[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] "Shopper Discount & Rewards"

r_betson

As I have reported a few days back (#709), i have cancelled via email and requested a refund. The cancellation is automated and takes immediate effect. Shopperdiscount then sent me a long email explaining that its all my own doing as I seem to have put in my email twice during the easyjet booking – which is probably true – its a long time ago. But – even though you might not go through the singing up and cancel the dialogue before you think you have signed up, they still get your bank details and retrieve money from your account/cc.
HOWEVER – on the 25th Feb every single £8 instalment was returned to my bank account.:eek: Thats within 3 working days!
So I thank ShoppersDiscounts for giving me back my money without further hassle and I THANK YOU ALL even more, coz only with your comments and stories here, did I even know what to do and got out of an endless stream of payments AND got my money back again. :j
Kind Regards
Regine

TurkishDelight

Has anyone else managed to not get signed up to this?

Reason I ask is because I have seen this site, been offered these discounts and somehow not been charged for months on end.
No?
Just me then.

I could say soooo much more, but it would only be construed as nasty.
I just hope everyone who has lost their money (been refunded their money) goes on to a life filled with reading things properly and not one of blindly clicking.

marleyboy

Its not a case of blindly clicking, which could easily have been the case, its a factor of a dodgy site (hence the two email script), and ultimately the "forwarding of personal bank details" which NOBODY willingly would allow to happen - indeed it is the case that this company claimed that people were "manually" inputting their bank details - which most certainly is not the case.

The fact that so many people (including those not so easily fooled into a scam) have fell foul to this SCAM, tells me that there is something clearly very wrong about this.

That it is so easy to be refunded, shows the legality side of this scam. Before accusing people of "blindly" signing upto something without reading it, it might be worth you actually "reading" the thread, without "blindly" assuming people did not read the script so incorrectly.

To answer your question "Yep, must be just you then!"

TurkishDelight

marleyboy wrote: »

it might be worth you actually "reading" the thread, without "blindly" assuming people did not read the script so incorrectly.

I did.
Like I said, I have seen this pop-up on a number of occasions, on various sites and have never had money taken from my account.

It was also crystal clear to me that it was a paid for service.

I also can't imagine having an amount taken from my account for (in some of these cases) years and not even think to question it.

That to me shows that they are people who are likely to be scammed, and that actually they had a lucky escape by falling for something like this where they get a easy refund rather than losing hundreds of pounds that they'll never get back.

Sorry if I snapped, I just have had way too many dealings with my own customers who can't read so I came across this at a bad time.

marleyboy

This one had already been shown to be a scam, they have already told LIES re membership, and far too many people have fell victim to it than is acceptable. I am assuming you have never felt the need to lie to your customers.

The way this scam works is staying under the radar, its far easier to refund those customers who discover such funds coming out of their accounts, once discovered, than to let each customer know they are signed up, as for every 1 customer refunded, there are still 100 oblivious.

Ensuring that they are raking in a fortune at any one time, refunding the odd one or two who either stumble onto this thread, or notice such a discrepancy, is mere loose change in comparison.

This had also been discussed in this thread before, on top of questioning them as to WHY they do not allow customers the option of filling in their OWN details to sign up, maybe even JUST their bank details.

Customer convenience? Or just the obvious fact that NO customer would willingly place their bank details into such a company?, especially that charges a monthly fee for a service offered FREE by various other companies.

Its dirty underhand tactics, borderlines what is legal, and is nothing short of a SCAM. I am happy to say this thread helps those unwitting or oblivious customers in not only discovering such a scam, but the ability to be refunded (as obvious all these people are NOT interested in remaining a member).

And upto now, all these thousands of satisfied and happy customers that thy bleat about, have for some reason, not posted to defend them, (shall we count you as the first - or aren't you a willing member?)

"que a lightbulb moment for them, and a massive influx of satisfied customers in one go"

mrstatham

I've only just spotted this £10 from my account to shoppers discount - I rang them to find out what it was and the guy tells me I've been paying for 16 months!!!!!!! He then told me exactly when and who directed me - it was a poster I bought in October 2008 from Art.co.uk - I knew nothing of this - he went on to say he will refund me this year's money £30 and send me a form to fill in to reclaim some or all of it back - I was so shocked - and obviously angry with myself for not spotting this sooner I mean £160 - I feel sick!!!!! I have filled in the form but it said to post or fax and as yet the fax number hasn't worked (there's a surprise) so I scanned it in and emailed it to them as well as posted a copy!!!

pipps0316

On Tuesday evening I checked my bank statement and came across shoppers discounts & rewards had taken £10. I went straight to their website and knew I had never visited this site before. I found their email address and sent a brief email asking what I had purchased and listed the details of the transaction. By chance I then entered my email address in ‘Forgotten Password’ and low and behold I found I had an account with them. Within the space of 10 minutes I sent them another email demanding they cancelled all on going payments and membership.

