WebLoyalty (aka Reservation Rewards) Scam

16 March 2006
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Sometimes, you missed those really small ambiguous charges on your credit card and they may come back to haunt you. I finally caught on about an $11 charge on my credit card recently that was billed to WLI*RESERVATIONREWARDS 800-7327031 CT. I do not remember this charge and promptly verified as to when it started. It was surprising to see I had not contested this charge since it started in November 2005.

This is an example where media information can be essential as various internet pages/posts/blogs helped me clarify the situation. The most informative one I found was a page on Adam Rosi-Kessel’s Fair & Balanced Weblog. Equally impressive was the information I found contained in the comments. This is a true testament to the conversational benefits of Blogs.

From the comments, I was able to determine that it was a previous purchase I executed on TigerDirect that led to this charge. After the purchase, I got an offer on the site stating that I can get $10 off my next purchase and I joined it. Nowhere during the process do I remember seeing membership fees or monthly dues being mentioned.

I called my credit card company who directed me to first dispute the charges. Armed with all the information I had, it was not hard to get the supervisor on duty, Tim, to refund all the 5 months of charges and cancel this supposed membership. I will monitor my next statement to ensure that the charges are reversed and stopped.

What do you think? Is this incident properly labeled as a scam, or simply an extremely shady business practice? This scheme seems to affect many online shopping sites, even without the knowledge of the site owner! The shopping cart system provider are that ones that have this agreement with WebLoyalty. If you are an online shopping site owner (especially TigerDirect!), please communicate to your shopping cart provider that you want to disable this feature!

I definitely won’t fall prey again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

  • szonoff
    I purchased a video tape from the PBS shop online. When I completed my purchase, I was offered a ten dollar discount at the bottom on the page. I clicked on it twice, and apparently at that time Reservation Rewards had me signed up for their program at twelve bucks a month. This was done without my knowledge. Had I very carefully read the extremely fine print on the page, I would have realized I was signing up for their program.
    At best such a procedure is a scam and I asked for a refund of my eleven months' payments and was granted six months worth. A rathering blistering letter demanding a complete refund followed. I am still awaiting my refund.
    Lesson: Read all the fine print (a magnifying glass helps) - Examine each months' credit card statement very carefully for unauthorized purchases.
  • Charles
    The class action suit against Reservation Rewards is a SCAM in itself. Only one class action suit can be filed at one time for any given company or situation. So, the company filed one against THEMSELVES to keep anyone else from making further claims. In the contract, it limits you to any further legal action, and will only return "up to 2 months worth of charges." They will return 2 months worth of charges with a simple phone call. DO NOT sign up for the class action lawsuit. I was ripped off for over a year's worth of charges. I went along with their little scheme, filled out all the mail-in paperwork they make you fill out, and I actually DID get my money back. The lawsuit WILL NOT return any more than 2 months worth of fees. Keep that in mind.
  • louisomeyers
    A southern californis based computer parts company called Geeks.con sold my creditcard info to resevationrewards for 30 silver shekels , they claim you do it when you click on a popup however my phone does not have these features and it was a phone order.
  • louisomeyers
    Yes my credit card info was sold to Reservationrewards by a southern california based computer parts company called Geeks.com for 30 silver shekels.
  • bob
    I am a former employee at webloyalty.com.That is the company name for Reservation Rewards/Shopper Discounts and Rewards/Travel Values Plus etc... I worked there for over a year and quit about 3 months ago. I can tell you many things about this company. First thing is, as a customer service rep we got about 120 calls per day. I would say that 4 out of 5 days a week all 120 calls per day were customers like all of you questioning what this charge was and cancelling the service. There were not customers calling to ask about the benefits or to claim any rewards. No, they had no idea what this was. That right there tells you this company does not do business right. The procedure for a rep goes like this.
    !. First you have to try and stop bill the customer. This means you just offer to cancel the service with no refund and send them a confirmation email.
    2. If the customer wants there money back and asks, the reps offer 1 months refund.
    3. If the customer wants anymore the reps will offer them 2 refunds.
    4. If the customer persists and they joined after Sept.08, you can give them a full refund up to 6 months credit. Anything more the rep would send an email affidavit and the cust. has to fill that out and send it back usps mail to get any other charges back. If you have been charged 50 times you can get all that money back as long as you fill out the affidavit and send it back to them.
    5. Webloyalty recently settled a class action lawsuit and part of the settlement was if you joined prior to Oct.08 you can only get 2 months refund back and for any other charges you have to fill out the affidavit and send it back to receive a full refund.

