NIng, Their Fee-Based Memberships, Misleading Advertising, and Lack of Customer Service

Ning's customer service department is in need of major change and transparency. They also need to make their fees clear to the potential member by clearly stating the fees and options of signing up for a Ning membership account. I recently upgraded to a Ning Plus account from a Ning Mini account because despite Ning recommending the Mini plan for educators, it is not enough. However, to my dismay, when I clicked on upgrade to see what the options were to upgrade and I clicked on Plus, advertised at $19.95/month. To my dismay and surprise, my bank account was charged immediately the amount of $199.95. I emailed in to cancel. They will not give me a refund stating that the price is clearly stated and she will downgrade my membership back to mini but I will not receive a refund of any monies taken from my account. Too bad I placed so much faith in Ning that I was pitching it as the next best thing for education and social networking. Ning is not teacher friendly. Teachers cannot afford to be tricked out of their money with false advertising and bad customer service. Shame on you Ning. I will turn to SocialGo, KickApps, or Wall.fm instead, and they are free! Ning was really good when they didn't charge a fee. With the increased fee and downgrade in service you would think at least they could provide good customer service....what a shame.
Here is a link to the refund policy she was sure to put in her email telling me that I was out of luck:
http://about.ning.com/refundpolicy.php