MSE News: Beware costly subscriptions when shopping online

99thomasar

On the theme of unwanted continuous payments, last month I bought a 30-day supply of make-up from Sheer Cover (by Guthy Renker) on my credit card on behalf of my mother, who didn't have online banking.

Earlier this week she received an additional 90-day supply, with an invoice for about £65! I checked with my card provider and they confirmed that these cretins had debited the money from my card.

I checked their website and scrolled through the terms and conditions to find that when I bought the initial special offer and agreed to them, I 'agreed' to repeat the purchase at the full price every 90-days, with the first repeat purchase after 30-days of first order!

RIDICULOUS!

OK, so I didn't read the pages of small print - my bad. But lets be honest, when you buy something that is marketed as a one-time purchase, you don't assume that there will be a repeat subscription involved. You EXPECT to be told about that clearly and on the same page. There was no hint of this at the point of sale.

Beware of buying Sheer Cover by Guthy Renker. If you do go for the special offer, read the terms and conditions and follow the steps on how to cancel the subscription and do it ASAP.

To be fair, this is quite easy once you're aware of it. But who knows how long this refund will take? In the meantime I'm down £65, and I'm moving house next month and skint right now! Couldn't be any more inconvenient.

AWFUL!

ic

I've just seen that Martin covered this issue on This Morning today, even quoting this post as an example. :T

Its about time these [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] are exposed for what they are. Hopefully the stores involved will be shamed into dropping them from their websites.

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]. They'll no doubt spot this thread soon enough and do the same here, but I doubt they actually look beyond their subscription on that thread reacting as soon as somebody posts there.

MIKEM56

:T
Hi,
I got caught be this 'scam' but with a simple telephone call to them they cancelled my 'membership' and agreed to pay back the £10.00 they had taken. Very fair.
Unfortunately I had spoken to my bank, RBS, and they couldn't stop them so they advised cancelling credit card and sending me a new one. No problem and done quickly.

Sabreman64

With Shopper Discounts & Rewards, is it possible to join, cancel the membership a week or two later before you're charged the first £10 monthly payment, and then claim the initial £15 cash back after cancelling membership? Or do you have to claim your initial £15 cash back before cancelling Shopper Discounts membership?

wild_life_fan

Sabreman64 wrote: »

With Shopper Discounts & Rewards, is it possible to join, cancel the membership a week or two later before you're charged the first £10 monthly payment, and then claim the initial £15 cash back after cancelling membership? Or do you have to claim your initial £15 cash back before cancelling Shopper Discounts membership?

As far as I can see, you will need to claim whilst still a member.
They will then begin to process your claim by verifying the receipt for your online purchase. The actual payment will take a little longer and if you've already cancelled by then, you should still receive the £15 'Cashback'.

Your claim can be submitted by email with any online purchase, as long as it was made AFTER you joined SD&R - even a 99p purchase on eBay or similar will do the trick.

Don't forget to also claim the £10 monthly 'Bonus Payment'. You need a separate receipt for an online purchase, send your claim to a different email address.
Even though your 1st month's membership is free, you can still claim the £10!
This worked for me.

I have since re-joined and have not cancelled my membership, as their 10% cashback from lots of online retailers is often much more generous than Quidco or TCB.
They charge £10/month, but I send them a claim once a month and get the £10 back in the form of a cheque.
After you've done it a couple of times, it takes just 2 minutes/month.

ernieJ

I_luv_cats wrote: »

As an added protection that puts you in control I'd suggest using a Pre-Paid Debit Card so if you do get duped or find it hard to cancel you are in the driving seat!

Doing your research before you sign up too.


You have to watch out for some competitions (even some sent via ITV) that you are not signing up for a text subscription or email\telephone marketing spam!

Rewards First took took £379.85 out of my account over 23 months. It was a service I did not need, want or use and my only fault was not checking my bank statements. Immediately I became aware, I cancelled this account and requested a full refund because I believed I had been scammed. Rewards First refused saying I had signed up after buying a rechargeable laptop battery on EBay by clicking on a flashing button and had been sent an e-mail informing me of my membership and the monthly cost. Not only did I not receive this email, to add insult to injury I never receive any cash-back. Two weeks ago I filed a claim for all my money through the small claims court, using the Money Claim Online facility, against Adaptive Affinity Ltd. Rewards First being a subsidiary company of Adaptive Affinity Ltd. Yesterday I received a cheque totalling £414.85 which is the return of all my money plus my court costs of £35.00. My advice to all who get scammed in this way by dishonest companies is to demand your money back and failing full settlement, take them to the small claims court.

Best wishes

Sabreman64

wild_life_fan wrote: »

They charge £10/month, but I send them a claim once a month and get the £10 back in the form of a cheque.

Perhaps I'm being a bit thick or I'm misunderstanding something here, but I fail to see how a member of Shopper Discounts receives any benefit from membership. If they charge you £10 a month, and then you get the £10 back in the form of a cheque, how have you gained anything?

wild_life_fan

Sabreman64 wrote: »

Perhaps I'm being a bit thick or I'm misunderstanding something here, but I fail to see how a member of Shopper Discounts receives any benefit from membership. If they charge you £10 a month, and then you get the £10 back in the form of a cheque, how have you gained anything?

You would gain by getting cahback on purchases made through the links on their site. You get a minimum of 10% for most links, eg Apple, Burton, Groupon, Dell, Play, Screwfix, etc.
For most, this is much more generous than TCB or Quidco.
Their payment times tend to be shorter too, eg average 2 mths.
:T

caroline_2

Just dicovered in time that £10 has been taken out of my credit card account for the last three months. Rang Shopperdisco, very good, will refund the three payments and have given me a refund reference. But how the hell did I join? Thinking of giving Debenhams (I think it was them that tricked me into this) a peace of my mind about this sharp practice.

John-money-web1

zenbanana wrote: »

I've noticed these kinds of offers a few times recently when buying stuff. e.g. Shopper Discounts & Rewards as mentioned in the article but have always steered clear

Are they actually any good? What sort of discounts can you get?

I have just been on the phone to Shopper Discounts and Rewards, to find out who they are, should have looked on here!

They say I signed up to 10GBP per month ongoing fee when I bought a mobile phone for my wife last christmas from the ARGOS website,so I have let them take 70 quid from my account without noticing.
I have never used the discount website in fact i had never seen it till i used it to contact them, I definitley had no password or username with them..

I am surprised ARGOS go along with this as it is at best unclear you are signing up to a monthly fee.

Good customer service on the Discount & Rewards 0800 number promised me 30quid back by BACS next week and have sent me a form to claim the other 40 . I guess most saps notice the erroneous DD in first 3 months but if the large percentage of ARGOS customers just cancel the service but do not claim back
they must make a fortune tax free in Switzerland. :beer: