Shopper Discounts and Rewards review: Fraud and cheating 17

An unauthorized charge to my credit card made on July 6, 2008. I have never validated or made any purchases on this new account with my bank.

Dear Denise:

Webloyalty.com protects its reputation and monitorsthe blogosphere to ensure information posted on our company is truthful and accurate and to identify opportunities to assist our members. Through this monitoring, we found your comments posted here about our membership program, Shopper Discounts & Rewards

We would like to speak with you directly to address your concerns but do not have your contact information. If you are unhappy with your subscription or have any questions regarding your membership to Shopper Discounts & Rewards please contact Webloyalty.com Customer Service at [protected] or send an email message to consumeraffairs@webloyalty.com. We will be happy to help you.

Regards,
Mary O'Reilly
Webloyalty Consumer Affairs
Shopper Discounts

Dear Lisa:

Webloyalty.com protects its reputation and monitors the blogosphere to ensure information posted on our company is truthful and accurate and to identify opportunities to assist our members. Through this monitoring, we found your comments posted here about our membership program, Shopper Discounts & Rewards.

We're glad our Customer Service department was able to accomodate your request to cancel the membership and process a refund. We'd also like the opportunity to address your concern about how we obtained authorization to charge your credit card by providing you with some information on the enrollment process. However, we don't know who you are.

If you would like us to provide you with this information, please contact us at consumeraffairs@webloyalty.com and we'll be happy to do so.

Regards,
Mary O'Reilly
Webloyalty Consumer Affairs
Shopper Discounts & Rewards

I completely agree with Denise. I vaguely remember the pop-up claiming to give me an additional $10 off my purchase at totalvac.com. There was no mention of a monthly fee $12, and i never completed the process because it looked phishy. That didn't stop them from billing me every month until i caught them.

I agree with all of you. I bought a movie ticket from fandango and said ok to a discount, which i did receive for one movie ticket. But since that one purchase, I have been charged continuosly for 2 services of $12 each without my knowledge from my credit card. I first canceled the service saying, hey its my mistake, I said ok to the discount. But month after month the charge kept on showing up. Then I called the company and confronted them. To my dismay, they tell me that there were in fact two services that I had signed up to, each charged separately although I know I only signed up for one. Of course conveniently when I canceled the first service they did not even tell me about the second service. Please beware of Shoppers discounts and rewards. Stay away from any discount offers, especially during this recession. Trying to save a few bucks could cost you more!

Mary,

You should notice by now that your effort to be transparent in the enrollment process has failed. As this and many other forums demonstrate, hundreds of your clients (at least) are completely unaware that they are doing business with you. Imagining a reasonable explanation for this "confusion" remains difficult, and leads many of your dissatisfied customers to assume the worst. Therefore, for the sake of transparency I wonder if you'd care to explain what attempts you've made to correct this very serious problem, and how or why it continues to persist. Also, if you wouldn't mind using this forum rather than directing me to your consumer affiars department, I believe we'd all appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Pretty Unsatisfied Customer

This has also happened to me. I bought a camera from UK Digital Cameras following which I received a pop up from SHOPPERS DISCOUNTS AND REWARDS saying something about me having a £15 discount. The same thing happened the following day - I thought it was the same company, but subsequently found that it was MY TIME REWARDS.

Like Pat I hadn't realised that there was a charge of £10. It was only when I was checking my Credit Card Account that I saw these two names and £10 being debited from each.

Today I investigated my acknowledgements and followed them through to "Contact Us" and the Terms and Conditions, only to find that this is a £10 a month charge and the second charge took place on the 7th and 8th April - £40 in total!

I have obviously been negligent, but I thought it was to do with the Camera Purchase and had no idea that I was going to be charged at all.

I have tried to telephone them, to no avail as of course it is Easter Monday, however, I have been able to press a CANCEL BUTTON and have received an e mail from both companies (which I believe to be connected to each other) confirming my cancellation.

I feel that I have been taken for a ride here and I need to be refunded for these payments. Tomorrow I will telephone them requesting that they reimburse me.

I see that there is a feedback place for comments on their site, so I am going to request a refund through there also.

Hello,

Well I would have to have to say something. I went to order a pizza hut.com and I saw a pop up asking for me to sign up. Now, I did sign up because I liked what the company had to offer. Also, I have been with Shopper Discounts for almost 3 months now, and so far they have done everything they were suppose to do.

Now, I do believe that it is unfair to Shopper Discounts, that most of the people that are complaining about them, started on another website. I have not came across a post that one person went to this website and had a problem.

After reading, I think that the scam is the company that signed you up for this company. Not, shopper discounts and rewards.

Thank you.

To Lizziepooh86

I don't think you've quite grasped what happens. By clicking on a button promising money off your next purchase, you unwittingly have your card details passed to Shoppers Discount. They then use these details to debit your account every month. If you don't check emails or bank/card statements, this goes unoticed. Meanwhile, Shoppers discount are racking up money from you.

