- Report: #411184
Complaint Review: DiscountBookSale - SmartSavingsCenter - HotMovieSale - Boca Raton Florida
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Author Confirmed
Why?
DiscountBookSale - SmartSavingsCenter - HotMovieSale
999 W. Yamato Road, Ste. 100 Boca Raton, 33431 Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
866-707-5858
Web:
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DiscountBookSale.com - SmartSavingsCenter.com - HotMovieSale.com Unauthorized Charges Deceptive Advertising & Sales Boca Raton Florida
Hello fellow Rip-Offees:
I too was automatically enrolled in their membership even though I declined membership when I ordered 3 books from discountbooksale.com. I discovered this situation because I read the enrollment notification emails that were sent by discountbooksale.com and smartsavingscenter.com.
Hopefully, however, I do have a success story to recount.
The fee for the books was immediately charged to my account (posted as pending), even though the books are yet to be shipped. Unusual, but not unethical.
What is unethical is the automatic enrollment into a re-occurring $30 monthly charge for a membership! I spotted this membership charge by noticing an unauthorized $1 fee that was immediately charged to my debit card (posted as pending), which I now understand is for the first month's membership fee for the 'free' 7-day membership trial to smartsavingscenter.com.
After significant Internet research, I learned how to cancel the membership at discountbooksale.com. A discountbooksale.com there is NO information on how to cancel the account (the email notification says to call 866-707-5858) nor is there any submit-to-cancel button or form. However, I read in another complaint to submit a complaint at smartsavingscenter.com. Once the trouble ticket was submitted, web form buttons to cancel the membership appear. I use the cancellation button at smartsavingscenter.com to submit an online cancellation of the 'free' 7 day membership. I received confirmation emails for both the trouble ticket and the cancellation submission.
I then called the customer service number (866-707-5858 / 866-566-8437 / 800-511-3538) for discountbooksale.com, and after calling 3 different times waiting on hold for an average of 15 minutes each call I was also able to finally reach a live customer support person! The customer support person was friendly and clear-spoken, and verified my account particulars. She then confirmed that I had already canceled the membership, indicating to me that the smartsavingscenter.com and the discountbooksale.com memberships are linked.
If the $1 charge is not removed, or any additional membership charges are posted, I will work with my bank to dispute the unauthorized charges.
This has been a really pain and a waste of a good morning. I rarely complain, and I almost never submit online rip-off / scam reports, but I did this time! I submitted reports to bbb.org, fraud.org, and ripoffreport.com, for I consider this to be a nasty case of fraud: I had specifically declined enrollment and was automatically enrolled anyway, although -- admittedly -- the email notifications after the sale did state how to opt-out of this membership.
Seeker
Centennial, Colorado
U.S.A.
I too was automatically enrolled in their membership even though I declined membership when I ordered 3 books from discountbooksale.com. I discovered this situation because I read the enrollment notification emails that were sent by discountbooksale.com and smartsavingscenter.com.
Hopefully, however, I do have a success story to recount.
The fee for the books was immediately charged to my account (posted as pending), even though the books are yet to be shipped. Unusual, but not unethical.
What is unethical is the automatic enrollment into a re-occurring $30 monthly charge for a membership! I spotted this membership charge by noticing an unauthorized $1 fee that was immediately charged to my debit card (posted as pending), which I now understand is for the first month's membership fee for the 'free' 7-day membership trial to smartsavingscenter.com.
After significant Internet research, I learned how to cancel the membership at discountbooksale.com. A discountbooksale.com there is NO information on how to cancel the account (the email notification says to call 866-707-5858) nor is there any submit-to-cancel button or form. However, I read in another complaint to submit a complaint at smartsavingscenter.com. Once the trouble ticket was submitted, web form buttons to cancel the membership appear. I use the cancellation button at smartsavingscenter.com to submit an online cancellation of the 'free' 7 day membership. I received confirmation emails for both the trouble ticket and the cancellation submission.
I then called the customer service number (866-707-5858 / 866-566-8437 / 800-511-3538) for discountbooksale.com, and after calling 3 different times waiting on hold for an average of 15 minutes each call I was also able to finally reach a live customer support person! The customer support person was friendly and clear-spoken, and verified my account particulars. She then confirmed that I had already canceled the membership, indicating to me that the smartsavingscenter.com and the discountbooksale.com memberships are linked.
If the $1 charge is not removed, or any additional membership charges are posted, I will work with my bank to dispute the unauthorized charges.
This has been a really pain and a waste of a good morning. I rarely complain, and I almost never submit online rip-off / scam reports, but I did this time! I submitted reports to bbb.org, fraud.org, and ripoffreport.com, for I consider this to be a nasty case of fraud: I had specifically declined enrollment and was automatically enrolled anyway, although -- admittedly -- the email notifications after the sale did state how to opt-out of this membership.
Seeker
Centennial, Colorado
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Seeker
Centennial,Colorado,
U.S.A.
DiscountBookSale.com - SmartSavingsCenter.com - HotMovieSale.com Unauthorized Charges (Update)
#2Author of original report
Thu, January 15, 2009
Greetings: Well, the $1 membership charge that was pending was remove, and then, reinstated! Worse, it cleared my bank.... So, again, I called customer support and disputed the $1 charge. I know, $1, why dispute such small change. Well, I figure its partly the principle of the matter, and partly because I suspect that these bogus charges are part of their business model. I figure they 'bank' on their customers to just give up and eat the charges. That's pure profit for them. Anyway, I got connected to a representative within 5-10 minutes, and after verification and me stating my case, she tried to peddle the idea that 1) the $1 charge was part of the book order (NOT!), 2) the $1 charge was part of the membership fee (which I had canceled) -- and even though I had canceled the membership fee, because I had not specifically requested a refund of the $1 fee, they considered that the charge was valid (WOW!). So, I requested a refund of the $1 charge, and after she went off-line to talk to her 'supervisor', she said that they would refund the charge ... in 10 to 30 days. It must me nice to have use of other people's money for 30 days for free! Nice. I guess the next step is to wait 10 days and the dispute the charge with my bank. WHAT A HASSLE! I now wonder what problems I'll have with my book order -- those charges are still pending. BEWARE! Be very afraid of these crooks!
