Beware Of My Life Website

[Fox]

Just a warning to anyone thinking about using the mylife.com website to look up old friends. DON'T!

I signed up for a 1 month trial membership using pay-pal and they auto-renewed the membership twice without my authorization. I called them and they said they "cannot refund the fee but they would shut off the auto renew on my account" and "Since I used pay-pal I have to have the auto renewal shut off on pay-pal's end too or it would continue to renew"

That makes no sense. I filed a dispute with pay pal...

[90GTVert]

Welcome to the internet. lol It sucks, but it doesn't surprise me. Free trials that auto-renew is a giant money maker online. You sign up for 1 month, but somewhere in there it should say that you must cancel or you will be re-billed. Everyone from Netflix to XXX sites does it. It sucks because these days you gotta read every little thing whenever you make a payment for something or you end up with something you don't want. I forget which site it was, but some place I used to order car parts from kept signing me up for magazines. I got an issue of "Sailing" and was like WTF? You know damn well I would never sign up for Sailing.

[Goosey]

It is a pain to dig around Paypal to cancel those auto pays too. We do it when my kid gets tired of playing WOW sometimes for a couple months, but you have to hunt for it to turn it off.

[2strokd]

I warned my wife about netflix but turns out we enjoy it allot anyway!

[Reign]

I signed up for Netflix and cancelled it the same day. They're still sending me emails saying "We want you to come back!" :no:

[ltsride]

remember "smiling bob" for enzite it was the same thing but it was damn near impossable to cancel the auto billing. the guy running that scam went to prison, watch "american greed" and see allot of ways people get sucked in. free trials are for suckers 'cause you don't get nothing free anymore, well except internet access from your neighbors wireless conection. lol

[90GTVert]

I think my neighbor knows about that free connection or something. I got a letter from Comcast yesterday telling me I've infringed on someone's copyright using their high speed internet.

"Asset : BATTLE : LOS ANGELES
Protocol : Bit Torrent
File Name : Battle Los Angeles 2011 CAM XVID READ NFO LKRG"

First off, I dunno what that movie is even. I don't pay much attention to movies anymore. I watch more stuff I can learn from if possible. Documentaries and boring stuff. lol Second off, I don't use bit torrent or anything but NetFlix or Comcast's On Demand for shows/movies. This is the 3rd time now in a year. Says I can respond in writing. Not sure what good it would do to say, "you dummies have the wrong person." From what I read online it's just compliance with copyright owners and Comcast isn't gonna do anything.

I figure it's prob some IP farmer or whatever it's called just using my address or something. Kinda wish it were my neighbor, that's easier to handle. Just gotta remember to keep the wireless off or secured. Everything is plugged in anyway.

[Fox]

Well what pisses me off is that I thought that by using Pay-Pal I would have to click on a button in order for any transactions to happen but I was mistaken. I thought my case was special but I see now that I am merely at the midpoint in a long procession of sots that were duped or are yet to be duped because I didn't read the fine print. It's probably all legal too but that doesn't make it morally correct.

I think smart phones and wireless connections are unsafe so I'll be staying away from them. Too easy for a hacker to cause mayhem and steal your info. I have a cheap dumb phone that rings with texting disabled and a PC with a cable modem. That's all I need. It's really sad when I go out into the world and see kids and adults who are constantly plugged into the web all the time. Always staring down hammering away at their IPhone. It makes me think that the corporations have them right where they want 'em. They're drones! I've seen couples at restaurants and they are both staring at their phone. Probably texting each other because it's so cool!

[Goosey]

Brent, you need to get your wireless modem insructions out and read how to set it up secure. I had to connect directly to my computer, put in an IP address in internet explorer, then I could access the modem to put in a password. You can set your computer to remember the password and connect automatically the first time then never worry about it again.
I didn't mind my neighbors using my connection til they took advantage, got so slow I was not able to connect myself. You have someone taking advantage of you if they are using it like that. I had those letters from my cable company too, they never bothered me farther, but the company that was stolen from "could" file copyright infringement charges, probably won't, but It's an easy fix to block your wireless and not worry about it in future.
No problems since I secured my modem.

