$1000 Grocery giveaway - Radio ADD ATS Market Research, grocerysavers.com False advertisement, scam South Portland, Maine

While driving to work one morning, I heard an radio advertisement for a $1000 grocery gift certificate give away.  I figured I had apretty good odds since it was 6:00AM.  I called and the attendent asked my zip code.  She said yes for my area there two certificates remaining and that if I continued I would be guaranteed one of them.  Since we had just moved and had no groceries, I thought this was a great way to stock-up.  She said I could not by alcohol or tabacco.  I could easily spend $1000; I needed cleaning supplies, diapers, wipes, groceries.

She proceeded to tell me that this was available from a marketing research company and that they would like to see what I would spend the money on.  She said I would go on line and download a coupon and bring it with me to the store and redeem it for products I wanted. 

She then went on to explain that there are three other companies that I will be enrolled in. One would be a health and wellness, where I can get all my health and beauty products.  One would be travel and leisure, where they send me details on discount airfare, hotels, cruises, etc.  I can't remember what the third was.  In exchange I would receive another $150 in gift certicates.  Each of the three companies charges $4.95 plus shipping to enroll and send out my packets.  She wnet on to say that if I'm not satisifed I can cancel within the 30 day trial period, but I would have to cancel with each one.  She went on to say if I do not cancel I would automatically be charged the monthly enrollment fees from each company.  I asked, 'I'm getting $1000?' She said yes. Then I can deal with canceling these later.  Total cost $19.95.

Here is what I got.  I got a letter and card in the mail for grocerysavers.com.  I can go online enter my card and view all the coupons available and I have a $1000 balance.  Now the coupons are not anything special. $1.00 cereal, $1.00 off detergent, $0.50 off toothpaste, etc.  Coupons are only good if they are for the products you already buy.  There were alot of products (brands) that I don't buy.  I thought to myself; I can at least recoup my $19.95. I click on two dozen or so products and it says I total up to $50 in coupons.  Here is the kicker.  They want me to pay another $4.20 to send me the coupons.   

As you can tell from reading the above I feel like I've been ripped-off.