Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/13/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  In 2022 Paid $88.45 for StreamCord, I stopped using it after few months. Nov 30 2023 i was charged for it and i can not get a full refund.Patreon says to contact StreamCord, I've done that and have gotten no reply after over 2 weeks, i contact patreon again and they said they can not do nothing about it. This feels like a scam and patreon should be able to help.I do not use streamcord anymore and i just want a FULL REFUND

  Business Response

  Date: 12/14/2023

  The request has been analyzed by our internal team and we've advised this user to the best of our abilities. Our refund policy does not guarantee approval for every request
  
  If the user requires further assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/14/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  i was able to contact the support team and got a refund already  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/08/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Patreon **** headquarters at ************************************************************************** has been taking unauthorized automatic payments from my personal Chase credit card ending **** for the past several months. I called the number listed on my credit card statement to stop the unauthorized charges. Patreon's phone #**************** listed on my statement is a non-working number that gives a busy signal and then automatically disconnects after **** seconds. There is no way to contact Patreon except by submitting an email from their help center page, located at *************************************************. There is no number, email address or "robot chat box" option, and the number they provide with their monthly charges does not work.The help page has no topics or options to stop unauthorized charges to non-members/customers. The amount of the charges vary each month. I want a refund for all charges in 2023 because I should never have been billed by Patreon, and I never authorized anyone to use my card for Patreon billing purposes. I contacted Patreon, ***** registered agent Services Incorporated, which I found online from the ****** State Attorney General's public business search web page. Incorporated Services contact information is ph # ******************** ****************************, ******** ** *****. The person I spoke with on the phone at the agent's office said he is prohibited from providing the contact information for Patreon.I have uploaded my latest 2023 monthly statement with as an example of the non-working phone number and unauthorized Patreon charges.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/11/2023

  Hi there,
  
  Our team is actively working with the user and we are addressing their concerns to the best of our abilities. Information regarding their situation was asked with specific details and user has yet to provide the information requested so that we can locate the charge they speak about. We recommend that the user to respond to our emails and provide the requested details since it is the best route for a resolution.
  Apologies as we do not offer phone support, we only work by email. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/11/2023

   
  Complaint: 20981002
  
  I am rejecting this response because 1) the merchant falsely claims I did not respond to the merchant's questions,  2) the merchant failed to stop the merchant's unauthorized re-occurring withdrawals from my credit card, 3) the merchant has not resolved the two issues a) intentionally advertising a non-working phone number and b) failing to refund any of the 2023 unauthorized payments from my credit card, and 4) the merchant falsely claims they are working with me to resolve the issues.

  It is true that the merchant initially contacted me by email.  The merchant asked by email:

  "if the unauthorized payments were from a Paypal account, and if so, what is my email associated with Paypal or Otherwise please provide all of the following information:
  Exact date and amount of the charge as it appears on your statement (please provide a screenshot if possible)
  Last four digits of the credit/debit card used
  If the card was used via ApplePay: the Device Account Number (found by opening Apple Wallet > selecting the card used > clicking the 3 dots in the top right).
  Card's expiration date (MM/YY)
  Your billing zip code
  Type of card ****** MasterCard, Discover, AmEx, ApplePay)
  Card provider/issuing bank"

