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Is Apple and Google in cahoots to steal our money? The Apple inflation and YouTube Gaslight.

bornwithoutboundar

Is Apple and Google in cahoots to steal our money? The Apple inflation and YouTube Gaslight. Hear me out:

There is a lot happening at Born without Boundaries that is good. The continued growth of subscriptions on the main channel is hopeful. I remain always grateful for all my channel members. Let me make a special shout out to all my BwoB members - you guys are so special to me. And to you all who subscribe to this newsletter - Thank you so much. Your continued interest in the health of Born without Boundaries is inspiring. It's inspiring me to be bold in a way I'm clearly being called to. But the call is not easy to answer.

This is what I'm talking about:

On December 10th 2023 I went LIVE on Born without Boundaries Tarot on YT for a membership drive. The video is here:


I was so hopeful. Please note that this is not a plea for memberships or a guilt trip for not joining. No. Not at all. It is so far beyond that.

If you watch the video above you'll see that about a half hour in two of my BwoB members - great ladies who constantly support me, gently let me know they were being charge more for the membership than I was mentioning. It's in the chat, which should still be available when you watch the video. The mentioned that the price they saw when they joined, and the cost of their subscription since, was $19.99. But that couldn't be. It really confused me. Because the price I set for the membership in my creator portal was $14.99. I hadn't changed it - at least I didn't think so. Prone to doubting myself I opened up another tab - mid LIVE stream - to check that the price was as assigned. And they were - $14.99. I also checked my channel heading, where the "Join" tab is located - it too listed the price appropriately at $14.99.

I didn't have an answer for them. I had no idea what was happening. When you watch the video you'll see the by this point the LIVE membership drive had been derailed because I wanted to get to the bottom of things. So, I opened up another tab to reach out to YouTube creator support - while I was still live.

On that chat they loosely investigated the issue and then transferred me to an email interaction which is normal protocol for them when issues can't be easily resolved. Both of my over-charged members had emailed me receipts of their charges which I forwarded to the YT staff via the email interaction.

They (the YT staff) came to the conclusion that the members where being charged in Canadian dollars, not American. This is what they told me. But it was clear from the memberships receipts that this was not the case. The YT staff even went as far as to tell me that that the American dollar sign was the same as the Canadian dollar sign and so the presence of that in the receipt didn't prove anything.

I had my members check their bank statements to see how much money had actually been withdrawn. It was $19.99 USD. Had it been a charge of Canadian dollars their bank withdrawals would have been the $14.99 USD. That was not the case. Plus, BOTH of these members were AMERICANS. They lived in the states, had YT accounts registered as United States, had phone bills (they had both made the membership purchase via iphone) that were American accounts on American devices. Yet the YT staff continued to insist that the discrepancy was about conversions fees. Finally, the YT staff provided me with a link that both members could use to file their own complaint, which I shared with them. But the link didn't work, and so their issue got thrown away. They are still being charged the wrong price.

Yesterday, I was on my phone (iPhone 11) after having uploaded my videos and happened to see my membership "join" tab. For shits and giggles I clicked it (to better understand my viewers experience). And there it was-

$19.99 for BwoB membership

$12.99 for Harmony

$4.99 for Courage

but that is NOT what I had assigned. What I assigned and was STILL programed in my creator portal was

$14.99 for BwoB

$9.99 for Harmony

$3.99 for Courage

Angry was not the word. This was MY channel. I my personal phone. ALL AMERICAN devices and accounts. And yet, there it was. After their team had insisted this was the case.

So I did a bit more checking. I went onto my laptop - a MacBook pro - and repeated the steps. I went to my channel, clicked the "Join" tab and observed the pop up. But it was different. The prices on my laptop were the correct prices! The prices I had assigned. So I called to my family. I made the get out their phones under their YT accounts and repeat the steps. They did. And holy crap!

My sister - on her iPhone - got the inflated prices

My sister-in-law - on her Galaxy - got the correct prices.

