On my July Bank of America credit card statement I noticed charges for $6.95, $1.00, $1.00 and $1.00. This cuaght my interest because I would never put something that cost $1.00 on my credit card. The merchant was AP9 Shopping Essentials. I wondered how long this had been going on so I looked for the merchant on my past credit card statments. It turned out that I had been being charged for 9 months! All the previous charges were for $9.95. I travel extensively and thought it must have been an airport vendor or something so I never thought much of the past charges.
I looked into Shopping Essentials online and found many other horror stories of people who had been taken for much more money than I have. I figured out that my credit card information had been collected when I shopped with Northstyle in November. Northstyle still has the ad up on their website asking if you want to save $20 on today's order. The deal is, you can only see the offer AFTER you enter your credit card information. I did not save $20 on that order in November - the offer was a dead end.
I called Bank of America when I noticed more charges pending from Shopping essentials on my account (they charge me at the end of the month). I told B of A that I did not wish to authorize these charges and that the merchant had obtained my information fraudulantly. Even though I am a priority customer at B of A with a platinum credit card they refused to intervene saying that they 'could not stop a merchant from charging' my card and that I would have to take it up with the merchant. If I still had problems I was instructed to call B of A's Dispute Department.
I called Shopping Essentials on the next business day and attempted to press "0" to get a person. The phone system would not let me any further without entering some sort of personal information into the phone. I chose to enter my home phone number (I am sure they collect these and sell them to telemarketers) and immediately received my membership ID# and was put on hold. While on hold I used my membership ID# to sign onto the website to see what kind of offers there were. I was shocked to see how many reputable merchants they had listed on the website, even using their logos. Examples are: Circut City, Disney, Macy's, Nordstrom, Office Depot, JC Penney, Kohl's, Bloomingdales, Sears and Plow & Hearth. The claim is you can buy gift cards for these merchants and then receive a rebate - if you buy a $25 giftcard they will refund you $5 to your credit card. I have not tested this service having been too freaked out by the means in which they signed me up for the program to trust that I would receive my merchandise let alone the rebate. I spoke to Chris (ID#26393) at Shopping Essentials and told him I would like to cancel my membership and recieve ALL of my money back because they had fraudulantly signed me up for this when I was shopping with another merchant (Northstyle). The customer service rep, Chris, said he was only authorized to refund 1 month. He said my membership would be cancelled and that I should see the 1 month credit to my account within 2 business days.in order to get more money back I would have to talk to a supervisor and he offered to transfer me.
I then spoke to the Floor Spervisor, David (ID#14480). David said he would not refund me anymore money as it was against their policy. I told him that Shopping Essentials may have a good product but that they had commited fraud by collecting my information from another company and signing me up. I also said that I had found his company reported on fraud websites. I told him many other people had received 2 month refunds and that if he wouldn't give me all of my money back then I expected at least a 2 month refund. He said he could not make an exception. I told him I was being treated as the exception. He asked if there was anything else he could do for me (he remained very calm and polite). I ended the call by telling him that I would be sure to notify the merchant that allowed this to happen (Northstyle) that I will never shop with them again due to Shopping Essentials' fraud and that I hoped he could find another job with a company that was not committing fraud.
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