While on an AT&T page on Dec 3, 2014, as I was about to logoff, I was served a page that basically said I was granted a free gift and presented a list of items to choose from. There were such things as sun glasses, wrist watch and Nitro Focus No3 supplement. I chose the Nitro Focus No3 as my 'FREE' gift.
I was then served a message which said, oh, you just have to pay for shipping and handling. That alerted me, but it seemed somewhat reasonable. The catch is that you have to enter you credit card number to pay for the shipment. This is the method in which the company decieves you for your credit number.
I never saw any terms or agreement for accepting this 'FREE' gift for being a long term AT&T customer. To my knowledge, I was only providing my card number to pay for shipping. I received the supposedly free gift in a few days. I didn't think much about it and matter of fact, 18 days later, I still have not opened the bottle. A couple of weeks later, I received another package from this company. After investigating, I find that my credit card has been charged $105.00 for a product which I did not knowingly sign up for. I never saw any terms of agreement page. I captured the pages that were served to me and no where on them do I see anything about signing up for a subscription.
I called customer service that saturday and received no answer. I contacted my credit company and made them aware of what had happened. They said I need to contact the company first and if not satisfied, file a dispute of charges claim. Finally reached customer service on Monday, 22 Dec 14. The conversation was not very pleasing as the rep read from a script informing me of the supposed value of the product and all kinds of reason that I should keep the product. She told me that I had agreed to auto-shipping and charging for this product and I said that was a lie. I only accepted what was disguised to be a 'FREE' gift from AT&T for long term service. After several minutes of arguing, I kindly told her I really just would like to get an RMA number and have the charge reversed.
She agreed to give me the number but said it would be minus a restocking fee and shipping cost. I told her that would be unacceptable, that I would not pay the credit card company the charge and would file a dispute complaint. She agreed to waive the restocking fee, but not the shipping. I said fine, just give me the number and I will just dispute the shipping fee charge with the credit card company. I am still out of $10.00 and time for shipping of this product which this company tried to force upon me.
Deceptive tactics of this nature are illegal I believe and I plan to contact my lawyer to see about pursue a lawsuit against this company for fradulently charging my credit card. Imagine, if they deceive 1000 people in an hour with this scam that amounts to $105,000.00 in fradulent credit card charges. I'm sure they get more than that in a day I'd imagine.