It seems to me in recent years there's been an epidemic of companies burying crucial details in the "fine print" and hoping customers miss them. (freecreditrreport.com is a good example of this).

Can't we get some government intervention to force companies to put the details more up front and not be so deliberately covert about it? Selling through deception needs to be seriously addressed.

I had my bank back charge them.

Ben, you can't tease us with a "bonkers e-mail" from a company and not post it!

@dragonfire81:

I agree that companies are often very sneaky on burying details into the fine print. However, the consumer has a duty to read the contract before they enter into one.

Thanks to Consumerist, I think I now have a vendetta against FreeCreditReport.com. Every time I see their ad on Facebook, I give it a thumbs-down and say that they are misleading. I encourage others to do the same.

Happened to me a few years ago when I bought movie tickets from movietickets.com. I'd get billed 10 bucks every month for 'coupons.' Fortunately getting them to remove the charges was painless and easy. I'm sure most of the phone calls they get are people doing the exact same thing.

it's not fine print! the step less than savvy consumers take to sign up is clearly disclosed as such, though couched in a "save $10 on your next purchase" offer. dishonest, yes. fine print? not even close.

@dragonfire81: You can't use freecreditreport.com as an example of 'burying the fine print' anymore. On the main page in about ten point type, at the upper third of the page, it says:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

When you order your free report here, you will begin your free trial membership in Triple AdvantageSM Credit Monitoring. If you don't cancel your membership within the 7-day trial period**, you will be billed $14.95 for each month that you continue your membership.

ConsumerInfo.com, Inc. and Freecreditreport.com are not affiliated with the annual free credit report program. Under a new Federal law, you have the right to receive a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies. To request your free annual report under that law, you must go to www.annualcreditreport.com.

I agree that they've been slimy in the past and that their URL is still misleading, but anyone who misses that prominently placed notice now on their main page is an idiot waiting to be taken.

Not to mention, do any of these "reward" companies actually have any benefits? Seems to me none of them do, which in itself should be ample false advertising.

I worked disputes for a large bank for many years, and saw this company every day. We usually just wrote the charges off and credited the customer - no chargeback rights existed unless it was a case of fraud (and, no, them slipping charges in with an acceptance on a website is not considered fraud).

Now, Webloyalty runs a call center right across the street from my apartment here in Gilbert, AZ. They are hidden in a little office building, very low key. I see that logo every day and cringe. I can't get away from them.

Red flags jump up when you are checking out and something pops up and offers you an extra discount by "click here"... Very similar to "You have WON (flashing the word won) a brand new blah blah tv... click here to redeem your prize!*"

*Prize is contigent on signing up with at least 200 of our partnering firms, providing contact and credit card information to every single one of them...

It's ALWAYS too good to be true.

About time! I somehow got on their billing cycle after purchasing a dvd from deep discount. When the weird charges started showing up I thought I had been hacked - I cancelled my card and only afterward figured out exactly what it was.

I got nailed by this years ago when I ordered from Dominos, I think. I didn't even realize what it was. I just got a "free coupon" for $10 off my next order. Nowhere was I prompted, etc. I didn't even notice it for about three billing cycles. They had named the credit card statement in such a way that you had no idea what it was. I had to call Wachovia to even find out what the hell it was on my statement so I could cancel it.

Reservation Rewards refused to refund any money, and kept me on hold for the better part of half an hour while waiting for their "cancellations department" to process my order. And go figure, I was never transferred to any such "department". I spoke to the same CSR the entire time. I think they just put people on hold, hoping they'd hang up, call back later.

Oh, and I tried to use their coupons... and, uh, guess what? The $10 coupon didn't even work with Dominos. HA! Sons of...

Way to go, sic Blumenthal on them! It's been said that the most dangerous place in Connecticut is in between Richard Blumenthal and a TV news camera.

He's vicious, and often pulls in AG's from other states to take down scams in multiple states. So he helps everyone, not just Connecticut. He won't listen to any drivel from Webloyalty. Go Blumenthal!

@scoosdad: How many complaints did it take before they finally put that up on the page now?

@dragonfire81: They seem to live by the example of Joe Whats-his-face and his Girls Gone Wild empire. Jug-Jigglingly deceptive - except this time it's just boring old savings and rewards. I may prefer deceptive boobies. I dunno. It's early.

@dragonfire81:

I simply dont think they should be able to enroll you in a program, or set up any other "product" from a sale. I buy movie tickets, I want movie tickets. There should be absolutely nothing else involved in this transaction, fine print or giant print. Same goes for software. I install a program to clean my registry, that is all that is allowed to be installed...not malware, other free software, rootkit or whatever.

Vista Print is another perfect example of this. They signed me up for not one but TWO of these "coupon programs". It was three months (at $15 x 2) before I noticed it in my statements and that was because they caused me to overdraft one month.

@scoosdad: Actually, here's MY problem with that: that notice is on the FIRST page. The one you click through immediately. During the actual transaction process, it's much LESS prominent.

Same with Vonage. They're up front about their cancellation charges on the first page or so of signup -- but it's less noticeable on the "order confirmation" section of their site, the place I'd usually look for such things.

HOLY CRAP. Seriously, a law must be enacted at some point to countervent this insanity. Just imagine that someone somewhere is driving his new Ferarri 599 up the driveway of his new mcmansion in Florida and opening the door to his naked 19 year old trophy bride -- all paid for by shit like this.

Why can't I be an asshole shitbag, dump my scruples and run scams like this? It's not hard to come up with them.

Oh wait, it's because I'm human and not a lecherous lizard creature.

@mariospants: whups, "countervene" would have been a better (and actual) word.