Complaint Review: Girls Gone Wild

Sorry this is so long... but there is a happy ending :)

GGW gave me the same BS story about their "monthly program". They claimed that I had signed up for it along with my order, and if that wasn't what I wanted then it was my fault; I must have been careless in selecting the items I ordered.

So I checked the website again. It intentionally conceals the fact that by purchasing certain videos you are also signing up for the subscription service. The only connection between these videos and the subscription information is a link called "NEW TV OFFER". There is nothing on the shopping cart page, nor the checkout page that even hints at a subscription being included with your order.

If this had been an honest mistake, they would have fixed it in response to the hundreds of complaints. They must figure it will be more profitable to keep doing it and just issue refunds to the few people who complain loudly.

I spent about a half-hour on the phone with GGW and got nowhere. They refused to let me return one for a refund (it had been more than 30 days), and they expected me to pay return shipping charges on the others.

But when I called American Express they gave me an *instant refund* for all of the charges! I didn't even know they could do that :) No more calls to GGW "customer service", no return shipping charges, no waiting for a refund from GGW.

Needless to say, I'm very pleased with AMEX.

You might be interested in this article:

http://advancement.sdsu.edu/marcomm/news/clips/Archive/Mar2003/031303/031303wildgirls.htm

Two parts caught my eye. 1) a pending class-action lawsuit against GGW for consumer fraud, and 2) a reference to a federal law regarding unordered merchandise.

I checked out the usps website. Basically, if a merchant sends you something you didn't ask for, you get to keep it for free:

http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/merch.htm

Good luck!

Jeramie
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.