Streamer Beware, You're In For A Scare....When You Attempt To Cancel

We’ve all seen those scripted promotions for Shudder. Your favorite Youtuber telling you how great the service is and pointing out a movie that they personally enjoyed. I have always loved horror movies, so I, foolishly, decided to join the streaming service. Was it any good? Did it matter? It was a streaming service for horror movies, and it was October. I used to a code to get a free month and enjoyed the service so much that I decided that I would keep it when October ended.

There were movies and shows that I enjoyed on there, like Scare Package, Haunt, Creepshow the series, and the Mortuary Collection (which I watched four times). There were also movies that I disliked with a burning passion, such as Scare Me, Confessional, and All Cheerleaders Die. Despite this, my biggest complaint at the time was that you couldn’t search for movies by creature (seriously, I get in the mood for a good vampire movie every so often).

The real trouble with Shudder didn’t come until it was time to cancel. I noticed two charges on my card for Shudder but filed it away as something to take care of later. A few days later I was charged again, after attempting to cancel my account. I reached out to customer service, who didn’t get back to me until I posted a message on twitter. They finally got an agent to email me, and I thought everything would get better from there. It didn’t. The agent explained to me that I had two accounts under the same email address (I only made one). I told her that I wanted to cancel both, and I wanted a refund. I got a message back that was the generic “sorry to see you go, have a free month on us”.

I was shocked. Wouldn’t a company want to fix whatever the issue was instead of throwing a free month my way? I didn’t want a free month. I wanted my money back, and I stated as much. The only communication I have received since is an email stating that my emails were being forwarded to the billing department. That’s where my emails should have been all along.

I decided to file a complaint through the Better Business Bureau, but I noticed that Shudder wasn’t accredited. Not only were they not accredited, they had an F rating and over a hundred complaints about the same thing.

I am still in disbelief. I thought Shudder was the Netflix of horror, but it clearly wasn’t. I’ve canceled Netflix before and never been charged extra or charged without my consent. Whenever I’ve reached out to Netflix customer service, I’ve always received a prompt reply. I had been considering rejoining Shudder when in a better financial situation, but now I can’t see myself doing that. I was looking forward to some of their shows and movies, but even those won’t be enough to make me rejoin.

Hopefully, my bank decides to help me because I will be contacting them today. Shudder owes me a little under twenty dollars based on charges that I did not grant them permission to make. These charges were all made after I had already gone online and canceled my subscription.

Please note that this is my experience and may not be your own. I believe that buyers should educate themselves before doing business with any company, which is why I felt compelled to share my story. My intentions are not to harm the business in any way, but I do feel my story should be out there.