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  • Report:  #709523

Complaint Review: Samaritan Fundraising.com

Samaritan Fundraising.com The GoCard, The MamaSaver Card, The Camp Card, The GameSaver Card, 100,000 merchants, Participating Affiliates nationwide, Salem Broadcasting, Petsmart, LEGO, WalMart, Marriot, HomeDepot Fairfax, Virginia

  • Reported By:
    soccernut — Colorado Springs Colorado United States of America
  • Submitted:
    Thu, March 24, 2011
  • Updated:
    Wed, June 29, 2011
  • Samaritan Fundraising.com
    4000 Legato Rd #1100
    Fairfax, Virginia
    United States of America
  • Phone:
    888-545-GIVE, Ext.706
  • Category:

I located Samaritan Fundraising online at a Christian website.  This should have been a blaring warning horn but instead I told myself, they are Christians and are backed by a website I use all the time for material for Group Studies, so I contacted them.  I received the first email introducing

Mark Ousley - I've been in the ministry for a decade now, first as a senior pastor (for 7 years) and now as an associate pastor. I also help Christian groups fundraise here at Samaritan Fundraising. We've helped so many groups and would love to help you raise money too (it's fast and easy!). I'd love to hear about your cause or ministry. Maybe we can help! Will you let me know?
Mark Ousley
Sales Consultant

In the second email from Mark he noted that they serve mostly Christian organizations.  Another Blaring Warning horn that I ignored.  They advertise that they have over 100,000 merchants nationwide and very popular ones like LEGO, Walmart, AMC, Macy's, Marriott, Target, Amazon, AMC and "Many More" that you can't see unless you BUY a card a@ $20/clip.   Mark implied, but not sure he actually said that all you had to do was show the card at these 100,000 places and your discount would be honored.  Actually you can't use the card anywhere and you have to print out coupons from their website.  I looked today at HomeDepot, which really excited me since I am a home construction diy'er.  On their SAVER website and found out SamaritanSaver "Discount" is the exact duplicate advertisement that HomeDepot is running on their website.  So why do I need to spend $20 for nothing?  I looked up their merchants for the Colorado Springs 20 mile radius and found 50 merchants of varying products, all of them expiring within 7 days of that date.  I looked up the movie ticket discount and discovered I had to purchase a MINIMUM of 8 tickets at a minimum of $6.50/ea.

Where is the savings.  Grocery coupons shown on their site are the same coupons listed in the daily junk-mail delivered FREE to my door. 

Now the kicker, they will only give refunds on 25% of the cards, so you buy 50, you eat $375 for product that doesn't deliver what it promises.  Oh, yes, Mark buys flowers and tires and car maintenance somewhere and gets enough of a discount to pay for the card.  But where are these places in Colorado Springs.  I guess 99,950 of merchants are within 20 miles of Fairfax, VA.  They certainly are not in Colorado.

1 Updates & Rebuttals


PCCC Youth

Bailey,
Colorado,
United States of America

Our experience is very similar...

#2Consumer Comment

Wed, June 29, 2011

Our experience is very similar.  There are no deals within 60 miles of our town that are functional.  Wendy's, Walmart, etc the places people regularly shop and that are championed on their website are NOT available in our area.  I was not given an opportunity to test drive a card (as I requested) prior to purchasing them.  I told him they are to be sold as a mission trip fundraiser.  I was told to look at all their website and see tons of reputable vendors that will give us super deals.  BOGUS redirectioning by the sales rep.  Very few of those vendors have anything to offer us.  I believe he was deceptive and pushed for a quick sale... which I gave him.

If they are so sure of this card and their Christian desire to help groups like ours, why not offer a full refund for their product in the event that we cannot move it?  That would not be a loss = if the product practically sells itself!  I will not let our group continue to sell the cards to good people wanting to support us.

I am ashamed of the Samaritan Fundraiser and I cannot believe they are operating under the "Christian" banner so boldly.

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