me know the email address associated with your PayPal account and I can locate your transaction and question that way.
Our customer care team is available 24/7 via email at [redacted]@justanswer.com and phone at (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Our chat option is currently unavailable and I apologize for any inconvenience. We plan to enable chat in the near future to give our customers another channel for support.
I look forward to your reply.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Care Manager
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/02/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I appreciate the response and the refund, but what you're not acknowledging is that these phony chat windows and the promise to "talk to this person right away" are simply misleading and, to my mind, outright false advertising. The chat windows indicate that someone is typing to the client in real-time, but upon closer investigation it's not the case at all. It's a pre-programmed "bot" chatting with me, and the expert I believe I'm communicating with is likely not the one who will be addressing my question.
Further, there should be no option to skip the more detailed question information in light of this. The whole system is geared around an asynchronous messaging system with your experts, not live chat.
Until you stop misrepresenting the nature of your service, I maintain that you are conducting bait-and-switch business.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2015/04/06) */
Hello,
Thank you for your reply and for providing your alternate email address. I was able to locate the account and see that your payment of $20 was reversed. The funds were returned to your Paypal account. If you have not received the funds, please reach out to PayPal directly.
Thank you for your feedback about our chat feature. I assure you that your complaint has been noted and we are working to improve functionality. Also, with regard to the deposit structure, there are two types depending on the payment method and both are reflected on the payment page during the question posting process and must be agreed to before a question can be posted. The $5 deposit that is available at the time of the post, is only an option for those paying with credit or debit card. A customer paying with PayPal is required to pay at the time of the post a deposit equivalent to the question price. Here is a screenshot of the payment structure when credit card is selected: http://screencast.com/t/46mWjyJpqH When PayPal is selected, the structure changes: http://screencast.com/t/mmmSYFqqR
Finally, you should have received an email confirmation at the time the refund was processed. For your records, here this confirmation:
PayPal 1/31/2015 3:27:20 PM ($20) Customer Refund
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Care Manager
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 16, 2015/04/10) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Dear Sir or Madam,
Yes I received the 20 dollar refund, but you are refusing to address my ongoing insistence that your phony "chat with an expert" pseudo-live-chat windows are beyond misleading. You offer to "speak with an expert now" and the windows give an actual identity of the authority your potential clients believe they can speak with "now." You even make claims that the expert is online and available "now." This is such utterly bogus bait-and-switch advertising that I simply will not let this go because you reversed the $20 charge. Your business is built on deception which should be plain enough to anyone investigating your sites.
If Revdex.com wants to close this as resolved because you refunded me, so be it. Until then, I am adamant that your business practices are unethical and likely illegal, should anyone care to really look into it.
"Improving functionality" is a wonderfully slippery phrase for what needs to be done. Either deliver on the promise of an authority with whom one can chat in real time, or stop with the false advertising and fine print ($5 becomes $20 when one actually tries to pay) runaround.
[redacted]
I have to admit, I was a little hesitant at first, with all the scams going on on the internet today. But it turned out to be a great decision. The expert called me and was very detailed and helpful. I would recommend to all.
I was given great help from the plumbing expert I was connected with. I was thinking that my problem was serious, yet it was a simple matter to handle. I would recommend JustAnswer to anyone with questions about plumbing issues.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/30) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I am sorry for the problems...
you have experienced with our site. Please let me explain how our deposit system works.
When a customer posts a question on JustAnswer, they choose the price they are willing to pay for a satisfactory answer. Once the question is posted, an initial $5 deposit is made and when an Expert responds, the balance of the deposit is made.
We have a 100% customer satisfaction policy, if you do not get an answer or you do not get a satisfactory answer, you are entitled to a full refund.
