Seattle Coffee Direct Decides You Need $40 Worth Of Coffee Per Day
If you've been tempted by Facebook ads promising cheap "introductory" offers from Seattle Coffee Direct or World Bean Cafe, located in the world coffee capital of Evanston, Illinois, readers Adam and Ivan say, "don't do it!" The ads promise t-shirts or a free coffee grinder as an incentive to sign up, or tempting introductory offers. But you're really signing up for a coffee delivery service for close to $80 per month. Or more, as reader Ivan learned. He says that the company accidentally billed him for, and sent, two bags of coffee per day.
A few months ago, Adam was drawn in by a Facebook ad promising five North Face t-shirts for $5.
I signed up for a $5 introductory offer from Seattle Coffee Direct. I thought, "Why not?" Well the coffee arrives and I notice on my bank statement a charge for $28.10, not $5. Then I notice two charges three days apart for $38.95. When I finally call, things really get interesting. When I first get Mike from CS on the line, I don't even give him my name, acct number or anything, and he's already saying he can close the account and refund the money, two things I had yet to even ASK for. Obviously, they have to do a lot of this. What I come to find out is that by (stupidly) giving them my information, they had signed me up for twice-weekly coffee shipments, at a cost of $38.95 per week. Unbelievable.
Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, Ivan shared with us his sad story of a World Bean Cafe order turned into an epic saga in search of his refund.
Please warn your readers about this company or companies. It sells coffee beans and I was sucked in via a Facebook ad. Yes, I know, or at least I should have known better. Against my better judgment I went ahead and ordered from them back in May of this year. It has been a nightmare since.
I received my initial shipment. The week following this I received another order of coffee. I thought this was odd so I checked my credit card online system. There were 7 charges from World Bean Café at $38.95 a pop! I called them immediately and they cancelled any further orders. The representative gave me a lame excuse of not specifying a shipment frequency (there was no way to specify a frequency on the order form) and that it defaulted to two bags of coffee ordered every day. Huh?
According to my credit card company all the transactions were manually entered into a POS system so that excuse is pretty iffy. She then said I should send the coffee back and I should get the credit within 60 days. Ugh! That week the orders of coffee started to come in. I refused them. >
I waited for the credits which should have been done in the beginning of August. No credits. I called again and was told it would be at least another 30 days. No credits in the beginning of September. I called on 9/17 and was apologized to and they said it would be 5-7 business days before I received my credit. Now it is October 1 with no credits. I call again and speak to a representative named "Ralph" and he gives me the same 5-7 day spiel. Not happy with the answer, I ask to speak to a manager. I was connected to "Lucy" who says she is going to manually enter the credits into her system and gives me the 5-7 day speech. I wait. October 12 rolls around and still no credits. I checked this morning and no credits have posted to my account. All this time I have been paying interest on these transactions and am fed up. I have started the charge back procedures with my credit card company. Hopefully that will be the end of it.
Lesson learned and all I can say is, "Never Again!"
The coffee subscription scheme has been around for a long time—look at Gevalia—but the Facebook ads seem to be a new phenomenon. Let this serve as a lesson to Adam, Ivan, and all of our readers: always scroll down and make sure to read all of the fine print.
What the company actually promises (or maybe "threatens") is to ship two bags of coffee to subscribers every two weeks.
Semimonthly Program: Twice a month you will receive a package with 2 bags of coffee and will be billed $12.90 per bag of coffee, plus $6.95 per bag for shipping and handling.
So they're charging for shipping alone a bit less than you might pay for a pound of mediocre coffee on sale.
Speaking of pounds, though, there is no mention on the site of how big a bag is. Forget the grocery shrink ray that puts 12-ounce bags of coffee on store shelves—the packets pictured on the site look smaller than a pound.
(Photo: Matthew Oliphant)
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Comments:
Ahem.
Facebook needs to get their ad approval process fixed, or they'll go the way of MySpace. Between this and all the Trojan horses their ad networks support, they'll soon run out of people willing to click their ads.
At this point, I think that anybody with an IQ above 75 (which includes probably half the people that post on Consumerist - the rest of you know who you are) understands that if you sign up for a "free trial" or an "introductory offer" online you are actually signing up for the "scam of the century."
Ivan's experience shows why you should immediately file a dispute with your credit card company, even while attempting to work things out with the merchant. He would not have paid interest on the amounts in question while the dispute was pending.
@Laura Northrup: Oh. MY...
I've seen teabags that hold more caffeine than those overpriced, pathetic samplers. That's a crime!
I hope Seattle denizens catch wind of what this company is doing in their name and declare war. The idea of a shambling, Pendleton-shirt wearing, holey jeaned-clad army, humming Nirvana songs, shaggy heads bobbing in unison while marching Southward seeking blood is oddly terrifying and pleasing at the same time.
Nearly ALL the ads on Facebook are uber-shady. Don't click!
@morganlh85: +1 on that. Maybe it's time for Facebook to start being more careful who advertises with them?