Still going crazy this ‘rewards scam’ had my details I carried on searching google, good old google! I found Money Saving Expert’, (totally forgot about this site, SORRY!) and spent an hour reading the first few pages, and flew into action.

I GOT DONE BY PIZZA HUT! I found the transaction I placed with pizza hut, quickly checked their contact details – NO EMAIL ADDRESS….. What’s that all about? Wrote a two page letter, explaining the situation, pointing them in the direction of MSE, detailing which organisations I was informing and how I felt, plus the fact they have no email address, lol.

Angered by the fact that it would take days for a reply came across this site:

http://www.connectotel.com/marcus/ceoemail.html

Which has current email address of all MD’s and CEO’s, and bang, I found the pizza hut managing directors email. I didn’t comply a new letter, just emailed him the letter I wrote for customer services asking his comments and views.

Wednesday morning, phoned SDR, got through within 3 minutes, spoke to a rep, I was polite but firm, who informed me my membership will be cancelled and I would get a full refund, email will follow. Email confirmation arrived within minutes.

All done and dusted I thought! WRONG

This morning another £10 was taken from my account. I phoned SDR, again I got through within 2-3 minutes, this time raging, but within minutes was calmed and informed that both payments would be refunded and email will follow. Again it did and confirmed refund.

Then tonight I read an email from SDR, which seems as though it was written directly to me, stating they had received my complaint from pizza hut and apologised for the situation I have found myself in, explained in detail how I agreed to the promotion (Which I am still not 100% sure I followed at the time of agreeing to the £10 cash back as they claim with a picture attachment that it was £15 cash back) I would receive a full refund.

If I’m honest my grievance is not with Shoppers Discounts & Rewards, as I foolishly agreed to this promotion without reading the full terms and conditions (whoever does?). My grievance is with Pizza Hut. Depending on my reply from either theie customer services department or Jens the MD, I will promote that they are the scammers and due to this I will never shop online or in their stores again. It’s pure greed and they know when people see promotions on their sites, they automatically think its genuine and don’t really pay attention to the dribble written, just enter their details and wait with open arms for the free offer.

Dragged out story I know, but give Shoppers Discounts & Rewards a break. They have found a way to make money, through greed and misconception I agree, but we are the fools not them. They dealt with me quickly. My email to Jens MD Pizza Hut was obviously forwarded to SDR, which prompted an apologetic email, although I’m yet to receive a reply from Jens or his PA.

Boycott the company that pointed you in the direction of SDR, unless they offer you a substantial free future purchase. Also use the link to find the MD or CEO email address of the concerned company.

Good Luck and Thanks MSE

marleyboy

To be fair to the likes of Pizza Hut, they are informed via SD&R that customers input their bank details manually, that they are not forwarded on. Of course a simple method for Pizza Hut would be to play the role of a customer, and see for themselves what is going on.

At first even I thought that there is no way such reputable companies should be forwarding on something as personal as your bank details - A few companies have checked on this, and subsequently took them off their site.

However there are some, which will just take SD&R word for it, that in no way does someones bank details get forwarded (just imagine something like that getting into a conmans hands - effectively cleaning you out).

As far as these companies are aware (or have been told), customers click on a promotion, which takes them to SD&R site, from here they input their bank details (again), making it quite obvious to the customer, that they are signing up.

The Company then gets a small percentage for effectively passing on a new customer via their own site to them. from there it is between SD&R and the customer. NO reputable, loyal and trusted company would knowingly pass on a customers bank details to someone else, no matter how much of a cut they get from it.

However I do agree that companies in general have a duty to know who they are promoting, and what effect it as on their existing customers, so they should always check such companies out. Therefor a boycott is the only effective answer until they themselves have checked them out or refused them any business.

Slowly but surely, trusted companies are getting more and more complaints, and one by one they begin to see a pattern, eventually having enough complaints to think "maybe we should do something about this".

In the meantime, such oblivious customers are finding this thread, and successfully claiming their refunds, OF course SD&R are doing this for two main reasons

1-the legality of it,
2- the ability to stay under the radar, not only from any oblivious customers, but from any company who represents them.

