At Home Rewards, Shopping Essentials Charge my account for $19.95 for a membership I did not sign up for. Des Plaines Illinois

As a former employee of west telemarketing, I know from processing thousands of calls over 2 1/2 years of taking calls from television commercials and sometimes ads in papers or magazines for west, these are companies that get thier product offered AFTER you have placed an order for some other type of product or service either by phone or in some cases online they also show up. Most of the products advertised on tv commercials or informercials will result in the offers being given to you.

These two mentioned here if you have ever ordered just about ANY product from the tv commercials were likely read to you at the end of the order, as a 'thank you' for ordering today we'll send you a trial membership in "blah company" then the details about the gift you get, sometimes that's a giftcard voucher of varying amounts, sometimes it's a physical item voucher like a cd player or whatever they add there, you mail it in, to claim the "gift" and the "gift" is always attached to a trial membership which if not cancelled in the 30 day trial membership is automatically charged as what ever the name, in this case both shopping essentials and at home rewards, apparently two seperate ones were accepted for the 30 days. You're told you recieve the information in about two weeks but can start the trial in about 5 days and are given a phone number. Your trial period actually begins just days after you place the order, not when you receive the information packet in the mail.

The person placing your order will have you enter in last 4 digits of credit card number after you accept the 'trial' and the "gift" to confirm the membership trial, and the automatic charge, if it's not cancelled in 30 days, and because it's how the company makes money, they are hoping that you won't actually cancel and when you don't you are charged what ever the charge is. I've seen it vary from 9.95 to 24.95 just depending on what the membership is and what the "gift" is you're being "given" with the offer.

This offer is most normally given to you after your original order and is not part of the original order. Sometimes it will be given before the original order is completely processed in about the middle of having the original order completed. You will sometimes be told during the order process, don't let me forget to tell you how you can qualify for a gift card, then the order process continues, until the gift card offer comes up, the gift card being attached to these programs.

These will have a seperate customer service number for each one accepted. Sometimes they offer magazines also, like a three month trial free, during the three months you have to cancel or be charged and the pricing on that varies, you are told what the individual prices on each magazine would be. You can decline these and still receive your original order you call in for in most cases.

The script being read to you makes it sound very appealing, it's a free gift card for 50 dollars or 100 dollars or 1000 in grocery coupons, or you can claim or a cd player free just for trying etc. It might be 3 months of popular known magazines free for your order today etc etc. The gift offered also varies greatly between items ordered. The wording is selected carefully so you aren't accepting the gift only, the last sentence is worded carefully so it says you are actually accepting the trial and in there somewhere the recurring automatic charge is mentioned so you're informed of it. Many people only hear the 'free gift' offered part and concentrate there, not realizing exactly what they are accepting, that being the trial for the program not the gift you receive with it.

My suggestion on all of this kind of offer is if you are not sure, 100% positive, what you're accepting, decline, make the person you're placing your original order with go back and explain anything in detail you don't understand 100%, make sure if you accept you do write down the customer service number so you can call to cancel anytime in that first 30 days before your card is charged the first time, and remember another thing our parents told us.... NOTHING in life is free. These offers aren't actually free, you'll pay for them in the automatic charge when you don't cancel within the 30 days, or if you forget to cancel, and I'll tell ya many people never realize thier credit card or debit card actually got charged at all, it's a small charge there monthly, and they get charged the same charge for a year sometimes and never know it! You'll go through a lot of stresses to get the charges stopped sometimes, but sometimes it's as simple as calling the customer service number on the credit card statement or the one given when you accepted the "gift" and the "trial" and getting a refund, that's another set of issues. Refunds of the automatic charge may not happen after the 30 days because you accepted the offer. Buyer BEWARE