Festinger Vault Arvostelua 533

I thought I had sorted this problem out with the bank but apparently it isn't over. After I had cancelled back in 2023, festingervault suddenly started charging my bank account what I thought was twice a month, but after my disputes with the bank, it was actually 3 times a month as more charges were discovered. Now after the bank blocked them, they changed their name in statements and last night they made two charges of 46.57. I woke up to the notification from the bank of suspicious charges which I immediately jumped on. I have reached out to festingervault and their other company grootmade many times to try and sort this out amicably and there has been no response. They see the emails, they just choose to do nothing. It is a pattern of behavior given my experience and the experience of many others.

Yet, when I made a bad review on their other rebranded business grootmade on trustpilot, they were more than willing to respond there. But not to try and correct anything. Only to deny everything and make false claims that I had no account with them and that I supposedly was part of a competitor network based on "evidence". Which is obviously nonsense because there is no "evidence" for something that isn't true. Unfortunately for them, I have all the evidence and this is their desperate play at getting bad reviews removed so they can keep stealing money.

Thus, I had to go through the bank to force a resolution on the previous charges because I simply cannot allow such brazen fraudulent activity to go through. These people are no better than the lowly thief that breaks into your house at night and takes your property. Do not trust them, and do not give them your financial info because even if they don't do it now, they will hang on to it for an easy payout when it is convenient for them down the line.

I am not sure what else I can try as I have done everything I can to reach out to FestingerVault and work on a solution with the bank. But regardless, I will notify the bank for a 3rd time of fraudulent charges and let them know that FestingerVault changed their name on statements to bypass blocks from my bank and likely others that have posted here.

Aside from that, I suggest that you all keep receipts, and outreach attempts all in once place because FestingerVault has proven time and again that they will deny everything and gaslight you to make you seem like you haven't already tried to reach out through appropriate channels. This is not something that someone does if there is a genuine mistake. At this point, I have moved on from trying to talk to them because they only respond when you post here publicly, not when you reach out privately to come to a resolution. Just crickets.

For trustpilot's context FestingerVault and Grootmade are the same business. They re-branded to Grootmade for a little while and sent an email a few weeks ago saying that they were "pressing the undo button" on their re-brand. They must be trying to separate themselves from the very public complaints on the Grootmade page even though I see many people are dropping similar reviews here now.

Update:
I discovered that they banned my account when I tried to recover it and see if I could access it with my old login. I have sent all evidence to their payment processor Stripe with context on my situation and others that have posted here. I will contact the relevant authorities in my country as a pretense to contacting the Fraudehelpdesk in the Netherlands. I would like to have settled this differently, but I suggest everyone else to do the same to finally put a stop to this. This is not how I wanted to waste my Sunday, but I can't just allow it to happen anymore as FestingerVault is intent on ignoring all emails to resolve the matter. I would have been satisfied with them just deleting my financial information and letting the bank handle the rest but apparently that is too difficult for a company that is salivating at all the financial information they have in their posession.

I was a lifetime user of Festinger Vault and had been since 2019.

During that time, I found value in the platform and continued to support it. Like many others, I was later given access to the new platform as part of a transition.

After leaving an honest 3-star review about my experience, my account was revoked. This came shortly after being asked to leave that review.
I did not receive clear communication explaining the reason for the ban, and attempts to seek clarification were unsuccessful.

That experience changed my view significantly.
While I had previously found value in Festinger Vault, I cannot recommend it based on how this situation was handled.

SCAM KEEP AWAY!!! BEEN CHARGING MY CARD OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS FOR NO REASON, THEN TODAY CHARGES MY CARD OVER £200... DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT THIS SITE IS..

Ridiculous!!!!! They keep on charging you for months even if you cancel your plan!!!
No answer to your emails!!!!
They tried to charge me 9 times in the last couple of months!!!!
Scammers you have to stop!!!!!

They disappeared after i purchase a lifetime license. and made excuses for months that they are building new platform. They kept making a website and then disappearing again. This drama went for a year and still going today. Now they have rebrand to grootmade.com and you can read their reviews for yourself. Please stay away from these scammers!

I purchased a lifetime account with Festinger Vault several years ago. The founder asked me to leave a Trustpilot review for their new company, and I did so. Now I am permanantly banned from both the new company and Festinger Vault.

J'ai été inscrit de force à un "abonnement" et ait reçu une "facture" alors que j'ai demandé il y a plusieurs mois la suppression entière et totale de toutes mes données personnelles (recevant énormement de spams alors que je n'ai jamais utilisé ce service)

Donc, aucun respect GDPR, pratique commerciales douteuses, facture sans consentement.

C'est une honte.

This company is trying to charge my card just today and for the third time this month and as I look they have been trying to charge my card for months but I have not used this company for more than 4 years. So why are there attempts to charge my card that is locked because of crooked companies like this. The amount is $15 for something called "Riding Solo"

I have canceled my subscription with Festinger Vault five separate times, yet my canceled packages continue to reappear after site updates, followed by repeated attempted charges, sometimes twice a day for two different plans I have already canceled multiple times. I have screenshots from four separate dates clearly showing my accounts marked as canceled, along with records of the attempted charges.

From my experience, the billing system appears unreliable and poorly managed. The platform seems to go through frequent redesigns and new versions, but the core functionality, especially subscription management and cancellation, does not work consistently. There is no clear, dependable method to permanently cancel, and despite raising concerns, the issue remains unresolved.

At this point, I am escalating this matter to Paddle, their payment processor, and will be submitting all documentation, including screenshots of cancellations and repeated billing attempts. This pattern raises serious concerns about how subscriptions are being managed. I would strongly advise others to monitor their billing closely.