My sister even pointed out that she was being required to create an iTunes account in order to finish the purchase.

So, clearly this was an iPhone/iTunes thing. I had them send me their screen shots, combined them with my screen shots, and opened up another YT chat. And I got the same run-around. Despite the screen shots demonstrating the discrepancy they continued to insist that they charge the same across all devices and they this was a currency conversion issue.

My family and I live in the same home - in Austin, TX (that's USA btw).

We all purchased our phones from American stores.

We were all standing in the same living room using the same American WiFi service. But here was YT insisting that what we were experiencing was a currency conversion issue. And they ran me through the same loop, transferring me to email and responding, once again, like this:

 

This is a screen shot of the boiler plate response the YT creator support team provided to me upon reporting the discrepancy is pricing to them. It shows that they are once again saying this is currency rate issue when it is no such thing. These are all American members, with American YT accounts, being charge in US Dollars
Screen shot of my email response from the Google/YT team

So here we are. They clearly know this is happening. And I now know I'm being gas-lighted by one of the biggest companies on the planet - Google. Wait no, TWO of the biggest companies on the planet - Apple too. Because they CLEARLY know. They know that people are being charged more through the iPhone channel. They are not only allowing it, the assisting it's execution. And they are fraudulently disguising it as my pricing. They are showing it as a separate, additional charge through Apple. They aren't showing it at they. They simple allowing my fees to be inflated - displaying it was what I am charging my viewers for membership. And I'm not. Not at all.

Guys, how is this legal?

Could anyone offer any insight?

 

So, yeah, this is what I'm going through. It's distressing and sad.

That being said I would still love for you to be members, but if you decide to, be sure to use your desk/laptop or a mobile device NOT made by Apple. FYI.

Much love to you all.




5 Comments


Flavia Fernandes
Flavia Fernandes
Feb 16, 2024

Michelle!!!! This is horrendous! I did wonder why I was being charged extra! I am in the UK though so I though it was the exchange rate, but even then, when I double checked... to no surprise, it was still being charged extra! Nonetheless, I continued to be a member but had to cancel my membership this month as my Cancerian Ass is a broken one, but surely Ill become a member again just as fast as that cash is falling into my account soon! I hope you're okay despite this hurdle, and I am Sending you lots of love and admiration! You inspire me to continue on this fight in raising the collective vibrations and frequency! All the Love From Flavia…

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bornwithoutboundar
Feb 22, 2024
Replying to

Dear Flavia,


It is horrendous and no doubt unethical. But when you get powerful enough I guess there are no more consequences for unethical behavior. In my opinion they should have every obligation to itemize the up charge to show that it is what it is. The REAL cost of the membership is $14.99 USD and this is what you will be charged every month if you use a Galaxy device, or a laptop or desktop without iTunes attached. FYI. Thank you for having been a member and I look forward to your return.


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NancyP
Feb 15, 2024

Thank you Michelle! I thought I was going crazy! It has been taking me a long time going back and forth with Apple and YouTube trying to get “proof” that I am paying USD! Apple told me that the couldn’t add “USD” to the receipt! To make it more confusing, they combine every purchase made with Apple Pay each month. So, it took a while to get BwoB alone on a receipt with tax and my address showing that I live in NY and paying $19.99 plus tax of course, so $21.71 , each month. Then they told me that it’s your account problem on YouTube! And around we go!

I was just going to sent you the cleaned up…

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NancyP
Feb 25, 2024
Replying to

Thank you so much Michelle. I will try to get my computer working again to switch over. Interestingly enough, I didn’t see any fine print on my iPhone saying that there is an additional fee accessing a membership with an Apple device. If you didn’t say what the membership price was, I wouldn’t have known. I was hoping that it went to you but now knowing for a fact that you do not, it’s just…fraud.

I wasn’t able to totally wrap my head around all of this at the time because I was so angry and I knew this is a very big deal. Many people do not know! It sounds like a valid class action suit, but I have…

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