Shoppers Advantage never responded to mail solicitation but got charged membership fee Westerville Ohio

I spotted a "membership fee" charge posted by Shoppers Advantage on my credit card statement one day. I called them immediately and they said that probably I had responding to their mail solicitation by cashing a $2.50 rebate check. I said I recalled receiving such a check, but like any other mail solicitation, I immediately assumed that it was a scam and the check went directly to my shredder. I asked them for a copy of the cancelled check to convince me (and then this customer representative "nicely" offers to refund the memebership fee to my account even though the 30 day trial period has already passed).

A week later, I received a letter from their company, which states "[o]ur record indicate that you enrolled on October 15, 2003 after positively responding to our direct mail offer. Shopper's Advantage keep all of the records relating to enrollments for a period of three years. Unfortunately, due to an unforseen system error, we were unable to locate your enrollement verification".

Am I supposed to believe that utterance of stupidity? I believe that they could not locate my record because it never existed!!!

It also has to do with my credit card compnay -- BankOne. BankOne has confirmed to me that they have a joint business deal with Shoppers Advantage but they could not prove to me that I have cashed that check because "there is no way [they] could access the information."

I am cancelled 3 credit cards that I have with BankOne. It takes me forever to convince them that I did not cash that check (they still do not believe it... and they are still telling me that "[I] must have cashed the check"). However, it takes so little for them to believe the "damaged" computer system in Shoppers Advantage.

Basil
Highland Park, New Jersey
U.S.A.