Reservation Rewards Infects GameStop?
Coupon merchant "Reservation Rewards" has infected GameStop, according to reader Mike. For those of you who are not familiar with "Reservation Rewards," here's how it works:
Step 1) You buy something. Movie tickets. A game. Whatever.
Step 2) The merchant offers you a $10 off coupon if you simply enter your email address.
Step 3) This signs you up for a $10 a month coupon service you don't want.
The good news is that if you call "Reservation Rewards" and complain, they'll issue you a full refund. Why? The fact that there's a class action lawsuit against them has nothing to do with it, we're sure.
Mike writes:
Back in Oct '06 I bought Castevania PoR off of the gamestop website. Everything went smooth, got all my bonus gear and what not. But apparently, they signed me up for something called reservationrewards.com under the guise of some $10 off bonus bullshit. I noticed on my CC statement that every month after the purchase I was being charged :10bux: for this service I had never heard of. I found out Gamestop was the culprit by calling RR and they gave me the purchase date and info. Since then the company ( reservationrewards.com) has charged me $10 bucks a month for some crappy coupon service which I never used. I called Gamestop and they tried to tell me that it was a bonus link which I must have "actively clicked on three or four times". I find this to be bullshit since I make online purchases all the time and I NEVER click on any of those ridiculous rewards things under any circumstances. I think it's some buried link that is clicked on by default.Check your credit card statements for the following entry to see if you've been duped by Reservation Rewards: WLI*RESERVATIONREWARDS.CO. Call them up and demand a refund!Anyways, for the moment I'm out about $90 which I would not have caught on to and would have lost :10bux: for the life of my credit card. I've called my CC company and they've issued me a refund, the BBB, and the RR company to cancel my account. Quite a headache for a Sunday morning.
In summary, I urge every goon here that has ever made an online or instore purchase at Gamestop to look over their CC statement with a fine tooth comb and be sure that you aren't getting charged fraudulently, as I was.
PREVIOUSLY: Watch Out For Webloyalty and Reservation Rewards
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Comments:
I was hit by one of the WLI*'s. Shoppersdiscount I think. Took about 9 months for me to notice and get it fixed, but I did get all my money back. But it took two separate calls.
Dearest Mike,
Please note that crappy SA emoticons don't work outside of the festering dungheap that is GBS and the wider SA network.
:10bux: indeed.
I was hit by Shopper's Discount too. Luckily Wells Fargo removed most of the charges.
I was hit by Deep Discount Dvd, so I won't be shopping there anymore. (Also, my video never arrived, but that is a story for another day.)
I complained about this to the Consumerist months ago.
One of the myriad reasons why purchasing online is a treacherous business. Why buy online when you can get the same item in store, and speak to a person while you make your purchase. You can look them right in the eye and say "no thank you" when they ask you for the bullshit product protection, or member rewards program, and if they don't ask, and just do it, you don't have to wait for your next CC statement to realize their treachery.
It seems like spending good ol' fashion cash these days is going the way of the dinosaurs in favor of laziness and "convenience."
ugh, I had the same thing happen to me after purchasing movie tickets on Fandango.com
Is Fandango ALLOWING this to happen or is it a complete hack?
OT, but my Franklin avatar has been showing up all over the internets lately. What's up with that? I am (I think) the original.
i've been hounding the ag's office here in ct about these services for months. if you really look into them, you begin to understand why some idiot middle manager decided to contract service with them. to businesses, they operate under the guise of providing market research & repeat business while providing a "free" bonus for the business's clients. sounds like a win-win-win for an entry-level marketing v.p. trying to make a name for himself.
sounds great, except for the part where they enroll unwitting consumers into an autopay scheme that sometimes isn't identified for months. a friend of mine got slammed with 12 debits per month from different divisions of WPI over the course of a couple months. supposedly you receive some sort of coupon priveledge for this, yet no coupons or directions on how to utilize the services exist to my knowledge.
if you see one of these "rewards" come thru your account, be sure to contact authorities in addition to getting your refund. & you may even want to contact the business where the charge originates from to file a complaint with them. if enough people make enough noise, these cons should go away.
How can you go 9 months and miss a $10 payment you made every month?
If it makes you feel any better, I've seen a couple of variations of Cookie Monster running around too. Not to say that mine is the original -- I don't know.
Yet another reason to READ WHAT YOU ARE SIGNING UP FOR when you put in your e-mail address and click on "I agree to all the terms".
"They signed me up for" indeed.
