This company tells you on line that you can get a 10,000 line of credit to spend on their online store. Before I joined, I could not find their on line store anywhere to check out their merchandise.
They take 149.00 out of your checking account, as well as a 25.00 service charge. They also charge you 144.00 a year just to keep the account open. You cannot get out of the agreement unless you telephone them within 10 days. Of course, you would not have that information unless you completely read their terms and conditions, which is a 4,307 word document, which if you download it to Word, it comprises eight pages, 94 paragraphs, and 340 lines! The information on cancelling and getting your money back (only 90.00 of it, is found after going through 2,031 words, 35 paragraphs, and 154 lines. This document is not on their website, but is listed only on the invitation site.
The clientele that are likely to use this 'line of credit' are by and large going to be unskilled laborers or their spouses. To put this type of document with its 8.5 point type, and 27,110 character (with spaces) before them is abusive. If that is not enough, once they gain the privilege' of viewing the items for sale, they are going to be unpleasantly surprised and realize they just threw away their money.
The items for sale are things that normal households would hardly need. Steak knives, trashy looking leather coats, video games that are obscure, etc. When I joined, I received an email inviting me. Being in a hurry, I didn't read all the fine print. When I got the confirmation email with the price, etc, I emailed them back and told them I would close my account so they couldn't withdraw. They emailed me back saying they would close my account. I didn't have the money in the bank, as I had bills to pay. I assumed I could take them at their word, so didn't close my account. They tried to take the money anyway, but I figured that was the last of it, as I didn't have the money in there. A month later, they tried again, and I was out 175.00!
I called them to complain, and was told that when you join, you are given a 250.00 shopping spree for free, and only had to pay a small S&H charge for your items. I was advised by the woman on the phone to at least' get my free' items, and then write them and cancel my account. (Meanwhile, they take 12.00 a month out of my banking account to collect their 144.00 yearly fee-and by the way, there is not enough worthwhile merchandise to keep a monkey interested for a week, never mind a year). I checked out the free' items, and could only find 3 or 4 items I could use, but didn't really need. The S&H charges made shopping for free' items more than a little costly. I checked out the cost of the items I chose on other sites, and discovered that the S&H charges actually brought the cost up to what other sites were selling the items for!
To make matters worse, the items you order can take weeks to arrive. It has been a week since I placed my order, and I still have no confirmation that it has even been shipped. I sent them an email telling them how I felt, and that when I do business with other online sites, like overstock.com, I have my merchandise in my hand usually within a week. I am not going to cancel my membership until I am sure my merchandise is on the way, because they wasted no time in taking the money from my credit card! Oh, and by the way, their S&H for their free shopping spree' averages out to more than 8.00 for every 25.00 worth of merchandise. That is about half of what the average is for S&H on their regular' merchandise. Free' is a term that is obviously used very loosely by this company.
Did I forget to tell you that the items that you have all that credit for also require a hefty down payment before you can receive them? They do extend credit for the balance. I am sure that down payment is probably the actual worth of the item. Example-a Maxam 14 oz. Travel mug is billed on their site as regular price 17.95; members price 9.00; down payment 3.00; S&H is 7.00.By their rules, you must pay the 3.00 down payment and the 7.00 S&H, before you can receive your mug. That is a total of 10.00. Add to that the 6.00 you still owe in credit, and this little mug has cost you 16.00.
I found this same mug on other sites. At MITECH trading, a wholesale distributor, you can buy this mug in bulk at 3.64 each. If one were to buy the minimum amount (70.00) required, you would have to order 20 mugs. S&H would be 13.61, added to the 72.80 equals 86.41. Divided by 20, the final cost for one mug would be 4.32. Of course, not everyone needs 20 mugs. So, on other sites in which you may order one mug, I found these prices: 4.95 with 4.95 S&S for a total of 9.90 at Dashlynn; at Redbag, the cost is 3.95 plus 6.77 S&H, a total of 10.72. That is a savings of 6.00 to go elsewhere and buy one mug.
However, if all you ever bought from United Platinum was one mug, it would actually cost you: 16.00 25.00 initial service fee 149.00 initial processing fee 12.00 per month until the time you realized you were being duped! Say you stayed on board three months. That little mug would have cost you 226.00! Let's assume that they payed 3.00 per mug wholesale. That is a pretty big profit margin, even after they pay their overhead. So, I end by reiterating. United Platinum is a rip off con company, and they are not passing on any savings to you!!
0 comments