Complaint Review: Rewards Gateway

Rewards Gateway is one of those Internet marketing scams. On their site, they claim that you get a "Free Gift," usually in the form of a card from a big-name merchant. Some of these merchants include: Home Depot, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, and Visa.

Naturally, Rewards Gateway has that little asterisk right next to the word "free". But if you are an extremely cautious, suspicious sort, you'll check out their site and discover that you don't get this "free gift" for nothing. Oh no! You have to buy from six of their sponsors! That's right! The "free gift" isn't something for nothing. It isn't a "free gift" that you get for sitting through a sales presentation with no obligation to buy. It is, in truth, something you have to *earn*. The advertising on their site should reflect that you earn the incentive, but they don't and they've told me point-blank that they won't.

In fact, their legal counsel from ValueClick stated that Rewards Gateway is in full compliance with all laws. Talk about a load of bull. The laws about advertising make it clear that you can't deceive consumers. Claiming that something is "free," even with an asterisk next to it, and then having consumers pay to get it is misleading. Their attorney claimed that the California statutes pertaining to "free gift" incentives had no bearing on Rewards Gateway.

He claimed that users weren't subjected to a sales presentation. That's the most illogical statement ever. Consumers that want the alleged "free gift" have to sign up with six sponsors. That's six sales presentations. But also in order to qualify, you have to *buy* from each of those six sponsors. Honey, that "free gift" isn't free, not by a mile. By the time you get done buying from all six sponsors, you would have probably been better off going out and buying yourself your own gift card. It would be a heck of a lot cheaper.

State and federal regulations concerning "free gift" incentives are quite clear. If a person has to make a purchase, then all costs must be disclosed beforehand. If you bother with signing up with Reward Gateway's sponsors, you'll likely notice that at least half of the offers have *no* cost disclosures. They don't even list the total shipping and/or handling charges that many of the "free trial" or "free sample" offers want from you.

What's worse is that many of these companies *require* you to give them a credit card number! Some of these companies might claim that the credit card number is used as a form of ID, but the FTC is quite clear about that issue: credit card numbers are *not* to be used as a form of ID.

Here's a partial list of their sponsors: Discover card, Columbia House, BMG Music, Blockbuster Online, TrimLife, RoadLoans, E-Loan, and the Video Professor. You'll find plenty more if you dare entering your e-mail address. And if you do, you're forced to opt-in to their spam.

I will grant them one bit of praise though. They've since enlarged their legal disclaimer at the bottom since I sent them a complaint. Before, it was the smallest text on the page, but now it complies with California statutes on the matter.

In short, Rewards Gateway seems to be just another of those companies that you should just avoid.

Mia
Clarksville, Texas
U.S.A.