The Company Store - Buyer's Edge credit card scam for "free gas card" if I join Buyer's Edge Internet

I ordered items from the Company Store several months ago and was given a high-pressure sell to sign up for a "free $50 gas card" which would be sent to me with some materials to join Buyer's Edge. If I didn't like the deal, I could cancel at any time and still keep the gas card, and not be charged anything at all. I DID NOT SIGN UP for the gas card!!! I never received anything in the mail about the "deal" and never thought about it again.

Then, two months later, I reviewed my credit card and saw a charge from the Company Store, for $99.00. The entry, just like my real purchase from a few months ago, started with the letters HDI* . I had not bought anything, so I tried to find out more. I looked online and found this RIPOFF site which had tons of entries about different scams that started with the Company Store. That was when I remembered about that hard sell offer.

So I called the Company Store and asked them to remove the charge, and they said it wasn't their charge, it was from Buyer's Edge and I would have to call them. So I told the Company Store about all the negative publicity on this site. I said that if they had contracted with this company to charge people for the "deal", then they were getting a bad reputation and that the amount of negative publicity was astounding. The sales rep might want to take this information to management and let them know about this site.

So I read more on the Rip-off site and decided to immediately call my credit card company, who started a dispute form, and cancelled my credit card. That's a bummer because of all the other automatic payments on that card! They'll issue another card, but still, what a pain. The credit card company also said they would reverse the charge in the next 1-2 business days. We'll see.

Thanks to this site for getting me the right info right away.

Anonymous
Vienna, Virginia
U.S.A.