  I responded by email to the merchant and provided my two Paypal emails as requested and also answered ALL the above questions, including providing the specific transaction dates Nov 1, 2023, Nov 2, 2023, Dec 1 2023 and Dec 2, 2023 and the specific amounts for each of those four days, and advised that I wanted a refund for all the months in 2023 where the same unauthorized transactions occurred on the same dates of the month for the same amounts.  I included with my reply message additional grievance I had with the merchant about their non working phone number that was listed on my credit card statement with the description of their transaction.  The merchant responded by email to apologize for the issue I was having and again asked me to respond to the questions.  I replied a second time to the merchant and advised the merchant to please check my first reply message. I then got a third email from the merchant stating the merchant can not assist me because they are unable to find a record of my Paypal emails and the best thing to do was to contact my credit card. That concluded the merchant's assistance.  It is a falsehood that the merchant is working with me to resolve the issues as they claimed to BBB.   I reject the merchant's proposed solution to contact my credit card company because it places the responsibility on me and my credit card company to resolve an issue that is the responsibility of the merchant to resolve since the issue stems from the merchant's re-occurring payment processing transactions. As previously explained to the merchant, I am not a member of the merchant and have never been a member or had an account with the merchant so I cannot therefore have a Paypal or any other type of email associated with a merchant account or membership.  I reject the merchant's solution and find it unsatisfactory also because I previously contacted my credit card company twice to stop the payments before contacting the merchant.  My credit card company is the source that alerted me the second time I contacted them that the payments were repeating each month so I needed to contact the merchant to stop future payments. Thirdly, because I don't have an account with the merchant,  I cannot cancel an account to stop the payments.  The merchant should be able to look up my credit card number and stop the reoccurring payments regardless of which of the merchant's accounts (or memberships) is associated with my credit card.  I do not believe my Paypal emails are the only way the merchant has to find the fraudulent account or activity.  The merchant should have enough logic to discern that none of my personal information, i.e., name, email, address, phone number, etc. will be associated with one of their accounts or memberships.  I reached out to the merchant to alert them that any account associated with my credit card is fraudulent and I would like a complete refund for every month in 2023 that a payment was collected from my credit card. At their request,  I then provided the merchant with the my credit card information. It is unclear, therefore, why the merchant's response to me is they cannot assist with the issue.  On one hand, the merchant ended dealings with me.  On the other hand, the merchant  responded to BBB to make it appear that they are not yet assisting because I've failed to answer their questions.  . 

  Because of the merchant's final email reply to me that they cannot assist, I was left with no choice but to cancel my credit card and deactivate both my Paypal accounts to ensure no future payments to the merchant.  Although the merchant was unhelpful, I believe the re-occurring problem is resolved with ******'s assistance to cancel my accounts and my credit card company's assistance to cancel the card; and I'm working with my credit card company to dispute the payments already made to the merchant for as much of a refund as possible.    

  The merchant's response is also unsatisfactory because the merchant did not address their practice of advertising a non-working phone number with the description of their monthly withdrawals from my credit card.  I can only go by my credit card statement description of the monthly transactions, which states verbatim "PAYPAL *PATREON MEMBERSHIP ************ CA."    I will not be satisfied until the merchant changes this bad faith dealing practice.  Satisfactory action is to either provide a working phone number or stop including the non-working phone number ************ with transaction descriptions.  If the merchant's policy is not to have telephone communications with consumers, a recommendation is to start using live or robot chat as is the practice of most reputable merchants without telephone or in person support.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

  Business Response

  Date: 12/13/2023

  Hi there,
  
  Information regarding their situation was asked specific details and user has yet to provide the information requested, so that we can locate the charge mentioned. Please respond to our emails and provide the requested details since it is the best route for a resolution.
  The information asked was the following: 
  Exact date and amount of the charge as it appears on your statement (please provide a screenshot if possible)
  Last four digits of the credit/debit card used
  If the card was used via ApplePay: the Device Account Number (found by opening Apple Wallet > selecting the card used > clicking the 3 dots in the top right).
  Card's expiration date (MM/YY)
  Your billing zip code
  Type of card ****** MasterCard, Discover, AmEx, ApplePay)
  Card provider/issuing bank
  
  Please do not send the information here, only send it to the email thread with our support

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/13/2023

   
  Complaint: 20981002
  
  I am rejecting this response because the merchant continues to offer the same solution for my refund request to contact my bank and continues to falsely claim to BBB that I have not yet responded to the merchant to answer their questions when I responded by email on 12/9/2023 at 3:30 am EST to the merchant to answer all the merchants questions.  I also reject the merchant's response because the merchant fails to acknowledge why they continually provide a non working number on my credit card statements when it cannot be used to contact them.  Below is the merchant's reply after the merchant received my 12/9/2023 3:30 am EST email where I answered their questions:

  
  Your request (*******) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.
  
