After reader Vikram ordered flowers online from 1800flowers.com, he realized he was receiving a monthly charge from an obscure company called “LiveWell” for $11.99 per month. He did some quick research and found out that many others were being duped into this program. Yet nobody, not even 1800flowers seemed to know what it actually is. What should he do? His letter and our advice, inside…

This recently has happened or been happening to me and after researching it online it seems to been happening to many customers that shop at 1800flowers.com. I purchased flowers from them one day to send to a friend and everything went fine. Well apparently somewhere after the transaction there is a tick box that if clicked on signs you up to a membership program with a company called LiveWell. Well I must have overlooked this and signed up for it. Regardless I did not say that I want my credit card information provided to this company but I did get charged by them on my credit card.

While I am not surprised of this underhanded tactic I felt it was important others know about this. In addition, I was wondering what procedures would be recommended to make sure I get all my money back from this.

With some quick research we tried to determine if “LiveWell” actually has a function besides leeching from your credit card but we found none. We also asked 1800flowers by phone, but all we received was a confused CSR followed by a transfer/disconnect. Some quick Googling revealed some more information. From 800notes.com Dean says,

I just called the number and spoke to a livewell representative. Apparently when I purchased flowers on line at 1800Flowers, there is a tick box for a $20 rebate and if you click on it, they sign you up to their membership program and steal $11.99 from your account each month. Very sneaky.
Apparently it’s in the fine print somewhere that they’ll do this. Regardless – it is an unethical way to rip people off.

Just call them at 800-793-2318 and cancel your subscription.

In addition to the method above, our research indicates that some victims have called their credit card companies and have easily had the charges removed. They have also called 1800flowers and were transferred to “LiveWell” and had their “membership” canceled that way. Of course, there is our good friend the chargeback which can usually remove fraudulent charges. These parasitic companies are infamous for putting small charges on your card with the hope that you won’t notice, which is yet another good reason to carefully check your monthly statement.

(Photo: Getty)

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