SamaritanFundraising.com Samaritan Card SamaritanFundraising.com promotes the Samaritan card for fundraising The Samaritan card is false advertising The Samaritan card rip you off as they are useless Internet

 SAMARITAN CARD BY SAMARITANFUNDRAISING.COM | SAMARITAN CARD RIP OFF

Our nonprofit club had a budget shortfall when I came across a nonprofit fund raising idea banner ad on a Christian website. That fund raising idea was none other then the Samaritan Card, being offered by SamaritanFundraising.com.  In simple terms the Samaritan card is the size of a credit card, used for discounts at thousands of merchants across the US.   SamaritanFundraising.com promotes the card discount to save up to 50% at more then 100,000 merchants nationwide.  Through SamaritanFundraising.com the Samaritan card is available for Christian missions, youth groups, churches, and non profits, with potential profits of 70% for your fundraiser.


Overall with SamaritanFundraising.com claiming to be owned and part of the Salem Web Network, including the Christian website I was visiting, with their trust certificates on the site, our non profit club decided to order 50 Samaritan cards (with this they also gave us 10 Samaritan cards free), with the hopes of raising $600 of our shortfall.

After we placed the order, some club members raised some questions as to the actual card discounts, the places of use, and whether the Samaritan card discounts were only good for items no one uses etc.   As I felt these club members were trying to get out of helping with the fundraiser, I responded with the highlights of the Samaritan card, that I found at SamaritanFundraising.com.  Without access to the actual discounts, I had to trust the information at SamaritanFundraising.com to be true and not misleading.


We received the on a Friday afternoon, but were unable to view the site until Saturday.   I was so disappointed to find the other club members to be correct, and SamaritanFundraising.com to make false or misleading images or comments to what the Samaritan card offered.  I was so upset, that within a few hours of reviewing the deals, I waned to return all the Samaritan cards, and sent SamaritanFundraising.com an email and left a phone message telling them so.  By the following Tuesday morning I had not heard anything back from them, so I packaged up ALL the cards for return.  Just as I was leaving to the post office, I received an email welcoming me to the Samaritan fundraiser.  I replied to the email with a copy of my original complaint email, and added comments like I didn't feel like helping SamaritanFund.com promote their rip-off scam.   After I returned from the post office, I found an email from them, saying that their return policy would only allow return of 25% of the cards.

I did not receive any phone calls from SamaritanFundraising.com until after they received my return order (Thursday 10/14/2010 also note date on statement) of ALL 60 Samaritan cards.  I insisted that I returned 100% of the cards, and I wanted 100% credit.  After Mark Anderson (also the one I placed the order with) tried to tell me the Samaritan card was not misleading, and all the deals were legit, he had the billing department issue me a statement for $382.00.  (75% of teh overall cost with S& H).   In addition he shows on the statement that I only returned 13 Samaritan cards instead of the 60, that I returned.  The following is how I find SamaritanFundraising.com, to be misleading with the Samaritan card and their websites.   Incidentally, they also put out The Mama Card, the Go Card, The Camp Card (not to be confused with the one by BSA), and The Game Card. 

To be clear, SamaritanFundraiser is where they promote or hype up the Samaritan card, while samaritansaver.com is where you enter your Samaritan fundraising card code and where the card is actually used.  Enjoyaccess.com is where SamaritanFundraising.com sends you, should you ask for temporary access (an option I found out about after sending the Samaritan cards back, but also misleading).   SamaritanFundraising.com boasts or makes the following claims with the Samaritan card:  (I have placed SamaritanFundraising.com claims in bold, and in italics I have placed my notes as to why I feel this is misleading to the public, and why I feel the Samaritan card is a rip-off).

To start with their trust certificates (by Trust Guard) shows their business address to be: Be My Samaritan, 10151 University Blvd. #316, Orlando, FL 32817.  Phone:  407-256-1165.  - This is a UPS store mailbox address, the 407 phone number is an unpublished cell phone in Orlando Florida.  The actual address where the Samaritan Card was shipped from, and where I returned my Samaritan cards to was:  Samaritan Fundraising Billing Department, 4000 Legato Rd. #1100, Fairfax, VA 22033.  Phone 1-888-545-4483  Ext 702.  - This exact address is shared with five9 call center (and others) - which may explain why when I called SamaritanFundraising.com, I always got someone's voice mail, so they can screen their calls - the 888 phone number is also unpublished.  And the phone number in which my credit card was charged, is in Tennessee, also unpublished. 