I tried to locate your account with the email address you provided here but was unable to find one. Please send me an email at [redacted]@justanswer.com and provide the email you used when you created your JustAnswer account or a link to your question page. If you don't have those, please provide me the first six (6) and last four (4) of the card that was charged (not the whole card number or any other info off of the card) and I will have our billing department search for the account.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Senior Customer Support Specialist
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/01/05) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I spoke with [redacted] at Just Answer. She told me that they have issued a credit for $28.00 to my credit card account. When I spoke with customer service at [redacted] I was told that no refund credit has been received from Just answer.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/01/24) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of the follow up response to your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Here are the authorization codes for the charges that you can provide to your bank to confirm that they did receive the refunds
$2X - XXXXXC
$1X - XXXXXC
$5 - XXXXXC
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help. You can also reach me directly at [redacted]@justanswer.com.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Senior Customer Support Specialist
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 11, 2016/01/28) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Just answer indicates that the credit for $28 refund was received by my bank and referred to an authorization code XXXXXC. As of today the credit has not posted to my account. As soon as the credit posts to my account I will consider the matter resolved. Bank said that Just Answer has 2 billing cycles to issue credit. If they have not responded the bank will remove the $28.00 charge permanently.
This is the second time that I haves used the Just Answer service. The attorneys have always been thorough and prompt in their response. I get the feeling that this is more than a business to them, because they certainly demonstrate compassion and concern.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/21) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I am sorry for the problems...
you have experienced with our site.
Regarding our membership plan, it's completely opt in and we cannot sign customers up for this feature. To opt in and/or out off the membership feature, just log into your account and you can toggle the membership on or off under your account settings.
After checking your account, it looks like you accepted a free trial offer to try our membership program. At the end of the trial, the membership bills automatically to avoid disruptions in service. It is evident that you did not intend to continue with the membership after the trial ended, so as a courtesy, I have opted you out of the membership and issued a refund of the charges. The funds are made available to your bank the next business day, however, the bank may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy.
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/02) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I am sorry for the problems...
you have experienced with our site.
I would like to resolve all of the issues you've mentioned, but I am unable to locate an account using the email address you've provided here. Please email me at [redacted]@justanswer.com and we can work on locating the account and addressing your concerns.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Senior Customer Support Specialist
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/15) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Please see the response sent to the business. I have redacted the email address from this note because this is a publicly available response:
Hi,
I have been combing through my parents' email accounts to try and find any mail from your company to identify which account you used to set up a "membership". I use the term membership loosely as to their knowledge my parents did not sign up for a "membership".
The "membership" is associated with the email address [redacted]@xxxx.xxx. I have managed to access the account associated with the "membership", via one of the emails you sent, and cancel it. You will note that a password [redacted] never set up for the account, as I was able to log in and cancel it without a password.
I have re-read the emails that you sent to my parents account - all of which ended up in spam - and I am appalled that you sent seven emails in the first hour. Hiding in this flood of messages is one that hints at an ongoing charge with the subject "Your free trial starts now!".
This is predatory and unconscionable behavior, relying on people being so sick of your messages that the skip reading the "important" ones and not knowing what you've signed them up for over the telephone.
Please reverse all charges associated with this "membership" as it was not entered into knowingly or with full disclosure from your company over the telephone as to the nature of the "membership". Consent was given for a single payment for a single act of assistance. However, the assistance provided was of absolutely no use what so ever, so please refund that charge too.
Regards, [redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/08/23) */
Hello,
Thank you for your response.
I received your response via email and I've taken care of all of your concerns. I sent you an email with all of the information on Wed 8/19/15.
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
The response to my veterinary question was prompt and complete. The price was reasonable, too - less than a third of the cost of a local phone consult would have been.
The vet I spoke with, ([redacted]), did a great job of giving me information to help with my cats. She contacted me within minutes of my question being posted. I very much appreciated her helpfulness, thoughtfulness and professionalism!
I just invested nearly one hr. pondering of unpaid thinking (& reporting) a review for a long-distance "help" service which [redacted] provides for those of us not positioned to pay not insignificant yearly fees for on-going consultative, problem-solving technical problems for those of use not nearly as skilled as the advisors providing the service. I certainly don't begrudge these technicians an opportunity to keep a roof over their heads. However, after writing what I think was a truthful, unambiguous about my satisfactions, and in other ways attempting to report my assessment of the experience (pro bono, which seems a silly way to put it, as the benefits - if any - accrue only to the [redacted] Corp.). Having done the right thing by the [redacted] Co., I think enough is enough, as now I'm being asked to repeat the experience and contribute further laudatory words. I feel I've done my part already.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/12/15) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] with the customer support team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry that you didn't receive...
a helpful answer to your question and for any confusion you may have experienced with our payment process. When a customer posts a question on our site, they are required to place a $5 deposit at the time of the posting and the balance of the question price is due once an Expert responds. The total deposit you've placed is $20.