When I saw this headline I thought immediately of Gevalia, which I subscribed to at one time, long ago. Good coffee, if expensive ... but I always got what I was supposed to, when I was supposed to, and was only charged exactly what was agreed upon. No sneaky charges, no weekly shipments of more coffee than I could possibly consume in a month, none of that.
@PsiCop: You're right. And the one time I got some holiday-themed coffee that I didn't order, they credited me the charges (including the shipping) and haven't made any other mistakes. I am currently set up to get my coffee at the widest interval possible so as to minimize my expense.
I might have to cancel it though in the coming weeks as my finances are getting tighter.
@PsiCop: I agree... Gevalia wasn't such a bad deal. Twice I used it to get the free coffee maker (which was pretty cool) then canceled my subscription right away.
Okay, so I'm a deadbeat, but you won't find me complaining about Gevalia.
@SteveBMD: Actually I was thinking of signing up again to get a coffee maker, the current deal is $19.99 for a coffee maker, travel mug, and 4 boxes (their usual ½ lb each) of coffee. I'll get a few more shipments at regular prices so I get a small stockpile of the flavors I want, then may cancel.
@PsiCop: I signed up for Gevalia two days ago, largely as a test for Consumerist, and I was unhappy with the experience.
Someone had sent in a Morning Deal offering 3 free boxes of tea or coffee and a travel mug from Gevalia. The deal didn't mention "with membership" and I was intrigued, because that's not usually how membership companies like Gevalia worked. I clicked through, and overlooked a phrase in the longer description that implied membership, and blindly signed up. The entire time, I kept looking around the site for details on any membership plan, but didn't see one. What I did see, however, were lots of descriptions of Gevalia's awesome membership benefits. I thought this was a weird, too-subtle way to tell me "You're signing up for a membership with this deal!"
Sure enough, after I paid my $3 for the promo, I discovered on the subsequent screen that I was now a member. This annoyed me and I tried to cancel--but discovered that Gevalia doesn't offer any way to cancel online. You have to call or mail them. I called, but customer service doesn't open until 10am ET. The next day I called again, and was told they could do nothing because the system hadn't processed my account. Finally, this morning (Saturday) I called and canceled. The CSR was polite but consistently tried to upsell me on my account instead of promptly following my request to cancel. More points lost.
One more thing: the hold time to speak to a CSR both yesterday and today was about 5 minutes, but in both cases the hold message warned me I would be waiting at least 10 minutes and suggested I hang up and try another time. I think that's a terrible way to communicate to customers who are calling in for help, and I bet it helps drive away impatient customers calling in to cancel.
I give Gevalia a C- on how they treat customers. I can't vouch for their quality (I tried to cancel the promo shipment but they wouldn't, so I guess I'll find out soon enough). They don't do anything scammy or even borderline illegal. But they make it mighty inconvenient to get prompt customer service from them, and any company that tries to block attempts to cancel a subscription loses a lot of respect from me.
@PsiCop: I used to be in Gevalia also. I only received what I signed up for on time and no abuses. I did completely understand I was signing up for auto-delivery of coffee. They had this one signature blend back then that was very tasty. I don't lump them in with these others. I had no trouble cancelling the plan.
I signed up for the same promotion, it was $3 for three boxes and a coffee mug or something. It said no commitment, then I saw it subscribed me. Although you do not have to call to cancel you can just contact them via e-mail and they will cancel membership. That way you have it documented in case they try to say you did not cancel. I found canceling a bit unpleasant also since there was some back and forth via e-mail, but they did cancel future orders. The $3 order already shipped (which I am okay with because that was my original intention).
Thank goodness for chargebacks. Ivan just should have done his sooner... after the first 7 days with no refund, I would have filed a chargeback right away.
@yellowlight: The email form didn't work for me, and I tried it twice on two separate days, but I'm glad to hear it does work. That at least makes it easier for time-strapped customers to cancel.
@Chris Walters: Actually there is the description of the detail of the subscription during the ordering process. You were asked to check a box to agree the terms. and if you click into the term you can see the details. I agree it is not the most honest way to get people subscribe for some product of service, but considering what many other companies are doing, it is not too dishonest or misleading either.
If you call to cancel their CSRs do try to upsell you, but they also DO have online cancelling, and that usually works without any hassle.
Here is the link:
[www.gevalia.com]
Really, Gevalia is OK. And if you do your home work and know what you are signing for, you can take some sweet advantage of them.
@Trai_Dep: I would hardly call Canadian coffee "unholy mush" - Tim Hortons is making a serious run in the US coffee market. Devotees drink that stuff like liquid crack.
(But you are right about the roaming harbor seals.)
BTW, what is Facebook AD?
(looking at my firefox with adblock pro, confused.)
Amen Sister Amen. I too bow to the Tim Horton G-ds and order a double/double and a maple dip. They are soooo good! Better than that American Company Duncan somebody.
