URGENT ADVICE PLEASE..is this illegal....

Tiglet

I just followed a link from Yahoo offering me a free credit report. It said that it was run in conjunction with Callcredit, so it seemed quite legitimate.

There was no mention of anything that would cost any money, but it referred to a "10-day free trial". Trial of what? Digging into the ts&cs showed that this was actually run by

HIGH CREDIT SCORE,
PO BOX 587,
EDGWARE HA8 4DX,

Also, the address I'd been redirected to was freecreditreportsinstantly.co.uk.

Checking the box number and postcode led me to this thread, plus several other sites:

High Street Max
Reset Credit Check
Premier Club
Rewards Now
Privacy Counts

These all have exactly the same terms as VPRewards - by accepting some offer - £10 cashback, free credit check or whatever - you are actually signing up to a scheme that involves paying out money every month until you notice and tell them to stop.

The firm behind all these seems to be

Adaptive Affinity Ltd., of Cavendish House, 369 Burnt Oak Broadway, Edgware HA8 5AW
(the company who registered the vprewards.co.uk domain name)

According to their site,

Adaptive Affinity is the European division of one of the largest customer rewards programme provider of its type in the world!

Established since 1989, with almost 2000 employees worldwide, and with revenues
fast reaching US $1.0 Billion.

So it's a pretty lucrative scam, then...

miss_duke

That is really interesting, thanks!

Ruby38

Ha Ha. I've joined the exclusive ripped off by Vistaprint Club! What a liberty and, I have to hand it to them, skillfully done. Thanks to 'Codiac' for the phone number - very helpful. Have phoned them and they say they are refunding me, so we'll wait and see. Have phoned my bank, who were very helpful and they suggested, obviously, that I wait for the money to come back in and then change the card numbers, etc - which I will do. Thanks to everyone who've left helpful remarks about this. Won't be using Vista Print again!

Sazzie45

First time on the forum and so glad i found it. My huby bought business cardsd in July last year and since then they have taken £9.95 every month! i had noticed it on the bank statement but thought it was him treating himself!!! Will be on the phone tomorrow if someone can give me the number to call!!! Thanks for all the useful advice given on the forum!

ahleung

Just found out that I have over £100 pounds owing from them cheeky so-and-so's..

I am on the phone to them right now and phoned the 0800 number that has been quoted but after going through to them, they said that the US will not process any more UK refunds so I have to phone UK number - 08701432343 (no match on www.saynoto0870.com) and was on hold for over 15 minutes... Maybe they have changed it but I don;t think that they are providing refunds as easily as other members have had.. Just my luck...

MothballsWallet

superscaper - is it just me, or have we not heard any more from jeffesposito since you advised him to check with the forum team/MSE Andrea for permission to represent the company on MSE?

princess_loki

hello... i am here to join the club.... it was back in august that i bought business cards and it seems that they have been charging me the £9.95 ever since. i phoned my credit card company and vista are well known!!

lady at credit card company was really nice and is sending me a form to fill out but she also suggested phoning them - like other people i was on hold and then cut off!!!

so i sent them an e-mail to club prem (address was read out whilst on hold) so fingers crossed i will get somewhere with this

loki x

Onika_Wood

I too have JUST received my statement and have found three payments out of credit card! All with weeks of each other!! I too have previously ordered from Vista print and found this thread on google when trying to find out who the hell clubprem were. I have just called and they instantly told me they would credit back the payment within 7-10 working days. It's outrageous that this has happened to so many people and that they can do this. Shocking really. I'm so glad I looked.

Hubbers

I moved my blog post with all the details of all of the different scamming sites Adaptive Affinity run.
http://www.hubbers.com/index.php/i-got-scammed-by-vistaprint-and-adaptive-marketing-and-adaptive-affinity-ltd-and-amazon/
There is also a petition you should sign!
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?stop1111&1
This is a massive international scam that is worth millions and millions to the theives who run it.

Good luck getting your refunds everyone!

kitkat59

I checked my credit card statement yesterday, and noticed a debit of £9.95 against 'VP Rewards'. Via Google, I discovered the association with Vistaprint. I had ordered some goods from them at the beginning of December, but as my account had been paid, I phoned Vistaprint to query the debit. The operator was very pleasant, and immediately actioned a refund, which she told me would appear on my next statement, but there was no explanation regarding why this sum had originally been debited from my credit card. I am usually very careful when ordering goods online, but at no time do I remember signing up for VP Rewards. As this is not the kind of scheme I would opt into, I would not even have agreed to a free trial. I have been happy with the quality of service I have received from Vistaprint, but I will certainly avoid future dealings with them after this experience.