Mysterious Universe Premium
• Submitted:Sat, February 16, 2008 • Updatd:Sun, March 01, 2009 Reported By: — Morgantown West Virginia • National ripoff report.There is currently a lot of crap hitting the fan on this site. Hp Deskjet 882c Service Manual more. A lot of customers are very angry. The services promised to Premium Members include extra podcasts and extended versions of the regular podcast.
However, there has been a serious, serious lack of material being posted. Here’s the story. • I must say that when I read some of these negative reports about the MU podcast and Ben Grundy I was suprised.
Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious Universe. By Alan Hawkshaw. 2009 • 17 songs. Play on Spotify. Opening Titles. Granite Gods. Blackholes & Heavenly Bodies. The Supernatural. Time & Space. The Marie Celeste. Mysteries Of.
My experiance as a free member and then a premium member was nothing but positive overall. When I first signed up as a premium member I could’nt get my special RSS feed to work. Thinking it was user error on my part (eventually found that it was) I fooled around with it for a couple of weeks trying to get it to work with no success.
I finally emaied Ben about the problem. He got back to me the very next day and was even concerned that I had’nt contacted him sooner. He included a new RSS feed and a link to his utube video guide to making the feed work.
Not only did it work but I recieved ALL the MU podcasts and Mind Shots episodes to date. Also he did’nt even draft my PayPal account for the next month.
Now with that said, yes there were a few promised showes that never came to fruition, and no, I did not submit for a refund for those shows so I cannot speak to the issue of ever getting a refund or not. My view of Podcasting is it is a fairly new medium, and with that are some problems to be overcome. I must agree with the joneslevine post in that Ben Grundy is not the Fox network or CNN.
He does not have limitless hoards of manpower at his disposal to help him produce one of these episodes. I also agree with Jessi that a business is a business and should be ran as such. I don’t think Ben is a plaid pants striped shirted South Florida used car salesman looking to rip anyone who steps on to his lot either.
I believe he truly wants his show to be top flight and I believe he probably pulled it down to get the kinks worked out. Lets remember Ben started MU as a part time gig and then went full time. Perhaps a little too deep a little too soon but the quality and content of the show for me far outweighs a few inconsistencies. I hear the show may be returning for ’09 hopefully with these kinks worked out, as for me I will probably give Ben and MU another try. It costs $5 a month to get these services. Back in November, I paid for a ONE-MONTH subscription.
No, I didn’t have to cancel my membership after a month, it was straight-up “one month’s service” with a one-time five dollar feesupposedly. In November, Benjamin Grundy, the host and owner of the show, did not release nearly enough shows to justify charging people for any type of service. He publicly offered a refund to members. My service continued into the next month and I stupidly assumed this to be a courtesybecause after all, I had paid for only one month, how could be continue to be charging me?
Well, it continued into January and I found out I was being charged still, due to an enormous overdraft fee I had to pay since my inactive card was still being charged. Since November, Benjamin Grundy has done a horrible, horrible job of releasing his podcasts on schedule. He continually makes excuses for himself. I think there is no excuse for not delivering your product when people are paying for it, PERIOD. He has now offered refunds again but refuses to answer any emails regarding his behavior. To my knowledge, no refunds have been given, many on the site are angry and my numerous emails have gone un-responded. Never, never give this guy a dime because not only will you not get what you paid for, but there’s a chance that you will pay a lot more than you ever signed up for, like I did.
Jessi Morgantown, West Virginia U.S.A. I really wish this customer was able to read the website clearly before submitting their ranting complaints on this site. Firstly, this customer did not read the website correctly when signing up for a subscription. The signup page and PayPal confirmation page clearly stated that the membership option was a $5 Monthly Plan. The button you click to purchase a membership is rather large, bright green button that states the following: “Subscribe Now – Monthly Subscription” Again it is unfortunate that the customer did not understand what the terms “$5 Monthly plan” and “Monthly subscription” mean.
Now since the customer signed up for this monthly plan he/she was subsequently charged $5 each month for the service. Every month he was charged he was sent an email by PayPal as a receipt for his payment. Despite receiving these emails for 5 months the customer never once contacted us to ask to cancel the service.
Next thing we know we have several offensive and threatening emails crying fraud from this customer. The customer was refunded for all the payments he/she made. The Mysterious Universe podcast has also had missing episodes for every month in 2008. All paying subscribers have been offered refunds for these months and all refund requests have been fulfilled. Ben Grundy can turn around the blame on the customers all he wants – in fact, it’s his specialty.
When complaints from numerous customers got too heated, he yanked his website down with no warning to paying customers. He continued charging people throughout this “hiatus”, knowing it was wrong, and using the excuse “Well, they can get a refund”. Maybe that USED to be the case, but according to his NEW terms and conditions, there are no refunds now, and NO GUARANTEE that any material will come out at all. The truth is, this man doesn’t care about his customers, he treats them like garbage. Most of his energy during the hiatus was spent deleting negative comments from the site and cleaning up his trail of garbage.
Meanwhile, he remains to get on a set schedule for delivering content. Releases are still sporadic and he has now changed around his policies so no one can complain about his laziness and lack of work. I still wholeheartedly suggest that no one get into this mess, you will be sorry you did and now you can’t even get a refund. That’s the truth. Go read the new terms and conditions and get out before it’s too late and the refund policy ends.
I believe it ends April 5th. Apparently, I had to cancel my membership. It was not a “one-month” fee. However, my absolute intentions were to sign up for one month only, which I swore I had done. So I would like to amend that portion of my complaint. HOWEVER, at this point I absolutely stand by the horrible customer service you will get at the website, and the consistent INCONSISTENCY of the show’s release. Plgr Serial Interface on this page.
This is the only time I have EVER filed a complaint like this against a company, and I have dealt with IKEA, so that says a lot. Trust me that you will be very grossly disappointed in this podcast’s Premium services, just take a cautionary look at the site’s forum and see the complaints from others, and the reaction of indifference from the host. It’s sad because it is an excellent podcast for those who are interested in the paranormal.
Just take my word for it and stick with the free subscription, it will save you a world of trouble. I don’t understand I don’t understand how someone could blow off their paying customers by just yanking their website for no reason and with no explanation whatsoever.
It seems beyond unprofessional to me. And now the support page has been yanked, so paying subscribers don’t even have a way to unsubscribe? This seems like a clear case of fraud to me. How hard would it be to type out a simple explanation to subscribers and post it on the MU web site? I love MU and wish things were different. This sort of behavior is beyond apology. Who would knowingly do business with such a person?
Submitted By: epihelion (369,407 on 3-2008).