is one of a million little things to do when you move: contact the postal service to change your mailing address.
this is where the problem can occur: many people do a random search for “change of address” and end up on one of the sites run by private companies. These companies charge between $17 and $24 to file that simple change of address form for you, something you can do yourself on the USPS official site for a dollar.
scambook.com, an online complaint resolution site, has heard from hundreds of consumers about these “change of address” sites.
“Some people report that they are initially charged $1.00, but shortly thereafter, there is another charge for additional services that they did not knowingly purchase,” said Miranda Perry of ScamBook.
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Most of these complaints refer to a site called change-my-address.com. the company’s google search ad appears at the top of the list when you search for terms like “forward my mail”, “change my address”, register a new address” or “usps address change”.
angela leddy went online to change her address after her recent move to a new home in indianapolis. she searched for “change my mailing address” and saw an ad that said “usps® change of address form. fast and secure mail forwarding.”
clicked the link and landed on change-my-address.com. thinking i was in the usa postal service site, leddy filled out the form and entered his credit card number.
two days later, leddy noticed a $19.99 charge on his account. and she was furious.
“It’s misleading, misleading and misleading,” he said. “And for someone who’s pretty internet savvy, I got ripped off.”
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leddy called the company and they agreed to refund $10. Not satisfied with that partial refund, Leddy complained to the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau (where the company is located), which was able to get the company to refund the rest of her payment.
the bbb has received more than 150 complaints in the last year about change-my-address.com.
“That’s a lot of complaints for one company,” said Leslie Kish, Cincinnati BBB’s vice president of operations. “There is a pattern of complaints about customer service and refund issues. Some people said they paid the money and didn’t get the change of address service.”
change-my-address has an f rating with the better business bureau.
In a statement emailed to nbc news, change-my-address.com said it addresses all complaints and offers a $10 partial refund to anyone who requests it within 10 days.
“We have worked since our inception to comply with all local, state and federal laws,” wrote benjamin miller in corporate communications. “We have tried working with our local Better Business Bureau, unfortunately with little success. However, we do respond to all complaints with the BBB and have a positive resolution rate of over 97 percent.”
The company said it provides its “members” with generous value-added services for that $19.95 fee, such as special offers from major retailers.