In a recent review of my last mastercard statement, I found a charge for 11.95 by shoppingessentials. When I looked back at the charges for the last year, I found that during the period of January 2 June 1, I was charged $11.95 each month by Shopping Essentials.com. I have no idea waht this company is or does and I have not authorized these charges.
Today, June 4, I called the phone number next to each such charge shown on my credit cart statement: 888-243-6180, to inquire as to the origin and authorization of these charges.
A. The interactive voice response system asked me for my membership number, my home phone number or my credit card number to verify my account. As I recently moved, I provided my old home telephone number.in response, the IVR system said that the account related to that phone number was closed on August 1.
B. Then a customer service representative, Essence Number 153414, came on the line. I advised her that there were unauthorized charges appearing on my credit card statement. She again asked for my home number, and I provided the old number.in response, she stated that the account was under the name of my roomate, not mine. I then talked to my roommate who has no knowledge of shopping essentials, never authorized any account under such a company nor does she know how an account under her name would exist with my credit card number as we do not share credit accounts nor is she an authorized user on my Mastercard account.
C. Ms. Essence then transferred me to another customer service representative, Latoya Number 5152, who asked me for my credit card number to verify my account. When I asked why the credit card number was necessary when only my phone number was needed before, she stated that she now could not find the account by the phone number. I declined to provide the number and informed Ms. Latoya that I believed that these charges were fraudulent. Ms. Latoya then advised me to fax a letter with my concerns to shoppingessentials.com at 402-661-2515, Attn: Compliance. When I asked, she also provided a snail mail address of P.O. Box 5152, Des Plaines, IL 60017.
I both faxed a letter and mailed one to the company demanding that they stop charging me and refund all charges made so far... This is UNBELIEVABLE!!
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