    They will fully refund you, that is their policy. They are banking on the fact that customers will not fill out the affidavits and send them back, so they can keep the money.

    I have read all the blogs on this site and some of you are ridiculous. This company does not steal from you, all of you did authorize them to charge you, you just did not realize it. What they do is legal but it is very sneaky and I do not agree with how they do business. So i will give you all some advice.
    1. When you call and the rep answers first ask when and where did you sign up for this, and how many times have you been charged?
    2.If it is 6 charges or less for newer customers, ask for all your money back.After they cancel, make sure again you ask for all your money back and get a confirmation number. If you ask in the beginning of the call for your money back they will first still try to just cancel the membership with no refund. Once they tell you there will be no future charges just make sure to tell them again you wnat all of your money back.
    3. If you have been charged prior to Oct.08, ask for 2 refunds and ask the rep to email you or mail you an affidavit immediately. Fill that out and once they receive the completed affidavit you will be refunded within 3-5 business days. I guarantee it!!
    ******And now if you don't have time for that then there are 2 exceptions for the affidavit. If you tell the rep a child signed up for this and ask for a full refund they will give it to you. You do not need to fill out the affidavit.
    ***The other exception is a death. If you tell them the member is dead they will also give you a full refund with no affidavit and your account will be credited within 3-5 business day. I guarantee it again!!!

    And If you really want to screw Webloyalty then call your credit card company and have them do a chargeback. This costs Webloyalty like $40 for every chargeback plus the refund they give you, so they are losing money, and if alot of you do this they will lose alot of money. After you do the chargeback then call Webloyalty and ask for any remaining refunds.
    As you can see this is simple to get all of your money back.
    Just be careful in the future and remember nothing is free when you see that $10, $15 or $20 rebate after you purchase.
    Now call them and follow what I have told you and I promise you will be fully refunded for anything they have taken from you.
  • terry
    Add US Airways to the list of affiliates. Apparently it was very clear when I signed up for this. I beg to differ, as it appeared I was signing up for mileage rewards. I followed your instructions and was credited for the last 6 months. A total of 7 months were billed, so I decided to not do anything more for the seventh month since I should have noticed this sooner. They are obviously reading a script on how to handle customers. The guy was very polite the entire conversation, in fact even the apology was scripted "I appologize Mrs.___ for any inconvenience, we do try to make it as clear as possible...".
    First they offer to cancel immediately. Then with requests of a refund, they offer to refund the current month but you can still access the site until the next billing date. When you ask for all of it to be refunded, they instantly credit the last 6 transactions and you can no longer access the site. Darn!! For anything past the 6 months, you need to fill out the affidavit.

    Thanks for providing the info, I didn't have to do much other than follow you directions. Now to wait for my actual refund.
  • johnsonzoen
    Thank you for the suggestion. I am so angry that I want to call up 100 friends to purposely sign up and do the charge back thing you.
    Then. if it works perfectly, I'll make a youtube video asking help from more people. It will take a while, but eventually they will go bankrupt!
    I want them to go broke and never appear again
  • Name
    They DO STEAL from you!! Telling customers they are getting a rebate then using our credit card number to take money out of our account for a membership fee that we did NOT sign up for IS STEALING!! I will never see reservation rewards the same again... what a dishonest, sneaky company!
  • Randy
    I was scamed over four months and all I did was make a reservation on line for a Las Vegas hotel. I finally contacted them by phone and had it stopped. But now it has started again and I am at wits end trying to contact them to stop, e-mails have no effect. Please help!
  • Darcy
    The same thing happened to me, I cannot believe after 3 years they're still able to do this.
    I cannot believe companies I used to trust, such as Shutterfly, would allow this to go on.