In my opinion, the company should prioritize fixing its billing infrastructure and compliance practices before focusing on cosmetic website rebrands.

Can not unsubscribe! Recent subscriber and found it very difficult to use, so I tried to go into billing and stop my subscription. YOU CANT. There help section went to a 404 page, their terms and conditions (which should have contact info) goes to a 404 page. Their emails are from a no-reply address. They have zero contact info on the their site. Do not give them your credit card info.

For many months now they rob my bank account! After their website was down for months due to law issues, it was reactivated and my subscriptions were autoactivated again. I deactivated them, yet they continued taking money from my account. I wrote an email, in June 2025 they said no more subscriptions were active. I was supposed to have only 1 subscription anyway, but after their website reset (after the law issues were solved) they activated 3 subscriptions, instead of one! Now, since September 2025 they take money from 2 of my accounts for 2 different subscriptions and now, after their website got updated again - THEY TOOK MONEY FOR 3 SUBSCRIPTIONS! I wrote many emails, nobody replies. They simply rob me for 5 months now! I cannot believe it!
The owner asked so many times for help during his law issues, because he is a person with a disability. Well, I'm a mother of a legally blind child, and he robs me! I'd never ever trust Festinger Vault!

If you see the thread from Patrick Ewbank "Fraudulent Billing Of Old Account"

The same thing has happened to me.

I noticed last night a payment taken by "Personal Rotterdam" - This is Festinger.

They have been taking unauthorised payments since April 2025.
Festinger have taken at least 18 unauthorised payments.

In that thread by Patrick Ewbank you can see "Sophie" from Festinger replied,
"The charge in April was indeed a system error on our end, specifically involving legacy accounts that were reactivated during our platform's migration. This should never have happened."

Clearly this has happened to more than one person.
- Festinger have not stopped it happening.
- Festinger have not refunded people it has happened to.

This is totally unacceptable.
I have emailed Festinger for a response and told them to refund me immediately.

UPDATE 04.02.26: Finally got a "response" from GrootMade. (Martin Groot owns Festinger).
Note - the festinger support did not respond to me.
Festinger/Martin Groot are refuting that they are unauthorised charges.
They are calling my attempts to contact them "harassment" and "threats".
Any posts on the forum asking them to contact me were ignored and have been deleted.
Read the reviews on Trustpilot & Google - there are scores of people this has happened to & that they simply ignore people.

I have asked them:
a) Provide evidence of specific opt-in evidence that I renewed a plan in April 2025?

b) Even your own website (Festinger) doesn't show invoices for the charges post August 2025 - Why are there charges by you since August 2025 without invoices?

c) Provide evidence that I downloaded from your website August 2025 - February 2026.

UPDATE: 04.06.26 - you can see festingers response - calling contact a "rampage" and "harassment".

It's absolutely clear to anyone reading the reviews how festinger behaves including hiding behind privacy law.

I asked them to email me not publish publicly.

Festinger are professional gaslighters.

Also note the line about cancellation - they cancelled my account after I posted on trustpilot and their forum... Funny that - Every trick in the book.

UPDATE 10.02.26
My bank said, "Chargeback claim successful".
See I was telling the truth.

Repeatedly sends spam messages even though I’ve unsubscribed multiple times and made them aware of it via GitHub and here in trustpilot.
Shady business practices with no respect of other people.

Festinger stoped his services.
Zero comunication.

Lifetime user having helped with the court.

RUN AWAY.

Bunch of scammers, had all of us going at it for a year waiting for them to fix the platform after several failed changes. Led us down a road of crack pipe dreams and scammer all of us out of money. Had a lifetime licence which can't even be used anymore. Plugin they provided for wordpress is now pointless and doesn't work. Shame on you Martin (if that was even your name in the first place)

so this company dies?

website 404 error and no response from support email?

Can't believe a reputable festinger from BHW have such ending :-(

I purchased a lifetime validity license from Festinger, and from this time his service has not been working properly. Its getting the server down issue for several months repeatedly.

When I contacted him for restoring my purchased license (that was removed for server issue), he just ignored my mail over and over for 2 months. Then I submitted my review in Trustpilot, and for this reason he banned my account without restoring it. Also, he replied that for my bad review, this account got banned. LOL.

Instead of fixing the problem, he is focusing on reviews on Trustpilot and trying to get fake reviews so he can scam more!

Do not trust his fake 5-star reviews on Trustpilot. Come on! His service has not been working properly for years.

It's enough. Stop SCAMMING NOW.

I posted my experience with the new and improved Festingervault because I was charged and never received services (login failed). Martin reached out to me, explained the issues with the login, and fixed the issue.

He also offered me 2 free months of services for having the issues I had. I agreed. He also asked I remove a Trust Pilot review since the issues was fixed.

That never happened. I was never given free service. I reached out to the same email address he reached out to me previously, and never heard back.

Now, the website is down and I just got a notification my card was going to be charged.

Bad business. Stay away!

Follow up: I received a request from the platform to provide the site operator with a receipt to show proof of payment to justify the review.

Beware this scammer

It didnt provide the cancelation, the website always down, it's scam

Seit über 2 Monaten versuchen wir unser Konto wiederherstellen zu lassen. Auf Anfragen bekommt man keinerlei Rückmeldung.
Jedes Mal gibt es eine neue Website mit supertollem Aussehen. Daran, dass es aber nicht funktioniert und man sich nicht einloggen kann ändert sich jedoch nix.

Trotz lebenslanger Lizenz und jahrelanger Unterstützung der Firma keinerlei Reaktion finde ich enttäuschend - noch dazu, wo man sie auch bei ihren Widrigkeiten mit Wordpress & Co weiterhin unterstützt hat.