As a courtesy, I have processed a refund of your payments. The funds are made available to your bank the next business day, however, the bank may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy.
Because JustAnswer is committed to customer satisfaction, we offer our customers a self-service refund tool. If you should require a refund in the future, you can process it up to 30 days after your payment was made by following this link:
http://www.justanswer.com/refund/refund.aspx
May I ask if you still need help with your question? If so, please let me know and I will locate an Expert to assist you at no additional cost.
Finally, I assure you that you will not receive a charge from JustAnswer unless you post another question on our site.
If there is anything else I may assist you with, please reply to this email and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Support Supervisor
Dear Sir, Madam,
Sorry I didn't respond earlier ... had to go out of town for a few days. My experience was/is the way in which my payment was handled. On 11-Dec-2015, I asked a question of which I received an answer. I knew I had to paid $5.00 for the answer and that it way on a free trial for a week. After the week, (which would be the 18-Dec-2015), I could have the option to except or not except a monthly payment of $36.00 a month per year. As I did not want to except and there was not a place to choose not to except, I was waiting for the 18th to receive a confirmation if I wanted a yes or no answer. On the site that asked for a performance rating, there was not a phone # or place to e-mail a response! Checking my credit card, the payment of $5.00 was paid along with the $35.00 on the same date of 11-Dec-2015. I thought that would not be in effect until the 18th! There is a statement saying you can cancel anytime, so I elect to cancel as of this date 16-Dec-2015! In addition, I expect to see a credit of $35.00 applied to my credit card.
Respectfully,
[redacted]
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2014/12/26) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] with the customer support team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry you didn't get the...
answer you needed. While JustAnswer cannot guarantee or predict a response time, most questions are answered in a timely manner. Response time is affected by the number of Experts online, question volume, and the difficulty of individual questions. I see that an Expert was able to provide you with an answer to your question. Were you able to review it?
Your $60 payment was refunded on 12/23/2014, as requested. The funds are made available to your PayPal account the next business day, however, PayPal may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy.
In the interest of maintaining goodwill, I have added a promotional credit to your account of $30 which you may use toward a question on our site within 30 days. Since this credit is promotional it is not refundable but I hope you give us another try.
Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Support Supervisor
freezer full of food thawing. alarm going off. appliance store and manufacturers site unable to find owners manual. it was a sunday, so no help available. Just Answer to the rescue. walked me through, emailed owners manual. followed up. otherwise couldn't get help for a week and would have had to pay $170 just to look at problem . glad we could fix it with your help.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/18) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I am sorry for the problems...
you have experienced with our site. The account registered to your zoominternet.net email address has no recent questions or deposits on it. If you see a charge to your bank account, this means you have another account with us. Please send to me another email address that you may have registered. If you did not register another email address, please send the first six and last four digits of the card that was charged. I assure you that I will only use this information to locate the account and further assist you with your refund request. Since these complaints are public on the Revdex.com website, please send this information to me directly at [redacted]@justanswer.com
I look forward to your reply.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Care Manager
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/03/20) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry for the problems...
you've experienced with our site. I assure you we are not a fraudulent company nor do we charge customers without their approval.
Please let me explain how our payment system works. When asking a question on JustAnswer, a customer sets the dollar amount that they are willing to pay for a satisfactory answer to their question. Before your question was posted, you were required to make a good faith deposit of $5 with the remainder of the question price due once an Expert responds. Customers must acknowledge and approve the payment terms before their question can be posted. The charge that was made to your account was for the good faith deposit which is fully refundable if the customer is not satisfied with any of the answers that they receive to their question.
I was able to locate your account and see that an Expert responded to your question about seven minutes after it was posted which is why the balance of the question deposit was charged.
