National Association of Professional Women

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

– member was refunded through credit card.
[redacted]

Per [redacted]'s request, her membership has been cancelled, and her annual dues refunded to her credit card as of 3/**/2014. Generally refunds reflect on the card within 2-3 business days of the date the refund is processed.

member was refunded by check.
[redacted]

I have spent most of my life in Dallas-Ft.Worth and Boston working with professional women. When I moved to Ithaca, NY, I had hoped to connect to other professional women and hoped NAPW would help me with that. Instead, a woman on the phone used "high-pressure sales tactics" to first ask for a membership of over $700 and then within 2 months Marisa contacted me to describe the VIP benefits and for another $1900 I could upgrade my membership because I was selected for "VIP" treatment and offers. I tried to contact my local Ithaca chapter. They didn't have meetings organized and the only person who kept messaging me was a woman who did psychic readings. I complained and asked for a refund, but instead of listening to my complaint and addressing it, Kelly in Billing kept telling me it was my fault I had not told them about this sooner. Instead of really listening to me, she told me that I could still use all of my online benefits with my membership and try to connect with others online because travel in our Northern winters is difficult. But why should I pay a full membership rate when I do not get the full membership benefits? My main reason for joining NAPW was for the local connection, but that seems to have fallen through. I am so disappointed with this group.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me with regards to reimbursement in full ($790 effective on 9/** and $199 on 9/**). The response would be even more fully satisfactory if NAPW also confirmed that they will delete my bank information from their system and avoid contacting us in the future. 
 
We appreciate your kind help in this matter and your efforts educating potential consumers. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved, yet the process that Revdex.com did is satisfactory. Is NOT been resolved because it takes several business days to clear the full refund from NAPW so until then I'll consider this complaint NOT fully resolved.

For record purposes let me quote the NAPW text:
"Clearly, [redacted] was not authorized to use the card in question to purchase a membership; therefore, we have refunded the entire amount of her fee."
For safety reasons my fiance had to cancel his card, he assumed that the NAPW could try to retrieve more money, yet we will keep a close eye on the transactions, if needed we are willing to accept a check for the full refund. We will wait, since we are aware that refunds may take some business days. If refunds are not clear with in a month I'll make another call to NAPW and quote the text from this ID# [redacted] or in any case open another complaint.
Revdex.com, thank you so much, thanks for helping all of us. As soon as we get the refund I'll gladly consider the case resolved.
Best Regards
[redacted]

While it is our position that [redacted] was advised of the automatic renewal at the time of her enrollment, and was sent reminders of the upcoming renewal three times, she maintains that it is not "her problem" that we have already allocated funds for her continuing membership, which makes no sense. We only ask members the courtesy of either advising us that they do not want the automatic renewal during the enrollment interview, or to let us know at any time during the ensuing eleven months until the renewal comes up. We could argue that it is not "our problem" that she did not pay attention to the information she was verbally given, the terms and conditions to which she agreed and the reminders she was sent, but that seems pointless to her logic. Therefore, we have refunded the balance of her fee and removed her from all but archival records.

Revdex.com:
At this time, I have not been contacted by National Association of Professional Women regarding complaint ID [redacted].
Sincerely,
[redacted]

We are sorry that
[redacted]’s experience with the NAPW has been less than ideal – we
do strive to provide our members with resources and benefits to enhance and
improve their lives, both personal and professional.  We encourage and
expect our...

members to avail themselves of those benefits and to contact us with
any questions or problems regarding their memberships. Members who do take the
time to explore and take advantage of the myriad resources available will find
tremendous value in being a member of the NAPW.
 
Our members are entitled to be
treated with utmost respect and empathy, and every person on the NAPW team is
trained to work with our members to resolve any issues; however, there are
protocols and policies which must be followed.  These policies are companywide
and all of our team members are required to follow them.
 
[redacted] authorized the August **, 2013 charge reflecting her annual
membership dues.  During her initial
enrollment interview, our representative went over the membership, beginning
with the most comprehensive package – part of the goal of the interview is to
determine the best package to fit the member’s goals and budget. We want them
to get the maximum benefits for the money, which is why they offer the options
in the order they do. [redacted] selected the Standard membership.
 
Our
representative also explained that NAPW uses an automatic renewal process,
designed to protect [redacted]’s enrollment in and uninterrupted
access to the benefits provided by NAPW and its business partners.  Prior to concluding the interview, our
representative specifically informed [redacted] that her annual
membership would automatically renew. She also told her that she would receive
an email at the address provided to us. [redacted] acknowledges this
in her complaint. She had the opportunity to opt out of our automatic renewal
program at that time or any time before the renewal took
place.
 
