Rent Before Owning.com

rentbeforeowning.com uses shady tactics and is reluctant to disclose information regarding even the most basic terms of their service. Please read the chat below and make your own decision as to the ethics of this company. I personally will never be doing business with them. [redacted] Says: Hey, don't leave! I can offer you $25 from Restaurant.com if you sign up for a Full 7-days worth of access to our rent-to-own database - for only $1, CLICK HERE to get started!
[redacted] Says: Your gift card is good at over 15,000 restaurants. You can use it to celebrate finding your dream home!
[redacted] Says: Just type 'Hi' or 'Hello' in the space below to let me know you are there.
You: how much is the service?
[redacted] Says: We are able to offer the trial period of seven days for only $1, PLUS a free $25 dining gift card from Restaurant.com. That's how confident we are that this can work for you. Would you like to give RentBeforeOwning.com a try?
You: How much does the service cost per month?
[redacted] Says: We do this providing information and listings you won't find at ordinary real estate sources (e.g. realtor websites). This exclusive information includes Rent-To-Own, Foreclosures, REO bank-owned property, Government-owned homes, auctions, Pre-foreclosures, rent-to-own/owner-financed, and FSBO listings.
[redacted] Says: We get this information by purchasing, aggregating and filtering data from hundreds of other sources including the government, tax assessors, county records, past transaction data, asset managers, neighborhood reports, homeowners and banks.
You: How much does a subscription to the service cost?
Linda Says: This limited time 7-day trial for only $1 and a free $25 dining gift card from Restaurant.com is only available through this chat. Don't hesitate, because this offer may not be available tomorrow.CLICK HERE to get started!
You: Is there a reason why you will not tell me the cost of the service?
[redacted] Says: Rent-to-own has allowed THOUSANDS of other people to purchase their dream homes much quicker and often at far below market value!RentBeforeOwning.com makes finding these treasures easy... And you can CLICK HERE to try it for 7-days RISK-FREE!
You: How much does it cost after the 7 day trial period?
[redacted] Says: If you should decide to keep your membership beyond the 7 day trial, the monthly membership price is $49.00.
You: Can it be cancelled at any time thereafter?
[redacted] Says: We get this incredible, exclusive information by purchasing, aggregating and filtering data from hundreds of sources. But don't take my word for it, check it out yourself for just $1! JustCLICK HERE now!
You: Can it be cancelled at any time thereafter?
[redacted] Says: This is a 100% RISK-FREE trial. You cancel through the website, by phone, or by email at any time during the trial period with no further obligation. And for a limited time, we are able to offer you a free $25 dining gift card from Restaurant.com - Our free gift to you, just for trying our service. That's how confident we are in the service we provide. Would you like to give the $1 trial a shot? CLICK HERE now!
You: Can the subscription be cancelled anytime or is there a term to the subscription?
(At this point "[redacted]" ends the chat)
[redacted] Says: For additional questions or customer service please call us toll-free at [redacted].

Thank
you for notifying us of Customer J’s experience with our service.  We
appreciate the opportunity to research and comment on what occurred with
Customer J’s account. 
class="MsoNormal">Our
records indicate that on 12/5/14 Customer J registered an account with
us.  All members agree to be billed for a trial membership and then a
monthly membership fee each month thereafter until the account is
canceled.  The Terms of Use and Pricing Information are clearly displayed
on our registration page, and we require each member to check a box stating
they have read and agree to the terms of use and pricing information, prior to
registering the account. 
 Customer
J cancelled the account on 12/28/14.  A monthly membership fee was never
charged for this account. 
 A second
account was registered by Customer J on 6/4/15 using a different email
address.  Customer J is requesting confirmation that the account has been
cancelled and that she will not be billed.  Our customer service
department cancelled Customer J’s account on 6/8/15, and sent a confirmation
email including the cancellation number and stated that no monthly billing will
take place.
 Our
customer service manager also attempted to contact Customer J by telephone, but
was unable to reach her.  We are confident we have fully resolved Customer
J’s concern, as both of her accounts have been cancelled and no monthly
membership fee has ever been charged.