As requested, I have processed a refund of your $45 deposit. The funds are made available to your bank the next business day, however, the bank may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy. Because JustAnswer is committed to customer satisfaction, we offer our customers a self-service refund tool. If you should require a refund in the future, you can process it up to 30 days after your payment was made by following this link: http://www.justanswer.com/refund/refund.aspx
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Care Manager
My dog was choking on something and I couldn't help him. This was "after hours" for our vet. I used Just Answer and was connected with a vet in minutes. She gave me good advice about what to do immediately and how to care for him after the item was dislodged. The $19 cost was invaluable given the situation. Actually, a trip to the vet if they had been open would have been more and not as fast. I am very grateful.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/06/12) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] with the customer support team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry for the confusion with...
our site. Upon reviewing your account, I see that you activated the subscription program on April 1st, 2014 The charge from June 8th, 2014 is for the subscription. I can assure you that we never enroll a customer into the subscription program unless they accept the offer. As a courtesy, we processed a refund of your subscription payment on June 10th, 2014 and your subscription was cancelled the same day. The funds were made available to your bank the next business day, however, the bank may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy.
With regard to the two questions you posted, I see that you received replies to both. One Expert asked for more information but it appears that you never viewed their reply and you engaged in conversation with the other Expert and gave them an Excellent rating.
In the interest of maintaining goodwill, I have added a promotional credit to your account of $25 that you may use toward a question on our site within 30 days. Since this credit is promotional it is not refundable but I hope you give us another try!
Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Support Supervisor
Fast, excellent results, knowledgeable, professional, friendly...what more can I ask for?
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/06/24) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] with the customer support team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry for the confusion you've...
experienced with our site. Please let me explain how our payment system works. When asking a question on JustAnswer, a customer sets the dollar amount that they are willing to pay for a satisfactory answer to their question. Either before the question is posted, or before the Expert's response to a question is revealed, the customer must make a good faith deposit for the full amount that they are willing to pay for the satisfactory answer to their question. The deposit is fully refundable if the customer is not satisfied with any of the answers that they receive to their question. The charge that was made to your account was for the good faith deposit. The deposit is distributed to the Expert only after the customer gives their answer a positive rating. A summary of this process can be found on our site here: http://ww2.justanswer.com/how-justanswer-works.
I have also included a screenshot of the payment page which shows the $5 deposit required at the time of the post and that the remaining balance is due when an Expert responds. An
Expert responded to you about 30 mins after you posted which is why we attempted to charge the remaining balance. [redacted]
If you'd like to continue with the Expert, please return to your question page on our site. You will be prompted to pay the remaining balance of $23. You can rate the Expert's answer and submit your payment to them once you've received the help you need.
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Support Supervisor
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/02/09) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I'm sorry for the experience...
you've had with our site and that the Expert with whom you initiated the chat was not able to assist you. The Experts on our chat feature are Experts on the site and they are available to answer questions. Experts decide which questions they respond to and if they aren't able to properly answer a question, for any reason, the question is made available to other Experts in that category. While we cannot guarantee or predict a response time, most questions are answered in a timely manner. Response time is affected by the number of Experts online, question volume, and the difficulty of individual questions.
With regard to our payment system, the terms vary depending on the payment type. If paying via credit or debit card, most customers are required to place a $5 deposit at the time of the post with the remaining question price collected when an Expert responds. If paying via PayPal, a full deposit is required at the time of the post. Either payment structure is shown on the payment page of the question posting process depending on the payment type selected by the customer.
I'm unable to locate an account under your @[redacted] email address. If you've registered another email address with us, please let me know the address so that I may review your account and process a refund of your charges if it has not already been resolved through PayPal. If you did not register another email address, please let me know the email address associated with your PayPal account and I can locate your transaction and question that way.
Our customer care team is available 24/7 via email at [redacted]@justanswer.com and phone at (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Our chat option is currently unavailable and I apologize for any inconvenience. We plan to enable chat in the near future to give our customers another channel for support.
I look forward to your reply.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Care Manager
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/02/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I appreciate the response and the refund, but what you're not acknowledging is that these phony chat windows and the promise to "talk to this person right away" are simply misleading and, to my mind, outright false advertising. The chat windows indicate that someone is typing to the client in real-time, but upon closer investigation it's not the case at all. It's a pre-programmed "bot" chatting with me, and the expert I believe I'm communicating with is likely not the one who will be addressing my question.
