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What they do is offer yearly subscription at a much lower amount than what monthly would cost. Then if you want to cancel they force you keep auto charge on and hope you forget to cancel right before it expires. They don't let you use the service you paid for already without the auto charge on. I missed the date on my calendar and they refused to credit me back. So now I have to remove the auto charge which prevents me from using the service for the rest of the year. What a scam.
Animoto have been deducting a subscription fee for three years from a savings account without a single emailed recipet or notice.
The card attached to the account expired in 2017 and they have still been successfully deducting up until now in 2023!
When i contacted them immediately to ask for a refund and explain that I have never even logged in, they pointed me to their contract, not even a discussion about the account being dormant (which they actually confirmed) Disgusting, its theft!
I tried to get a phone number to speak with a human, they said they dont have one. How can that be legal.
I wont stop, I will take this to whoever I need to, to get a just a fair outcome.
Never received a notification of "auto-renewal." The cost was almost twice what I paid for the subscription last year. I canceled and asked for a refund; Animoto claims they do not refund. I filed a PAYPAL claim; an email from Animoto claimed they will refund if I close the PAYPAL claim. If I did that, I could not file again. Is it "proper" to do that? It seems like bad business, and with their lack of integrity regarding their subscriptions, it would be difficult to trust them.
Here is the text of the email: "Amanda (Animoto)
May 29,2023, 11:36 AM EDT
Hello,
Animoto does not promise a customer a refund and then refuse to honor the refund.
If you close the case, as soon as Animoto has confirmation from PayPal, we will issue a full refund.
I apologize that your trust in us has been so shattered, and I truly wish there were another way for this to be resolved other than going through the dispute process you have started. If you do decide to close the PayPal case, I will be happy to issue that refund. I will also keep an eye on our open cases to see if your case is closed.
Regards,
Amanda
I've been using their site for two decades to create work and family videos. I love the process and the results. However, they have a deceptive process for stopping your subscription. I went through the process, including what I thought was the final screen that asked why you were leaving. Turns out there was one more box to check so they didn't cancel my account and charged me almost $100 for a renewal. I contacted them immediately after they charged my credit card but they refused to refund the money, instead just delaying it's start date.
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Overpriced and the company sends political messages to their customers pushing their political views, completely inappropriate. We will take our business elsewhere.
I cancel the auto renewal subscription on the date of renewal, and Animoto refused to accept it stating that it was late. I even had my credit card company protest charge. Will never use again and would never recommend.
Animoto's features are very limited, video previews are slow and low quality and frankly, it's expensive for being such a bad software. When we exported videos to instagram everything was blurred becausebthe video quality was so low.
Customer service is completely useless - they always say thank you for writing to them, but don't even try to solve the issue you contacted them for.
Don't buy it. There are way better alternatives out there!
Firstly, animoto is very limited in the things you can do with it.
Secondly, without any warning they renewed my service after a year, despite the fact that I turned the renewal toggle off right away after being charged and not using the service for so many months prior to it being renewed... they will only give me a partial refund.
If I turned it off right away, does it not warrant a full refund?!
This is outrageous, a horrible refund policy! I will never be using this service again and I will surely be telling my colleagues about this!
I don't know why my first attempt in May of 2018 was never received. I cancelled, assuming it went through. It disgusts me that you can clearly see that since May of 2018, I never used the service again. I know that you could do something to resolve this issue but you choose not to. And no. I don't want you to reinstate services for 6 months at no additional charge. I cancelled initially because I was not satisfied with your product. Why would I want it back? I imagine you will only start charging me again, after your offer is over, and I will be back in the same boat as before. That would make no sense.
I am very sad and heartbroken. I will never ever again sign up for a program that automatically collects my money. This company doesn't have integrity.
I hope you are enjoying the $700 that you have taken from my account.
Terrible business to work with. I stopped using this service over 6 months ago and just received a yearly renewal charge on my credit card. I had no idea I was on there defaulted option of auto renewal. When contacting the company they will not correct the charge. This is a prime of example of poor business practices. There is no reason why they can't correct this charge. They can clearly see that I don't use the service. No way to contact them by phone as they don't take calls and refer you to contact them by email only. Just bad in every way!
The way they structure their subscription is such that you get no warning and they can take the money from your account or Paypal with no notice. You think you've cancelled; or assume that your subscritpion will expire; and then BANG; money taken. It's a scam and rather than build a good product and charge accordingly; they have an average product and lock you in. Disgusting company.
There is really not enough possibility to edit the film, the model is locked, we can only fill the holes with the photos without really being able to customize it. Pity...
Epic fail from a company that doesn't value consumers. Animoto does not notify its consumers prior to the renewal dates. I subscribe to numerous services on line, and all demonstrate this ethical practice of ensuring the consumers choice.
Yes, these details are deep in the fine print, but that says a lot too. Inadequate customer service, lack of communication. Defiantly not a company or service I will ever recommend again.
Scam- Will charge your account and not reimburse you even if you dont use it. DONT GIVE THEM YOUR INFORMATION!
This company scammed our non - profit. They charged $16 the first month, with no notice, $23 the next and $42 for the last year. Since it was a company card, this was noticed only when i went in to re-download a video. Do not trust them.
What company has no phone? There was an issue where my account was cancelled out of the blue. After almost a month of trying to contact them, they finally got in touch and apologized for the delay. So they now have a four star review instead of my original 2 star review. I think they have an amazing product, but I still maintain they should probably find a more efficient way to resolve any conflicts that will arise. I have used Animoto for around 10 years and this is the first time I ever had a problem.
After lodging a fraud complaint with AMEX, we recently heard that this year's charges would be refunded and indeed they were. I sincerely hope this signals a change in the company's onerous business practices.
Impossible to cancel the introductory offer after its rolled over into a subscription (drug dealer business model?). Credit card companies are complicit in the fraud by requiring Animoto to cancel the billing even after the deception has been brought to their attention. Let's put these people out of business.
Don't ever trust this site with your card details, I've filed a paypal dispute for an incorrectly applied Annual subscription renewal.
NEVER ASKED FOR IT, Didn't let me turn it off before and now I've FILED A DISPUTE,
Such a waste of time.
Ever only created 1 video, there are better and cheaper products out there, especially ones that won't auto charge you a renewal sneakily.
The service offered is fine, though the same can be found from many other providers. Their business practice, however, is nothing less than theft. I purchased a once month subscription for a single project. I did not renew. Animoto continued to charge my credit card for the next 15 months. When I contacted them, they refunded 3 months of charges, stating that "policy" prohibited them from doing more. Now they are unavailable via email and provide no other contact information. Buyer beware.
Paid for a 1 month subscription to create a memorial video for my best friend who lost his young daughter July of 2017. Found out I've been charged by the company every month since then to the cost of $200. Contacted the company and was encouraged by their initial response. Since then they have stated they can't find a paid account in my name. I went back and tried to log in only to find my account gone. I sent screenshots of the charges on my credit card and browser history of my last login to their site and have not heard anything. I wish I would have read the other reviews and have learned to review my credit card statement more closely. Please warn others to stay away from this site. I will be spreading the word at my conferences. Too bad, the product is decent enough for them not to conduct business in this way.
