Mistaken Charges from SeaWorld Continue on Man's Bank Account

Richard Potter said he had been charged by Seaworld for over three years for an annual pass he didn’t use.

It’s easy to pay for something online these days. Within minutes you can make a purchase or set up automatic payments. 

Richard Potter took advantage of this when purchasing Seaworld passes. 

“I’ve been going there since I was a little one,” Potter said. “I’ve had passes as far as I know since 2012. I take my father. He’s 80 and likes to walk around watching people.” 

Potter buys annual passes and says it saves him money along with providing the option of going to the park whenever he wants. 

One day, when Potter took a closer look at his credit card statements he says he saw something that didn’t seem right. One of the original passes he had purchased hadn’t expired, as he thought, and instead he was being charged for it monthly. 

“I didn’t pay for the other pass, I thought the payment stopped so I renewed and got another pass,” he said. 

Potter called Seaworld and asked how long he’s been paying for the Seaworld pass he had quit using. He says the Seaworld representative told him he had paid $10 a month for more than three years, a total of more than $300. 

“I asked them at first to give my money back,” Potter said. “She put me on hold and I was on hold for a long time. She gets back on the line and tells me that they can only refund three months, which is $30.” 

Richard said that wasn’t enough and contacted NBC 7 Responds. We called Seaworld and they jumped into action. Seaworld investigated and reimbursed Richard all his money. 

“It’s a huge deal, I’m not a millionaire, I don’t make much money,” Potter told NBC 7 Responds. 

Seaworld said Richard’s situation was unique but they were happy to resolve the problem. 

In a statement, David Koontz, Seaworld San Diego Communications Director said, “We genuinely believe Mr. Potter did not recall that he still had an active annual pass as he continued to purchase other annual passes over the past few years that he was using to visit the park. As this was a very unique situation, we will be refunding Mr. Potter for the pass that he didn’t realize he still had that was active.”

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