A “Survival Offers” charge on your bank or credit card statement is almost always a recurring monthly subscription fee from Survival Constitution, LLC, an Akron, Ohio online retailer. The charge typically runs $57 or $67 a month and follows a cheap promotional purchase — usually a T-shirt, mug, or piece of tactical gear bought for around $9.95 — that the company says also enrolled you in a 14-day free trial. To stop it, you cancel the subscription, request a refund, and, if the company won’t return the full amount, dispute the charges with your bank.
What the Charge Actually Is
Survival Constitution, LLC runs several promotional websites selling patriotic and survival-themed merchandise at steep discounts: branded shirts, travel mugs, wall calendars, machetes, hatchets, and knife sharpeners, generally priced between $5.95 and $9.95. According to the company’s responses to Better Business Bureau complaints, every promotional purchase also enrolls the buyer in a 14-day free trial of a subscription program. If you don’t cancel within that window, the trial converts to a paid monthly membership.1BBB. Survival Constitution LLC – Complaints
The subscription goes by a few names. One is “The National Self-Reliance Initiative,” which the company says was formerly called the “Science of Skill Academy.” It’s described as an online training program or community, and members receive a welcome email with a link, username, and password to log in.2BBB. Survival Constitution LLC – Complaints Page 29 That membership is $57 a month. A separate “Knife of the Month Club” appears in other complaints at $67 a month.3BBB. Survival Constitution LLC – Complaints Page 2
Many consumers say they never saw the welcome email or realized they had signed up for anything beyond the original item. The BBB has flagged Survival Constitution with a “Pattern of Complaints” alert, and 382 complaints have been filed against the company over a three-year period, most of them about billing.1BBB. Survival Constitution LLC – Complaints Individual complaints describe unauthorized charges piling up for months before being noticed — one consumer reported $513 in charges, another more than $450 over eight months.3BBB. Survival Constitution LLC – Complaints Page 2
How To Cancel the Subscription
Start by trying to reach the company directly, but be prepared for difficulty. Consumers repeatedly report calls that disconnect, no voicemail option, and unanswered emails. The complaint record does not identify a consistently working customer service phone number. Some people have gotten a response through the website contact form.
If direct contact fails, file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Based on the complaint record, this is the most reliable way to get the company to respond. Survival Constitution typically answers BBB complaints by canceling the subscription and issuing at least a partial refund.1BBB. Survival Constitution LLC – Complaints
Getting Your Money Back
When Survival Constitution agrees to a refund, it usually cites a 60-day money-back guarantee and limits reimbursement to the two most recent months of charges, even for consumers billed for longer.4BBB. Survival Constitution LLC – Complaints Page 38 Refunds it approves are said to appear within three to five business days.
For any charges the company won’t refund, dispute them with your bank or credit card issuer. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, credit card holders can dispute billing errors, including unauthorized charges, by sending a written notice to the card issuer’s billing inquiry address within 60 days of the statement containing the error. The issuer must acknowledge the dispute within 30 days and resolve it within 90 days, and it cannot report the disputed amount as delinquent or attempt to collect on it while the investigation is open.5Federal Trade Commission. Using Credit Cards and Disputing Charges Most banks also accept disputes online or by phone.
One sequencing note worth knowing: once you file a chargeback through your bank, Survival Constitution generally stops negotiating and tells the BBB the matter is “out of our hands.”1BBB. Survival Constitution LLC – Complaints If you want to preserve the option of dealing with the company directly, contact them and file the BBB complaint first. If speed and the full recovery of older charges matter more, go straight to your bank.
Where To Report the Charge
Reporting the charge won’t recover your money on its own, but it puts the practice on regulators’ radar.
- File a report with the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The form specifically asks whether an automatic recurring charge or subscription was involved.6Federal Trade Commission. How To Report Fraud at ReportFraud.ftc.gov
- File a complaint with your state attorney general’s consumer protection office. The National Association of Attorneys General keeps a directory of complaint portals for every state and territory.7NAAG. Consumer File a Complaint
- Because Survival Constitution is based in Ohio, you can also report the charge to the Ohio Attorney General through OhioProtects.org or by calling 800-282-0515. The Ohio AG has publicly warned consumers about “dark patterns” — checkout-page design that obscures subscription enrollment.8Ohio Attorney General. Beware of Dark Patterns on the Internet
Your Rights on Subscription Traps
The business model behind these charges — enrolling you in a paid subscription during a low-cost purchase and billing monthly unless you cancel — is called “negative-option” marketing. It’s regulated primarily by the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (ROSCA), which prohibits charging consumers through negative-option features unless the seller clearly discloses the terms, obtains informed consent, and provides a simple way to cancel. The FTC has used ROSCA to bring cases against subscription operators, including a June 2026 suit against a 15-company enterprise called Genesis Tech that a federal court temporarily halted.9Regulatory Oversight. FTC Cracks Down on Alleged Quarter-Billion-Dollar Subscription Trap Enterprise
A broader FTC rule finalized in November 2024 would have required a “click-to-cancel” mechanism as simple as the sign-up process, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated the rule on July 8, 2025 on procedural grounds. The FTC opened a new rulemaking in January 2026, and a replacement could take years.10Crowell & Moring. Clicking All the Right Boxes – FTC Moves To Revive Click-to-Cancel Rule No public record in the available research shows a federal or Ohio state enforcement action specifically targeting Survival Constitution, LLC, so ROSCA and your card issuer’s dispute process remain the practical tools for getting the charges off your account.