  Remy (Patreon)
  Dec 9, 2023, 2:12?PM PST
  Hi there,
   
  Thank you for providing the requested information. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate any transactions matching the details that you provided.
   
  We apologize for not being able to locate the transaction and recommend that you contact your bank to file a dispute for the charges. From there, the bank will reach out to Patreon on your behalf to help us resolve the issue.
   
  Please let me know if you have any questions.
  Regards,
  Remy
  Patreon | Trust & Safety

  ___________________________
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

  Business Response

  Date: 12/20/2023

  The request has been analyzed by our internal team and we've advised this user to the best of our abilities.
  If the user requires further assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/02/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Patreon has refused to comply with my requests to have my information deleted from their databases. This all began with me being locked out of my account because I lost access to my TOTP authentication method. I've attempted to verify my identity with Patreon support, but the information they want in order to "verify" me is completely unreasonable, including "month and year of account creation, date of last login, "display name", and the ** used to access Patreon. How on earth do they expect ANYBODY to know the ** they used to access Patreon on a specific date in the past? This has been an absurd back and forth with Patreon support and it's going nowhere...slowly.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/13/2023

  Hi there,
  
   
  Our team already assisted the user and the issue was resolved since user did not answer to identification questions. If the user needs assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/21/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I joined Patreon a number of months ago to gain access to a subscriber membership. I decided to cancel 2 months ago, but cancel because when I logged-in there was no record of membership - however, they are charing my credit card a monthly membership fee. I contacted them 8 weeks ago and never heard back. I contacted them again on Nov 14 and heard back from **** saying they couldn't locate my account and to send the specifics. I did and I haven't heard back. I have contacted them a total of 8 times with no resolution. I have read other complaints that seem to have the same scenario (can't cancel account, but continue being charged). I was able to find my account, but they can't? I can't cancel and they won't. While the monthly amount is small, it's the principle. It's my money and I don't like being cheated. What a way to conduct business.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/22/2023

  Hi there,

  We apologize for the delay here. One of our teammates is going to follow up with this member as soon as possible. 
  
  Kindly,
  
  Patreon Support team.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/22/2023

   
  Complaint: 20903184
  
  I am rejecting this response because I need to reply to keep my case open.  I am waiting on a response from Patreon.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************

  Business Response

  Date: 11/28/2023

  Hi there,
  

  Our team already assisted the user on November 26th, after they reached out to BBB, and the issue was resolved. The subscription was canceled, as requested. If the user needs assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.

  Thank you,

  Patreon Support Team

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/30/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/10/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Trying to access account after receiving a charge of $1400. Unable to sign in the account due to forgotten password. Attempted to contact multiple times. Phone not working Written but only received stock answer on where to go on websites. Again,cannot do anything without old, forgotten, password.Need them to actually contact us to resolve the issue, check what the charges are for, if real.Thank you

  Business Response

  Date: 11/13/2023

  Hi there,
  
  We do not have any contact from this user email, if the user needs assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/01/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  ****** (Patreon)Oct 25, 2023, 1:14?PM PDT Hi there,Thank you for reaching out to us. We have detected suspicious activity linked to your account. For this reason, the account has been disabled until we can verify a few things from you. We will need all of the following information from you in order to further assist in reviewing your account: Your Name Your Location (City, State, Country)Verify Payment Method (Last 4 digits of all credit cards used, PayPal email address, etc)If you have not successfully added a payment method yet, please provide the last 4 digits of the one you would like to add.Name of your current internet provider/service Please reply directly to this email. Once the information is received, our team will review and look into the matter. Our foremost goal is to ensure your account's security. In order to be considered for possible reinstatement and to validate your ownership of the account, the requested information is necessary. Please let us know if you have any questions.All the best,Patreon | **************

  Business Response

  Date: 11/02/2023

  Hi there,
   
  Our team already assisted the user on October 25th, before they reached out to BBB, and the issue was resolved. We take the safety and security of our platform seriously. Our teams investigate suspicious activity to better secure the community and platform.
  
