Shopper Discounts & Rewards ripoff Charged my credit card without my permission Shelton Connecticut
On August 5,2007 I was reviewing my credit card statement when I noticed a charge for 10.00 from Wli*shopperdiscount 800-8898776 Ct , I thought it was odd so I asked my husband what it was, not having my glasses on it looked like it said Wii, so i assumed it had something to do with our game system. He pointed out it said WLI, I did a search for the company and found out about other people being scammed by them as well. I went back over the credit card statements and found they had been charging us since April!! Furious I called the company to get it cancelled, demand a refund, and find out how they got my information. Well first thing I asked was how they got the information which the woman I was speaking to informed me that when I had signed up for my cell phone through InPhonics.com there was a page where I had to verify my email address and then click the ok button at which point a flashing message stating I had recieved $10.00 off my next order appeared, I clicked that bright yellow and red flashing message box at which point all of my information was transferred to them. Now she told me there was a 30 day trial period and if I wanted to cancel I could have. I told her that would have been fine but I never got a single email from the company telling me I signed up for the crap didnt know I had the account and that it needs to be caancelled. At which point she tells me "Well if I cancel it we wont charge you anymore but you will still be able to use your user name and password for the rest of the month. I asked "You must have missunderstood the conversation we had.
I'm trying not to take this out on you, I understand everyone needs to work and you are just doing your job, but do you not realize this is a scam?" to which she replies "I can assure you this is no scam" to which I reply, "thats fine its your job just cancel my account" Which she does at which point she asks me "Is there anything else I can do for you?" TO which I reply, "Give me back my $40.00" ANd she says, "If I do that you will loose all access to the account" at this point I really believe I am dealing with a retard who is definitely reading a script. I say "Well since I never knew the account existed in the first place it doesn't make much of a difference, now does it?" at which point the light bulb came on in her head and she FINALLY got it!!!!! So, all in all, they are supposed to refund the full $40 within 3-5 business days we will see what happens with that! It just completely baffles me how they can get away with something like this.
Nature
Palm Coast, Florida
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
BillyBarty
Austin,Texas,
United States of America
Shopper Discounts and Rewards - Happy Customer
#2Consumer Comment
Tue, September 14, 2010
In case anyone is interested in a contrarian view here.. I was signed up for Shopper Discounts and Rewards when they called me on my cell phone. They convinced me with a 30-day free trial. I used my membership pretty much immediately and was credited with a little bit of cash back due to my purchases. Of course, I then forgot all about it and the 30 days passed without a thought. When I saw the $12.00 monthly membership fee show up on my card I had to trace it through the credit card company before I remembered signing up. I then decided I was going to cancel it. I did so and got no hassle from customer service. However, I was not going to get the $12.00 back, so I decided to try to use the service for the balance of my membership time so as to mitigate the $12.00. To my surprise, I discovered that the membership worked for me. Then one day I went to use it and discovered that my membership had lapsed (according to schedule). So I actually called Shopper Discounts and Rewards and signed back up. This was January '09 and I have been a member ever since. How I insure that it works for me is as follows. I take advantage of the monthly deal where you can buy up to $100 dollars worth of gift card for $80 (I get four $25 dollar gas cards for $20 each). Then I take advantage of the $10 monthly bonus that you can get by using the service at least once during the month (a requirement which the aforementioned gift cards purchase satisfies). So by doing a few minutes of pointing, clicking, and e-mailing, I come out ahead by $18.00 monthly ($20 gift card savings plus $10 monthly bonus minus $12.00 monthly fee) - at a minimum. I come out even further ahead if I use the service wisely for other purchases that I was going to make anyway. What I usually do is shop the web outside the service for whatever product I am interested in, note the 3 or 4 best deals that I find, and then log into the service to see if any of those 3 or 4 vendors are affiliated with the service. I find that around half the time I get the best deal through Shopper Discounts and Rewards. For example, the other day I found Quicken 2010 on Intuit's website for $20 off ($39.99) the best deal I could find that looked legit. I then went to Shopper Discounts and Rewards and discovered that Intuit is affiliated with the service. So I got the $20 Intuit discount plus was credited for an additional 15% cash back by linking to Intuit through Shopper Discounts and Rewards. So after more than a year and a half as a member, if I am getting scammed, Id like someone to explain how I have yet to see any truly bogus credit card charges as a result of my membership. To make this membership (and those like it) work for you, you just need to maybe plan your purchases a little more and be willing to do a little bit extra work. Most people probably wont do this and their membership fees are subsidizing the rest of us I guess. Cest la vie. I am sticking with Shopper Discounts and Rewards until it no longer works for me.