Further, there should be no option to skip the more detailed question information in light of this. The whole system is geared around an asynchronous messaging system with your experts, not live chat.
Until you stop misrepresenting the nature of your service, I maintain that you are conducting bait-and-switch business.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 14, 2015/04/06) */
Hello,
Thank you for your reply and for providing your alternate email address. I was able to locate the account and see that your payment of $20 was reversed. The funds were returned to your Paypal account. If you have not received the funds, please reach out to PayPal directly.
Thank you for your feedback about our chat feature. I assure you that your complaint has been noted and we are working to improve functionality. Also, with regard to the deposit structure, there are two types depending on the payment method and both are reflected on the payment page during the question posting process and must be agreed to before a question can be posted. The $5 deposit that is available at the time of the post, is only an option for those paying with credit or debit card. A customer paying with PayPal is required to pay at the time of the post a deposit equivalent to the question price. Here is a screenshot of the payment structure when credit card is selected: http://screencast.com/t/46mWjyJpqH When PayPal is selected, the structure changes: http://screencast.com/t/mmmSYFqqR
Finally, you should have received an email confirmation at the time the refund was processed. For your records, here this confirmation:
PayPal 1/31/2015 3:27:20 PM ($20) Customer Refund
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Customer Care Manager
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 16, 2015/04/10) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Dear Sir or Madam,
Yes I received the 20 dollar refund, but you are refusing to address my ongoing insistence that your phony "chat with an expert" pseudo-live-chat windows are beyond misleading. You offer to "speak with an expert now" and the windows give an actual identity of the authority your potential clients believe they can speak with "now." You even make claims that the expert is online and available "now." This is such utterly bogus bait-and-switch advertising that I simply will not let this go because you reversed the $20 charge. Your business is built on deception which should be plain enough to anyone investigating your sites.
If Revdex.com wants to close this as resolved because you refunded me, so be it. Until then, I am adamant that your business practices are unethical and likely illegal, should anyone care to really look into it.
"Improving functionality" is a wonderfully slippery phrase for what needs to be done. Either deliver on the promise of an authority with whom one can chat in real time, or stop with the false advertising and fine print ($5 becomes $20 when one actually tries to pay) runaround.
[redacted]
I have to admit, I was a little hesitant at first, with all the scams going on on the internet today. But it turned out to be a great decision. The expert called me and was very detailed and helpful. I would recommend to all.
I was given great help from the plumbing expert I was connected with. I was thinking that my problem was serious, yet it was a simple matter to handle. I would recommend JustAnswer to anyone with questions about plumbing issues.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/30) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I am sorry for the problems...
you have experienced with our site. Please let me explain how our deposit system works.
When a customer posts a question on JustAnswer, they choose the price they are willing to pay for a satisfactory answer. Once the question is posted, an initial $5 deposit is made and when an Expert responds, the balance of the deposit is made.
We have a 100% customer satisfaction policy, if you do not get an answer or you do not get a satisfactory answer, you are entitled to a full refund.
I tried to locate your account with the email address you provided here but was unable to find one. Please send me an email at [redacted]@justanswer.com and provide the email you used when you created your JustAnswer account or a link to your question page. If you don't have those, please provide me the first six (6) and last four (4) of the card that was charged (not the whole card number or any other info off of the card) and I will have our billing department search for the account.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Senior Customer Support Specialist
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/01/05) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I spoke with [redacted] at Just Answer. She told me that they have issued a credit for $28.00 to my credit card account. When I spoke with customer service at [redacted] I was told that no refund credit has been received from Just answer.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2016/01/24) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of the follow up response to your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Here are the authorization codes for the charges that you can provide to your bank to confirm that they did receive the refunds
$2X - XXXXXC
$1X - XXXXXC
$5 - XXXXXC
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help. You can also reach me directly at [redacted]@justanswer.com.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Senior Customer Support Specialist
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 11, 2016/01/28) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
Just answer indicates that the credit for $28 refund was received by my bank and referred to an authorization code XXXXXC. As of today the credit has not posted to my account. As soon as the credit posts to my account I will consider the matter resolved. Bank said that Just Answer has 2 billing cycles to issue credit. If they have not responded the bank will remove the $28.00 charge permanently.
