The following is a detailed account of my unfortunate and harrowing experience with an Internet site called SeattleCoffeeDirect.com which may also be known as CoffeeRoastersDirect.com. SeattleCoffeeDirect's offer that I logged onto made no mention of or connection to Coffee RoastersDirect.com.
I wish to expose the new tidal wave of get a free gift for taking our short survey scam. They start you out with just 1 or 2 questions on the first pagethen 2 or 3 questions on the 2nd page. But it doesn't end there.
At about the 6th, 7th or 8th page, you'd get a reassuring message saying something like, You're almost there. More pages (with lot more questions on each page) later, you're likely to get, Congratulations, you're half way there! Then you think I've come this far, I might as well finish it.
That's when they stick you with full-page of 20 or 30 enticing offers from correspondence courses, travel bookings, coffee, book clubs, credit cards, video/movie clubs, wine clubs, magazine clubs, et al. You have to watch out because a lot of the yes buttons are already checked. So if you're not vigilant and leave all those yes circles checked, you will be inundated with products you don't really want or to buy.
Then comes the hidden trick THE SWITCH. Somewhere along the way, there'll be a page full of FREE PRIZES saying that you have qualified for (past tense) and they want you to click on any/all the items that you wanted. They said that I HAD ALREADY QUALIFIED for everything on that list of free gifts, so I can check any or all those that I wanted. But what I didn't know was that I was taken OUT of the commitment requirement for the original free gift and into whole new sets of qualifying requirements for a lot of other stuff.
The only half-smart thing I did when I
clicked SeattleCoffeeDirect and bought two 12oz bags of coffee and a new 12-cup Stainless Steel coffee Grinder completely FREE, was I printed out a hard copy before I went to the next page, otherwise I would NOT have been able to get back and find their website.
When I typed SeattleCoffeeDirect.com, it returned does not exist. Both searches came back telling me that they could not find such a site. Isn't that interesting?!
Then by chance, after reading many (and do mean MANY) similar sounding sites, I found SeattleCoffeeDirect.com under CoffeeRoastersDirect.com which hid their address several pages deep after their Home Page. They are actually in Evanston, IL - - NOT Seattle! Although both bags of coffee have SeattleCoffeeDirect and SeattleCoffeeDirect.com printed on them, there's no such site!
So why did return my search with We did not find any results containing SeattleCoffeeDirect.com? It's because they can say they are on the Net. Technically that's true, but unless you're lucky enough to stumble on it like I did and saw them at CoffeeRoastersDriect.com, you won't find Seattle...
Why don't they want you to find them? Because, they knew that I would be very unhappy when my credit card bill shows a charge of $18 in S/H fee added to the published offer for $9.00. They know that I would want to cancel. But I was upset enough and determined enough to find them.
For over 18 years I've been buying stuff from books, movies, watches to complete computer systems through the Net, I have NEVER ran across a S/H charge as high as $18, have you? Most honest and legitimate businesses showed any s/h charges, if any, up front with the offer, not in an unrelated website and under a different name. Or if not on the offer, they would always show it on the check out page, right?
So, why was this humongous charge hidden in the back pages and not on the offer and up-front? Because they planned to stick it to me after they got my credit card number.By then it's too late for me, especially when I can't find their site!
Further, the single-sheet flyer that came with the coffee had SeattleCoffeeDirect.com at the top of the sheet. But their address and their correct web address were conspicuously MISSING!!! WHY? Isn't it obvious? They don't want me to find them!!!
Well, I found them and I am taking the matter to the Attorney General's Office in both IL and TX, the FTC along with the BadBB, the BetterBB the Investigative Reporters of TV stations in Dallas, Evanston and Seattle.
When I finally found their phone number, I called (888-217-2233) them to ask for their RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) number, a female voice told me that I don't need one and that I could just send them back any way I want. Sure, so they can deny receiving them. And she was quick to warn me that they will not refund on coffee that's been opened or the grinder if it's been used, but I can just send them back! Sure, then I'd be without either the merchandise or my money. So do you think I should send the stuff back?
As for the coffee, it is NOT worth $15 for a 12 oz bag! I've tasted better coffee selling for no more than $5 a pound!
When a company goes so far to deliberately deceive the public, it is extremely unlikely that I would ever see my money again from these scammers. They know that no one could do much legally to recover $30, so they are pretty safe. But I am determined to expose them for what they are and the exposure will cost them far more than the amount of money they scammed from me. And that is a promise.
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