Either way, BOTH parties are ripping you off becuase the original supplier will have been paid to pass on your info. This route to 'joining' Shoppers Discount is not clear enough, even the info in an email warning you of the impending monthly debit is buried under a stack of offers - very easy to miss. If you join of your own accord, I'm sure it's great, but this has to be the biggest scam going on the web at the minute.

I was also "scammed" as part of a purchase of airline tickets through Orbitz.com. While I thought I was vigilant about what I agree to and as well, what charges go on my credit cards, it was 4 months before I caught this activity. Shame on them and shame on me. I will no longer be doing business with Orbitz.

never signed up for shoppers discount they charged me on my debit card

these people should be put out of business. where is our gov.doing nothing about these scamming people...

In case anyone is interested in a contrarian view here….. I was signed up for Shopper Discounts and Rewards when they called me on my cell phone. They convinced me with a 30-day money-back guarantee. I used my membership pretty much immediately and was credited with a little bit of cash back due to my purchases. Of course, I then forgot all about it and the 30 days passed without a thought. When I saw the $12.95 monthly membership fee show up on my card I had to trace it through the credit card company before I remembered signing up. I then decided I was going o cancel it. I did so and got no hassle from customer service. However, I was not going to get the $12.95 back, so I decided to try to use the service for the balance of my membership time so as to mitigate the $12.95. To my surprise, I discovered that the membership worked for me. Then one day I went to use it and discovered that my membership had lapsed (according to schedule). So I actually called Shopper Discounts and Rewards and signed back up. This was January '09 and I have been a member ever since. How I insure that it works for me is as follows. I take advantage of the monthly deal where you can buy up to $100 dollars worth of gift card for $80 (I get four $25 dollar gas cards for $20 each). Then I take advantage of the $10 monthly bonus that you can get by using the service at least once during the month (a requirement which the aforementioned gift cards purchase satisfies). So by doing a few minutes of pointing, clicking, and e-mailing, I come out ahead by $18.00 ($20 plus $10 minus $12.00) monthly - at a minimum. I come out even further ahead if I use the service wisely for other purchases that I was going to make anyway. What I usually do is shop the web outside the service for whatever product I am interested in, note the 3 or 4 best deals that I find, and then log into the service to see if any of those 3 or 4 vendors are affiliated with the service. I find that around half the time I get the best deal through Shopper Discounts and Rewards. For example, the other day I found Quicken 2010 on Intuit's website for $20 off ($39.99) – the best deal I could find that looked legit. I then went to Shopper Discounts and Rewards and discovered that Intuit is affiliated with the service. So I got the $20 Intuit discount plus was credited for an additional 15% cash back by linking to Intuit through Shopper Discounts and Rewards. So after more than a year and a half as a member, if I am getting scammed, I’d like someone to explain how – I have yet to see any truly bogus credit card charges as a result of my membership. To make this membership (and those like it) work for you, you just need to maybe plan your purchases a little more and be willing to do a little bit extra work. Most people probably won’t do this and their membership fees are subsidizing the rest of us I guess. C’est la vie. I am sticking with Shopper Discounts and Rewards until it no longer works for me.

I just caught this after 17 billing cycles! I feel pretty stupid for not scrutinizing my statement enough (at all) to notice the charges sooner. I immediately contacted Shopper Discounts and it seems as though they are going to refund my $204. In my case, it was Buy.com that passed my information on to Shopper Discounts. Needless to say, I will never shop with Buy.com again. I absolutely feel that Shopper Discounts intentionally mislead people to support their business. I also feel compelled to mention that I'm a bit suspicious of the comments supporting Shopper Discounts...

Thank you Billy_Barty!
I was wondering if anyone even took the time to check the website out! Because like you I do the EXACT same thing in reference to the gas cards... I always come out ahead that way and have my membership for when I do purchase online which I have been doing quite a bit lately! I received 10% cashback on flights, hotels, department store orders, etc! I love it! I've been getting at least a $20-30 check every month on purchases that I would be making whether I was a member or not so the site is def benefical if you use it! :)

Don't mention it beccadz! I am still a member and still benefiting. I bought a plasma TV from ButterFly photo last spring and got 10% cash back (over $200) on the purchase! I tell friends and family about it and some ask me how to sign up, but for the life of me can't figure out how that is done directly; seems it is by invitation only.
I came across a site the other day, AwardWallet.com, that will keep track of your rewards from various sites (cash back, airline miles, etc.), and Shopper's Discounts and Rewards was on there. Just something else out there others might be interested in to help manage their online rewards.

Like Billy_Barty, I dont have a problem with the Webloyalty schemes - it was clear enough to me when I signed up for SD&R exactly how the scheme worked and now that it allows you to buy anywhere on or off line, and still get the £10 Monthly reward, its simple to get your £10 Monthly subscription back, evenif you dont get anything else to make you a monthly profit. I have been a member since early DEc 2012 and have paid out £10 thus far, and today received cheques totalling £40 - my bonus £20 plus monthly £10 for Dec and Jan. This scheme is a no brainer - the only way you can lose is by smply not sending them a receipt each month.