They know full well what they are doing, and all it would take to stop all these refunds, is to have customers input their bank details manually, rather than having to steal them from an existing site. Thus ensuring a customers knows FULL WELL, they are signing up to a company, that charges a FEE, for something other companies offer for FREE.

pipps0316

Marleyboy, you talk a lot of sense, however I am sure when a company agrees to a promotion, they are fully aware of how it works and what it entails, just like Pizza Hut. As previously stated Pizza Hut benefit from it and that’s what’s appealing to them when companies such as SD&R approach them.

Like I said SD&R have found a way to make money from innocent people like us who foolishly sign up to these stupid offers, they shouldn’t be held to account. None of us would knowingly sign up direct to their site, but the majority of us are not Mother Teresa's and offered the same opportunity, we would have a share in the scam if we made pure profit without any/much effort.

The companies (in my case Pizza Hut) are the responsible ones. We all frequently use them, and they know if their customers are given to chance to redeem most or all of what they spent back would quickly jump at the chance. So if 7 out of 10 sign up, they profit more then what they give away.

1 single person boycotting them would not make any difference to their profit line/margin, but keeping to a stance over a lifetime, always explaining a story such as mine, yours and everyone else on this thread, to friends and family who will/would purchase from them will make some difference.

Unless Pizza Hut offered me free Pizza for a month or two, I will now on always order from Dominos or local Pizza take aways, and with friends for the footy or family for a get together etc, and we want to eat, I can assure you, the readers and Pizza Hut that they wont be delivering to the door.

Remember its Pizza Hut, East Jet etc who allow these con men to associate themselves with them.

Anyway the long and short of it, if it seems to good to be true it usually is, and by us clicking yes to these silly promotions, we've given permission, however small or hidden its written, to these con artists to take our details and charge us.

Like I said I agree with most of what you’re saying as you talk a lot of sense, however I see it as the companies that allow these !!!!!! (SD&R) to link them to their sites as the scammers and not SD&R.

I think my saving grace and everyone who visit’s this thread is this site. I really do thank you MSE and everyone who contributes.

marleyboy

I totally agree with you that these companies are just as responsible, the only thing I cannot agree on is that SD&R are not. Yes its true a lot of people will see a saving coupon and click it readily, anything to save a bob or two, indeed Pizza Hut could just as easily offer a free drink with every pizza, to tempt customers into buying a pizza.

SD&R pay each company a cut depending on how many customers click on their link via a company, we are not just talking Pizza hut - which is far worse, as customers can easily assume its a pizza offer. Big companies, from Airlines to Train lines are involved.

A good example of companies becoming aware can be found here http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/highstreet-shops-sever-links-with-discount-firm-webloyalty-1628626.html

However in respect of the Data Protection Act - if a company wants your personal and financial information they must ask you for it, not get it from a third party.

Then there is the T&C relating to the various companies promoting them, who as far as they are aware you have read and understood the following.

Shopper Discounts & Rewards is a special rewards promotion offered after making a transaction at our website. The promotion offers a 30-day free trial in Shopper Discounts & Rewards with all the money saving benefits they have to offer, as well as a £10.00 cash back voucher to be used on your next purchase at our website.

If you have signed up for Shopper Discounts & Rewards you would have entered your home address and specific billing information. Additionally you would have created and entered a password for your membership, and also clicked a button to accept the membership.

If you have any further questions, please contact our partner, Shopper Discounts & Rewards at 0808 234 1539 and they will be more than happy to assist you.

This is up until you have clicked the SD&R link, and entered out of the various companies onto SD&R site where that part of the T&C suddenly becomes;

"By entering my email address as my electronic signature and clicking YES, I have read and agree to the Offer and Billing Details and authorise Interflora.co.uk to securely transfer my name, address and credit or debit card information to Shopper Discounts & Rewards for billing and benefit processing."

