Complaint Review: Restaurant.com - Shopping Essentials - Arlington Heights Illinois
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- Author Confirmed
- Restaurant.com - Shopping Essentials 1500 West Shure Drive, Suite 200 Arlington Heights, Illinois U.S.A.
- Phone: 888-745-6991
- Web:
- Category: Restaurants
Restaurant.com - Shopping Essentials Shady Terms & Conditions allow for sale of credit card information Arlington Heights, Illinois
*Author of original report: Refund provided
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Like the multitude of others who have submitted ripoff reports, I am submitting my own. Same story, charged $14.95/month for three months of a "service" I never signed up for, apparently it is buried in the T&C somewhere. Got one month's refund, but both companies refuse to refund the other two months (how would they make any money otherwise?).
It's time for action ... I hope you'll join me in a mail/e-mail campaign to let the merchants who have business relationships with restaurant.com know this happening. I bet they don't have a clue.
Please feel free to use the letter below as a guide and get the word out about the shady business dealings of Restaurant.com and Shopping Essentials.
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Dear Restaurant Name,
Im a resident of Your Town, and I see that you have a business relationship with www.restaurant.com. I purchased a couple of gift certificates on the site and used them without incident, finding a few new restaurants and getting a great deal in the process. I thought that the deal the site offers (a $25 gift certificate for $10 or even $5 with promotional codes) had to be too good to be true.
Apparently it is.
Restaurant.com sold my credit card information to another company, Shopping Essentials, which proceeded to charge me $14.95 a month for three months before I noticed the charge on my credit card statement. According to customer service representatives at both companies, I granted permission to do so when I purchased the gift certificate as part of their terms and conditions.
While this may be legal, it isnt right. Shopping Essentials refuses to refund me two months worth of membership fees (I have yet to find out what the actual benefits of membership are, despite repeated requests), and neither will Restaurant.com.
Im sure you are just as surprised as I am that Restaurant.com would engage in such shady business practices. I hope that you will reconsider your business relationship with the site. No one should support such a predatory business.
Thank you for reading my e-mail, and I hope to be a customer in your restaurant in the near future.
Sincerely,
Your Name
Aaron
Norwood, Massachusetts
U.S.A.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 07/23/2008 10:54 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/restaurantcom-shopping-essentials/arlington-heights-illinois-60004/restaurantcom-shopping-essentials-shady-terms-conditions-allow-for-sale-of-credit-car-354675. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
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#1 Author of original report
Refund provided
AUTHOR: Snoop todd - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Friday, August 01, 2008
After sending out e-mails to about a dozen restaurants that have relationships with Restaurant.com (several of which contacted Restaurant.com to inquire about the situation, and another which said it would immediately sever its relationship with the company), I was told that I'd get a full refund. Four months of subscription fees (I miscounted in my previous post) were refunded last week.
I've informed Restaurant.com that I still feel that their terms are predatory, and asked them to change their business practices. I have yet to receive a response. But if things don't change soon, I plan on continuing to send e-mails to restaurants in the Boston are that have relationships with Restaurant.com with a link to the littany of complaints on RipoffReport.com about how they run their business. Please consider doing the same for your own local area. Their business model will not survive without the cooperation of the restaurants, most of which have no idea that innocent customers are being ripped off. YOUR LETTER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
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