a.) 15,000 participating restaurants from fast food to casual dining to fancy.  - In my search of the dining area I found 7 noted deals (below in b), the rest of the dining deals were not provided by SamaritanFundraising.com.  But rather by way of an affiliated link, the 15,000 participating restaurants were provided by restaurant.com - that's right SamaritanFundraising.com (or its owners) receive a pay per click payment for sending you to restaurant.com.   Of all these, the ones we reviewed, none of these were fast-food.  Most were fancy dining, and required an additional certificate purchase.  Even then if I did choose one of the restaurants, they were all about 100 miles or more form my location, and in most cases I would have to spend $35, plus 18% gratuity.  I feel a tip is paid on customer service, not because I use a discount card.

b.) Save up to 50% for the entire family, and special "Buy one, get one free" discounts.  (Also in the dining section).   - The Samaritan card would grant me to print 7 coupons that would offer either a percentage off, or X $ off at these seven dining places:  Carl Jr's & Omaha Steaks (don't know where either of these are); TGIF Fridays; KFC; Boston Market; Hardees; and ChunkECheese (for each of the last five, the closest one to me is about 100 miles).   While I may be able to enjoy some of these coupons while I was on the road, I doubt it, because as I reviewed enjoyaccess.com, I found a link to deals at Subway.  But the deal was only good for Subway in Dover, NJ , when I clicked on more locations, I was directed to a page of other Subway locations in New Jersey.  There was no Subway deals on the site where you use your Samaritan card.   There were a whole lot more fast food / casual dining chains listed on enjoyaccess.com, but found only on enjoyaccess.com, but found only the seven listed above on the actual site where you would use your Samaritan card.

SamaritanFundraising.com site also had pictures of people with Samaritan card at Culvers, and by the way the card is pictured, it appeared that you received an in store discount for presenting the Samaritan card. However even the back of the card states "This card is no for resale nor presentation at merchat cash registers.  Please see website for discount redemption instructions."  All the deals were to be found at samaritansaver.com, and none of these were for Culvers.  What good is the Samaritan card discount, if it's in an area you don't go, or for an item you never buy.  This is one of the major reasond I returned ALL the Samaritan cards, and want 100% of my money back. 

c.) Save up to 50% at participating affiliates including Target, Best Buy, The Limited, The Children's Place, Office Depot, Sears, Macy's Aeropostale, Overstock.com, Sports Authority, Payless, Dell, and many more.  - Well at least SamaritanFundraising.com is telling the truth about "participating affiliates".  At first when I saw this statement or the references to affiliates or online partners, i felt like they were talking about companies they had contracts with - but no, they mean "participating affiliates"!  The entire SamaritanFundraising.com site, and other sites in  which they promote or give you access, al the deals are bsed on pay per click affiliate links.  That's right SamaritanFundraising.com (or its owners) get paid every time you click to find a deal. 

There are 61 of these types of companies in which samaritansaver.com promises you "Exclusive deals".  After checking 1/2 dozen, it was obvious the deals were not "Exclusive" to the Samaritan card.   You could receive the exact same deal if you went to that stores website, and searched the different departments.   After you read about the Grocery Store deals you'll understand why SamaritanFundraising.com can claim 100,000 merchants, when we counted only 61 in this area. 



d.) Exclusive printable and mobile grocery coupons, redeemable at more then 5,000 grocery stores.  -This was one of the specific questions one of our members had asked - I shop at ____________ can I get a discount there?   As I reviewed the list of grocery stores, there was only a list of 29 stores.  Of these 29 stores, I discovered 15 of them were of the Kroger's line of grocery stores.  Further Internet searching revealed that Kroger represented 3,252 stores, 5,411 stores were represented by the Carr's line, and 1,775 Safeway stores.  So yes, by adding up all the stores in the chains of stores, SamaritanFundraising.com would come up with over 5,000 grocery stores.   But that none of these grocery stores are in Minnesota, where I'd have to use or sell the Samaritan card.  Where's my savings?  What sense does it make to purchase a Samaritan card if its not going to save you money?


e.) Finally I went to the entertainment section.  As we already had rreservations out of state, at a well known hotel.  I checked the same hotel with the Samaritan card.   The Samaritan card deal would have cost me $25 more then what I had already booked with someone else.   I also checked the local movie theater - WOW !  I could save a whole 25% - IF I waited for my movie to be out in teh market for two weeks.

Further research at alexa.com (a site that ranks websites, based on their traffic), revealed that none of the the Samaritan card sites had 100,000 visits, let alone 100,000 cardholders.   SamaritanFundraising.com promotes the Samaritan card to charities that need to raise funds, and even makes the donors feel guilty (by use of the word "Stingy" - other translations are more common), for not purchasing the Samaritan card.  Then when you do purchase the Samaritan card for your fundraiser, they make you feel you should sell their lies - and if you don't, at least they will buy back 25% of the Samaritan cards.   When in fact they are ripping you off for the 75%, or selling a card that is useless to most.  After all who's going to return the card after a year?  - It wasn't the charities fault you didn't use the Samaritan card.  I want my money back, but further more I don't want to see others being ripped off.