    I was extremely disappointed and I'm shocked this is going on after all this time.
  • Lynda
    O.K., If anyone who got caught in the Reservations Reward scam wants to feel better, listen to my story. I have been charged $10 a month since July of 2007 and didn't catch it until a couple weeks ago! 20 months worth of charges! Since my husband and I both use the charge card, and since it was only $10 a month, neither one of us questioned it. I thought it his charge, and he thought it was mine. I can actually give my credit card company credit for catching this. When I was talking to them about a different matter, they asked me if I knew what these charges were for, and gave me their phone number. They suggested I call them and told me there was a scam going around with this company. I had no idea what this charge was for, but since my husband and I both travel a lot, I thought it was probably an airline-booking fee. When I called Reservation Rewards and asked them, they told me I signed up for this when I booked a flight with US Airways in July of 2007. I absolutely did not sign up for this and most defiantly did not give them my credit card number or authorize them to charge this. I did remember a pop-up on US Airways website right after I booked my flight telling me to “click here for 500 free miles”. I thought it was US Airways giving me 500 miles for booking with them on line. No way did I see anything saying I would be charged for this.
    After I called them, they credited my charge card for 2 months. $20 total. They still owe me 18 more months! They told me I would have to fill out an affidavit before they would consider refunding me the rest. They sent me the affidavit and I filled it out. I also called the Connecticut Attorney General’s office. They said they were well aware of this scam and for me to send them all my correspondence with Reservations Rewards, which I did. Now I am just waiting to see what happens. I am so angry with them and also with myself for not catching this for so long.
    I will sure check all my charges line by line from now on.
  • Robert G Huenemann
    I was scammed by Reservations Rewards. They claim that I used the EBGames.com web site. I have NEVER visited this web site. Thank you for revealing that Staples is a partner in this fraud. I have never visited the Staples web site, but I did get a rebate on a box of paper from Staples recently. This must be how the bastards got my info. Now I know where to take my future office supply business.
  • Dennis Walter
    Yeah, I also got scammed by TigerDirects association with Web Loyalty. They got me by my signing up for the $10 off on the next purchase.

    After many phone calls, I got Webloyalty to credit my account. Now to see if they actually do it.
  • Martin Keller
    SCAMS Onrebate.com / TigerDirect.com

    Read below for things you can do to stop these scams

    Post your complaints where their money comes from:
    http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/mb/SYX

    This shows that TigerDirect and Onrebate.com are SAME:
    http://jerryfeil.com/tigerdirect.htm

    YOUR PERSONAL information is for SALE:
    http://glaserlists.com/Lists/OnRebate%20Enhance...
    http://directmag.com/mag/marketing_listline_29/


    PLENTY about Onrebate.com:
    http://www.ripoffreport.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&...
    http://www.resellerratings.com/forum/showthread...
    http://digg.com/tech_news/TigerDirect_and_OnReb...
    http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?to...
    http://forums.slickdeals.net/archive/index.php?...
    http://www.bl3nder.com/music/rhapsody/reduced.p...
    http://forums.windrivers.com/archive/index.php/...
    http://digg.com/technology/Tiger_Direct_uses_Fa...


    FTC ruling against tigerdirect in 1999 for their deceptive practices, not honoring warranties, bait and switch tactics etc?

    http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/11/tigerdirectcmp.htm
    http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/11/tigerdirect.do.htm

    Where to complaint:

    File a Complaint with the Florida Attorney General's Consumer Protection Office

    http://www.myfloridalegal.com/ConsumerComplaint...

    File a Complaint with the Miami-Dade County's Consumer Services Department

    http://www.miamidade.gov/csd/complaint.asp

    File a Complaint with the Palm Beach County's Consumer Affairs Division

    http://www.pbcgov.com/pubsafety/consumer/html/h...

    File a Complaint with your state's Attorney General's Office

    File a dispute with your credit card company (if the purchase was made by credit card)

    Typically, you have 60 days to file a dispute with your credit card company. The credit card company will then initiate a dispute between you and the merchant's bank.

    If all else fails, file a dispute at your local Small Claims Court.