  If the user needs assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/09/2023

   
  Complaint: 20813721
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I paid for access to their platform $5 a month.

  Then they suspended my account.

  Then they deleted my account.

  Nothing was resolved.

  I do not believe that there was any suspicious activity. So they should have left my account like it was. Then I could update my payment method and continue accessing their platform. But no my account was removed.

  And I am not wasting my time to make another one, knowing they could do the same thing to me again.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

  Business Response

  Date: 11/10/2023

  Hi there,
  Our team already assisted the user as advised previously, before they reached out to BBB, and the issue was resolved. If the user needs assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/01/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have never used patreon. I have had charges coming to my account.

  Business Response

  Date: 11/02/2023

  Hi there,
  
  Our team is actively working with the user since they reached out on November 1st 2023 and we are addressing their concerns to the best of our abilities. We recommend that the user continues to respond to our emails since it is the best route for a resolution.
  

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/20/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I created a Patreon account on the evening of 18October2023, paid $89 for the service, setup my account and connected my discord account to the app. I then started to watch the educational videos I paid for. The next morning when I tried to login on the phone app, I received a message saying my account was deactivated and an email stating the same thing due to suspicious activity. I sent an email to support to find out what was going on. I later received a reply saying they deactivated it due to suspicious activity. Thats all they would say. I didnt realize paying for a service, setting up my account and watching videos was suspicious activity. I thought thats why Patreon was created, to watch educational content. The email asked me to verify my identity with name, address, credit card number and so on. I provided everything they asked for and have not received a reply. Its absolutely ridiculous that they are doing this to begin with, but even more ridiculous that you cant contact them by phone to speak with someone. What kind of business that has been around for 10 years doesnt have any type of customer support where you can speak to someone via telephone? If they arent going to reactivate my account so i can use the service I paid for, then I will need a refund. At this point Patreon is the one guilty of suspicious activity.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/23/2023

  Hi there,
  We do not have any recent contacts from the user regarding this situation, our team assisted the user on October 2022, and the user has not reached back since through this email address. If the user needs assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** using the email address of the account that they created (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.
   2022 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/18/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  They blocked a simple sign in under the guise of "security" and REFUSE to send the email to unlock it, which I see on ******** is happening to others. They are intentionally locking us out of our account so they can keep billing indefinitely since we can't modify or cancel subscriptions. They are greedy scumbags.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/19/2023

  Hi there,
  
  Our team already assisted the user on 19th October, before they reached out to BBB, and the user has not gotten back to us. If the user needs assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us, or answer to the email we sent you.
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/19/2023

   
  Complaint: 20748140
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I filed the complaint on the 18th and they responded by email on the 19th. If I had not filed the complaint, they would have done nothing. They don't even respond to their ******** page overrun with ****. This should have never happened. There was no reason to deny my access in the first place.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************

  Business Response

  Date: 10/25/2023

  The request has been analyzed by our internal team and we've advised this user to the best of our abilities. Also, the user is now able to log in without any issues and they have been informed by us.
  
  If the user requires further assistance, they will need to reach out to us again through *********** (*************************************************) to send us a note. At the bottom of every article, theyll find an Email Patreon Support button where they can get in touch with us.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/12/2023

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  On October 1st I was charged $69 dollars. I have only 1 membership which is only $10. I have been only paying $10 for several months now. When I view my billing history on their website it says I only paid $10 in October 1st. But I was charged $69. I have tried contacting them 3 times now. They supply zero phone number but say to send email which I have sent 3 of them and received an automated response with a ticket number but zero actual response to my issue. It is now 11 days with zero response from them to why I was charged more than what they say I paid on the 1st.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/12/2023

  Hi there,
  
  Our team is actively working with the user and we are looking into their concerns to the best of our abilities. We recommend that the user continues to respond to our emails since it is the best route for a resolution.