Thank
you for notifying us of Customer B’s experience with our service.  We
appreciate the opportunity to research and comment on what occurred with
Customer B’s account. 
As
Customer B states, he registered an account for our service on 9/28/15 and
agreed to be billed for a trial membership and a monthly membership fee each
month thereafter until the account is canceled.  The Terms of Use and
Pricing Information are clearly displayed on our registration page, and we
require each member to check a box stating they have read and agree to the
terms of use and pricing information, prior to registering the account. 
Upon
registration, every member gets a welcome email, confirming the account is
active, and provides the membership log on information to our site.  It
also includes the trial expiration date so the member will know when to cancel
if they do not wish to be billed after the trial expires.
We
received no correspondence from Customer B until the notice you provided us
regarding this concern.  We are sorry Customer B did not feel he could
contact us directly to resolve his concern.  Our contact information
including email and phone number are easily accessible on our website.  We
have live customer service representatives available from 6am – 6pm PST each
weekday, and from 9am – 5pm PST on the weekends.  They can answer all
billing questions as well as assist in navigating the website.
Upon
receipt of this concern we contacted Customer B to resolve the situation. 
We were able to speak with the wife of Customer B and she was delighted that we
reached out to them directly.  We cancelled the account per her request,
and although the account was billed correctly, a full refund was granted to
Custom B.  She confirmed that they are completely satisfied with this
resolution, and therefore we consider this matter closed.

I recommend to stay away! I couldn't find any data that wasn't already available in free sites. I should have canceled 5 minutes after subscribing. sadly, I forgot the name of the website, I did not receive any confirmation by email, only after receiving the $50 bill 9 days later, was I able to track it down again.
It appears to me that the thousands of listings they claim to have are nothing more than just regular for sale listings, I haven't found anything rent-to-buy. very misleading.
Hopefully I can cancel, I've sent a request five days ago to contact me since I don't remember the user and password, but NOBODY has responded yet.

Thank
you for notifying us of Customer M’s experience.  We appreciate the
opportunity to research the account and clarify what occurred. 
 On
8/18/2014, an account was registered using Customer M’s name, email, phone...

number,
mailing address and credit card information.  Please note that the email
address and phone number provided on this complaint are identical to the ones
used for the registration of the account.   For all registrations through
our website, each customer must agree to be billed $1 for a 7-day trial and
$49.60 each month thereafter until canceled.  We display our billing
protocol on our registration page and require all customers to provide personal
information including name, address, phone number, email, & complete credit
card information.  We also require all customers check a box stating they
have read and agree with our Terms of Use.  All charges made by our
organization must be authorized by fully completing the registration page, checking
the box stating you have read & agreed to terms of use and clicking the
“Join Now” prompt.  In addition, when a customer registers, we do an
AVS and CVV check to ensure the customer information submitted matches the
information on file with the issuing bank.  For this account, we had an
exact match for  both the address and CVV. 
Upon
creation of the account, an email confirmation was sent to this same email
address confirming the account was active and would be billed if not
cancelled.  This email also provides the specific date the trial ends and
gives detailed instructions on how to cancel the account.  We
maintain accurate system documentation including time stamps on all forms of
communication regarding registration and cancellation.  We did not receive
any cancellation request from Customer M until 2/7/15.
 When
Customer M called our customer service department to inquire about charges on
2/7/15 we immediately canceled the account, explained how registration
occurred, and confirmed with Customer M that all registration information was
accurate. 
 Customer
M states she sent a fax was requesting a refund after her conversation with our
customer service on 2/7/15.  We researched information regarding our fax
number and found out that there was an outage with our fax provider, which may
have lead to us not receiving Customer M’s refund request.  We
apologize for this inconvenience.  The fax number has been tested
and is in working order.
 Upon
receiving this complaint, we attempted to contact Customer M on 2/17/2015 at
the number listed on the complaint but were unsuccessful.   In
efforts to resolve this complaint, we have refunded all charges from our
company totaling $298.60.  We are confident this fully resolves Customer
M’s concern.

