How To Shut Webloyalty Down For Good
A retail insider tells us why Webloyalty/Reservation Rewards stays in business, and how you can stop them by cutting off their juice at the source:
The unfortunate thing with Webloyalty is that they manage to stay just this side of legal. The customer has to authorize the subscription to Webloyalty. The problem is they do this with a form that says "Give us your email address for $10 off your next order" and then stipulate that doing so authorizes the subscription and transfer of CC data. All of this info is available to the customer, they just don't read it. Not defending these guys, but if memory serves it's saved them before.
Their quasi-legal business is lucrative enough to be worth millions of dollars a year to their reputable affiliate retailers. If your readers want to complain, they should cancel their orders when they see the Webloyalty screen, inform the CSR that they cancelled because the retailer works with webloyalty, and reference those cancelled orders (with dollar amounts) in letters/emails to the corporate office/CEO. Even many legit retailers aren't going to pass up the kind of money Webloyalty offers if it's not painfully clear that they're losing enough customers to make up the difference.
RELATED: Webloyalty Reservation Rewards Under Investigation
Watch For Baloney "Reservation Rewards" Charges On Your Credit Card
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Comments:
Blumenthal is on it, so we're all gonna be fine.
I seriously think he is the only good one in the FAIL that is the CT state government.
Then those companies that use "webloyalty" should make a big pop up informing the customers what will happen...
oh. they get a kick back probably, nvm.
Buy.com is guilty of this. One of the last checkout pages (the verify-your-order or the confirmation page, I forget which) has all this marketing crap all over the page and your order details are in a small print on the left.
They designed that way so as to trap their customers.
Interestingly enough, you can make a killing off of using them...
one of webloyalty's "companies" offers cashback on purchases, if you join it through one of a few retailers (i know it works for digitalet.com once in awhile, but digitalet.com is a horrible company) you get 20% cashback on everything they give cashback on. That means an additional 20% cashback on top of coupons at Dell.com, Dell Small Business, apple, etc, etc... I have gotten several thousand dollars from them using this... and it only costs $2/month (12/month-10 monthly rebate for forwarding a single order email that month)
I got trapped by this scam buying something from Buy.com. I called the scammers and told them both that unless they could provide a signed receipt I was filing a chargeback with my CC. They very quickly refunded my money.
@halcyondays: Which is why I don't shop at Buy.com anymore.
I actually DID the "chargeback" against these Webloyalty douchebags and succeeded.
I imagine that's why they refunded you because the credit card companies know this Webloyalty company preys on the uninformed and unassertive.
@chrisexv6: I second that! Blumenthal kicks ass. There should be a Consumerist section dedicated to him. He's taken on so many of the companies that Consumerist reports on.
I'm trying to see just who is "affiliated" with Webloyalty, and I couldn't dredge up their "Reward Program Client" list (guess my security is up too high...)
Here's what I've come up with from a Google cache scrape:
* Broderbund
* Chadwick's
* EB Games.com
* The Learning Company
And from their testimonial list:
* Riverdeep, Inc, LLC
* Geeks.com
* Joann.com
Now, they claim over 150 affiliates and "over 2 million customers."
Well, that's seven affiliates. Anyone come up with more to shame?
I've read that VistaPrint makes almost all its profits from WebLoyalty affiliates and the like; they don't make any money off the actual printing.
@PencilSharp: You need to do a little more research to find out if these companies are actually direct affiliates or are working through an affiliate network. Sometimes there are 7-8 hands taking a little piece before you connect "Chadwick's" with WebLoyalty.
@chrisexv6: my only gripe is that he's taken this long to attack these companies. many of them are based in SW CT (stamford, greenwich, etc.) & although the article says these companies are "barely legal", i fail to see how that's the case. what service do they provide for their "dues", aside from debiting your account for $10+ every month? not only does there appear to be a lack of service, but a simple google search for "webloyalty scam" reveals many complaints of people never even receiving the rebate they originally signed on for.
i've contacted the AG about this (& reservation rewards & a few other copycats) on many occasions over the past 2 years...why has it taken this long?
@halcyondays: it seems the SOP is to refund any improper charges right away. i was working with a member who was hit with 17 different $12.95 charges by one of these companies in ONE MONTH ($220.15 total). they insisted that all the charges were valid, but agreed to refund them immediately.
sure, nothing shady going on there...
@RookOmega: I don't mean to be mean but duh, that's how affiliate programs work. The web site that sends you to them gets a percentage of the profits. Most affiliate programs are legit. They are ways for businesses to make consumers aware of their products. Price comparison sites such as addall.com for books are great. Often these types of web sites help consumers make informed decisions on multiple purchase options for the same or similar products. By sending you to the company, they get a pre-arranged percent of the sale (usually around 10%). That money then helps keep the web site that is providing useful price comparison services afloat.
I've never heard of them so I must be doing something right.
