Advanced Grocery savers Lied about grocery card Internet, Internet
I heard an ad on my local christian radio station saying I would receive 2,000 grocery card for participating in a study to track consumer purchases. I called the number, and the CSR said that I would receive a mastercard for 1,000 to purchase anything except acohol, and tobacco products. I asked why it was 1,000 instead of the 2,000 that is advertised and he stated because it was the location that I called into it was based on where I called. I purchased the card for 19.95. and after 10 days the card still had not arrived so I called again, and spoke with another CSR reassuring me that the card would arrive on Oct 13 and if it did not I could call and get a refund. I called for my refund on Oct 14 and this Rep said that the other reps put in the wrong address and I could not get a refund until the package was delivered to me and I send it back to them. After this I looked them up on line to find that it is a SCAM, with a capitol S, so I called again asking if I would receive a grocery card or coupons and she stated it would be a packet for me to sign up for the program. If you hear these ads on the radio do not respond, it is a ripoff, and I am doing everything in my power to get the word out.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
CS-Mike
United States of AmericaAGS program
#2UPDATE Employee
Mon, October 17, 2011
This is a hard industry to be in, because several other companies have offered similar programs. At least one was truly a scam, and a few have been miscommunicated, misapplied, and/or offered by companies who lacked either the means or the willingness to back up their product.
We are different. Our program did not exist until late September 2011, making it extremely unlikely that the original poster found /anything/ related to us online, except for our own website. It is more likely that (s)he found information on one of the similar programs offered by other companies.
I took the original poster's CS/cancellation call, and did what I could to rectify the situation. There are two issues here - one is that the original shipping address was incorrect such that the customer never received the program, and the second is that the customer wished for a refund. We do provide refunds, "no questions asked". Actually, I usually do ask, just so we have some idea what to improve, but a refund is never rejected. Unfortunately, our computer system does not have an option to refund a product without an RMA: the option simply isn't there, and it's not within my power to click on buttons that do not exist. I also considered issuing an RMA and then telling the computer that I had received the return, but since returns go to a different physical address than my office, it made sense when I found out I lacked access to declare a return. Lacking these options, I offered the best I could: to reship the program to the CORRECT address at no charge, so that the customer could then return it for the refund. I could see no other way to render the refund in a timely manner.
I am sorry the customer had a bad experience, but that experience is simply the result of unfortunate circumstances: a phone system that sometimes garbles things enough that addresses get mis-typed, and an order management system whose designer didn't foresee returns from people who didn't have anything to return. I believe I was right in doing the best I could: offering to reship for RMA.