Thank
you for notifying us of Customer G’s experience with our service.  We
appreciate the opportunity to research and comment on what occurred with
Customer G’s account. 
class="MsoNormal">Our
records indicate that on 2/22/15 Customer G registered for an account and
agreed to be billed for a trial membership and a monthly membership fee each month
thereafter until the account is canceled.
We are
sorry that Customer G had difficulty when contacting our customer service
department due to extended wait times.  Staffing is important to us, and
we are addressing the staffing needs appropriately in order ensure all of our
customers can get through to us 
quickly.  Membership cancellation may also be done directly on our
website, via email, or through our automated phone system.
Regarding
Customer G’s concern of duplicate property addresses, please know that our goal
is to maintain 100% accuracy on our property data base.  We receive our
information from multiple sources, and our system contains an algorithm that
merges duplicate property addresses.  We appreciate this information being
brought to our attention and will look into it accordingly.
We
contacted Customer G on 6/4/15 and were able to speak with her regarding her
concerns.  She was very pleased that we called.  At this time we
cancelled her account so no further billing will take place and gave her a full
refund to resolve her concern.  Customer G expressed appreciation that we
reached out to her directly, and confirmed that her concern has been completely
resolved.

Thank you for notifying us of Customer W’s experience. 
We appreciate the opportunity to investigate and clarify what happened with
Customer W’s account. 
class="MsoNormal"> Customer W stated that when he signed up for a membership
account to access our website, it was offered at $1.00, but he was later
charged $49.00.  On 1/4/2015, Customer W registered for an account with us
via our website and agreed to our membership terms and conditions which are
clearly displayed on our registration page.   We require that all
customers must agree to our terms of use which include an initial charge of $1 for
a 7-day trial and then $49.60 each month thereafter until the account is
canceled. Our billing terms of service are clearly displayed when a customer
registers for our website service, and we also require the consumer to check a
box on our registration page which states they  agree with the billing
terms in addition to providing name, address, phone, email, and electronic
payment information.  Immediately after
registration, a confirmation email is sent that reiterates the offer terms,
cancellation policy, and information regarding how to cancel, including our toll free number and email
address that may be used to cancel the account.  
           
On 2/7/2015, well after the billing had occurred on 1/11/15, Customer W
cancelled his account via our website.  We did not receive any
communication from Customer W prior to receiving this complaint. 
Upon receiving this complaint on 2/9/15, we attempted to
contact Customer W at the number provided in the complaint to resolve this
issue.  We were unable to reach Customer W over the phone, but left a
voice message requesting Customer W to call our customer service department
directly if he had any further questions.  In efforts to resolve this
issue, a refund of $49.60 was processed to Customer W’s account on 2/9/15, and
we are confident this will fully resolve Customer W’s concerns.

I cancelled my membership yet they continued to bill me for almost a year! BEWARE!

Thank
you for notifying us of Customer C’s experience with our service.  We
appreciate the opportunity to research and comment on what occurred with
Customer C’s account. 
class="MsoNormal">Customer
C registered an account for our service on 9/9/15.  She became aware of
our service through one of our partner websites called Homes.com.  We regularly test
different offer configurations which is clearly stated  in our terms
of use;  “At its sole discretion, RentBeforeOwning.com may
offer different subscription terms on its Site and the membership fees for such
subscriptions may vary from time to time.”  The Terms of Use and
Pricing Information are clearly displayed on our registration page, and we
require each member to check a box stating they have read and agree to the
terms of use and pricing information, prior to registering the account. 
The Homes.com
website offers the RentBeforeOwning.com
membership for a 7 day trial, which is why Customer C was charged after the 7
day trial expired.  Our home website for RentBeforeOwning.com is
currently offering a 14 day trial membership. 
We see
that Customer C cancelled her membership on  9/22/15 using our IVR phone
system.   She responded via email to our member cancellation survey
and requested a refund. The refund was granted, and an email was sent
confirming the refund amount along with the cancellation number.
  Our Customer Service Supervisor also tried to contact Customer C
via telephone on 9/22/15 to confirm she received the cancellation email and
refund information, but was unable to reach her.
We
believe we have completely addressed Customer C’s concern and would consider
this matter closed.

