internations.org

STAY AWAY! The Auto-renewal process is a SCAM for the lack of a better word. It is an exploitation of the legal system as they will say you signed up for it after having read their terms and conditions. So you are stuck. I contacted the European Consumer Contact Network and their advise was ' You can try to argue that this is an unfair term, but ultimately only a judge in court can make this decision. '. I hope someone can be bothered enough to go this far. if needed I can assist and provide more information. They successfully took payment for two years membership from me, although I only attended one of their events after a friend told me about them. The event I attended was actually very rubbish. There was no organisation and I absolutely did not feel like I attended as a member of internations. I could have just walked into a random bar by myself. There are better ways of meeting people online that would not cost you so much money and threats of court actions for something you should be able to easily opt in for and opt out from. I had tried to cancel my membership, last year but the process was not intuitive and since they had also auto renewed I just left it and removed my credit card details. This year, I received an email to update my credit card information so they can take payment for the auto-renewal that they had already done for me. I immediately responded that I am not interested in auto-renewal and would not want to pay. They refused to cancel my membership and forced me to honour the renewal after many threats and nagging emails. STAY AWAY!! It is not worth it. Even if you moved to a new city, it is not worth it. There are better ways and better apps for meeting new people. Easier for you to walk into a bar or a social gathering or just say hello to someone. I am writing this review at 5am in the morning after I have paid for two years of unused and unwanted membership. I do not want that to be you. Apologies, I know I have ranted for long enough, but it is to ensure someone else does not make the same mistake as I did.

Yet another victim of their unethical business practices. InterNations uses dark patterns to lure unsuspecting subscribers into recurring bills. Basically they employ “forced continuity”, a type of dark pattern, in their consent obtaining mechanism to repeatedly charge its subscribers despite their objections. Organizing a boycott of this duplicitous company @BInternations (twitter) also at www dot InterNations dot us I would encourage all those who have been victimized by InterNations to add their voice to the boycott. As individuals we are easy to ignore, but as a collective we have a real opportunity to shine a spotlight on this company’s deceptive and unethical business practices.

Even during these times in 2020 when so many are trying to catch up after no work for 2 or 3 months and business still very slow, internations wont cancel my membership and insists I pay for the next year regardless of whether I plan to use it or not. The automatic renewal is practically a scam. Very little empathy

Thank you for rejecting my request... Submitted a membership request and was declined (really?). I am in the process of preparing to set up a business in Vietnam until the pandemic prevented foreigners to travel there. While I am waiting for everything to reopen I decided to research other professional like minded individuals who may have share some of their knowledge or experience and came across the InterNations website which looked both professional and inviting. So glad the reviews here saved me time and money and I'll do it the old fashioned way and build my own connections. Thank you all for your contributions :)

Hi, Last year, I recently moved to Asia from the states and decided to join InterNations as an Albatross member (1-year subscription). Early on I attended a few events. They were pretty disorganized and pointless since no one greeted you as an InterNations representative. I would have had the same luck just going into any random venue and striking up a conversation with a stranger. Based on these initial lackluster experiences I quickly forgot about InterNations and settled into my new life abroad. Right after COVID-19 became a global pandemic I received an email notification from InterNations stating how they couldn't charge my credit card (it had expired during the interim) for my auto-renewal. I sent them a quick e-mail telling them not to worry about it and that I don't want to renew. Well, as I found out, they don't take "no" for an answer. Instead their policy, no doubt designed from their ex-McKinsey CEO, was to escalate the situation and threaten me with debt collectors over US$100. I was a bit shocked to be treated like a deadbeat and a criminal. After all, I was technically still a member. I never received an e-mail notification that a charge was imminent, which is standard for practically every business. I guess it's my fault for not devoting to memory their T&C. I mean, it's not like anything happened over the past year. I asked them how could this be legal? It certainly wasn't where I lived. Their response: "InterNations is a German company based in Munich. We are therefore governed by and operate according to German law, rather than the laws of your country of residence." I admit...again it's my fault I didn't read up on German law before initially signing up for the Albatross membership. But fair enough, I did some reading and paid them back in their own coin (apologies for the length of the e-mail below, but worth the read): "Thank you for clarifying that your company is governed by and operates according to German law. According to the German Civil Code “Einführungsgesetz zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuche § 1 Moratorium”, a consumer has the right to refuse a claim related to a consumer contract until June 30 due to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19 pandemic). As it is Monday, June 29 in Germany, I am exercising my right to refuse your claim. Let this email serve as notice that I want my subscription canceled and my account deleted effective immediately. According to your company’s mission statement, InterNations is “a place where international people like you meet, connect, and exchange information” and “network and find friends who will explore your new surroundings with you”. Do you reasonably expect people to “meet” and “explore” their surroundings during a global pandemic? According to German law, the answer is Nein. Lastly, I never received a notice of re-enrollment from InterNations and therefore had no reasonable expectation that you would be charging my credit card for anything over the agreed upon one-year period. It appears that InterNations cares more about its short-term profitability than it does about its subscribers’ economic and physical wellbeing. I am confident others will share this sentiment once I forward this and your previous emails to my colleagues in the media." This e-mail elicited their standard response that ends with their company motto: "We reserve the right to escalate this matter further to a debt collection agency, which may result in additional costs for you." So did InterNations break a German law that was meant to protect consumers during COVID-19? Seems that way to me, but I don't have a German law degree. To end this review, please avoid InterNations, they are the worst. Stay safe everyone :)

