I'm sure many of you have heard (and hopefully not fallen victim to) an ad on the radio telling you how YOU can receive $1000 in FREEgroceries. The advertisement is disguised as a research company trying to recruit participants to take part in a "study" about what consumers buy at the store. They claim it is so this "research" company can keep track of what you buy and how much (they even use the word research in their name, which sounds illegal to me). Sounds great, right?! WRONG. This is NOT a research company at all, it is a telemarketing company. Here is what I've read will happen (and this is according to the bbb too). This so called research company, ATS Research, is waiting impatiently for your phone call! When you call them, they will ask for your credit card number up front for "shipping" of the "giftcard". This, in turn, will cause you to be set up with several different companies. These companies will charge you recurring monthly charges, unless you cancel within about 15 days. I'm sure that when you try to cancel these "memberships", it will be a lot like other memberships I've heard of that use lies to get your card number. NO legit company would go about getting your membership like this (can we say Dazzle white?). Now, I'm just going on a couple of articles I've read, but NEVER trust a company who has you signed up to be charged every month. They will tell you you're cancelled and charge you anyhow, so be sure to either record a phone conversation with all the different companies stating you have cancelled or write an email to each company stating you wish to cancel and print it out. Also be sure to print out any email responses and give them all to your bank or cc company. That way, if they charge you anyhow, you can do a chargeback, which will be the only way to recover your money because the bank needs proof.
Now, what you will receive in the mail is not a gift debit card. I have heard that you are led to believe this, but it is not true. What you will actually receive is a card that lets you buy a membership for grocerysaver.com (YES! You have the exciting oppurtunity to BUY a membership so you can then also BUY coupons! What an exciting, wonderful, honest "research" company this is!). This is a website that allows you to pay to receive coupons. Hopefully, it is getting clearer what you are going to get is nothing but a scam. Now, there is a 100 dollar fee for joining this site. I have heard that you have the wonderful oppurtunity to waive that fee, but only if you buy coupons from this site. If you sign on, and figure out it is a scam and decide not to buy, you will be slammed with a 100 dollar deduction, using the credit or debit card you provided ATS research with when you decided to "participate in the study". Then, if you forget all of the other "oppurtunities" that ATS signed you up for, you will get numberous other "membership" deductions every month! These coupons that you HAVE to buy (i believe it is 10% of the total coupon "value") are nothing special. Just like any other coupon, they are a perectage off of a product (like 25% off of tide. Let's say that a bottle of tide is 20 dollars. 25% of 20 dollars is 5 dollars, so you would have to pay 50 cents for this coupon. After you select all of the couponns you want to receive, you will be charged 10 perecent, and it may be more, of the total coupon WORTH, i.E. How mcuh you are supposedly saving. Now, I'm not sure how well these coupons work. I will research that a little more and post a comment if I find out you can't use them. It would be my guess that there are many that you pay for, but then CANNOT use, just because the way they go about getting your paid membership. It's misleading to begin with, so I'm sure you'll have to jump through hoops to use them after you buy them. Use vigilance!). You also have to buy them. PLEASE, just go to couponsuzy.com and print off coupons there at home for free!
This is an unbelievable scam. It should be against the law for a telemarketing company to disguise themselves as a "research" company and even use the word research in their name. It is just an LLC telemarketing company that will give you the unique oppurtunity to get your bank account wiped out!
ATS research is nothing but a lying, theiving fraud! They are taking advantage of this economy (just like so many others like dazzlewhite and acai free trial scams). You are signing up with the devil. They will take everything you have by lying that you are a "research participant". NEVER give out your card number to anyone for something that is supposedly free, and NEVER EVER give out your card number over the phone to anyone, especially a research company. TRUST ME, I would know (I have a psychology degree, I know how studies are conducted) that when you participate in a research study THEY pay YOU, not the other way around. If this were a true research study, you would be required to go to a building, sign paperwork declaring you are a participant, then you would receive FOR FREE a real gift card (not an online membership) to go and buy groceries, and on top of that, you would likely also get paid to do so.
This is NOT a research company, rather it is just one more fraudelent telemarketing company reaping the fruits of a down economy!
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