Shoppingessentials.coms Inadvertently signed me up for their service when I signed up for classmates.com Internet

2/20/2008

After reviewing my bank statement and seeing a suspicious charge:

POS Withdrawal SHOPPINGES 20 GLOVER AVENUE 888-999-0564 CTUS

I started inquiring about this, by calling the 888 number above. It was for a monthly "subscription" charge to www.shoppingessentialsplus.com. I had never heard of this service before and immediately contacted them. After speaking with AJ (employee # 700061 and her manager, Teresa # 153051), I was informed that I had "accepted the 7-day trial" to shoppingessentialsplus.com back on June 11, 2008, when I signed up for classmates.com.

AT NO TIME do I recall being offered, or informed, of the shoppingessentialsplus.com offer. The offer/ad must have been very inconspicuous and deceptively sly. Since June of 2008, my bank account has been charged $19.95 per month until now.

After speaking with the shoppingessentialsplus representatives, it was clear that they were used to handling calls like this. They quickly offered to cancel my membership and refund me the most recent monthly charge. I requested a full refund of all of the past monthly charges from the manager (Teresa - 153051), but she insisted that since I "accepted the trial period and did not contact them to cancel" (because I didn't know about it), that she could not authorize the full refund. She gave me the following address to make my request:

shoppingessentialsplus.com
C/O Consumer Affairs
PO Box 5152
Des Plaines, IL 60017

shoppingessentialsplus business practices are UNETHICAL and should be ILLEGAL. At minimum, their partnership with classmates.com should be required to be advertised much more conspicuously and consumers should at least get some form of correspondence stating that they enrolled in this service.

I have also contacted classmates.com to inform them that their company name is being affiliated with this fraudulent company, and that they should take action.

Herbie
Fife, Washington
U.S.A.