This service might be interesting for some people but they conduct their business in a very shady way. They give you one month free but they make you provide your billing information. Then they don't send you any alert and when you forget to downgrade they take 80€ from your account, even if you didn't use the service at all! I tried to contact both them and paypal but I couldn't get any refund. Even though I've basically never used the platform at all!

I read the reviews and it is true that there is no way to opt out of the membership with InterNations. I would advise the easiest way is to call the credit card company and say you lost the credit card that you used for membership. They will send you a new card and InterNations cannot automatically renew the membership. Another concern about this organization is the scammers that try to message you. The scammers create a profile with a picture of a CEO looking guy and they always put that they work for an oil company. I complained to InterNations and never heard a word from Customer Service. It is a scam because they charge you $86 snd they make no effort to provide any type of service or discounts to access travel. So why join? Since the pandemic nothing happens except virtual events and you don’t have to pay to do that.

I signed up for an Albatross membership a few years ago, I had no problem with cancelling/not extending it after reading the fine print, but the whole deal was bogus. They 'organised' some 'events' in various bars that anyone could walk in for free, they just were very keen on taking my money for nothing. Met some unfriendly people as well, got emailed and contacted by people I neither wanted to get to know or who served some other scammy purpose of their own. I decided to just take my losses and bail out. Out of sheer curiosity I 'signed up' recently again, looks like the same deal. Not worth the effort/trouble.

Anyone from the victims who is a lawyer? we need to join hands to stop this company from existing and take it to justice!!!!!! anyone from Germany who knows where is the government authority to report this unethnic business?? every victim suffered about usd 50-60, not much money, but it's about the fair principle that we hold for the business community. all victims here are witnesses. please support.

Dont join this international scammer!!! in a short time you wont know, but after you giving out your credit card information, the nightmare just begin and will keep hounding you, even threatening you...all the victims should unite together to fight with this scammer!!

GREEDY AND UNETHICAL SCAM COMPANY THAT GETS AGGRESSIVE IF THEIR USERS DO NOT WANT TO REMAIN ALBATROSS MEMBERS I had an Albatross membership that was auto-renewed about 2 months ago - during a world pandemic and lock-down when there were no real-life events organized at all. They could not charge my credit card and therefore started to harass me for the membership subscription fee. I contacted them right after receiving the first email about the failed transaction for auto-renewal (otherwise I would probably have not noticed immediately that my money has gone to their pockets). The communication with their Support Team clearly showed how much consideration and empathy they have for their users (hint: 0). The membership that I was able to use since the coronavirus has been spreading corresponded only to Basic membership, therefore as they failed to provide any services that match the Albatross membership, they could've simply admitted it and could have downgraded me to Basic membership - like I requested their Support Team multiple times to do so, in a friendly way. They cannot sell any value with Albatross membership during a world pandemic as their offer was not designed for the online world. Charging users for Albatross membership was completely unwanted and inappropriate. Instead of understanding and accepting my request, they insisted on me paying the outstanding balance so that I become able to downgrade. Yes, I could buy a downgrade option for many EURs - for a 1-year subscription fee! What an impertinence! Their sneaking idea is to hide the "downgrade" button as well as the "profile deletion" function from the user menu in order to put pressure on the user to settle the balance. They lied that they cannot downgrade me and cannot cancel or revert the renewal of my membership. If that's true, be especially careful when giving your sensitive data for a company that does not have a competent User Administrator in charge and make sure to request the deletion of your data from their database! They blocked access to my profile and messages after a couple of payment reminders and started to threaten me and told me that they reserve the right to escalate this matter further to a debt collection agency, which may result in additional costs for me. What a ridiculous and shameless move it was from them! And they kept repeating that I should have seen the auto-renewal date on their web page and on my older invoices and in their Terms and Conditions. Seriously, who on earth visits web pages in 2020 regularly just to read old invoices and Terms and Conditions?! They are able to spam you with a lot of newsletters, but they don't bother sending a single notification email before the auto-renewal is due. If they succeed with charging your credit card, they don't inform you in email either. This is pure meanness. I learned after some googling that they have been applying this practice to hundreds and thousands of their users for years without any consequences. It's outrageous to see how many people they stole from or threatened already. If you start to complain about their unethical practice on their social media accounts, be prepared that they will be quick to suppress your voice and block you. DO NOT PAY them, or do request a refund from your bank if they already charged you. Spread the word about this scam and discourage your friends from signing up there. ADVICE: Do not sign up! Downgrade if you have Albatross membership and don't want it to auto-renew! Delete your account!

