Indigostarfish Poundsaver gift - what's the deal?

kerik4

Thank you - I got one of these today and will not bother to ring up now I know what's involved!

R10

Hi

Forgive me if this has already been said (but I need to be going out to work in about two minutes and only skimmed through the above posts quickly), but if you think anything is even slightly dodgy please do not give them your card details, even for only a small amount of P&P.

I work in the fraud department of a large building society and fraudsters will go to great lengths to get your card details, in a lot of cases it can seem absolutely geunine.

Please, please be careful with your card details. I know in a lot of cases you can claim the money back from your bank, but they will try anything they can to get out of paying it back, particularly if you have willing given your details even if you think it's only for a small amount.

Sharon

trfc01

I just received a pack from poundsaver, I had bought something from 'pitch tv', they gave me the usual rubbish about how this free deal would save me money, when I looked through the offers it turns out unless you buy lots of vouchers theres nothing in there that you couldn't get by surfing the net. The hotel offers all seem to be in remote places, and aren't free, you have to pay for at least 2 meals and 2 breakfast's per day which is fair enough, what cocerned me was when I went to access there web page I found it didn't exist. I contacted them by landline and was suprised to find that pitch TV had given them all my credit card details, and they had no explanation as to why the web page wasn't working. Be very wary of this company, I cancelled my free trial and binned the literature, you have been warned.

dogmatix

My husband bought some cds from an online company called Zestify. His payment was duly debited on 27th August. A couple of days later a lady rang confirming his purchase and checking everything was ok. She said as a thank you she would send some vouchers out. At no time were payments or subscriptions mentioned. On the 7th and 13th September two payments of £1.60 were debited, one from poundsaver and one from classic living. We rang the bank today and got contact numbers for these companies (who turned out to be the same). The "subscription" has been cancelled. We were also informed another £89 would have been debited if he hadn't cancelled. I am annoyed that Zestify can pass our card details on to a third party company without our consent and that this company could then use them without our consent. If poundsaver wanted to subscribe us surely they should have taken card details from us. Not use details passed on by Zestify. that would be like BHS passing details to Burtons without our consent. If you buy something in BHS and then buy in Burtons I expect to have to represent my details.

I reported this to merseyside police who are passing the case down to the Met as Zestify are based in London. Poundsaver it appears are based in Northern Ireland. I have also reported this to Trading Standards and asked my bank for a new card so no further use of my husbands card details can be made. :mad:

hannah899

Hi Dogmatix, I posted a thread a few days ago on the consumer rights part of the forum,
They have done this to my nan a few times recently with a few hundred pound been taken but my nan only bought a paint roller from a tv advert.
I have now told her if she wants anything ring me and i will find it on a reputable site for her. I feel for you and hope you get your money back. The fraudulent department at the bank have told them they will get my nanas back for her.
From what we've seen on the internet and whos calling me site this has been done to alot of people. Now everyone knows those 30 minute "buy now limited stock" adverts are not just annoying but a load of crap.

KimJo

Against my better judgement I purchased some CD's that my mother wanted after she'd seen them on the shopping channel, I placed the order from Zestify online, and got a phone call a couple of days later saying something was being sent totally free as a thankyou for buying. I then found two transactions taken from my bank account, one for Poundsaver for £1.60 and another for Classic Living for £1.60. I queried this with my bank (Santander) and was told that as it's a recurrent Card Payment and I can't stop it, I have to ask the company taking the money to do so. I don't know what is more annoying - the cretinous company for just using my bank details to add other products (as I certainly didn't tick any boxes asking for freebies), or the bank for being totally indifferent and unhelpful when told that I was a victim of an unscrupulous company. Either way, I will never buy from this company again as it's just too much hassle. From reading other peoples posts it seems that I could have been charged much more, with huge implications if it mean going overdrawn, it seems a very unfair practice that people can take your details and just use them at will and it's not considered to be fraudulant by the bank.

Latest update, I've had £3.20 refunded today, I am still to nervous to put any money back into the now empty current account as once bitten twice shy.

LorriClarke

KimJo - I had exactly the same experience - my dad wanted some CDs from Zestify, I ordered them online and a few days later I had a phone call telling me that I was getting some "free" vouchers as a thankyou. These never arrived and a couple of weeks ago, I had two payments taken from my account - one for £90 & one for £40 by Pound Saver CD & Classic Living CD - I only saw these on Friday and I called my bank (Halifax) as I had no idea what these were for. To say they were less than sympathetic was an understatement - they said that they were from a company linked to Zestify and that I must have agreed to the terms & conditions. I said I had never actually received anything, so couldn't have agreed t & cs, and certainly was never told about the £130 that would be debited from my account if I didn't cancel the subscription I didn't want or know about, and surely that was like Sainsburys deciding a month after you had shopped there that they fancied another £130 and just taking it. Again, I was told I must have agreed to the terms & conditions (so, even though I hadn't received anything - vouchers, notification of subscription, anything) it was basically my problem. I asked if they could prevent these people taking more money from my account - NO is the short answer. He "didn't think it was likely". But couldn't stop it. Yes, if I cancel my account or card, that will stop it, but they can't cancel my card just because I ask...... So tomorrow I will be closing the bank account I have had for nearly 25 years ( I could just cancel the card I supposed but the telebanking guys attitude really hacked me off). I have a number to try calling to get a refund (or even the vouchers I was supposed to have had - at least that would be something in return for my money!!!) but after reading various other stories, I have little hope of success. (And oh yes - I work in banking and am aware of the "recurrent" card payment scam and scoured the internet site intently for any sneaky little tick boxes before I bought the CDs - and I still got caught out.) So make sure that you have cancelled the payments with the company themselves, not just asked your bank. And only buy something from Zestify TV if you really really want it and can't get it anywhere else - it may cost more than you thought.