"Discount Book Sale - Smart Savings Center, " first, does the Bait And Switch tactic to lure people to the web site. The first book you buy is incredibly cheep (which shows on search engines with the lowest price). Then additional books are twice the price. That in itself should clue the sheepish customer into the fact that the web site is shady and scamming. But, if you're slow witted and you continue on to use your credit card in checkout (that's me!), you may be hit with an unauthorized charge (s) for monthly membership. I was charged for a $19.95 membership fee for a book club, and I don't read books. I was purchasing two of the same book for gift purposes.
In receiving my VISA statement, I called the DiscountBookSale.com representative (their phone number is on the VISA statement) asking what was the unauthorized charge. She said that when I checked out, I had to accept the FREE three day membership offer which was part of the check out process. If I didn't cancel membership within the three days, I was an official member and incurred a monthly membership fee.
I then attempted to dispute this charge with my VISA company as the DBS representative's "statement" is not in the "Terms and Conditions" that must be checked off in completing the transaction. I do not know if my dispute will be successful, but at least I told my VISA company about the scam and not to accept any more charges from them.
In re-visiting the web site to replicate my error, I found that even if you OPT OUT of the membership and click on "No Thanks, take me to the Checkout page, " you still have a MEMBERSHIP TRIAL OFFER showing at $0.00 in the total cost of your order.
Seldom seen in these usacomplaints. ComS, I am going to add one closing paragraph in DBS's defense. There is a problem with DBS's checkout web pages. If you mistakenly click on the VERY LARGE GREEN BUTTON that says "Start My Free Trial" by mistake, and then click the B-A-C-K button in the web browser (duplicated in IE and Mozilla), then click on teensy words, "No Thanks, take me to the Checkout page, " this progression of sequences includes the FREE Three Day Trial Membership in the transaction. When I closed the browser, and went back in replicating my checkout just clicking on the teensy words, "No Thanks, take me to the Checkout page, " did not include the FREE Three Day Trial Membership.
Moral of this posting, be VERY careful in dealing with these scammers. Take a screen shot of your transaction or print it, because you just may be calling your charge card company for a dispute.
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