@dbeahn: yes, ppl definitely should read, but my main problem with this is that they are billing for a service that they don't provide. it's one thing if i'm just an idiot signing up for $10 coupons that i pay $10/month for. it's completely different when you sell me the idea of coupons, bill me for them, but never give them up.
@Yourhero88: well lets see, when i buy in a store, lets say Best Buy I get hassled about subscribing to some crap magazines, the Best Buy reward zone and god forbid i buy some headphones ill get a speech about the warrenty.
I buy online from Amazon.com, i type what i want, i click a couple times and 2 days later i have my item hassle free and for CHEAPER.
This happened to me and also one of my friends when I bought some movie tickets from movietickets.com. It is a very shady tactic and neither of us had any idea what it was when it showed up on the CC statements. Fortunately these people didnt make it very difficult to cancel and didn't actually expect us to pay. The kicker was that when I called, they acted as though they already knew that I 'signed up' by accident and started to explain who they were and why I should keep them until I politely asked them to shut up and cancel my account. I'm glad there's a class action going on, doing this shouldn't be legal.
@dbeahn I actually did not click on anything or sign up for anything and I fell prey to this. If a company charges you something without providing a service, is it really so hard to believe they won't just steal your card number too.
@d0x: I'd order from Amazon, but they only ship certain things outside the US (books and CDs) and it's never what I want to buy. That is relevant because I am currently staying in China.
If dumbass there is out $90, that means he went 9 months without looking at his credit card statement??? Loser.
@Yourhero88: I'm sure the enticing tax-free offers, without the corporate greed, and lacking retail mark up doesn't do justice in itself.
I got suckered into this company when I bought movie tickets from Fandango. I noticed it on my bank statement, emailed the company and refunded my money with no problems. Funny how lawsuits motivate companies to action.
So I finally got my money back this morning after it took three phone calls and spelling my name PH-O-NE-TI-CAL-LY several times. The woman was surprisingly nice as well. That's of course before she accused me of being as stupid as to let friends know my credit card number and pin and what not. The credits are going to be in the form of three $10 credits. Well, I can easily say that's the LAST time I ever use Fandango, which will also be getting a nasty letter from me.
This happened to me with Fandango, and I only found out about it because Reservation Rewards sent me emails every day asking me to finish filling out my profile. If the customer service email hadn't specifically outlined that my credit card would still be charged, I would have had no idea! They immediately cancelled my "membership," but I was more upset with Fandango and got a very generic reply back when I complained.
I was utterly dismayed when I saw a link to a survey after buying something on amazon.com and it was hosted by Reservation Rewards.
Looks like we fell victim to this as well. Ours was through Fandango as well. Why would anyone pay $10 a month for the "privilege" of accessing coupons? This is such a scam.
When ordering on line read everything carefully.
Then after you place the order hit CTRL ALT DEL
and stop the browser. Clicking the x in the corner to shut down the browser counts as accepting the offer on some web sites.
Mine is a $12 charge from Reservation Rewards on my check card.
I didn't know how it got there so I googled it and found this.
This is the first charge apparently because I checked back 60 days and I didn't see it again.
I understand I should call but I don't have a number.
I had this problem when I bought a game from Gamestop.com online. I promptly emailed gamestop about these thieving activities and this was their reply:
Dear Customer,
At the end of a purchase from GameStop.com/EBgames.com we have a link to the Reservation Rewards program. They offer customers the opportunity to receive an electronic gift voucher for GameStop.com/EBgames.com if the customer would like to sign up for a trial membership with Reservation Rewards.
In order to sign up for this program customers would have to type their email address twice and click on the button labeled YES, I have read and agree to the Offer and Billing Details and authorize GameStop.com/EBgames.com to securely transfer my name, address and credit or debit card information to Reservation Rewards for billing and benefit processing. I understand that the first 30 days of benefits are free and that I will be billed $12 a month thereafter and may cancel my membership at any time.
Thank you for your feedback concerning the program. We respect your opinion and will take your remarks into consideration as we evaluate the benefits and value this program has for our customers.
Best Regards,
John
Customer Service Supervisor
Well, … Needless to say that they lost me as a customer because I NEVER did what they say and surely NEVER gave anyone the right to steal money out of my account. So if this is Gamestop’s point taken then I will take my business elsewhere from now on. My only hope is that other people will too, so they don’t get scammed out of their hard earned money for nothing.
Be warned, these sites allow this scamming apparently ...
I think that companies that allow for this scam should be sued. For $10 a month. Unless they show up in small claims court to explain themselves.