This was sent to the Kentucky Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection:
RE: Our phone conversation of Thursday October 25, I am providing details of transactions I deem unethical and their history. The first transaction with Buy.com was as expected. The product was delivered at the price authorized and in a timely manner. This transaction is detailed below. It was for a software product, Picture Publisher version 9. I have no issues with this transaction.
7/19 $59.27 DEBIT CARD PURCHASE AT BUY.COM, 888-880-1030, CA ON 101801 FROM CARD#: XXXXXXXXXXXX7795
My issue begins with a follow on marketing effort from Buy.com. It said “get 3 magazines free for 3 months”. I said okay. Nowhere did it ask for my credit card information or imply that I would automatically be billed. I am not a gullible consumer and am fastidious about such things. But low and behold, 3 months later, almost to the day, my credit card is charged for a year's subscription to those magazines. From a business entity I never heard of. I did get a piece of mail from them a week or so previous. It asked for payment for unspecified magazines in the amount of $57.00. It also offered a 3 payment plan.
Unfortunately, I dismissed it as junk mail and discarded it.
10/18 $57.00 DEBIT CARD PURCHASE AT NSS*MAGAZINES, 800-205-9198,CT ON 101701 FROM CARD#: XXXXXXXXXXXX7795
I took issue with Buy.com through the only channel available to me. That was E-mail.
An automated response said that I would be contacted within 12 hours. That was 5 days ago. There is no phone number anywhere on their website. And a machine answers the phone number provided on the statement, with no ability to talk to a real person. They are taking extreme measures to see that they do not have to deal with dissatisfied customers.
I did have better luck with NSS Magazines. There are warm bodies on the other end of the phone. On 10/19 I spoke with Thalia, who issued a refund. It has not posted as of 10/25. I phoned again and talked to Tabo Rocha on 10/25 at 9:33 AM. He said he would issue a “Rapid Refund”. He said it would post within 5 days. We'll see about that. I monitor my accounts electronically and see all business posted from the previous day.
My concern here, is that the promotion was not clearly explained, my credit card information was forwarded without my explicit consent, and the vendor goes to great effort to isolate themselves from customer feedback and ignores what little it pretends to provide.