#Internations #UAE #Internations.org #LegalizedFraud #Beware #DubaiExpatsBeware #UAEExpatsBeware This is a very unethical and dishonest organization that feeds off unsuspecting professionals who have experienced their sleazy operations and dont want to continue any longer. This is legalized fraud. They automatically without consent renew the membership and then throw the rulebook. They just charged me AED 468 which is like Euros 125 without my consent. I wrote to them within an hour but they refuse to refund the charges. If someone knows of a fair-practice organization or watch-dog body in Germany or the EU, please let me know. I want everyone in Dubai to know that these guys are cheats and we must stay as far away as possible. They are getting away with this dishonest practice and hope some governmental organization clamps down on them.

NEVER give them your credit card details or they will continue charging you even after you've tried to cancel your membership. There's no link on their site to cancel your membership. This company is a total scam.

DO NOT sign up with Internations!! Horrible customer service and thieves. I was charged 2 years in a row after requesting they cancel my membership. They respond with “unfortunately we cannot refund you...” They make cancelling your membership e freely complicated. You would think you can cancel your membership under the “membership” button, but you cannot. It’s located someplace totally unrelated to your membership. I had to Google where to find it!! They respond 1 week later and don’t make any effort whatsoever to understand and be fair. All they care about is taking your money. You can tell their reputation from the amount of negative reviews they have, I’m surprised they’re still in business. Do not sign up with them, you will regret it!

Paid for a subscription to this website while I was traveling, looking for some meetups and to meet some other travelers. Thought nothing of it. It was a relatively nice experience In 2019, after my subscription ran out. I wasn't allowed to access the content again until I paid to renew my subscription. That seems fair. I still wanted to use the content so I paid. I barely used the website since then and when they repeatedly told me my subscription was going to end, I didn't care, because I no longer wanted to use the product in 2020 with the pandemic. Anyway, without my permission, they extended my subscription and sent me a ridiculous email, trying to threaten me and saying I owed them money, even though I had no current credit card in their system. That's not how things work. You cut off someone's access to content when they don't pay. Seems they got extra sketchy during the Corona pandemic and just started trying to hustle people. Sounds like a criminal to me Now they are basically trying to extort me for something I didn't want. The weak minded people that work for them aren't allowed to say anything non PC when you contact them, so the conversation got nowhere. They just kept trying to talk about the Terms and Conditions. I'm not paying thieves and they can shove their terms and conditions up their ***. I read several reviews and it seems I'm far from the only one they tried to steal from. Looking forward to this criminal enterprise going out of business

Unethical company that deserves a negative rating if there was an option. German regulators should take a good hard look at such organisations. The ethical framework and liberal contractual policies allow these companies to blatantly violate customer rights and rip them off!!

Less than 24 hrs response and action taken is good job.

I had Albatross membership for some years, and I did not use my account almost whole of last year due to my health problems and pregnancy. Then I received an email on the 5th of February saying that my yearly subscription is renewed but they could not get the money from my credit card. Then on the same day, which is again on the 5th of February, I answered the email and indicated that I am not interested in the Albatross membership in this year and I explained the situation over and over. Even I offerred to pay a daily or monthly payment instead of paying the yearly amount. What happenned? They said my membership is already renewed and I was late to cancel it so I have to pay. Yes, I was late but only few hours.
Well, long story short, this is a horrible approach that a company can take.

It was wonderful to meet everyone last night at Assembly in Canberra. I had a great time meeting Dominic, the ambassador of InterNations in Canberra who was very friendly and interactive. I also met people from different parts of the world from Africa, Europe and other regions as well as from the Middle East where I came from. We exchanged numbers and also we met a lovely couple who we may catch up with later. The place and environment were ideal and the people were friendly.

I have been getting threats also ... answered each and every one of them saying that I had only signed up for 1 year. Internations' reaction was to send me more threats without an explanation. I went onto my Internations' page and it was blocked, forcing me to pay for another year in order to have access to my page, which I needed to see how to get out of the Albatross membership scam, since Internation never answered my e-mails explaining what the problem was and providing a solution. I still haven't figured out how to quit my membership since the FAQ have an explanation that is hard, or impossible, to follow!! Quite a SCAM!!