Throughout
the year, NAPW made available to [redacted] a comprehensive
membership services staff, which is qualified to field all inquiries and would
have been able to work with her had she elected to opt out of her automatic
renewal (or any other questions she may have had).  NAPW publicizes the availability of this
staff through multiple dedicated pages. 
See [redacted].  Each of these pages publishes the contact
telephone numbers and email addresses, and provides a convenient form which
this member could have submitted at any time if she wished to engage our staff
for any reason, including opting out of her automatic membership renewal. Our staff
did reach out to her in October 2013 to make sure that she had received all of
her membership information and to invite her to allow us to help her maximize
her membership. We were unable to speak with her, but left a message for her to
call back, which was followed up with another email.
 
From day
one of [redacted]’s enrollment with NAPW, we communicated via email
using the address she provided: [redacted] – this is the same
address listed in this complaint.  Email
was clearly the primary communication channel, by which [redacted]
received her monthly newsletters and numerous other organizational
announcements.  As promised in her
initial interview, well before it was processed, NAPW sent [redacted] a courtesy reminder of her upcoming renewal transaction via
email, which was transmitted during the week of August *, 2013.
 
We have
reviewed all of our records – we keep logs of each communication from members
as well as notations in the individual profile and have no records of any
correspondence from [redacted]. We also checked our telephone logs
and we have no record of any of the numbers on file for her on any incoming
calls.  She did not contact us to cancel
her scheduled renewal prior to processing, as required by our Terms &
Conditions, so her renewal was processed as she previously authorized.
 
[redacted] disputed this charge with
her credit card company and we provided them with the information to confirm
that she did in fact, authorize the renewal of her membership. This dispute was
reversed in our favor as the bank’s own investigation confirmed that we did not
make any unauthorized charges. As is our policy, we deactivated the automatic
renewal function on her membership so that no further charges would ever be
billed.
 
[redacted] did not contact us directly until June **,
2014, when she informed us that she had filed a complaint with the Revdex.com.
 
We take the claim that a member was "scammed" or that a
charge was unauthorized very seriously.   NAPW provides an amazing value for the
membership fee.  Included in ALL memberships levels are webinars,
seminars, discounts, perks, online networking access and in-person chapter
affiliation as well as a myriad of other benefits.  Our organization is
growing, expanding and moving forward through numerous initiatives, strategic
alliances and corporate affiliations; offering members additional avenues to
ASPIRE, ACHIEVE and CONNECT.  
 
Every member of NAPW's management team works diligently to
deliver maximum value to our members, and any claim that someone was
"scammed" is demonstrably false.  We currently have almost
a half-million satisfied members, all of whom are free to use our online
networking portal, which gives our members more connectivity options
and far more ability to promote themselves than other networking sites. 
We have over 300 local chapters across America, in which tens of thousands of
our members get together to take their online experience into the real world
and create incredible connections with other professional women. These local
chapters are constantly implementing new ways for the local members to
interact.  We encourage of our members to
join all of the chapters in their area - this gives them more opportunities to
attend events that fit their busy schedules and widens the circle of local
women with whom to network.
 
Moreover, we host an annual National Networking Conference
where almost two thousand members where members from all over the country enjoy
an unforgettable day of networking, panel discussions, workshops and
presentations from extraordinary women like [redacted].   Click here for more information.
 
Additionally, we are constantly providing and working to
upgrade the secondary benefits such as free or discounted continuing
education through leading providers like [redacted] and [redacted] shopping and other discounts through a number of partnerships,
including exclusive sponsors like Lenovo, one of the world's largest computer
suppliers; and interesting topical content provided through our social media
and other outlets.  Again, our entire team is working hard every single
day to build these partnerships, identify and create content, and make greater
benefits available to our members.

Per the terms and conditions of all NAPW memberships, all members :
Must accept the terms and conditions in order to use the services provided
May opt out of automatic renewal or change the credit card
used for your renewal, by contacting our Renewal Department at ###-###-####, emailing us: [redacted], or visiting our online Renewal Center at [redacted] to submit a form 
As per [redacted]'s request when she spoke with a membership representative on 2/**/14, $790 of her annual membership dues were refunded to her and her membership benefits were left fully active for the coming year. Her automatic billing was turned off per her request on 2/**/2014, so her account is not, and will not be scheduled to auto-renew. As of 3/**/14, [redacted] has also been issued an additional credit of $199. This represents the cancellation of her membership and all associated benefits.

