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

princess_loki · 7 March 2009 at 4:14PM

well i have been trying to get a refund for weeks - have made phonecalls and sent e-mails.

they keep saying that the refund will be processed in 5 days and it never is. getting totally fed up with it and feel like giving up now.

when i spoke to my credit card company they said that they would not be able to request refund from vista print because vista will refund it and then try and take it again the next week stating the terms and conditions that i apparently signed up to. i did explain to the lady in disputes at the credit card company that this was a scam but she didnt seem to care

nrsql · 9 March 2009 at 4:37PM

It's a bit of a shame.
I, like a number of others, used the free offer from Vista to test their service and quality a few years ago. Was quite happy and was going to order a number of items from them - then this subscription thing turned up, luckily just before I was still designing the next order. I emailed them and they cancelled it - but they lost a lot of future orders and recommendations because of it.

trisontana · 9 March 2009 at 4:45PM

One of the "free offers" you can get from VistaPrint is a t-shirt with your own logo. How about getting one printed up with "avoid this company at all costs" emblazoned across the front?

JustaNewbie_2 · 9 March 2009 at 11:59PM

What does this "opt in" alert or screen look like? If someone could find and post a screen shot of it it would be so helpful. I have ordered through them thrice and never had a prompt like this and neither has money been taken, I wonder why?! (Not that I'm complaining of course)

khainestar · 10 March 2009 at 3:17PM

Good question JustaNewbie I have apparently signed up for these services and haven't seen one. My guess is it only appear occasionally and they try to hid it amongst a load of babble.

I have been stung with this, I only noticed recently. Which I suppose is my fault for not checking my statement better.

Does anyone know when this scam started as I purchased from vistaprint in 2003 and would hate to think that I hae been ripped off for that long.

By the way I don't know if anyone else has done so but I have sent correspondance to BBC Watchdog to see if the matter can get some media attention. The more the name vistaprint is splashed around associated with a scam the less likely people are to buy from them and frankly I think they need shutting down.

VP_hunter · 11 March 2009 at 3:24PM

This must be classed as fraud. For a Company to leave a "knowingly" deceptive area in it's Order Process & as we ALL know now that this has been happening for years. C,mon at least one Legal Eagle out there could advise us !

denhunt · 19 March 2009 at 5:49PM

I have today received a credit card statement, to find that an amount of £11.95 payable to VPRewards.com has been taken from account. I contacted my credit card company to be told that VP is Vistaprint and that they have taken this amount from my account every month since June 2007 !!! I am stunned (and embarrassed - clearly I do not check my statements as closely as I should be ). So, some 22 payments at £11.95 have been taken from my credit card, completely unknown and unauthorised by me. I tried the VPRewards.com website to lodge a complaint, but it is a dead site (no clickable links or contact us details). I went to the Vistraprint website and found I was immediately logged into 'my account'. It transpires that in May 2007, I ordered some 'free' business cards (postage and packing charged against my credit card). The site remembered my IP address. I rang the 0800 number and got put through to various people in various countries (Jamaica, India). All people I spoke to say that the practice is totally legal as I must have clicked on the pop-up box to authorise my subscription to their rewards programme. I told them I did not click on anything, and I was told my LaToya Buchannan in Jamaica, that customers click on the pop-up to simply get rid of it before progressing to the checkout page when they initally place an order for free business cards.

My credit card company are 'looking into tthings'; the Trading Standards suggest writing to their UK-based office in Edgeware (a PO box number, so not hopeful). I have told Latoya from VPrewards in Jamaica that I want a full refund of the £200+ and to 'cancel' my subscription which I never set up. I have been assured by Latoya that my membership is cancelled (I was given many 0845 tel numbers to call to cancel, all automated, no people to speak to). I was told by the Indian office that I could not get a refund as I had subscribed to this programme. I have told them it is a scam and that the fraud office will investigate, they told me I was welcome to investigate at my leisure.

People need to know that Vista print 'Free' stationary is not free. My free cards have cost me over £200. Once they have your credit card details (or debit card) the scam begins, and it is only the most vigilant of customers who will recognise the scam early on.

AVOID VISTAPRINT - THE FREE STATIONARY IS A PLOY TO GET YOUR DETAILS SO THAT THEY CAN ILLEGALLY REMOVE MONEY FROM YOUR ACCOUNT. PLEASE TELL AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.

williham · 19 March 2009 at 7:37PM

Yeah every time I order there's been a popup saying if you click accept then you will be charged a monthly amount. But if I hadn't have read it I probably would've clicked accept anyway. I thought "surely no-one falls for that".

Obviously I was wrong.

themaccas · 21 March 2009 at 3:23PM

I have just realised my OH has been charged 9.95 since last July to this scam also. We have contacted our bank, cancelled the debit card it is being charged to and the bank is starting a fraud investigation. There were no pop ups explaining a monthly charge at all, we should have seen this earlier though I admit. Will now have to wait to Monday to phone them. I am fuming!!! I don't expect we'll ever see that £90 again.