Fox, you would be surprised at how many people I have to wait on that have there darn noses in there phones, either talking or texting. Some will act like your bothering them when you interupt to ask what kind of cheese they want etc.. I just keep asking the questions and get louder about it til I get them through, while a line of folks wait behind them. They will also sit accross from there friend and ignore them while they text away, or talk to someone else on the phone. That "Really?" commercial is right on

[90GTVert]

Thanks Goosey. I know how to set up security. I just get lazy and do it without on the rare occasion that I use my laptop. Then I forget to turn it back off too. I always figured no one could get my internet anyway. I have a hard job getting a signal in the garage, so it seems like a stretch to think the nearest neighbor, 3x that far, is using it with much sucess to d/l big files. I'm gonna set up security, then turn wireless off completely.

Apr 26, 2011 12:08:39 GMT -5 Fox said:

I have a cheap dumb phone that rings with texting disabled and a PC with a cable modem. That's all I need. It's really sad when I go out into the world and see kids and adults who are constantly plugged into the web all the time. Always staring down hammering away at their IPhone. It makes me think that the corporations have them right where they want 'em. They're drones! I've seen couples at restaurants and they are both staring at their phone. Probably texting each other because it's so cool!

Sounds like me. I have a Razr. I only upgraded that far for two reasons. 1)It gets better reception than the very very basic one I had before. 2)I wanted metal ringtones. (OK, so that's not actually a good reason.) It stays off half the time because it's prepaid. It really is an emergency thing for me. As much as I mod things and cause myself problems I would be so screwed without having a phone to call for help.

I could make a huge list of things I hate about cell phone abuse... here's a start...

Get the off the phone and stay in your lane! What some of these people do is worse than a lot of drunk drivers.

You're at my house or in my car, but I've got to keep the noise down and sit quietly cause your cell phone is going off. Or I amuse myself because texts are coming in faster than I can type on the computer. Why are you here?

There's a law now in MD that you can't drive and be on your cell. You are supposed to pull over if you must talk or text. What does that translate to? People riding on the shoulder at 20-30MPH on the phone. Oh sure, that's much better.

Cell phones are a wonderful thing. Like lots of other great things, proper use requires some common sense.

/

[Reign]

You may think it's a stretch for your neighbors to use your internet, but there are antenna's that will easily do it. I owned such an antenna up until last month. It had a 1 mile range in an open environment, about 3 city blocks in town. I could run a network scan on my computer with the normal adapter, and find 2 networks at 1 or 2 bars. Attach that antenna, and run another scan and I could get 30+ networks at 4 bars or higher. And that's with a DIRECTIONAL antenna. So that was just in 1 area. I could turn it and point it the other way and find another 30+

You may think it's rare for someone to have an antenna that powerful, but you can get the same results with a USB wireless adapter and a Pringles can. Google "Cantenna" if you've never heard of it.

[lshigham]

There's a wok design too I've read about

[90GTVert]

I guess I never thought about it that way. I was thinking I just didn't have the output strength or whatever so it wouldn't matter. I shoulda known. Thanks. It's off now anyway. I'm not so sure it wasn't off when I had other complaints.

[WT100]

Netflix rocks! The trick is to get your movies or TV shows and save them onto a computer and immediately return the discs. Then use a iPod or other HD based player to play them back when you are ready for them. I crank through about 30 discs a month so i always have things to watch in airports etc and my wife always has a "Chick Flick" to watch.

If you get the movie and wait till you are ready to watch it you'll loose money.

[90GTVert]

I'm just using the cheapo streaming service. Saw the amount of docs they had on there during a free trial. Figured it was worth an extra month for $8. I've watched pretty much every streaming documentary available there that interests me in 1 free and 1 paid month though.