We
respectfully disagree with the claims made in this complaint, but we have
elected to process refunds to the customer to resolve this situation.
Additional information about this account follows for your consideration.
Ms
** claims to have...

cancelled her account with us in October. Our accounting
records show she cancelled her account on 11/14/2014 on our website. She claims
she called our toll-free number earlier, however our phone records show no
calls received from her regarding her account. To resolve this complaint and
get an understanding of the reasons why she wanted a refund, we tried to
contact Ms ** at the phone number we have on file. Her number is no longer in service
so we were not able to speak to her. Although we have no previous history of
cancellation, to address this situation promptly, we went ahead and processed a
refund for the October charge. The complaint says she wanted a refund for
November as well, but no charge was made for November. We processed a refund
for September as an additional courtesy to the customer. We believe these
actions have addressed Ms **’s concern.

Thank
you for notifying us of Customer C’s experience with our service.  We
appreciate the opportunity to research and comment on what occurred with
Customer C’s account. 
class="MsoNormal">Our
records indicate that on 5/19/15 Customer C registered an account for our
service.  On 5/28/15 Customer C contacted our customer service department
via email.  We responded to her email letting her know that we cancelled
her account and the monthly membership fee was refunded in full, per her
request.
Please
allow us to explain that our service provides a comprehensive data base of many
types of properties such as homes in foreclosure, homes for sale, or homes with
the possibility of renting prior to purchasing, etc.  Our goal is to
maintain the most accurate database possible, and therefore we are constantly
adding and deleting properties from our database.  It is possible that the
homes Customer C is referring to were in the process of being deleted from our
database due to their updated status.
On
6/1/15, our customer service manager attempted to contact Customer C to be sure
the issue was resolved, but was unable to reach her.  We consider this
matter closed as we have addressed Customer C’s concerns, cancelled and
refunded her account, and have attempted to contact her on several occasions
since 6/1, to confirm she is satisfied with the resolution.

Do not use this site. It is very difficult to cancel and you can not get through to speak to customer service for problems or questions you might have. What they display is not accurate information. When you have canceled; they continue to charge your account.

Thank
you for notifying us of Customer RS’s comments. Our customer service records
show we had a previous conversation on this topic with Customer RS when he
contacted us by telephone on 11/11/2014. At that time, we cancelled the
customer’s account as requested and also...

processed a courtesy refund of the
first monthly charge. Unfortunately, the customer did not remain on the line
long enough for us to confirm the refund was processed. We attempted to call
the customer back at the phone number provided to confirm his courtesy refund,
however, our call was not answered. We left a voice mail confirming the refund
had been processed at that time. Please consider the following additional
information about the listings provided on our website.
 The
property information shown on our website is sourced through agreements with
over one hundred different real estate data providers. Property information
includes real estate data, tutorial information and over 2 million listings of
homes nationwide. Home listing availability will vary by market, but can
include distressed property (such as mortgage defaults, foreclosures and
auctions), bank owned REOs, traditional MLS re-sales, owner financed, lease
option and rent to own homes. Listing status is subject to change at any time
and while we cannot guarantee availability of all sales types in all locations
at all times, we present data as broadly and frequently as possible. We
regularly process updates to the nearly 2 million individual property records,
while enforcing quality control in data processing and formatting.  We
encourage home buyers to regularly visit our website over time to keep informed
of the changing marketplace and be aware of new listings that can appear at any
time. This is why members maintain a monthly membership with the website, month
to month.
Based
on Customer RS’s comments, we researched his city (Beaufort, NC) and found as
of 11/12/2014, our website shows 1 rent-to-own home and 10 owner financing
properties listed. Customer RS also mentioned he discovered a certain listing
posted as a rental, which he had reason to believe should be listed as for
sale. If Customer RS can supply us with the address for this property, we will
promptly research the data involved to determine if or why a display error may
have occurred. We have attempted to call Customer RS to obtain the property
information, however our calls have not been answered or connected.
Regarding
his account status, upon receiving this complaint, we attempted to contact
Customer RS on 11/12/2014 to ensure his concerns were addressed. Customer RS
was not reachable by phone. The phone number provided on this complaint matches
our customer service records, but it no longer connects and plays a message
stating ‘the number is no longer in service’. We have re-confirmed: Customer
RS’s account was cancelled and a refund was processed previously, on 11/11/2014
at the time he originally contacted our customer service department. Customer
RS should expect to see this refund credit his charge card in 1 – 4 business
days, depending on the processing policy of his card’s issuing bank.

