Complaint Review: HotBookSale.com

Watch out for the hidden $20 a month buying club membership when you buy a book from HotBookSale.com. Even though I carefully read the Terms of Service and tried to avoid clicking any "sign me up" buttons, after my book purchase,  I learned that I was now a member of BestBrandValues.com.  



 This is one of those buying club membership services. Luckily I used a disposable hotmail email address and a temporary virtual credit card number with a dollar limit and a two month expiration date. MasterCard and DiscoverCard and other credit cards offer this. I also did not give exact answers to the "security questions" they asked, like Mother's Maiden Name and Grade School Name. As as suspicious as I was, I was so greedy to get this book for five bucks off with free shipping that I ended up paying for it with my time and annoyance.

I should have checked RipOff Report before purchasing. Unfortunately this company now has my home address, I'll probably start getting even more marketing phone calls now that I am a "customer" despite the National do not call list.
I was directed to the BestBrandValues web site to learn about my membership benefits. Whatever the benefits are, they cost about $19.95 a month. Luckily they can not bill them to me, because I closed the temporary credit card and called MasterCard to let them know not to authorize any more charges other than the price of my book. Hope I get the book, but I am not counting on it.
I also called the BestBrandValues customer service line and got a state-side, business-like representative who immediately cancelled my membership and gave me an 8 digit cancellation verification code. He said that my book would still ship free and with the $5.00 off, regardless of my membership cancellation. He seemed matter-of-fact about it. He did ask the reason I wanted to cancel and I told him that I did not want the buying club membership since it seemed like a hidden service. He did not argue with me, but simply agreed to cancel. You can bet I will be more careful and only buy after checking RipoffReport.
All the websites for this HotBookSale company have hidden registration information. You can sometimes find the address behind a website by using the free InstantDomainSearch.com to check them out. But in this case, I had to use the website of The Florida Secretary of State.
The Florida Corporation Department lists Mr. Robert Oesterlund, as "MGRM" of HotBookSale.com, Xacti Co, RSOP Holdings, BestBrandValues.com and other business names. It gives various addresses and phone numbers: 999 NW 51st St Suite 100 Boca Raton FL 33431, also known as 999 W Yamato Rd Suite 100 Boca Raton FL 33431 also known as also PO Box 810365 Boca Raton FL  33481 telephones (866)529-3413 (888)646-1662 (561)948-6425 (561)948-6405. A Bing.com aerial view shows a pretty ritzy office building at this address.
So be careful before doing business with any of these companies and be sure to use a temporary credit card number you can cancel.