Complaint Review: Official Nascar Members Club (ONMC) - Greensboro North Carolina

I somehow got the membership also, not sure how. Tried to cancel at number listed, called numerous times, agents always buy, leave message after beep, no beep. What is being done my be technically legal, but not above board or credable. 

Like other consumers reporting here, I've received these same "Free" offers from ONMC. They always seem too good to be true, after all companies don't give things away for free. I finally broke down and looked into the offer further, coming across this report. I took it even further and went as far as reading that "fine print" for myself, and yes this company is ripping people off.

They hook people in with the offer of "Free" merchandise, but in reality it's a ploy to sign them up for an insanely expensive "membership" that is 10 times the cost of the merchandise they were giving away for "free". A $9.95 "free" shot glass turns into a $90 membership. Nowhere in the initial offer for the "free" merchandise is there any mention of the membership. It's burried in the fine print of the final step of the transaction. Sure, putting it in the fine print allows them to claim it's all legal, but it's still deceptive and it's still a ripoff. They also lie and call the membership a "bonus", when really enrolling you in a membership you'll forget to cancel, so they can charge you $90, is their main goal. 

The offer for the free merchandise also says you only have to be over the age of 13 on the intial page offering the free merchandise, which would be true to satisfy COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) requirements for gathering the name and address of someone to send them free merchandise. But the next page demands a credit card number, which requires the person be 18 years old. Which makes the entire deal a COPPA violation since they are actively promoting that Children 13 and older can send away for the free merchandise, but then demanding those children provide a credit card to complete the transaction. Children under the age of 18 also can't enroll in any sort of paid subscription based service, but obtaining this "free" merchandise requires exactly that. It doesn't matter that you can cancel the membership, enrollment is still required.

If the merchandise was actually free as advertised, it would not require a credit card. If the merchandise was actually free as advertised, there would be a way to opt out of enrolling in the membership in the first place, but there's not. And for it to not be a ripoff, it can't be advertised as free merchandise, it needs to be advertised as free merchandise explicitly in exchange for enrollment in a trial membership to the site. Forced enrollment into the membership needs to be disclosed up front on the intial offer page.

The Official NASCAR Members Club, known to our members as the "ONMC" is very much a licensee of NASCAR. The club was launched in Daytona in 2005 and has tens of thousands of happy members nationwide. The registration mark is not missing; it is just not required every time the word NASCAR appears. Feel free to contact NASCAR's corporate office in Daytona, FL or their licensing office in Charlotte, NC for confirmation that the ONMC is not only a very legitimate organization, but also the official fan club of NASCAR.

If your credit card was charged $84, you probably had accepted a marketing offer 30 days prior to the charge for a free, officially-licensed NASCAR product with you paying the shipping & handling. And, as stated in the offer, the offer included a 30 day membership in the ONMC. During this time, you had the opportunity to review the benefits of membership by logging into www.onmc.com (a members-only webisite) and/or by reading the member kit mailed to you. 

You would have also most likely have received an email from the club towards the end of the 30 days reminding you that if you didn't contact our Customer Service department to cancel at 877-696-2722, that your credit card would be charged for the $84 annual dues. 

If you have any further questions about the club, please feel free to contact Customer at 877-696-2722 Monday-Friday 9am-5pm Eastern time. 

I was just going to order a track bag for a friend. I came to ripoffreport to make sure this was a legit company. This was the only complaint I could find...

 but if you read the steps in the "quick and easy checkout", step 3 under the billing information states "**BONUS GIFT Included with your NASCAR Licensed Merchandise is a Risk Free 30 days as an Official Member of NASCAR. If you are not 100% satisfied with your membership, you may cancel at any time by contacting customer service at 1-877-696-2722. 
+Please See Offer Details Below"


You should definitely read everything before you hit submit on anything. There's also a lot of fine print under that submission checkout stating details about it being consent to a 30 day risk free trial membership. 

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Did you receive the flags you so ordered? If yes, then was there any documentation included like a welcome brochure or something which could have tipped you off about this impending charges?

I am curious what these rigorous standards are.   I am trying to rack my brain to remember where in the world I signed up to be a member of this club.   I know for a fact I would have never signed up knowingly knowing the cost.   I think it was an email I got that said "Hey, get a Nascar car flag for your favorite driver!"   I was like okay, that's cool  and all they said they were going to charge was $2 for shipping so I thought that was a great little deal.  So I take it there must have been some really fine print because I don't remember but I signed up two of these little flags and low and behold 2 $84 charges on my account appeared today !!!  How convenient.   I can tell you this, it is misleading and dishonest to do business that way.   I didn't even know there was a Nascar Members Club until I saw these two charges showed up on my account so tell me that isn't deceptive business practice.   I also won't be paying for it either.  I will put a dispute in and probably add to the many disputes this account will get with the credit card company for putting these charges on people without their explicit knowledge.   

In response to this report, I would like to state that the ONMC is, in fact, a licensee of NASCAR and as such has the right to use the NASCAR bar logo in any of our various programs. We are the licensed official fan arm of NASCAR. As for stealing money, I'm not sure what you mean, but suffice it to say we have rigorous standards that are followed when acquiring members with very transparent billing and opt-out clauses. In short, if you sign up for a free trial, you are not billed the full amount until the 31st day. If you opt out before this, you are not charged. If you pass Day 31 and are billed, there is an additional 30-day opt-out period. If you have further questions, please contact the ONMC at (877) 696-2722.