But by this time, you have already signed up, no matter what you click. Here is a perfect example from this very thread;

And here is a letter I sent to petplanet:

"In October I ordered some cat food from you. I do a lot of shopping online, including pet food of course, and always buy whenever I see the best offers, which happened in one occasion so far with your company. However, because of something which has happened, I may cancel your company from the list of my favourite shops in the future. In November, until February, a company called Shopper Discounts and Rewards, P.O. Box 454, St Albans AL4 0YE, has debited £10 every month from my credit card. It appears, on researching their website, that I am said to have signed up to this monthly debit at some point and am now a "member". I would not knowingly have done so and, so far as I am concerned, I have not. I have certainly not knowingly authorised the £10 monthly debit from my card account. Especially with an account that I have only used in one single occasion, when I purchased the cat food through you. If I sign up for any monthly payment, I would use my other account which I use regularly. As a matter of fact, I went overdraft as I only had a few pounds in that account, the very few money I spent with it, was by purchasing the cat food with you.
Can you explain how this may have happened? My suspicion is that, somehow, my details have been passed to Shopper Discounts and Rewards by you. I'd imagine you will deny this, however you might not be aware that shopperdisounts may be able to access private data when the transaction is still open (namely, their pop-up window opens at the moment of purchase, so there might be some encrypted data that they might be able to access, such as my debit card). Be sure that I have never disclosed my debit card details, even less, have I ever authorised to take £10 every month from my account (the one I used only once with you, where there WAS very little money), for a non-service such as theirs. At most, I have signed up with a secondary email address (one that I only use for unimportant registrations) to receive their coupon. As it was through your company, I kind of trusted them, I never sign up with unknown companies, especially those that promise free products, huge discounts etc. I am a careful and experienced web surfer.
If you haven't done it yet, I strongly exhort you to contact this partner of yours and cancel any agreements you might have. Please be aware that I don't want any of my details to be disclosed to them (you can refer to this email, but not to who wrote it, I'm still waiting for all my money to be refunded, if they don't want my lawyer to contact them).
Be also aware that you'll find a lot of complaints online against shopper discount and their frauds.
Should there be any wrong development of the story (such as they don't pay me back my money, or delays whatsoever) I will intend to sue that company, in which case it might result in you having to provide convincing evidence that my debit card details have not been knowingly or unknowingly provided by you. I hope this won't be the case."

And the reply;

Thank you for your recent email regarding Shopper Discounts and Rewards. Further to your comments and emails we have had from a couple of other customer with similar experiences we have taken the decision to remove the programme with immediate effect from our website. Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience caused.

There are two ways in which the Shopper Discounts and Rewards can be implemented the first being that when a customer agrees to sign up to the programme there credit card details are sent automatically - we do not and have never used this method.
The second way and the method we use is that if a customer wishes to sign up to the programme then they must enter their credit card details again. We do not pass on any details to Shopper Discounts and Rewards directly without the customer signing up for the programme.

Once again please accept my apologies and should you wish any further clarification on this please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind Regards
Kirsty

There are only 2 ways that our details could be passed on -

1) By the original company that we purchased from passing on our financial details to Shopper Discounts presumably for some sort of financial reward.

2) Shopper Discounts somehow snooping on the financial transaction.

Somehow a very low level of consent is required to start up the monthly payment - You do it by entering your e-mail address twice, or by pressing Yes twice.

In all cases the assumption is made by us - "I have not put in my financial details so all I am signing up for is a one off discount should I purchase from the referring site again"

Yet it has also been reported that if you've been caught by the Shopper Discount and savings co.uk scam, to check your pc for their software. It's called savingsuk.exe and savingsuk.pf.
Most likely you'll find it in a folder called savingsuk in C:\Programs folder.
In the folder there is a Readme file which says you can uninstall the program by going the usual route: Start\Settings\ControlPanel\Add or Remove programs where it's listed under SavingsUK.
If you go this route and click on Chnge/Remove you will get a popup with WARNING! in large letters against deleting the file. If you ignore it and try to delete the folder, it will disappear from the list of programs BUT IT HAS NOT BEEN REMOVED!!!
Trying to remove it by blanking the ReadOnly box on Profiles/Attributes doesn't work -- nor does attempts to Wipe it or Shred it.
I found the only way to get rid of it was to move it to a blank disk on the A-drive and then either deleting it from the disk or formatting it.

Remember to go to Start\Run and enter regedit. Then click on Edit\Find and enter Savingsuk. It finds only one entry. click on the containing folder (in the left column) and click on Delete.

Which is very very naughty if it is the case (I dont know if that is factual).

Another interesting article is http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/money/article-1200594/Online-discounts-club-make-10-month-poorer-outrages-shoppers--Rockefeller.html where they STILL claim "Credit card and personal details had to be entered".

One case (also in this thread) didnt even involve an online transaction as follows;

The shoes I wanted were out of stock so the assistance advised that they can order them and they will be sent directly to me, however in order to do so I need enter my details (address etc), on to their computer, which I. No harm there, but this was a simple, in store, online terminal (the till in fact). There were no tick boxes, I did not visit/sign up to the website etc and so there was NO money off vouchers offered for me to accept. My details were simply passed on to SDR without ANY authorisation and bang, there goes my money each month.