Complaint: 10515812
I am rejecting this response because:
 
This is not resolved, I have not received it.
Regards,
[redacted]

Thank
you for notifying us of Customer J’s experience.  We appreciate the
opportunity to research and clarify what happened with Customer J’s account.
 Customer
J registered for an account on 12/14/2014 and agreed to be billed $1 for...

a
7-day trial, and $49.60 each month thereafter until canceled.  Per
Customer J’s complaint, she states there was an option to cancel within 2 weeks
for the $1.00 fee.  There seems to have been a misunderstanding, as our
trial offer is clearly stated on our website as a 7 day trial period.
 Furthermore,
we do not show any record of any correspondence or cancellation requests from
Customer J until 1/25/2015 when she called our Customer Service department and
cancelled the account through our IVR phone system.  Please know we keep a
robust tracking system that time stamps all correspondence including account
registrations and confirmed cancellations.  We do not show any record in
our system of any previous cancellation requests until this phone cancellation
on 1/25/15 which was time stamped at 9:55am PST.
 On
2/21/15, Customer J called our customer service department again to inquire
about charges.  In this phone call, Customer J stated the billing she was
inquiring about occurred in February 2015, however we did not perform any
billing after the account was cancelled on 1/25/15.  Our billing records
show $1.00 was charged on 12/14/14 for the 7 day trial period, and $49.60 was
charged on 12/21/15 after the trial period ended for the monthly service. 
There were no further charges made to Customer J’s account.
 We
apologize for any confusion, but in the complaint, Customer J states we told
her the charge was not from our organization.  This comment was made due
to her reference of February 2015 charges, as we did not bill Customer J after
her cancellation on 1/25/15.
 Upon
receiving this complaint, we attempted to contact Customer J on 3/06/15 at the
number listed on file to resolve this issue.  We have refunded all charges
to Customer J totaling $50.60 and believe this fully resolves the customer’s
concerns.

Thank you for notifying us of Customer R’s experience.  We appreciate the opportunity to research and respond to what has occurred with Customer R’s account. 
Calibri, sans-serif;">According to our records, Customer R registered for an account on 7/14/16.  Customer R agreed to be billed for the trial membership and each month thereafter until the account is cancelled.  The Terms of Use and Pricing Information are clearly displayed on our registration page, and we require each member to check a box stating they have read and agree to the terms of use and pricing information, prior to registering the account.
A welcome email is sent to every member upon registration, confirming the account is active, and provides the membership log on information to our site.  It also includes the trial expiration date so the member will know when to cancel if they do not wish to be billed after the trial expires.
We do not show any further correspondence from Customer R until 7/21/16, when he called our customer service department and cancelled the account himself, not speaking with a live customer service representative by using our automated phone system. 
Upon receiving notice of Customer R’s concern our customer service manager contacted Customer R directly to explain the situation and resolve his concern.  Although the account was  billed correctly, our customer service manager granted a full refund, and Customer R has confirmed he is satisfied with this resolution.