    Ask Microsoft not to allow TigerDirect to sell Microsoft products:

    Bill Benton
    Sales Manager
    Microsoft
    Bill.Benton@microsoft.com
    Fax: 425-936-7329

    The brains and pockets keeping your money:

    Systemax, Inc., ONREBATE.com AND TigerDirect's parent company

    Systemax, Inc.
    11 Harbor Park Dr.
    Port Washington, NY 11050
    Phone: 516-608-7000
    Fax: 516-608-7111
    www.systemax.com

    Officer/Director Detail Name & Address Title
    LEEDS, RICHARD
    11 HARBOR PARK DIRVE
    PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 CD

    LEEDS, ROBERT
    11 HARBOR PARK DIRVE
    PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 D

    LEEDS, BRUCE
    11 HARBOR PARK DIRVE
    PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 D

    DUNNE, JOE
    7795 WEST FLAGLER STREET
    MIAMI FL 33144 P

    GOLDSCHEIN, STEVEN
    11 HARBOR PARK DRIVE
    PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 V

    SPEILLER, MICHAEL
    11 HARBOR PARK DRIVE
    PORT WASHINGTON NY 11050 T

    Officer/Director Detail Name & Address Title
    FIORENTINO, GILBERT
    7795 WEST FLAGLER ST STE 35
    MIAMI FL 33144 CEO

    FIORENTINO, CARL
    7795 WEST FLAGLER ST STE 35
    MIAMI FL 33144 P



    The type of business TigerDirect.com participates in...
    ====================================

    Webloyalty Accused of Online Fraud
    September 12, 2006 8:25AM

    "In our mind, this company was run just like a securities fraud boiler room, and just like those companies they earned millions of dollars off the backs of consumers," said lawyer Stuart A. Davidson, whose San Diego law firm, Lerach Coughlin, filed the lawsuit. He added that "tens or hundreds of thousands" of consumers have been victims of the alleged scheme.


    Customers of several popular online retailers, including Fandango.com, Priceline.com, and Staples.com, were victims of an alleged Internet scheme in which their credit cards were charged a monthly fee for a "discount club" membership they had never requested, according to a class action lawsuit filed Monday in US District Court in Massachusetts.

    The lawsuit accuses Webloyalty.com, an online marketing services company based in Norwalk, Conn., of engaging in a "coupon click fraud" scam in which credit card information was automatically transferred to Webloyalty by its dozens of online business partners -- such as Movietickets.com, Petco.com, and FTD.com -- without consumers' knowledge or consent.

    "These are huge retailers, and they are complicit in the scheme," said Boca Raton, Fla., lawyer Stuart A. Davidson, whose San Diego law firm, Lerach Coughlin, filed the lawsuit. "They are reaping a percentage of the money that Webloyalty is stealing from the nation's consumers."

    Webloyalty, which is accused of violating consumers' privacy rights and engaging in deceptive business practices that have netted the company huge fees, denied any wrongdoing.

    "The allegations are completely without merit and the lawsuit misrepresents the manner in which we conduct business," said Rick Fernandes, Webloyalty's chief executive. "It's chock full of inaccuracies and we intend to win the case and collect our attorney fees in the process."

    Fernandes declined to detail those alleged misrepresentations or inaccuracies, saying, "I'd rather not talk about that at this time."

    Los Angeles-based Fandango, a codefendant in the case, did not return a call for comment.

    The alleged scheme worked this way, according to the suit: After consumers made online purchases from various web retailers, a pop-up window appeared on their computer screens promising a $10 coupon on their next purchase. If consumers entered their e-mail addresses to redeem that coupon, their personal information, including credit or debit card number, was automatically transferred to Webloyalty.

    Webloyalty then automatically billed the consumer's credit or debit card a $9 or $10 monthly fee for a membership in its "Reservations Rewards" discount club. If consumers did not cancel the membership by contacting Webloyalty within 30 days, they were charged a recurring monthly fee.

    E-mails notifying consumers of the cancellation policy were typically disregarded by consumers as spam, or automatically screened out as spam by e-mail systems, according to the suit.

    Furthermore, the Reservations Rewards program offered no benefit to consumers, according to the suit; instead, Webloyalty kept the monthly fees and paid its web retailer clients a "per-customer" fee for each consumer who "signed up" for the club.

    "In our mind, this company was run just like a securities fraud boiler room, and just like those companies they earned millions of dollars off the backs of consumers," said Davidson, who added that "tens or hundreds of thousands" of consumers have been victims of the alleged scheme.

    Webloyalty's roughly 75 e-commerce business partners also include or have included LaneBryantcatalog.com, LillianVernon.com, AmericanGreetings.com, TigerDirect.com, EBGames.com, classmates.com, AllPosters.com, JoAnn.com, uBid.com, and 123inkjets.com.
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