This is the second time that I haves used the Just Answer service. The attorneys have always been thorough and prompt in their response. I get the feeling that this is more than a business to them, because they certainly demonstrate compassion and concern.
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/21) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I am sorry for the problems...
you have experienced with our site.
Regarding our membership plan, it's completely opt in and we cannot sign customers up for this feature. To opt in and/or out off the membership feature, just log into your account and you can toggle the membership on or off under your account settings.
After checking your account, it looks like you accepted a free trial offer to try our membership program. At the end of the trial, the membership bills automatically to avoid disruptions in service. It is evident that you did not intend to continue with the membership after the trial ended, so as a courtesy, I have opted you out of the membership and issued a refund of the charges. The funds are made available to your bank the next business day, however, the bank may take 3-5 business days to release the funds back to your account depending on their policy.
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Senior Customer Support Specialist
Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/02) */
Hello,
My name is [redacted] and I am with the customer care team at JustAnswer. I received a copy of your complaint filed through the Revdex.com and I'd like to help with your concerns.
Firstly, I am sorry for the problems...
you have experienced with our site.
I would like to resolve all of the issues you've mentioned, but I am unable to locate an account using the email address you've provided here. Please email me at [redacted]@justanswer.com and we can work on locating the account and addressing your concerns.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Senior Customer Support Specialist
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/15) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Please see the response sent to the business. I have redacted the email address from this note because this is a publicly available response:
Hi,
I have been combing through my parents' email accounts to try and find any mail from your company to identify which account you used to set up a "membership". I use the term membership loosely as to their knowledge my parents did not sign up for a "membership".
The "membership" is associated with the email address [redacted]@xxxx.xxx. I have managed to access the account associated with the "membership", via one of the emails you sent, and cancel it. You will note that a password [redacted] never set up for the account, as I was able to log in and cancel it without a password.
I have re-read the emails that you sent to my parents account - all of which ended up in spam - and I am appalled that you sent seven emails in the first hour. Hiding in this flood of messages is one that hints at an ongoing charge with the subject "Your free trial starts now!".
This is predatory and unconscionable behavior, relying on people being so sick of your messages that the skip reading the "important" ones and not knowing what you've signed them up for over the telephone.
Please reverse all charges associated with this "membership" as it was not entered into knowingly or with full disclosure from your company over the telephone as to the nature of the "membership". Consent was given for a single payment for a single act of assistance. However, the assistance provided was of absolutely no use what so ever, so please refund that charge too.
Regards, [redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/08/23) */
Hello,
Thank you for your response.
I received your response via email and I've taken care of all of your concerns. I sent you an email with all of the information on Wed 8/19/15.
I hope that I have resolved your concerns to your satisfaction. Please let me know if there is anything else I may assist you with and I would be happy to help.
Best regards,
[redacted]
Senior Customer Support Specialist
The response to my veterinary question was prompt and complete. The price was reasonable, too - less than a third of the cost of a local phone consult would have been.
The vet I spoke with, ([redacted]), did a great job of giving me information to help with my cats. She contacted me within minutes of my question being posted. I very much appreciated her helpfulness, thoughtfulness and professionalism!
I just invested nearly one hr. pondering of unpaid thinking (& reporting) a review for a long-distance "help" service which [redacted] provides for those of us not positioned to pay not insignificant yearly fees for on-going consultative, problem-solving technical problems for those of use not nearly as skilled as the advisors providing the service. I certainly don't begrudge these technicians an opportunity to keep a roof over their heads. However, after writing what I think was a truthful, unambiguous about my satisfactions, and in other ways attempting to report my assessment of the experience (pro bono, which seems a silly way to put it, as the benefits - if any - accrue only to the [redacted] Corp.). Having done the right thing by the [redacted] Co., I think enough is enough, as now I'm being asked to repeat the experience and contribute further laudatory words. I feel I've done my part already.