Thank you for notifying us of L.R.’s concern about certain listings
appearing on our website. We researched the situation and contacted L.R. by
telephone to discuss her concerns on 11/12/2014. We explained that our website
displays many types of listings, not only foreclosure or lease...

option
properties. In addition, we also explained the listings displayed for her real
estate company were received and authorized for display based on a listing
syndication agreement in place with a national MLS real estate data provider.
We also confirmed the listings for her brokerage are displayed as traditional
re-sales, and are not shown as foreclosure or rent to own listings.
Based on our conversation with L.R., we believe we have addressed her
concerns to her satisfaction. However, per L.R.’s request, we have also sent
her an email and provided her an opportunity to advise us the details (such as
street address or MLS#) of any home listings she would like to have removed
from our site. While we believe our website provides sellers with valuable
exposure to a large pool of real estate buyers nationwide, we will be happy to
accommodate any listing removal requests.
L.R. is welcome to contact us by phone or email if we can be of additional
service.

Thank you for sending us Customer O’s comments.  We have investigated the history of this account and the communications sent to date. Our records show emails were sent successfully to the email address on file for this account, and that an earlier request to cancel...

the account was processed and a courtesy refund was issued on 4/06/2014 (prior to receiving this complaint). Our understanding is the issue was resolved.
 Please consider the following information regarding this account. According to our records, Customer O registered for an account on 3/28/2014 and agreed to be billed $1 for a 7-day initial trial and to maintain the account active for $49.60 each month thereafter until the customer canceled and closed the account. A cancellation may be submitted and processed immediately at any time directly on our website, or by calling our toll-free Customer Service phone line any day of the week, or by sending us an email. We did not receive any cancellation requests until 4/06/2014 when Customer O called our customer service department and left a voice mail on our Customer Service hotline. Customer O requested account cancellation and a refund of the disputed charge.  We immediately cancelled the account and emailed the requested log-on information to Customer O.  Although this account was not cancelled within the trial period, we elected to process a courtesy refund per the request.
 We also called Customer O later that same day at her telephone number listed on the account. We wanted to confirm the account cancellation and the courtesy refund that was processed on 4/06/2014.  Our calls were not answered, however, we confirmed the cancellation and refunds were processed through our system.
 Upon receiving this complaint on 4/07/14, we again attempted to contact Customer O at the phone number listed on this complaint. We wished to confirm the actions taken to date had fully resolved the customer’s concern. Our calls were again unanswered.  We have re-confirmed Customer O’s account was and remains cancelled and the refund was processed on 4/06/14. Customer O should expect to see a credit to her charge card in 1 – 5 business days, depending on the processing time of her card’s issuing bank. We are confident that the requested refunds have already resolved Customer O’s concerns. Thank you for reviewing our response to this issue.

Thank
you for notifying us of Ms. S’s experience.  We appreciate the opportunity
to investigate the situation, and respond to Ms. S’s concern.
rgb(31, 73, 125); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> 
Ms. S
states that her property is listed as a property FOR SALE BY OWNER, and that
she saw it listed on our website, which is called rentbeforeowning.com. 
This lead her to believe that her house was listed as a Rent Before Owning
property, however this is not the case.  Our website listed the property
correctly as a For Sale By Owner.
 When
Ms. S called our customer service department on 2/19/15, she requested that her
property be removed from our website completely, which has been done. We have
also contacted the advertising service which listed her home on other social
media sites and have requested that they remove her home from their database so
the home will not be advertised on line.  They have confirmed they have
removed this home from their database, so it will not show up in an
advertisement from their company.
 Ms. S
also expresses concern with the “estimated” value of the home that was listed
on our website.  Please know that an “estimated value” is just that, an
estimate.  We work with leading national data providers which provide
estimated home values for numerous property listing services.  The
estimates are variable, and as an example Reatlytrac.com listed Ms S’s property
with an estimated value of $92,000; Zillow listed the property with an
estimated value of $102,000.
 Per
Ms. S’s request we have removed the property from our website and have worked
with the advertising service to confirm they have also removed this property
from their database.  We believe this has fully addressed and resolved Ms.
S’s complaints.

Looking at the review below it would appear that they have the only info about these. It would seem unlikely due to owners or sellers of these homes, want them sold. Therefore, they are paying for advertising in many places.