@chocobo: I suspect the wait 30+ days excuse was to delay things past the time limit you can do a charge back
@Bob Lu:
LoL I have that too. But I downloaded it to my computer after I had Facebook for over a year. However now, I don't miss the adds. I love Facebook! (Oh and good coffee! Kicking Horse, Esquire, Tim Hortons.....all for me!)
Ugh... this sucks. All those subscription things are awful. If I see that, I tend to run - IMO, if you sell a good product at a fair price, and provide decent service, you don't have to trick people into repeat ordering.
BTW, I order green beans (from Sweet Maria's online, who have great service) and roast my own. Not only do I get amazingly fresh, delicious coffee, but it's *less* expensive than decent store-bought stuff. That's because, when the beans aren't roasted, they have a shelf life of months instead of days. Oh, and they support a lot of free trade and other cool things.
Roast your own folks!
@yentaleh: Actually, the Canadian Tim Hortons have great coffee. Everyone I have tried in the U.S. (Detroit area, although a friend in Buffalo speaks highly of their Timmy Hos) tastes burnt. Hell, even McDonald's has better coffee than the U.S. Tim Hortons I have been to.
On Topic, I have almost ordered from SCD a few times through a different deal site, but some voice in the back of my head has stopped me each time. Although, I would have used a pre-paid card or Paypal VCC so things like this wouldn't happen. Something always seemed fishy to me, especially after reading the T&C on their site (to be fair, they might have changed it the last time I checked about three months back, or so).
"Actually there is the description of the detail of the subscription during the ordering process. You were asked to check a box to agree the terms."
That I did see, but the terms were the usual generic ones. I figured since it said no commitment that those terms would not apply. An example would be warranties (while I do not buy them they usually mention many things that do not apply to your product). Although my major concern is they refuse to take you credit card off file. I did not like this.
I might be confused or misreading, but it doesn't look like anyone did anything with North Face, or if they did, it doesn't seem to have bearing on this story?
I find that the advertising that appears on a site reflects well on the quality of the site. After all, good sites are going to attract higher paying advertisers which are (usually) less scammy.
@Chris Walters: Well I also should have noted I used "contact us (so it was through the website." Maybe the direct e-mail does note accept replies or that method is quicker. I am just posting this for future reference.
What kind of moron gives out money for something in a Facebook ad anyway?
@larrymac - please put me on your do not call list: But I must know who the 8 20 somthing hot chicks are that are searching for me. LOL
@Verucalise(countingcalories): Try here:
@plumnoir: Tim Hortons has a policy where they're suppose to make a fresh pot of coffee every 20 minutes. Even if the pot is still half full, employees are suppose to dump it and make a new one. Sorry you can't find a decent cup in your area.
@yentaleh: Testify!
@plumenoir: well they probably are trying to lure starbucks customers and assumed americans LIKE burnt coffee
@FormerlyAnonymous: so i should sit back and enjoy the toothpaste ads on okcupid? because honestly, i would prefer to date people with fresh breath and clean teeth
I signed up for a "free sample" of coffee about a year ago, from Gevalia. I just had to pay $3.15 for three boxes. A couple weeks after that arrived, another box came, along with a bill for $20-something.
I sent them an e-mail telling them I didn't order it, and asking how to return an unopened package, and they didn't send an e-mail back, or another bill.
@larrymac - please put me on your do not call list: As part of the chargeback process, the credit card company will probably want you to work things out with the merchant first. Even if the merchant doesn't care, if you file a chargeback a week after the charge you still don't pay any interest on that charge.
Wasn't it P.T.Barnum who said "There's a sucker born every minute!"? As long as this holds true, internet scammers will thrive. Caveat Emptor!
@ElleDriver: Good recommendation. Tim Hortons looks worth a try. Then... Harbor Seals, I'm keeping an EYE on you!
@catastrophegirl: I always wonder if "burnt" is burnt, or it just means people don't like the darker roasts.
Since I like my coffee to compliment my soul, I like my java dark as a pitched night.
@Verucalise(countingcalories): Here's your liquid crack:
I've been ordering from Peets for years since I left the bay area, NEVER had a problem.
Major Dickason's blend. FTW!
I don't blame them. I also think I need $40 of coffee per day. My blood pressure and bank account both disagree, however.
Isn't two pounds of coffee per day the standard Seattle dose?
It sounds like Consumerist isn't respecting the diversity of cultures that our great nation enjoys. Tsk. TSK!
(And by "diverse cultures", I'm talking about King Kong-sized, caffeinated monkeys on the backs of our near-Northern neighbors.)
Good thing someone isn't selling WA water, or they'd get three cubic feet of rainwater delivered every day.
Our Northern neighbors, of course, quaff whatever unholy mush comes out of their bark-berries-and-maple-leaf stills. Sounds awful, sure, but keeps our Canadian brothers hale & hearty enough to wrestle the roaming harbor seals out of the way that often clog their freeway onramps.