Paul S.

I needed to do a search recently for my son's new cell phone that was stolen from him at high school. We used the phone's GPS to track it down. I found the ad for the spokeo $0.95 single search so I used it to explore more about the specific address. Well, a couple weeks later I get an email stating my credit card was being charged $19.95 for a year long subscription.

There was not easily identifiable text in the "one time search" that I purchased stating that it was also triggering a yearly subscription. Very deceptive business practice! So, I asked spokeo for a refund and explained in my request that it was not made clear that I was triggering an automated payment. I asked for a refund of my $19.95. Today, they responded after a delay of almost 2 weeks with a refund for $14.96. What a scam. I am sure they will try to respond to this review as they have with others but their practices do not appear to be changing. Bottom line: I basically paid $6 for a search that provided me with no meaningful information. Save your money. Spokeo is not worth it and they have dishonest business practices. They probably make a mint doing this to a lot of unsuspecting people.

Update: Spokeo finally did me the "courtesy" of refunding the entire $19.95. And to their credit they did it after one final email that conveyed my dissatisfaction. But, I'd like to clarify details of what I feel continues to be deceptive. The automatic subscription after a 7 day trial was not clearly identified at all. It was buried in an ungodly long terms of agreement. I went back and studied the $0.95 offer and it is extremely difficult to find these details. I openly ask for spokeo to clean up this deceptive practice and make the automated subscription more clear and up front in their marketing and web ads.