I recently purchased some "Quick Lawn Grass Seed" from a company called Gardener's Choice. I saw the ad on TV and went to their website to purchase the product. I often purchase things on-line, so I had no reservations about the transaction being safe. After I made my purchase, before I could get to the payment confirmation, the site tried to sell me a bunch of additional products. I clicked on "no thanks" for all of them. Finally I got to the payment confirmation screen. It had the usual recap of my order, but it also had an option to receive a free Target gift card for being a valued customer. I clicked on it just to see what it was. However, once the link opened, I realized that it was nothing more than another marketing scheme. I immediately closed the window, without entering any personal information.
A week or so later I received a letter and a booklet from Consumer Network of America. I usually do not even open junk mail, but in this case I did, because there were coupons in the mailing. Luckily, I read the letter and saw that they were giving me a 20 day free trial membership. However, if I did not call to cancel in that time, they would charge my credit card for $129. I was outraged that they had my credit card information, so I called right away. I was told that they received my credit card information from the transaction that I made with Gardener's Choice (81961 Countyy Road 687 South - Hartford, MI 49057). They were very much willing to cancel my membership and I had not incurred any charges, but I was still very disgusted that my information was given to them.
I called Gardener's Choice and they basically denied giving my credit card information to Consumer Network. They said that it was my fault for clicking on the link to get the gift card for being a valued customer. They said that once I did that I was not on their site. However, they were not able to tell me how this other company got my credit card information. One of the Reps said that it was automatically transferred when I clicked on the link for the gift card, and another said that it was not. All I know is that I did NOT enter any information on the Consumer Network website, so I have no idea how they got it.
Basically both companies are denying any wrong doing, so I do not know which one is to blame. I guess the bottom line is that I caught it before I was charged anything additional, but I am still very put off about the entire experience and feel that when I give one company my information for payment, there should be no chance of it going to another company.
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