Using the Better Business Bureau to resolve complaints against unauthorized Linked-In credit card charges

Using the Better Business Bureau to resolve complaints against unauthorized Linked-In credit card charges

A few months back, I signed up for a premium account on Linked-In with the intention of using the Premium features for the period of one month. As I wanted to avoid being billed for more than once, I immediately cancelled the Premium feature and the system indicated that the period I would have the added features available was 30 days. As you can see, this is not the first time I subscribe to an online service and I am quite familiar with the (usually) relatively straightforward procedures to cancel such premium features and to avoid further hassle. Linked-In was nice enough to extend this period for another 30 days, for free. So far, so good. However, the bad awakening came a few months down the line, when my accounting department informed me that Linked-In incorrectly charged my credit card 3 more times without my knowledge. I did not receive a billing statement from Linked-In at any time. I logged into my account again, and cancelled the premium subscription for a second time, which was confirmed by Linked-In on the account page, but again no confirmation email.

Immediately thereafter, I contacted Linked-In to inform them of the incorrect credit card charges and to ask them for a refund of all 3 charges. Their customer service team (customerservice@linkedin.com) was very prompt in their reply, but expectedly did not resolve the issue. The following is the reply from Linked-In's customer service:


"I'm sorry for any confusion caused by our renewal process however, our system confirms that no cancellation request was made prior to your last renewal. I’ve transitioned your account back to a Basic (free) account effective immediately and a courtesy refund for 1 month has been issued to your credit card."

What surprised me was that Linked-In had to "transition the account back to a free account" manually, even though I had gone into website myself to cancel the Premium feature for a second time and it had again showed me that the cancellation was successful. I was not at all surprised that they wouldn't give me a full refund.

As I didn't want to bring lawyers into this, and despite the fact that one of my co-works witnessed my first cancellation of the Premium account, I decided to give it a shot and file a complaint against Linked-In with the Better Business Bureau. As Linked-In is headquartered in California, I used the Better Business Bureau in San Jose to file my complaint online.The process is relatively straightforward, just remember that the case notes are publicly accessible, therefore do not include personal information or credit card details in your description of the problem. I also included Linked-In's response to my complaint and as a desired outcome I specified a full refund of the three unauthorized charges to my credit card. I was in good spirits to get some of my money back, however, did not expect Linked-In to give me a full refund.

After filing my complaint with the Better Business Bureau against Linked-In, I received an email from the BBB telling me to wait for 2 weeks while the company was given the opportunity to respond to the Better Business Bureau inquiry. On the very last day of this two week period, Linked-In indeed replied, saying again that they had not received any cancellation and that -out of courtesy- and as I had only used the account minimally after the first two months (naturally, since I had assumed the premium features had expired by then) they would give me an additional refund for one month.

Now, this was still one month short of my original goal of getting a full refund for the unauthorized charged to my card, however, as I had already spent considerable time and effort, I was unwilling to pursue this matter further and therefore told the Better Business Bureau to go ahead and close the case. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened, if I/ the  Better Business Bureau had pursued this further, but I still think a full refund would have been unlikely.

Telling my bank to reverse the unauthorized credit card charges from Linked-In might also have been an option, but I was worried about the company closing my account and me losing access to my extensive network on their platform.

All in all, I'm still not happy with Linked-In's behavior, as both cancellations I made apparently did not go through and were not recorded in their system, only an email achieved that. So, if you're thinking about subscribing/cancelling your Premium account on Linked-In, I would advise you to document this with screenshots or similar measures or to ask a confirmation by email. It puzzles me why a big corporation such as Linked-In appears to be unable/unwilling to send out confirmation emails or billing statements. I leave it to your imagination whether Linked-In acts this way out of negligence or malintent.

A fine thanks goes out to the Better Business Bureau, as they really do serve the customers and help people push through their rightful claims against big corporation who would otherwise just brush you off with a standard email/procedure.