Beware "Reserve America"

mikestock wrote:
I made a reservation about a month ago for Topsail State Park for March and noticed on my credit card that, January 16 a credit card charge for $64.95. This charge went to "The Active Network". I called the 877 phone number listed for them and had the charge explained as being from Reserve America and removed by a very rude person, supposedly in San Diago.

I went on the Reserve America site again this morning and went through the reservation process up to the "confirmation" step. The Active Network was no longer mentioned. However, at this point I was asked to check 3 magazines for free 3 months, after which my credit card would be charged a very expensive renewal for each magazine. There was no box available to opt out of this offer, although I would hope, with no guarantee, that the magazines would not be selected for you if you ignored this step. Of course you could cancel during the 3 months if you knew and remembered where and how to do so.

I don't remember The Active Network being there when I checked out in December, but I have been caught by websites that have boxes checked, by default, and you could be signed up for an unwanted service unintentionally. I asked the agent I talked with if this was the case but he would not confirm or deny and became more rude when pressed for an answer.

Went back and looked at my printed confirmation of the reservation this was not mentioned.

Merrykalia wrote:
This has gone on with Reserve America for years. I'm surprised you hadn't encountered it before. I always complain to the states official website because they use Reserve America. It really bothers me that I have to pay a fee to use their services to reserve a space in a campground that can be located 2 miles from my house and the fact that they seem to know nothing about the individual campgrounds. If you search on their site, you can find the information so they should be able to do it, but apparently they don't want to take the time to do it. Just irks me, but most state parks are going to using them because it's cheaper than hiring someone to do it "in state".

Double ditto. RA has multiple issues with it and when it comes down to the states using them, hard copy letters to the head of the state parks in your state detailing those issues do impact decisions at the state level. Getting a consensus among your friends and having them write letters to the state is helpful too.