I found a book I wanted for. 76 cents with free shipping on first purchase. Didn't think anything of it because I have found good deal like this on books from the internet in the past.
When I was checking out with my purchase, it showed my. 76 cent book with no shipping charges. I decided to do more shopping and get more books. Because they were offering $5 discount on your first purchase.
AT check out, I did not get the final cost page showing what I was getting and what I was paying, (the page where you can still cancel your purchase if you want), it went straight to the finished transaction page. What I ended up buying was a $5.76 book with a $5.00 discount, not the. 76 cents originally stated, three other books and got charged $5.99 in shipping.
I called the customer service number and they told me that the $5 discount was already showing on the prices when I was browsing and the free shipping was for the first item purchased. I asked to speak with someone else and was told there is no one else, only the person sitting next to her. As I talked with her I tried to find the. 76 cent book again and could not, only a $5.76 version There was nothing she could or would do to help me.
I then went to my bank account to transfer the funds into my internet account, I saw the book charges already pending, I wasn't supposed to be charged until the order shipped, and also a $1.00 charge for Smart Saving Center.
I went back to the website & saw, once again, the. 76 cent book. I also found a little note at the bottom of the page: * Your price includes $5.00 additional savings and free shipping for your first purchase of a DiscountBookSale.com in-stock item.
I also noticed at the top: *SAVE BIG Bucks! Get $5 Additional SAVINGS and FREE shipping with membership of DiscountBookSale and SmartSavingsCenter.
Both of these in smaller fonts. (my error for missing them the first time.)
The "$5.00 additional savings" was a blue link so I clicked it and it was here I found out that it is the 1st item ordered that had free shipping not the first purchase as stated already. I was also going to be charged a monthy $19.95 membership fee for Discount Books and $1.00 a month for Smart Savings Center. I had a 3 day trial period.
I called the customer service people back and asked them to cancel all memberships and also my order. I got email confirmation for 3 membership cancellations: BookDiscountSale.com~SmartSavingsCenter.com and HotBookSale.com (hadn't heard/read anything about that one yet). I also got email confirmation of the order cancellation. All this within 15 minutes of the original order. My order refund, I was told would take 3-5 business days but they could not/would not refund the $1.00 for SmartSavingsCenter.com
So I called SmartSavingsCenter.com and was asking about refunding my $1.00 when I was told that my order cancellation had been rejected from the supplier. I asked how a cancellation made with in a reasonable amount of time (less than 15 minutes) could be rejected? He did not know and he was unable to contact the supplier, there was nothing that he could do about it.
As we talked I looked at my cancellation emails and saw then that they were for "cancellation Attempts" not actual cancellations. When I asked who the supplier is he said HotBookSale.com and Hot Book customer service number calls them Smart Savings since they are the same company. All he could do was file an issue ticket to his supervisor who is not in until monday and there was nothing that he could do about the cancellation rejection. Through all this I forgot about my $1.00
I finally gave up with them and called my bank asking for help. I explained the situation and they cancelled the charges on my account right away, and cancelled my Credit Card so this company would not recharge my account.
I got lucky, I checked my bank account within a few minutes of making the purchase and didn't find out the harder way just how dishonest this company is.
PS, I finally received the welcome emails for both Discount Books & Smart Savings, more than three hours after the initial purchase.
PPS, their (Discount book) BBB score is an 'F'
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