Posted 12/3/2009 at 10:28:47 AM
Like many gamers, you may have signed up for a membership to the ECA over the past year. Maybe you did it for the now-defunct 10% off Amazon game purchases deal, or maybe you just wanted to support an organization that promised to support you as a gamer.
If you did, the ECA is paying you back this week not in savings or in advocacy, but in hassles and consumer bullying.
You see, the ECA has seen fit to remove a feature from their website that allowed members to cancel auto-renewals. Their
excusereasoning? Members were canceling and renewing memberships frequently in order to take advantage of benefits. Seeing as each membership costs $19.99, we don't see how this would work out at all for those members.
This in itself is a little annoying as a business decision, but where things get hairy is in that the organization did nothing to warn members who
already used it that their auto-renewals were not canceled. From here on out, the organization will only accept written cancellation requests at:
Attn: Accounting, ECA
64 Danbury Road, Suite 700
Wilton, CT 06897-4406Further, they've used their forums to all but say that they will ignore letters that do not have a tracking number, so be sure to use certified mail when you cancel.
Finally, don't think you're safe from charges if your card has expired, as the ECA will update your expiration date on their own in order to continue charging you.
As a reminder, even promotional memberships culled from the "GIMAG" code have credit cards on file and will be charged $19.99 when your year expires. The ECA is
supposed to email you a month in advance to remind you, but with the organization being this anti-consumer, who knows
what tactics they will stoop to next.
Consumers, you have been warned.
event with a ton of fitness games. So head over there, pick one, and get to work!
Just a heads up! With the holidays just around the corner, you may be worried about how you're going to work off all that turkey, ham, or whatever your holiday traditions call for on the dinner table.
For those of you not familiar, each day 
