ExamCollection - Premium service a scam, ripoff ...

For those of you that don't know ExamCollection.com, this site provides a library of VCE (Practice IT Exams) files which users upload to share for free.....Well not anymore because Exam Collection now decide that they want to charge you for the files other users upload. But that's just the beginning.

You can still download free VCE files, but what I've seen is that they are all dodgy practice exams which have wrong questions and answers. So this forces people to pay for their so called ''premium'' service. I suspect ExamCollection are uploading all of these dodgy practice exams so it forces people into their premium service.

The particular exam that I was interested in having too many practice questions so I looked into their premium service. If you go to this subscription page you will see that they advertise their premium service as giving you unlimited access. They also offer you four options. These options include monthly subscription and quarterly subscription. They provide a concession when you subscribe to their quarterly service. If you look at this subscription page there is no mention of the monthly subscription having a minimum time period of three months. When you select the monthly subscription and go to the next billing page and you and you read the billing terms and condition, again, there is no mention of a minimum time period for the monthly subscription.

So anyway, I bought a monthly rate package for $69.99 which seems way overpriced for simply hosting files other people are providing but I did it anyway. Serviced worked and I could access VCE files which seemed reliable.

Although the subscription says that it is unlimited, but the service would allow me to download only 50 voices. After that it would not allow me to download any more items, something that they forgot to mention in the license agreement.

50 downloads limit. Not mentioned anywhere in the license agreement.

So I go to cancel my 'monthly' subscription, and I'm told that it's for a minimum of 3 months. If I want to cancel early I have to pay $60 for 'handling charges'.

In order to cancel my subscription I also need to print off a form, sign it, then email it back to them and also agree to their billing terms...... None of this was required when signing up?? I have to allow 48 hours for this process.

So now that my form has been received, I still can't cancel because now it says this:

So they have no problems charging you electronically, delivering services electronically, it's just when you try and cancel they drag the process out as long as possible.

Right, so now I have to wait until AFTER my minimum duration in order to cancel, so now I'm up for 4 months of payments compared to what I originally thought was 1. So now it's gone from $60 to $240!!

So I drop them an email and asked them if they could point out three month limitation in the billing agreement they said that this is mentioned in the frequently asked questions. I replied to them that I am not bound by the frequently asked questions, I am bound by the billing agreement so they should cancel my subscription. I'm still waiting for a reply.

I did some research and found out that other people have had similar problems with them. While trying to figure out what can I do about it, I stumbled upon this page About.com - How do I Report Internet Scams / Fraud?. This page contains links to different organizations and agencies to which you can report Internet fraud. 

Some more research leads me to the site ripoffreport.com where a number of people have reported similar problems.

1. ExamCollection.com AKA Certplex Ltd Unfair, misleading and hidden cancellation policy. London Internet
2. examcollection.com unfair membership cancellation policy United Kingdom Internet 
3. examcollection.com / Avanset owned by certplex Ltd. London UK examcollection.com and Avanset (both Certplex Ltd Companies) scam artists London, UK Internet 

 It seems that they have been involved in shady practices for a while now. I was determined not to pay them what was not their due. I contacted my bank and asked them if they were able to block any further transactions from them. The bank informed me that the only way to stop them from charging me again was to cancel my credit card. I guess I was out of options on this one. I had my credit card canceled and ordered a new one, but I'm happy that I did not pay them any more than they deserved.