So who is to blame? Does a company willingly pass on such details to them, or do they somehow sabotage them.

An interesting forum is by fotobox, who after numerous complaints felt compelled to discuss it and claim;

"PhotoBox wants to make it clear that we do not sell or transfer any of your details to Shoppers Discount and Rewards, that level of integration does not exist on our site.

It’s not automatic, the only way a person’s details can be entered into the Shopper Discount and Rewards scheme, if this person re-enters all their details on the Shoppers Discount and Rewards website and hits the confirmation button that enrolls them in such scheme.

From our perspective we are being completely transparent and honest."

They do seem oblivious to it, you can find this here;
http://blog.photobox.co.uk/shopper-discount-rewards/comment-page-1#comment

Of course there is a lot more revealing information about this company here;
http://www.callferret.com/800-889-8776.html

And if we are to boycott all the companies that promote them, we need to include; -800-flowers.com, 123inkjets.com, A & E videos, A1Books sellers, AccStation.com, AirportParkingReservations.com, AllPosters.com, Amazon.com, AmericanGreetings.com, Americart, AmericaWest, BARNES AND NOBLE, BHphoto.com, BIDZ.com, bigceramicstore.com, Bizrate.com, Broderbund, BrylaneHome.com, Buy.com, campusfood.com, Carol Wright Gifts Cataloge, CasualLivingUSA.com, Chadwick’s, CheapTickets.com, ChoiceHotels.com, Classmates.com, COLLECTIONSETC.COM, ColoradoGiftBaskets.com, columbiahouse.com, ComputerGeeks.com, CoolSavings.com, DeepDiscountDVD.com, DELTA.COM, DrLeonards.com, Drugstore.com, dvdmarketplace.com, EBGames.com, eCost.com, eGreetings.com, etix online, Expedia.com, Fandango.com, Freecovers.net, FTD.com, gamefly.com, Geeks.com, Gevalia, Haband Online, Half.com, Hotels.com, invitationsbydawn.com, JC Whitney, JGHOOK, Joann.com, Juno, kingsizedirect.com, Lane Bryant, lernercatalog.com, Lillian Vernon, MapBlast, Marketworks.com, Movies.com, MovieTickets.com, MUSICSPACE.COM, MyFamily.com, MyLotto, Mypoints.com, MyRatePlan.com, Netzero, One Spirit, OneTravel.com, Orbitz.com, PersonalCreations.com, Petco.com, PetMeds.com, Priceline.com, Redcats USA, Ritzcamera online, Riverdeep.com, Romans.com, SandBox, skinstore.com, SmartBargains.com, sportsnmore.com, STAPLES, Strawberry.com, The Learning Company, theshoeplanet.com, TigerDirect.com, TimeLife.com, Travelocity.com, uBid.com, United Online, videomoviehouse.com, VistaPrint.com, vitacost.com, Walter Drake, Webstakes.com, WeLoveMacs.com, WirelessEmporium.com, Yahooshopping.com, ZDnet.

Leaving us kind of limited in our choices.

Yet SD&R still claim "We make every effort to be clear and straightforward in our marketing. Our offer page describes the programme and its benefits in detail; the cost of membership is referenced 6 times throughout the page and the fact the credit or debit card will be billed is referenced 3 times. To join the programme, a consumer enters his / her name, home and email addresses, credit or debit card details and a personalised password."

Which is strange because once you are on their website it clearly states;

"To become a Shopper Discounts & Rewards member, you will either be asked: to (a) provide a basic profile about yourself by filling out an online registration form with your name, mailing address, email address and payment information (including credit and/or debit card number and expiration date); or (b) expressly authorize a marketing partner of ours to transfer certain contact and billing information to us (including your mailing address and payment information (including credit and/or debit card number and expiration date). We process such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Our marketing partners may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies."

It seems to be the case that all these companies rely on the fact that the terms state (to them at least) that members input their own bank details, yet this changes as soon as you have left one site to be forwarded onto another. (its not too difficult for a company to grab any other details about you if you have specifically been forwarded on to them - especially if they can inbed themselves into a website as a link (think how pop ups work).

This is why it is too easy to reclaim your money, ALL OF IT, because their is definately something dodgy going on by someone, its far safer to pay off the ones who discover them, than have them scream louder attracting attention from those still "unaware".

Phew!!!!!! Sorry its so deep and long, but I am sure you can see what I mean now .