I can't count the number of times I've dealt with customers that have lost their minds over these Reservation Rewards charges. It's just a big hassle for everyone involved. I've always hated up selling. There's a line between offering a product and skeezing your way into someone's wallet.

My wife was caught up in this same scam after ordering supplies for her 1st grade class through Oriental Trading Company. However the name of the company was Easysaver. The scam though was identical. Amex was happy to reverse the charges for us after they sneaked by for 2 months. I hold the merchants liable for this and we let them know that they are choosing a kickback over future sales of not only us but everyone we know.

I remember this one customers computer I was cleaning up, it had a virus that would open up the web browser and go to youtube videos advertising buy.com among other things. it was kind of genius the way they used something as simple as a link opener virus to play "commercials" but still way wrong.

Formal Inquiry Letter

I actually just made a purchase from Buy.com and then made a comment about this exact issue. Which they then promptly ignored.

Here's my comment:

Hello,

I just placed an order from Buy.com and was confronted with the "get $10 off your next purchase!" page, I believe from Reservation Rewards or a similar site. Having these sites as your "preferred sponsors" reflects very poorly on buy.com, as they are little more than scams that trick people into having their bank accounts slowly drained--relying on people forgetting to cancel their (largely useless) service.

I have had good experiences with buy.com thus far, but I have to say that being confronted with ads from such disreputable companies makes me suspicious of buy.com, and more likely to go elsewhere for my online shopping needs.

I hope you will give this comment due consideration.

Spencer Arritt

and their response:

Dear Spencer,

Thank you for contacting Buy.com.

When you completed one of your previous Buy.com orders, you were offered the chance to instantly receive an additional "$10 off of your next order" by signing up with a third party, preferred partner promotion called Reservation Rewards. If you have any questions about your membership, or if you would simply like to cancel with no questions asked, you may contact Reservation Rewards directly at 1-800-732-7031. You can also email them at: customerservice@reservationrewards.com

If you are unable to reach Reservation Rewards Customer Service member via the information above, or if you have any additional question for Buy.com Customer Service, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We appreciate your comments and suggestions and will use them to improve our products and services when making future decisions.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Please do not reply to this message. It was sent from a notification-only address that cannot accept incoming email.

If there is any additional information required for us to completely resolve your concern, please visit our help page by clicking on this link:
www.buy.com/support

You may copy/paste relevant information from this email.

Sincerely,

Charity
Buy.com Customer Service
www.buy.com

Either nobody read it at all, or "Charity" has lower reading comprehension than the second graders I tutor.

God I'm so glad someone is looking into this. I fell for this scam a couple of years ago. I got my $30 back but I can only imagine how many customers who don't.

um... I think buy.com has been doing this for a LONG time... Every time you check out you get an offer for $10 off your next order, and you have to look for the very light gray NO button for it to show your invoice...

I had this problem way back with Reservations Rewards. When I wrote about my experience I even had representatives of Reservation Rewards post on my site trying to clear the air...the one thing they did though, and did quickly, was repay the money back. Every dime. But you have to go after them.

I was stalked by Reservation Rewards (and yes, no mention of pricing or anything) via tigerdirect.ca

@Adhominem: My g/f somehow got roped into Reservation Rewards, and they'd been billing her $25 every other month this last year. I think she was embarrassed that she didn't notice it earlier, tried to cancel through them but they wouldn't refund her. She wanted to let it go, but I explained it is as if someone distracted her on the street, then their parter stole $75 out of her wallet. Its a crime!

So I went ahead and wrote a letter on her behalf to her CC company looking for chargebacks on all the transactions. Still waiting on an outcome. Since the credit card companies make a small % of money on each transaction I'm not sure how willing they are to do anything about it either.

Webloyalty rocks! I hate when people complain about getting charged for a program they signed up for. When you check out at Buy.com, you clearly are shown that you're getting a discount for a future visit AND are signing up for trial. More importantly, Webloyalty e-mails you several times reminding you that your trial will end soon! I always sign up to reap the extra rewards and then cancel before my trial ends.

People who complain about Webloyalty should learn how to read...

Total and complete BS on behalf of Buy.com. I've only ordered from them a handful of times, and every time I see the Webloyalty nonsense on the order confirmation page I grind my teeth. Thanks for bringing the issue to the spotlight, Consumerist!

Let's start a Consumerist wiki. First page: List of merchants who use Reservation Rewards so that we don't give them another dime until they change their ways!

@Bogdan Semida: It's never been that clear for anyone else on this site that I've heard of.

Gamestop.com has it too.

NewEgg rocks!

@Bogdan Semida: So, the reason they "rock" is because you're able to scam them back? Doesn't sound very rockin to me.

I signed up for a reservationrewards account at the end of a US Airways reservation because I was promised a $25 credit off my "next" reservation. The e-mail I got said, send us your reservation confirmation for travel before October 2009 and we'll send you a $25 check in 4-6 weeks!

So I sent them my reservation confirmation from the flight I just booked (the offer's terms don't say *anything* about "only valid for reservations made after you signed up with our service"). I haven't gotten my $25 check yet, and maybe I'll report back if they rip me off.

I also used their service to order four $25 Amazon gift certificates and paid $80 total; I'll report if they don't arrive and I get ripped off.

Then I canceled the service within the "trial period"; I'll report if I get billed anyway.

Buy.com is about as shady as a major e-retailer can get.

For one, I don't know if it's still this way, but you only have 14 days to return an order, holidays, weekends and shipping time is included. So, if it takes 15 days to get there and it's the complete opposite of what you ordered, you're SOL.

Also, they outsource 100% of their customer service to India. Don't believe me? Call them before placing your order. Also email them. They have American sounding names but none of them speak any form of fluent English.

Ugh, I recognize that screen. That's the one that yells out "Congratulations!" at full volume when you're forwarded to their page. I buy stuff from a number of women's clothing stores online that use them and several times it's been late at night when the house is quiet and the lady yelling just about gives me a heart attack. So I'm already very disinclined to do anything other than shut my browser at that point. Lucky for me.