I, too, was ripped off with this company's fraudulent enrollment practices, charging my credit card without my permission. Know that this company, with its many aliases, has faced, and lost, at least four class action suits brought by the Attorney General of four states in the US. The Attorney General of California is now in the process of forming a class action suit for victims to this company in California; if you are a resident, write your Attorney General now.
In my situation I was only able to get my money back by eliciting the help from my credit card company, in this case, Citibank. It is a waste of time to call MWI Memberworks aka Essentials aka, etc., to attempt receiving a refund. They are gifted at avoidance maneuvers, such as hanging up on you, saying their computer system is down, keeping you on hold a long time, etc. Citibank initially just gave me a spiel about my maybe forgetting that I enrolled in the program, or that I responded to some mailed marketing brochure and didn't read the fine print. At first all they did was offer to transfer me to the Essentials program, whom they admitted to be a marketing affiliate of theirs.
Eventually, I found an intelligent Citibank customer service person whom I asked to stay on the line with me while I spoke to Essentials/Memberworks to be witness to the conversation. She did this, and I requested to speak to a billing supervisor at Essentials/Memberworks, got someone who claimed to be such, told them I had a Citibank customer service on the line with me, and requested my refund, that I never enrolled, etc. The billing supervisor said I would get my refund, I asked the Citibank employee on the line if she witnessed that conversation while the Essentials person was still on the line, she said yes, and within three business days I had my refund.
Citibank also, at my request, took my name and personal information from all affiliate information lists that they share and sent me a letter stating they had done so.
What this is about is a privacy issue: Companies like Citibank and Sears and many others are affiliating with this marketing MWI Connections company (with its many aliases) and finding themselves in class action suits on a state-by-state basis. Sears in California, due to a past class action, had to pay millions back to customers and MWI as well, double the refund.in those states that have had class actions, this MWI company has to prove enrollment by a tape-recorded conversation with the consumer that they voluntarily enrolled. No proof, they refund double the money.
In states where there has not yet been a class action, this MWI company is free to do what it wants: It's a our word against the consumer approach. They get your credit card information from a shared information list, from their affiliation agreements with credit card companies, and they bill you. Simple as that. They don't have to mail you anything or call you. They can just claim that they did. And they count on you not noticing the charge on your account. If you do notice, they try to convince you that you forgot you enrolled or some other tactic. Fact is, people in these class actions either never received anything by mail or telephone solicitation, or, if they did, the information was highly misleading sufficient enough for it to be considered a fraudulent business practice.
And it is indeed a fraudulent business practice.inevitably, with a critical mass of state-by-state class actions suits, the Federal government will be gearing up to address the control of credit card shared information lists and take measures to put businesses like MWI/Essentials out of business. Meanwhile, they can just go to the next state.
If you have been victimized by this company, write your Attorney General. Get your credit card company to help you get your refund if you can.
Nancy
Sao Paulo
Brazil
0 comments