Complaint Review: Vertrue adaptive Marketing shopping Essentials Today's Escapes - Omaha Nebraska

I recently noticed unauthorized credit card billings from Shopping Essentials and Today's Escapes. Contact with their customer service achieved nothing. I have done some research and have initiated complaints and written letters to the company - to help others with the same problem, I have included some pertinent info below, as well as a copy of my letter to the president. By the way, the two companies above are subsidiaries of Adaptive Marketing, which is, in turn, owned by Vertrue, Inc. he links below will show you where to file compaints, etc. - I just started today - will advise of progress!

My letter:

October 5, 2006

Mr. Gary A. Johnson

President

Vertrue Incorporated

9500 West Dodge Road

Omaha, NE 68114

Dear Mr. Johnson,

We have had two monthly charges of $16.95 each (one to Shopping Essentials and one to Today's Escapes, both companies seem to be connected to Adaptive Marketing, which I have now discovered is an affiliate of Vertrue, Inc.) on our Mastercard invoice since June, 2005. Since my son uses our card, I had assumed all along that the charges were his, but when I asked him yesterday, he said they are not.

So I called the 800 numbers, listed for Shopping Essentials and Today's Escapes on our Mastercard statements, last night and were told that we had agreed to some telemarketing offer in June, 2005 and that these charges were legitimate. Even after telling 4 different C/S reps that we never buy anything over the phone, and have never given out our credit card number over the phone, the best we could do is for them to close our account.

Upon reviewing your Adaptive Marketing website, you state that you do not even require billing info to be able to charge us. My question to you is, From whom did you get our credit card information? What has happened here is clearly illegal, and I intend to find out who gave you that information. You may feel free to pass along a copy of this letter to whatever business violated my rights and let them know I am coming after them as well.

I contacted Mastercard last night and started the dispute process, telling them that I did not authorize these charges. You should be hearing from them shortly. I have also filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and the Nebraska Better Business Bureau. Upon researching your firm on these websites, as well as others, I have discovered that I am not the only one who has a complaint of this nature against Vertrue, Inc. I will be contacting as many of these others as possible to explore what legal remedies are available to us, such as a class action lawsuit.

In the meantime, I am certain that you will want to give this your full attention. I expect you to immediately issue a check to me in the amount of $540.00, which is what I conservatively estimate has been fraudulently charged to, and paid by us. I further expect a letter from you, apologizing for these illegal tactics, and a promise that you will cease and desist from these marketing tactics in the future.

On the outside chance that complaints such as mine do not really bother you (evidence of which might be indicated by the number of such complaints), I respectively suggest that you re-examine your thinking process. I intend to secure every penny that you have fraudulently collected from me every penny! We can do this the right way (an immediate refund) or the hard way. I am prepared to make this project my life's mission, and if further effort is required on my part, I will pursue punitive damages as well.

I left a message for you this morning, asking for a callback, with Laurel, who I am assuming is your administrative assistant. I sincerely hope that I receive a callback today, and that we have this successfully resolved by the time you receive this letter. I look forward to my refund, your apology and your promise.

Very best regards,

Cc: Better Business Bureau Headquarters

11811 P Street

Omaha, Nebraska 68137

RE: Case # 300018964

Federal Trade Commission

Fraud Division

600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20580

CitiBank Customer Service

Credit Card Fraud Division

P. O. Box 6500

Sioux Falls, SD 57117

Helpful Info:

Mr. Gary A. Johnson

President

Vertrue Incorporated

9500 West Dodge Road

Omaha, NE 68114

203.674.7492

Vertrue Incorporated

Mr. James B. Duffy

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

680 Washington Blvd

Stamford, CT 06901

Phone 203-324-7635

Fax 203-674-7080

Nebraska BBB: lincoln.bbb.org/

Consumer Affairs: consumeraffairs.com/

Federal Trade Commission: ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm

Joe

Hendersonville, North Carolina
U.S.A.