In February I had an item that I was thinking of selling on e-Bay (I had never sold anything on the site). E-Bay directed me to The Seller's Lounge website, which offered a "How-To Sell on e-Bay" DVD for free (actually there was to be a small charge of $3.87 for shipping & handling, which in this case I charged to my Discover Card). I thought at the time that The Seller's Lounge was an adjunct of e-Bay, and was providing the DVD so that e-Bay would generate business as a result of its usage. As a matter of fact, I never did view the DVD, since I lost interest in trying to sell the item on e-Bay.
Unfortunately, I'm slow in reviewing my Discover Account Summary printouts, sent to me each month.By the time I got around today (5-5-09) to reviewing the February, March and April Account Summaries all together, I found that I was charged not only the $3.87 S&H fee for the DVD, but $48.73 at month's end in both February and March, all to "The Sellers Lounge" in Carson City, Nevada. I then went on-line to my current (May) Discover Account Information, and found that I had once again been charged the same amount of $48.73, at the end of April.
Upon complaining about these 3 monthly charges to Discover Card customer service, I was told that they would notify The Seller's Lounge (called The Sellers Lounge, on my statement), and ask for confimation that I had been provided a service (whch I told customer service that I hadn't) for the three monthly recurring charges. They also suggested that I call The Seller's Lounge directly, to request a refund. I told them that I was skeptical that I would be successful in getting a refund, but I would try.
As suggested, I did call The Seller's Lounge, at 866-785-7328. A young lady named Lisa answered; after providing her my name and zip code, I told her that I knew nothing about paying a monthly fee to them. She then pointed out that "the second page" (which I found out was actually "the fine print") of the site information stated that, unless the recipient of the DVD notified them within ten days to cancel the "service, " that a monthly fee would be charged (in my case, $48.73). This apparently would go on forever, until I notified them to cancel.
When I told Lisa that that was quite a scam they were running, she quickly replied that it wasn't a scam. Oddly enough, though, and without any prompting on my part, she immediately went on to say that she was crediting my Discover account with $48.73 times the 3 months in question, and was cancelling my "service." She gave me a confirmation number; I'll see if the credit actually happens. Stranger things have happened, right?
This is a big time "buyer beware" website, based upon my experience of the last few months, and today's conversation with Lisa. Sign up for the "free" DVD at your own risk.
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