HDI*AtHomeRewards, Domestications ripoff La Crosse Wisconsin

In July, 2005 I ordered several items from the Domestications online site. I received an item that was damaged in shipping and called customer service to exchange the item. At the end of the call, I was offered "a free gas card" and before she could finish her sales pitch I responded "I'm not interested". She said "Let me tell you some of the great benefits.." again I stated that I was not interested.

Today, as I was checking my bank account online I discovered a $96.00 debit to my bank account by HDI*AtHomeRewards. I immediately called my bank and told them that this was an unauthorized charge. In the meantime, my husband was online looking for something about HDI. The only things he came up with were from this particular website.

He called me and told me what he had found and gave me the 800 number that he found for HDI*Simple Escapes (we were assuming they were affiliated). I called the number and got an automated answer asking for my account number or telephone number, no option for customer service. I entered a bogus telephone number and a customer service rep came on the line and said I would have to call back in a couple of hours, their computer system was down.

After reading some of the reports on this site, I decided to call Domestications. The customer service rep I spoke with said she had never heard of a company called HDI. When I told her exactly how it read on my bank account she said "Oh, we do offer an At Home Rewards program. You must have enrolled when you placed your order." We went through the whole deal of how they were never authorized to give my credit card info to anyone and how I specifically remember not accepting the "offer".

She gave me another 800 number and I asked to speak to her supervisor. "Arthur", a customer service supervisor, picked up and went through the whole episode with me and said that he could see on my order where I denied the offer and that I should just call HDI and tell them it was a mistake. I explained to him that since it was one of his employees that had fraudulently given out my debit card number, that I would be glad to hang on while he called HDI and explained to them that it was a mistake. He did. He came back on the line with a cancellation # from HDI along with the customer service rep's name and ID# that he spoke to.

I have passed all the info along to my bank and they are now monitoring my account for the credit to come through. The bank officer said if she didn't see a credit in 48 hours she would file a dispute and credit my account. Luckily, I view all my accounts (bank and credit) online frequently or this may not have been caught so rapidly.

From online research and further investigation, I have discovered that HDI or Hanover Direct, Inc. is actually the "parent company" of Domestications. You may know some of their other brands as well: The Company Store, International Male, Silhouettes, Under Gear, and Clearance World. It seems to me they offer their customer service reps "incentives", as one gentleman stated on this website, to sell their discount offers or memberships. Even if you don't accept, they push it through to see how many they can get away with. People who don't check their finances or balance their bank statements and credit card statements are more likely to be "taken" by these companies. BEWARE when ordering from any of these companies.

I for one will pass along my experience to all friends and acquaintances and will not do business with these companies in the future.

Brandy
Lake Placid, Florida
U.S.A.