We mailed check [redacted] to the address you provided in this
complaint on June **, 2014. Please understand that because the original
transaction took place well over two months ago, we are unable to issue a
credit to the card that was billed. This is our standard practice for refunds.
Therefore, we had to send a request for a check to be issued. This process can
take up to ten business days as it is outside of our normal protocols – we apologize
if the initial response was not clear that it would be sent, not received
within that period. Once the checks are issued, they are sent via First Class
US mail and the time of actual delivery to your address will vary.
We issued this refund to you as a courtesy - you called to cancel your
membership two months after joining, well after the standard limit for refunds.
You stated that you had immediate second thoughts - but never contacted us
until May.  We took into consideration the changes in your circumstances and
offered a partial refund. You demanded a full refund because "other women
had received full refunds".  When someone asks for a refund, each
case is considered individually and there are some circumstances in which a
full refund is authorized. Since your membership enrollment in March was
completed with your authorization and consent and all protocols were followed,
your benefits were activated and available for you to use, you immediately
received your login information to access those benefits and your membership
card was sent within a few days, you were not entitled to a full refund,
especially not sixty days after you became a member. However, we do not like to
make people unhappy, and so a full refund was authorized. Please understand
that because the original transaction took place well over two months ago, we
were unable to issue a credit to the card that was billed. This is our standard
practice for refunds. Therefore, we had to send a request for a check to be
issued. This process can take up to ten business days as it is outside of our
normal protocols. Once the checks are issued, they are sent via First Class US
mail and the time of actual delivery to your address will vary.
You called us a mere five days after being told that the check was sent; one of
those days was a Sunday. Moreover, your latest response in which you accused
our representative of being “huffy and puffy” and refusing to assist you,
required that we investigate those claims. We have reviewed the call, and the
representative to whom you spoke was not huffy and puffy. You asked to speak to
her boss, but refused to give your name so that she could assist you and waited
about ten seconds before hanging up. This call is available for you to hear,
should you request it. Our representatives are fully authorized to handle
almost every question or concern of our members, and our protocols require that
they pull up the record of every member with whom they speak and make notes so
that if a call is dropped or the person needs to be called back, the information
is there for any other member the staff to review to better assist our members.
This is not an unreasonable request, but your compliant presents it as
such.  Our representative did call you
back, but you did not answer, and so she sent a request to her supervisor to
look into the matter.
You should have received your check by today, unless the address
you provided here is incorrect. If that is the case, it will come back to us,
and we will send it again once you provide the correct address.

Please note the National Association of professional women is now running its operation as Worldwode Association of Professional Women. I just received a call from them to ask to join for $989 for a lifetime membership but did not commit. I then read the reviews online and fifur d it was a scam.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is almost satisfactory to me and the matter has been somewhat resolved.
I am still receiving emails from the company, and wish to have my contact information removed from their database entirely.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved...

because the balance of the refund amount has not been posted to my account as of today 05/**/2014.  Still owing $394.50
  
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[Your Answer Here]
I do not consider the matter resolved until I actually receive the check, it's one thing to write this will happen it's another thing to see that has been followed through on.
Second, I sent in a complaint prior to the 60 day cut off time, and they delayed a response for more than 20 days to make it past the 60 day cut off.  It is was because of my continued follow up in which they were only going to do a partial refund and an email to the Revdex.com that they took this more seriously.
When the check is received, deposited, and cleared I will let the Revdex.com know.
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

I recommend not joining this organization on any level. They market their organization as prestigious, and an advocate for professional women with a multitude of services, but they really just want your money. The membership fees are absurd. In the small print, they tell you that your membership will automatically renew, but I did not receive any notification of this whatsoever and they charged me for a full second year - with not even a confirmation sent that this was done. When I saw it on my credit card and asked (within about 1 month) for it to be removed they hide behind their T&C's. They refunded me about 3/4 of the subscription. I got absolutely no benefits from being a member, but I also did not spend a lot of time on their website, which apparently is really all you're paying for access to.

We left a message for [redacted] to contact us as we need additional information to resolve her case.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

NAPW Claims they have issued a credit as per the information below that was copied from their lengthy response. As of today, July **, 2015, a credit has not been applied to my account. Please advise the amount of the credit and when it will be processed. I have unsubscribed from your email list. I never once used any NAPW benefit. I did not receive a reminder via email. I did not receive a postcard reminder. I could not end my membership through the online account. Again simply stated, I want a refund.
  As a courtesy, we have issued a credit to [redacted]’s account and we have also deactivated the automatic renewalfunction of her membership, so that it will not renew. We also invite her tocontact us so that we can assist her in using her membership benefits.
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

member was refunded through credit card.
[redacted]