Recently, my mother called me very upset when she received an overdraft notice, a rare occurrence of ever, unable to figure out why this happened.
I got online to set up my mothers on-line banking so I could find out why and to set-up her online bill pay option. This would help make bill paying easier for her and save her money on stamps.
While reviewing her account, I noticed a debit for $14.95 taken out by Sahalie Rewards on October 26, the day before she incurred a $27.50 overdraft fee!
Knowing she is on a fixed income, I asked her if she knew she was being charged for a rewards program.
She was shocked and stated she never signed up for things like this because she is on a fixed income, which I knew to be fact.
She stated that she must have been signed up for it without her consent when she purchased a present from a Sahalie catalog for my 50th birthday this past August.
I proceeded to look at her online statement for September and sure enough, a debit for Sahalie Rewards for $14.96 on Sept 28.
I then checked her August statement and again, $14.95 taken out on Sept 1
She then recalled she had bought something from a Sahalie catalog several months prior for herself, so I went back even further.
I was shocked and mad when I saw:
July 30 $14.95
July 2 $14.95
June 4 $14.95
May 7 $14.95
April 2 $1.95
To date, Sahalie stole from an elderly woman $106.65 before their deception was discovered by me and caused her to be overdrawn 2 times costing her $55 in overdraft fees.
This happened when they started taking out this fee towards the first of each month (double dipping in months with 31 days) before her Social Security check was electronically deposited into her account.
She called Sahalie, who told her they had nothing to do with it, to call the Rewards number. She did and told them she wanted all of her money back. They assured her they would within 7-10 business days but that it would probably be sooner.
Checking her account today, I see just 2 refunds for $14.95 so, I took over and called.
The woman I spoke with was snooty and informed me that they have every right to take that money out because they inform customers when purchasing items by phone that they are signed up for a "30 day trial" for Sahalie Rewards and tell them they have 30 days to take advantage of and benefit from the program AND that the company sends their customers a hard copy of the program details, fees and time limit they have to cancel before they are permanently enrolled.
My mother never heard the 30 day limit from their customer service rep when she placed her first order in April and she never got anything in the mail!
I informed the CS rep at Sahalie Rewards today (11/5/08) that I wanted that money refunded NOW or face a class action suit.
I will check my mothers account on Friday and report back any progress.
Beware when ordering from Sahalie, they will sign you up for this program, charge you $1.95 then hope you forget, IF they even tell you that you have 30 days to cancel before you are charged $14.95 per month and hope you never notice the money being taken out of your account or billed to your credit card and/or debit visa/MasterCard card.
If you have ordered from Sahalie, check your bank/credit card statement! You may be very surprised!
0 comments