Update: After contacting higher ups at the company, Model Managment has reversed their decision and issued me a refund. I am revising my rating to 3 stars. While I should not have gone through all of this trouble to get my money back, they made good on their mistakes.

I believe the service is useful for models and photographers to meet and collaborate on projects but the no refund policy and silent billing should still give you some pause when deciding to do business with them. Please know what you're getting into before agreeing to a paid plan. Hopefully they revise their policies to be more friendly to subscribers.

I used the service last year but no longer needed it. I canceled on my renewal date when I saw the pending charge and was informed that I have been canceled and my service will stop NEXT YEAR!

When I told them I needed it canceled now, they refused to do so and denied my request for a refund.

They will tell you that you could have canceled at any time before renewal but now that it has renewed, too bad. You are stuck with Model Management for another year whether you want it or not.

They will even point out that they can't refund you because it's listed in their vague and confusing terms of service policies and stand by that to refuse the refund. They will make it feel like it's was all your fault and because you didn't cancel in time, your hard earned money is theirs to keep. They will then ignore any further pleas to get you refund and pretend they don't hear you thinking you will just give up and accept it.

Um, NO!

I don't care if you sent me info a year ago stating you would bill me. The fact of the matter is that you should be sending a renewal notice before the renewal happens. What are you afraid of? Cancellation? Churn numbers that will upset your investors? What is one dishonest company to do in the face of this?

The reason they are not notifying you is because they want you to lose track of the billing date so they can charge you and then stand by their questionable no refund policy to keep your money. That's if you notice the charge at all. Many people don't. Silent billing practices are common among predatory businesses and it's set up this way by design. It's an awful way to do business and I worked for several companies who used this horrible practice. Mostly it's done to pad their churn numbers so they can impress their investors. Too many cancellations can jeopardize funding for the company. So instead of producing a quality service, you get tactics like this.

The good news is these policies do not stand up to any legal scrutiny so don't be intimidated by this company telling you no and making you feel like you have no recourse. File a dispute with your bank. Report this company to your State Attorney General. File complaints with any and all consumer protection agencies available to you. Don't let companies like this just walk away with your money. You have rights, don't be afraid to exercise them to the fullest extent possible.