robbed on the Information Highway
It finally happened to me as well....
There is this company called "reservation rewards", which apparently made over $86 million last year. It made all this money not producing goods and/or services or anything at all for that matter but by cheating and ripping off people on the Internet.
I got a charge of $12 last month on my credit card statement and it said "purchase reservation rewards" - I didn't remember making any such purchase but thought this may be some charge that the credit card company applied or something. Busy doing other "more important" things at that time, I put it off for follow up on a later date.
This month again I saw the exact same charge of $12 and I was very sure there was nothing in my bank transactions or otherwise that should have triggered this charge.
I called up the credit card company and they said that this was from someone called "reservation rewards" and gave me a 1 800 number I could call up to talk to them.
When I told them that this was not a company I had ever done any business with or subscribed to, they said that off late they were getting a lot of those complaints but usually if a person called them up, they would promptly cancel the recurring subscription charge and probably return the money already charged.
Sure enough, I called up the 1800 number and an IVR picked up the phone and guess what it said:
"Welcome to reservation rewards. If you want to cancel your subscription, press 1."
Have you ever in your conscious memory come across a business who will put the option to cancel/return their goods as the number 1 item on the menu?
As soon as I pressed 1, it asked me to punch in my credit card number. There was no way, I was giving my credit card number to someone who I didn't know and had nothing to do with. After a few error messages, the IVR transfered me to a live person.
The same story again, the person started asking all sorts of personal information - my zip code, my phone number and so on.
By this time, I was completely frustrated. The coversation went like this:
I: "who the hell are you to ask me all this? I never did buy anything from you. Why are you charging this monthly fee for me?"
person on the phone: "I will cancel your subscription going forward."
I:"great. but what about the money you've already charged me?"
other person: "I am starting the process of returning your $12 charged for the month of August."
I: "But there was a similar charge in July as well."
other person: "I am starting the process of returning $24 charged to you for July and august. Is there anything else I can assist you with?"
After this, I googled around for what this company does and guess what, every search hit other than the one for the "reservation rewards" website was about this exact rip off. These guys have come up with some obscure mechanism of getting your credit card information from websites (for me it was "buy.com" -- a reasonably reputed website) -- when you make a purchase on that website and automatically enroll you into their monthly program. What that program is and what you get out of it is something that probably no one knows.
...and apparently this is all legal!!! They are robbing people in small amounts and making millions by stealing and it is all legal.
They have made the whole process of returning your money so straight forward to avoid people from going all out and escalating this with the authorities... after all it was just $12 and I did get it back after a phone call .... who has the time to call the police for this.
So, next time you are about to make your credit card payment, take a close look at some small charge that you don't seem to remember having spent.
There is this company called "reservation rewards", which apparently made over $86 million last year. It made all this money not producing goods and/or services or anything at all for that matter but by cheating and ripping off people on the Internet.
I got a charge of $12 last month on my credit card statement and it said "purchase reservation rewards" - I didn't remember making any such purchase but thought this may be some charge that the credit card company applied or something. Busy doing other "more important" things at that time, I put it off for follow up on a later date.
This month again I saw the exact same charge of $12 and I was very sure there was nothing in my bank transactions or otherwise that should have triggered this charge.
I called up the credit card company and they said that this was from someone called "reservation rewards" and gave me a 1 800 number I could call up to talk to them.
When I told them that this was not a company I had ever done any business with or subscribed to, they said that off late they were getting a lot of those complaints but usually if a person called them up, they would promptly cancel the recurring subscription charge and probably return the money already charged.
Sure enough, I called up the 1800 number and an IVR picked up the phone and guess what it said:
"Welcome to reservation rewards. If you want to cancel your subscription, press 1."
Have you ever in your conscious memory come across a business who will put the option to cancel/return their goods as the number 1 item on the menu?
As soon as I pressed 1, it asked me to punch in my credit card number. There was no way, I was giving my credit card number to someone who I didn't know and had nothing to do with. After a few error messages, the IVR transfered me to a live person.
The same story again, the person started asking all sorts of personal information - my zip code, my phone number and so on.
By this time, I was completely frustrated. The coversation went like this:
I: "who the hell are you to ask me all this? I never did buy anything from you. Why are you charging this monthly fee for me?"
person on the phone: "I will cancel your subscription going forward."
I:"great. but what about the money you've already charged me?"
other person: "I am starting the process of returning your $12 charged for the month of August."
I: "But there was a similar charge in July as well."
other person: "I am starting the process of returning $24 charged to you for July and august. Is there anything else I can assist you with?"
After this, I googled around for what this company does and guess what, every search hit other than the one for the "reservation rewards" website was about this exact rip off. These guys have come up with some obscure mechanism of getting your credit card information from websites (for me it was "buy.com" -- a reasonably reputed website) -- when you make a purchase on that website and automatically enroll you into their monthly program. What that program is and what you get out of it is something that probably no one knows.
...and apparently this is all legal!!! They are robbing people in small amounts and making millions by stealing and it is all legal.
They have made the whole process of returning your money so straight forward to avoid people from going all out and escalating this with the authorities... after all it was just $12 and I did get it back after a phone call .... who has the time to call the police for this.
So, next time you are about to make your credit card payment, take a close look at some small charge that you don't seem to remember having spent.
posted by Manish at 8:40 AM
1 Comments:
Dear Manish:
Webloyalty.com protects its reputation and monitors the blogosphere to ensure information posted on our company is truthful and accurate. Through this monitoring, we found this blog with your comments about our membership program, Reservation Rewards.
We see from your comments that you were able to contact our Customer Service department to cancel your membership and receive a refund as you wanted. We're glad that they were able to assist you. We'd also like the opportunity to address your concern about how you enrolled in the membership by providing you with detailed information that demonstrates that proper authorization was obtained to enroll you in the membership and charge your credit card. However, there is not enough information on your blog to identify who you are and find your membership record.
If you would like us to provide you with this information, or, if you need any other assistance, please let us know who you are by contacting us at 800-732-7031 or send an email message to consumeraffairs@webloyalty.com.
Regards,
Mary O’Reilly
Webloyalty Consumer Affairs
Reservation Rewards
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