Riverdeep LLC owns The Learning Company and Broderbund.
.
@PencilSharp: campusfood.com... I always get the "CONGRATULATIONS!" woman screaming at me after I make an order.
I'm guessing they get a lot of college kids with offers of free money.
One word: Douchebaggery.
Found within 2 minutes of Googling:
United seems to have used them at least in the past:
http://www.unitedoffers.com/PO/images/webloyalty/
Interesting stuff if you start poking around the site...
anyone using Americart might be:
http://www.americart.com/sc/wl_flow.asp
freeshipping.com
Reservation Rewards
http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=78978
Yahoo Stores:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/store/promote/promote-14.html
Marketworks:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m07/i05/s02
Repairclinic.com
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/281/RipOff0281710.htm
Marketplaceadvisor
http://marketplaceadvisor.channeladvisor.com/en/content_page.aspx?content_type=terms_of_service
Interflora:
http://m.interflora.co.uk/page.aspx/7/Privacy_Policy
And a Law Firm that represents consumers in a class action lawsuit against them:
http://www.wexlerwallace.com/general.php?category=Webloyalty
@PencilSharp: Weird. I've ordered from joann.com and I didn't get any WebLoyalty stuff....
...maybe I should go check my statement to be sure, though.
@mac-phisto: Gathering evidence, perhaps? Or maybe his plate was full with other issues? I know the gift card scams he worked on took a year or two of legal wrangling. It might be that he prioritizes cases based on urgency or whether they are still in the stage of gathering info while other cases are very straightforward? I'm just shooting out thoughts here. It's quite possible I'm such a fan of Blumenthal that I'm making excuses for him. ;-)
Office Depot
buy.com
Redcats & child companies like lane bryant, woman within, sportsman guide, Jessica london, la redoute, etc..
web loyalty is a Trilegiant subsidy I think. Trilegiant is the one that needs to be dealt with. when they get burnt for these dealings, they just change names and start new name com pany with same practices.
What kind of money do the retailers get from this? Is it really worth it to BB to try and sell magazine subscriptions? If we want to stop any company from these offers it should be Papa Johns, every single time I order it has some kind of offer before order confirmation. Once Pizza Boy John sees his business drop off, maybe they will stop this.
@mac-phisto: " i was working with a member who was hit with 17 different $12.95 charges by one of these companies in ONE MONTH ($220.15 total). they insisted that all the charges were valid, but agreed to refund them immediately."
That's simply insane. Incredible. It's so depressing sometimes to read Consumerist because you realize just how many companies out there are borderline (actually, let's be honest, "borderline" is too diplomatic) scams that should be illegal.
I can't believe the gall of these people who spend nights dreaming up companies like this. "OK, here's how it works: we offer retailers a kick back to put our 'bonus rewards' sign up form on their site. Hell, we'll even get the retailer to forward us all of the CC information with a single click of a mouse button. We'll give the retailer $10 per transaction and offer the suckers -- I mean customers -- $10 off on their orders. Then we'll charge them $30 per month in perpetuity. Most of the customers don't even read their bills so they won't even notice and by the time they do, we'll just cancel their service upon request."
Notice at no point did our fictional business owner actually discuss what value for money the company was intending to provide...
@mariospants: they represent themselves to their prospective partners as "marketing research companies" that offer repeat business (b/c the coupons are usually good for the NEXT order placed by the customer).
if you check out their website [webloyalty.com] , it's certainly easy to see how a client company might find some value in this service. the problem is, the list of "membership benefits" (see: [webloyalty.com] ) don't exist. or maybe they exist, but the logistics don't exist to allow members to use them.
i agree with you. quite simply, it's a well-presented scam. it might even be legal if they actually provided these benefits (of questionable value), but i've never heard of a single instance where a webloyalty member actually receives said benefits.
@mariospants: best of all, notice how the $10 discount is actually a MIR:
Webloyalty handles all tracking, processing and payment of the cash back awards. The customer simply makes a purchase within 90 days, sends a proof of purchase via email, fax or standard mail to Webloyalty, and Webloyalty sends a $10.00 check directly to the customer!
I ordered online with Pizza Hut and the samething happened, offering 10$ off my next order. But I looked at my statement that night and they had charged me $10 :-/. Spend money to save money >_>
Webloyalty makes a killing at the confirmation page on this deceptive practice and they are willing to make large upfront cash payments to the ecommerce sites (fandango, buy.com, ticketmaster, livenation, etc.) in order to win their business. once the cash gets flowing the websites are hooked on it even if its a terrible consumer experience the the rewards program is bogus.
consumers will have to take action by not doing business with organizations that partner with the likes of webloyalty. and hopefully AG's will put a hurt on WL with lawsuits to bring them down as well.
I hate that woman's voice that sounds like she is on some potent upper: "CONGRATULATIONS!! Blah, blah, blah..." when I place an order. I just want my receipt for what I bought.